Page
.
July 1, 1901.]
made for passages across for funerals a very nominal fee. This grim ferry could never be expected to prove a commercial success; its cost would practically have to come out of the rates. A separate cemetery for Kowloon should, in any case, be pro- vided at once. The sight described by "PUZZLED" of a cargo of corpses being towed over to Hongkong for burial is certainly a scandal in this age, and would be a disgrace to any place. We trust the Sanitary Board will take up this question at once and in earnest. It does not admit of delay. The transport of the dead from Kowloon to Hongkong is on the face of it most unreasonable and unnecessary. The whole question of the future interment of the dead should be gone into carefully and exhaustively, with a view to its early settle- ment on sanitary lines, and with a view to relieving this island from the necessity of providing a new necropolis on its already limited and overcrowded area.
#4
OUR NEW ADMIRAL ON THE NAVY.
64
"6
56
46
"
(Daily Press, 28th June.)
+4
The
56
THE GOVERNMENT AND SANITA TION
CHINA ÖVERLAND TRADE REPORT. an unexpected end tolong military supremacies have been, as often as not, themselves strictly regular troops. records of war lend in support to the silly suggestion that a country can be efficiently
· (Daily Press, 29th June.) There can be no question that the motion pefended by "an untrained man with a rifle of the Captain Superintendent of Police, behind a hedge." The error of the beaten which was so unanimously supported by the side in such instances as Admiral BRIDGE Sanitary Board on Thursday, tends to the enumerates has not lain in the fact of better health of the Colony, and all will organisation, but in its kind. Then, under accept Mr. Mar's statement that it is our the heads of "professional self-satisfaction," duty (we take it that by "our" Mr. MẤT "formalism," "the fetters of specialism," "' did not merely mean the Sanitary Board) ¦ and “pedantry," the Admiral indicates the to see that the Colony is not hampered dangers of a regular, permanently embodied with a mill-stone tied round the neck in the service of fighting men. We need not go in shape of an insanitary city, built in defiance the arguments here, for their tendency can, of all sanitary principles accepted in other be sufficiently deduced from the titles of the parts of the world." It is indeed refreshing paragraphs, and Admiral BRIDGE's remarks to hear such vigorous language proceeding are in agreement with the bulk of the sound' from official lips. With an earlier remark criticism which has been applied of late by of Mr. MAY, however, we cannot find our. thoughtful writers to our own hitherto selves in agreement. He said: It is one existing War Office system--though he "of the the watchwords of wise statesmen does not actually allude by name to the "not to legislate ahead of public opinion, War Office at all. He does, however, by “and if that is true of any form of legisla- way of conclusions turn to the question of the applicability of the discussion to the ultimate efficiency of the British Navy, and attention. this section will be read with special
K
44
C4
-
tion, it is pre-eminently true of legislation "in sanitary matters. No Government was "evor willing to enact drastic sanitary |
legislation unless backed by a considerable share of public opinion. I say no All re orm in the Navy during the past Government is willing, and few fifty years, says Admiral BRIDGE, has been Governments attempt it, unless so backed." in the direction of securing perfect uni- Surely publicopinion is not to be the absolute formity. Before 1860, he instances, there guide which "wise statemen** are to follow. below the rank of officer. was no British naval uniform for anyone If so, what need is there of expert advice? inspection, much time is taken up in ascer been found necessary in most countries to "Now, at every In sanitary matters, in particular, it has taining if the narrow tape embroidery on a legislate ahead of public opinion, for the frock coat is of the regulation, and if the public is made up not only of the minority rows of tape are the proper distance apart." who pre er cleanliness personally and in | So it is in greater things. Till 1853 there their surroundings, but also of the majority was no permanent British naval service except who do not care and often seam actually to the commissioned and warrant officers. prefer dirt. Is it a mark of political wisdom Now, every bluejacket proper serves con- to wait for the conversion of the masses to tinuously and has been in the Navy since a preference for cleanliness? No Govern- boyhood. Courses of training are necessary ment, Mr. MAY went on, was ever willing for all members of a ship's company. The to enact drastic sanitary legislation unless progress of the Navy towards centralisation backed by a considerable share of public has been astonishing. the Admiral, "are now formulated at a desk Hongkong Government, past and present, "Naval duties," says opinion. This looks like an apology for the on shore, and the mode of carrying them in which case it is not adequate. The out notified to the service in plint." All,"considerable share of public-openion this, he observes, would have astonished postulated by Mr. MAY has been ready to the contemporiries of NELSON, EXMOUTH, back up drastic sanitary legislation, especial- or CODRINGTON as much as the aspect of a ly with reference to plague, since 1894 battleship or of a 12-ton breech-loading onwards. But when has the Government gun. Admiral BRIDGE disclaims any inten- attempted the drastic legislation ?⠀ tion of criticism, favourable or unfavourable; the present is not the time for this.
