June 8, 1901.]
listen to “spirits
" than men.
They refrain from translating the inscription, as they do not desire to assist in the circulation of the rubbish.
The body of a soldier was discovered float ing in the river early yesterday morning by the Chinese police, who at once hailed two German soldiers passing, who assisted in landing the body, when it was found to be that of one | of their countrymen. The deceased had a wound in the back of his head, but we have not heard whether the German authorities suspect foul play. The body is identified as that of Pioneer Edolf Hildebrand of the German Telegraph Company, who appears to have beon missing since about 9 p.m. on Sunday evening last, when he was last seen by his comrades.
Three complete batteries of new Krupp guns, fifteen-pounders, with 4,500 rounds of ammuni- tion and 700 or 800 rounds of g. f. ammunition. were discovered neatly buried in a small Chinese house at Kaiping since the British force has been stationed there, and were yesterday brought down to Sinho, where they are being shipped pending orders from home. The guns were discovered through the agency of an Indian Mussalman trooper who had become friendly with a Chinese Mussulman who divulged the secret, in spite of a bribe of $20,000 offered by a local official to hold his tongue. The guns (eighteen in all) are quite new, and in perfect order, with the exception of the breech-blocks. The guns were stowed away in an astonishingly small space under a mud floor, and probably there are many other places in which guns or ammunition may be similarly hidden.
H.B.M.'S CONSULS IN JAPAN.
The London Gazette, under date Foreign Office, 1st April, notifies that the King has been graciously pleased to appoint :-
John Carey Hall, Esq, to be His Majesty's Council for the Consular District of Kobe, comprising the Prefectures of Toyama, Ishigawe, Fakai, Shiga, Miye, Nara, Waka- yama, Hyoga, Tottori, Okayama, Shimane, Kagawa, Tokushima, Kochi and Ebime, and the cities of Osaka and Kioto, to reside at Kobe.
|
Joseph Henry Longford, Esq., to be His Majesty's Consul for the Consular District of Nagasaki, comprising the Prefectures of Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, and Okinawa (1.00 Choo Islands) to reside at Nagasaki.
Frank William Walter Playfair, Esq., to be His Majesty's Consul for the Consular District of Shimonoseki, comprising the Prefectures of Yamaguchi, Hiroshima, Fukuoka and Oita, Alfred Ernest Wileman, Esq., to be His Majesty's Vice-Consul for the Consular District of Hakodate, comprising the whole of Hokkaido (Yesso), the Kurile Islands, and the Prefectures of Awomori, Iwate, and Akita, to reside at Hakodate.
to reside at Shimonoseki.
Arthur Vorison Chalmers, Esq., to be His Majesty's Vice-Consul for the Consular District of Hyogo and Osaka, to reside at Kobe.
THE MANILA COMMISSARY
SCANDALS.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
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CORRESPONDENCE.
471
[We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents.]
PUBLIC APATHY ON PUBLIC QUESTIONS.
*
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY PRESS,"
31st May.
SIR, Since writing my first letter, re carry- ing Plague Clothing on public ferries—which I am thankful to believe helped to stir up some of our self-satisfied “Tin Gods"-I have not again encroached on your space, but I would now beg leave to draw attention to one or two points
that "the sentence of no court-martial shall be carried into execution until the same shall have been approved by the officer commanding the court, or by the officer commanding for the time being." The only modification of this article that has been made during the pist century has been the amendment, approved by an Act of 27th July, 1892, of “until the proceedings shall have been approved" to read until the same shall have been approved.' (This with referrence to the sentence.) Articlo 106 modifies this by saying. "In time of peace no sentence of a court-martial directing the dismissal of an officer shall be carried into execution until it shall have been confirmed by the President. The confirmation of these sentences, therefore, by the Department Commander has confirmed the argument that state of war exists, or, other words, that this is not a time of peace. As a matter of fact the War Department has ruled, very recently, in connection with these cases, that the Philippine Islands, during the month of May, 1901, are in a state of war. This ought to clear up all doubt or discussion with regard to the question which has boen brought out in the debate during the recent
I have repeatedly said to men of my sequain. trials. Indeed, no other decision could fitly botance, "Why do you, as men whose interests made, since, as we have already stated in these lie in this Colony and whose lives will be columns, if a state of war does not exist, or if passed here, put up with so and so why not a ruling is made that a state of war does not make a stand, and get it remedied P exist, it is equivalent to placing a question mark upon every sentence that has been confirmed for a violation of the laws of war—and they
are many.
in
It is interesting to note that the Secretary of War, in the case of Captain Read, directs that the sentence be confirmed anl ordered to be executed. It is well known that Capt. Read was tried by a court-martial convened by a separate brigade, which exists under special provisions. Exactly why the Secretary of War should be the final authority in this case we j are unable to state at the present time. There is no doubt this point will come out at a latter date when official matters have taken their proper course.
