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over, that the present attack on him was j prompted by his opposit ou to some pro- posed financial measures whether or not the new loan, it was not certain. But all that is definitely known is that great pressure has been brought to bear on the Commissioner. A Seoul telegram, dated 4th May, says that in response to the Go vernment demand for the evacuation of his residence, Mr. Brown has asked for another year, as he cannot procure a suitable build- ing for his house and the office. The Corean Government has refused his request and indicated that they will use force if necess- ary to carry out their object. Upon this, it is stated, the British Minister telegraphed for a warship, and on the 3rd inst. a cruiser arrived at Chemulpo, bringing the number of British men-of-war there up to three, including H.M.S. Barfleur. Should the Corean Government go to the length of force, it was added, British marines would be landed to protect Mr. MOLEAVY BROWN, but it was expected that the Go- vernment would back down and settle the affair amicably. However, the report from
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[May 20, 1901.
Inter a deadly epidemic would result from | tion between the centro of the city and its the gross neglect of sanitary Inws then being distant suburbs at each end. The necessity permitted; but his report was suppressed, for this has bon glaringly evident for the and the warning disregarded. Since then past fifteen years. Yet nothing has been spasmodic efforts have been made to undo done. The Government have quietly waited the mischief of the past, a Fanitary Board for relief to come from outside, regardless has been established, and a Public Health alike of the public weal and of their own Ordinace passed. But the Sanitary Board duty as the only municipal authority in the has never been allowed administrative func Colony. It is high time that they woke up tions, and the funds voted for sanitation have to a proper sense of their duty, and if they been on a small and grudging scale. Even are not at liberty to delegato their munici the Board's recommendations, after being pal duties to a body of the taxpayers, they carefully thought out, have frequently been should at any rate discharge those duties as shelved, and sometimes wholly ignored. efficiently as a Municipal Council.
If His Excellency the GOVERNOR really hopes to see the Colony freed from this deadly visitant he must shake himself free both from dread of expense and from fears of coming into collision with Chinese prejudices. The plague epidemic cannot be effectively grappled with by kid-glove men sures, nor will the proper sanitation of the city be secured without a large outlay. The longer the work is delayed, the more difficult will it prove and the more costly. Mean- time the trade of the Colony is suffering
At the same time it would be well for "Scrutator" and those who think with him and that they are many we are well aware to remember that the members of the community here have not so far exhibited much real interest in the conduct of public affairs. It is easy to critic to find fault; it is much more difficult to discover a remedy for the ills that afflict the body politic. Comparisons with Shang- hai are common enough, but they are not always sound or just.
criticise and
Weihaiwei on Wednesday that a force of severely by the port being quarantined for | Shanghai are all the conditions in
1,500 men, under the command of General DORWARD, was being held ready to embark on HMS. Terrible for Chemulpo at six hours' notice indicates that the Corean Government has not commenced to back down yet. It must be confessed that it looks almost as if there were some stronger power behind the Coreans in this matter. The Corean Government may have embarked on its suicidal policy on its own initiative, as a result of internal intrigues; but the suspicion is difficult to quiet that the first impulse came from outside.
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THE GOVERNMENT OF HONGKONG.
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especially in the
different, more some six months every year, and the partial derangement of business caused by the tions to keep out plague. There it is of taking precau- ravages of the disease. The Colony must be comparatively easy, with the nid of the prepared to grasp its nettle boldly if the Customs staff, to board every steamer that danger with which it is now confronted is arrives and to inspect passengers; the organi- ever to be brought under control. Halfention exists to hand, and the arrivals are measures are of little use; to accomplish any all, so to speak, under the official eye. real amelioration of the conditions existing, a Here in Hongkong, in addition to the fact comprehensive scheme should be deliberately that there is no Customs supervision, there thought out and intelligently worked, are steamers, ships, and native craft arrivingTM with due regard for vested interests, but with at all hours and from every direction with no weakness for any class or race of passengers, and it would be very difficult the community. The question of the to inspect all before allowing them to land. drainage is the one that should first Hundreds of passengers are continually be taken in hand. Some few years coming in from adjacent islands and the back the Colony was, without due con- mainland, whose movements could scarce be sideration for the conditions prevailing, watched. We do not say it is impossible, committed to the present dangerous system but it would be so, difficult that there is of drainage. Then there is the question of some excuse for the fact that it has not been overcrowding. This should never have done.