affairs is not one in matériel only, and that object is to show that the change in naval THE CRISIS: TELEGRAMS,
the transformation in 'other matters has been stupendous and revolutionary beyond; all previous experience. It follows," he says (and with this quotation we will con clude), “that we shall wage war in future "under conditions dissimilar from any "hitherto known. In this very fact there "lies the making of a great surprise.
In the last edition of The Naval Annual there is a chapter by the new Admiral ou the China Station, Sir CYPRIAN
A. G. BRIDGE, K.C.B., on War and its Chief Lesson. As a sub-head to the title the writer adds the words "for study at the beginning of a New Century." The article, in the circumstances of Admiral BRIDGE's recent appointment, will be read with more than usual interest out here. The point with which the writer deals arises from the frequent recurrence of defeats and disasters inflicted on armed forces by antagonists whose power to do so had not been pre- viously suspected. It will not be denied," says Admiral BRIDGE, "that it is of immense importance to us to enquire how this hap- pened, and ascertain how-for the future- "it may be rendered highly improbable in our own case. A brief enumeration of the more striking instances will make it plain that the events in question have been confined to no particular age and to no particular country. It may be said that the more elaborately organised and trained in peace time an armed force happened to be, the more unexpected always, and generally "more the disastrous, was its downfall." Admiral BRIDGE then proceeds to give a long list of examples from history, from the Persian invasion of Greece under XERXES · hardly, we think, a good instance-down to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. He sums up
the list: It is to be specially noted that in the above enumeration only con- fests in which the result was unexpected -unexpected not only by the beaten side, but also by impartial observers -have been specified.
The object has been to "show the frequency-in all ages and in "all circumstances of systematic, as dis- tinguished from savage, warfare-of the "defeat of the force which by general "consent was regarded as certain to win." There must be some cause for this, the writer infers, and its discovery may enable us to remove it in the future.
""
"
"
แ
"
64
|
"
16
*
"
•
# His
The question of practical mouent is: How are we to guard ourselves against “such a surprise? To this a satisfactory answer can be given, though it may be a long one. It might be summarised in the "admonitions: abolish over-centralisation: give proper scope to individual capacity "and initiative; eschew professional self-
sufficiency."
+4
Deprecating the apprehensiveness of professional military (including under this title naval) writers lest credit be given to fighting bodies less precisely trained in
Count ron Waldersee brought his brief peace time than the body to which they sojourn in Japan to a close on the 19th ult. belong, themselves, and their eagerness to when he arrived in Kobe from Tokyo, was extol the special qualities developed by loug-presented with a souvenir of his visit to Kobe continued service methods, Admiral BRIDGE by the Japanese and foreign community, and says this sensitiveness is unnecessary, for embarked on the cruiser Hertha, which proceeded "there is nothing in the history of war to
to Nagasaki, the Count there transferring to show that an untrained force is better than the hospital ship Gera, on which he will voyage a trained force.” The forces which have put Batavia, the Seychelles Islands, etc.
to Europe, making stoppages, however, at
[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.]
"
SHANGHAI, 23rd June, 7.30 p.m. The Turkish Mission left Shanghai yesterday (Saturday), for Nagasaki, thence returning home to Turkey via Siberia, The Mission has effected nothing here.
Shanghai, 25th June, 7.26 p.m.. It is stated that the Empress Dowager will go overland to Kaifeng-fu, while the Emperor is to go overland to Wei-huei, then by the Wei River and the Grand Canal to Tientsin, completing the journey thence to Peking by rail.
SHANGHAI, 26th June, 7.45 p.m. A Lanchau letter has reached Nanking, stating that Prince Tuan with several thousand Mongol horsemen has passed Hengcheng and is proceeding to Peking.
́Shanghai, 27th June, 7.21 p.m. Ching Sing, President of the Board of Civil Appointments, has committed suicide at Hsianfu after presenting a memorial begging the Court to return to Peking