The Manila Times, in commenting upon the recent Commissary Scandals, and the convio- tions which followed, in its issue of the 25th ult. remarks:-There is considerable comment on the disparity of the sentences of Capt. Barrows and Lieut, Boyer, the former receiving five years while the latter is given only one. Surprise is occasioned from the fact that they. were both implicated in practically the same case, and that, if either, Boyer was the instigator. A review of the cases, however, will reveal that Captain Barrows had five charges against him, one of which was embezzlement, while the single charge against Boyer was not of such a grave nature. This ought to explain the disparity, in spite of the fact that Barrows is furious at what he considers a rank injustice, and vows that he will wreak vengeance on Boyer "for getting him into this row.'
These two cases, it will be seen, have been confirmed and ordered to be executed by the Department Commander, evidently without any reference to higher authorities.
This bears out what we have been saying. Article 104 of the Articles of War, which has been in vogue for over one hundred years, says
THE SEOUL-FUSAN RAILWAY.
The Seoul-Fusan Railway Company received the formal grant for the construction of the railway on the 15th ult, when the first course of the subscription for its shares was finished. As the company is to begin the construction works in a few days when the matters con- nected with the capital are finished and the inaugural general meeting has been held, we think it proper to give here a short description of the route of the railway. Between Seoul and Fusan, which are the termini of the railway, it touches many important places. Starting from Soon!, after an interval of 25 miles, the route passes Suwon, an historical place in the China-Japan war. The Chiksan, the famous gold mine worked by Baron Shibusawa and Mr. Soichiro Asano, lies at
n
far 89
on which no member of that "nervous and foolish body," the Public, has touched.
Nothing is more astonishing in this Colony than the apathy displayed by the average man one meets in business or society toward ques- tions-such as those asked by "Inquirer" which affect the existence of all of us, even the "Tin Godą”!
:
The answer invariably is "Oh well, you knów I meet old So and So in business constantly, and I can't go against him: he would soon get back on mel" Or, "So and So is a Director of our Company, and I dare not raise any complaint against anything he is concerned
Or, perhaps merely, "Well, you see, J1 meet So and So at the Club and frequently at the same houses at dinner and it would be so
in.
unpleasant, etc., etc."
The Colony is cursed with monopoly in its worst form. Half the mon in it are afraid to open their mouths because of meeting with napleasantness or pressure or hostility of some kind afterwards! To one only eighteen months out from England and with-Heaven send my relief "-only another year or two to stay, the thing is pitiable and degrading to witness.
As one who has already lost one European employé from Plague and having another now down with it, I can assure "Inquirer" that
most of his surmises are correct, and there are other Plague scandals which he has not touched upon.
The rottenness of the present system affects every department of public life in the Colony and it can only be sifted ont bit by bit. If we are to appeal to the Home Government, let us do it thoroughly, with a full and complete statement.
"To be going on with" here are two minor items, very unimportant perhaps in the oyes of the "in Gods," but in no other country that pretends to be civilised could you see the
like.
1.-The refuse of the city is taken in junks day by day into the beautiful bays of this land-locked harbour and dumped into the water, where it floats, in the form of rotten fruit skins, straw, filthy rags, old brooms and scraps of clothing, and worse things, still back- wards and forwards from the Lymoon Pass to the Cap-sui-moon.
Bathing parties this year may like to know that it is now impossible to bathe in any of the bays N.W. of Stonecutters, and indeed hardly anywhere within five miles of the city central. frequently sail into these bays, and each one has its junk pouring a continuous stream of un- nameable filth into the water, which in those parts now resembles the Sargasso Sea-or the Fleet Ditch!
distance of 103 miles from Seoul along the railway. At Wönsan, next to Chiksan, the railway branches to Kangkyong. This place is notable for the fact that to it reaches the river communication from Gunsan, an open port. The railway company will carry the materials for the railway construction to Kang- kyong vir Gunsan. The branch line is not formally mentioned in the memoradum can- cluded between the Korean and our Govern. ments in connexion with the railway. But in view of the fact that the branch line is a ruison d'étre of the railway, there is no possibility of its being done away with even after the whole railway is constructed. As
All this, no doubt, because it does not suit Wonsan the route is rather easy, but beyond that place the railway enters the most hilly somebody's "game" to build a destructor or dis- portion of the peninsula, where the route pose of the muck as any fifth-rate town or borough crosses the mountain range of (huphungnyöog. | În England does. Apart from the beastliness of the it, and the disgrace to an English Colony, will Just before the railway goes among
the "Tin Gods" swear that there are no Plague mountains, it touches at Kenmaan which, as well as Pyongsong, also a place where the germs among these thousands of tons of filth railway touches, are the centres of the ginseng that are poured into the harbour? productions. At a point 215 miles from Seoul, the route comes to Taiku, which is a pretty city with a population of over ten thousand. From this place the railway goes straight to Fusan after covering a distance of 287 miles altogether. When the railway is completed, the traffle will be made by train running 27 miles per hour, so that the whole length will be done in 10 or 12 hours.—Japan Times.
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2. Owing to the fact that reliable and com- potent men are not employed to steer the Ferry boats (most of us could name the reason) coʻlisions and other breakdowns are so frequent that two aro always laid out of the four "double-endors up. The incompetent coolics who steer these boats lose their heads directly any danger occurs: at other times they indulge in day- dreams and “ canna mind their wheel,”