Whether more would have been been allowed, but it has grown up, and is accomplished had Victoria been governed now a difficult nut to crack, both on ne by a municipality, we are not prepared to count of the vested interests involved and say. We think it probable, but our ex- because of the impossibility of the working perience of what has happened in connection classes and those just above them paying with the Sinitary Board does not inspire the rents demanded. Our correspondent too much confidence. The community here "Scrutator" is perhaps a little wild when he has less leisure than the people of Shang- talks of "rapacious landlords"; the landlords hai. This arises, perhaps, from the fact are not so much to blame for the high rents as that there are more steamers entering and the scarcity of land and the greatly enhanced clearing hore; that it is the Clapham Junction cost of building. High as rents undoubtedly of the Far East, while Shanghai, though a are, it is a well-known fact that it is im- very busy port, suffers far less pressure. possible to build new houses to let at lower Moreover, Hongkong residents have not rates; in fact, it is difficult now to make yet learned to trust to their own efforts; new property pay a reasonable interest on they know the Government officials aro capital. There seems reason to believe that paid to do the work, and they are not the Chinese workmen employed in the auxious to take fresh burdens on their Building trade, through their guild, prevent shoulders for which they have to give up free competition in the labour-market by valuable time-the equivalent of
much restricting the supply. This at any rate is money. The recent protest of the special currently believed, and not without cause. jurors against an unnecessary consumption If such combinations, are proved to exist, of their time by being summoned on trivial the Government should take steps to pro- cases, is an indication of the value of cure their suppression and to prevent their that time. In few places, either in the formation in the future. It is their East or elsewhere, is the business stress present systen of drainage in a town duty, too, to encourage the acquisition of greater, and in
* in the world
no » city Occupied by Chinese. All nuthorities who sites by householders for their own would it be more difficult to find a dozen kuow anything of the East and of the tropics occupation by not fixing the upset price to well-qualified unofficial civilians who would agree that surface drains, daily flushed and high or imposing an excessive Crown Rent. be willing to devote the necessary time to cleansed, are alone suitable to the conditions With the very short lenses granted, the the management of municipal nffairs than in of the Chinese town, "No water-closets and Crown Rent should be reduced instead of Hongkong. Yet a change from the exist no closed drains ought ever to have been being, the case, increasul since the re- ing system is certainly desirable. We do allowed, and every menus should have been duction of the Crown lease from 999 to 75 adopted to prevent the saturation of
of the soil years. Considering the difficulty of housing are get sufficient done for our money. We that has been going on for five decades. the people, and the fact that Victoria is cut are restricted by parsimony, and yet some
afflicted with too much red tape. We, The Government have been warned re-in half by the interposition of the Naval times suffer front
The machin peatedly of "this; su long ago as 1875,| Yard and Military Cantonments, it was not worn out, but
ndly needs puttin AYRES, the then Colonial Surgeon, manifestly the duty of the paternal Govern- in order, and pra informed the Government that sooner or | nient to provide means of speedy communica- the shape of self-government might at least onal experiment in
(Daily Press, 18th May.) With very much that our correspondent “Scrutator" said, in his lengthy indictment of the Government in Thursday's issue, we are bound to agree. It is only too painfully true that after seven years' experience of that annually recurring affliction, the Bubonic Plague, we are still almost as power less to cope with it as we were in 1894, when it first appeared in epidemic form. It is not creditable to the Colony that practically nothing has been learned of this disease: that it is still as virulent and fatal as when first it stariled us into temporary sanitary activity; and it is deplorable that medical science has as yet been unable to find a remedy for it. The Government have not done what they could. The medical staff is entirely inadequate to carry out the work of disinfection, inspection, and super- visión necessary if the city of Victoria is to be made even approximately healthy. The drainage is also most unsatisfactory, and is altogether on a wrong system. There is not water sufficient to flush it, and the drains are continually getting choked. Nothing more insane could ever have been thought of than to endeavour to carry out
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