July 29, 1901.]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE RÈPORT. Empire is made a matter of faith in Europe, America, and Japan. The carrying out of this compact will prove no light task, and all public writers and speakers with honest intentions should lend their aid in its maintenance. We do not think that Lord CRANBONE's mild assurances will do much
PRINCE CHUN IN HONGKONG.
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Chinese assurances to Great Britain in regard to the Yangtsze." These assurances, we presume, are those relating to the non- alienation of the Yangteze Valley to any other Power, wherefore it is not necessary to point that the garrisoning of Shanghai ngainst the wishes of China cannot constitute the infringement of any Chinese assurance. to help the cause. With regard to Shang-interest the arrival of Prince Chun, the younger
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It is probable that what Lord Cranborne really said was something to the effect that the presence of European troops in Shanghai did not invalidate Great Britain's position in the Yangtsze Valley as guaranteed by China's promise of non-alienation of this region to any other Power. Such a remark would naturally be prompted by recent German spread- eagleism over Germany's position on the Yangtze, of which Gerinan papers in the Far East have been writing in such bombastic strain lately. The position of all the nations on the Yangtsze is exactly the same in principle as it was before. The door is no more open to-day, through the presence of a few German and other soldiers, than
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five years ago. The Japan Mail a fortnight ago justly dismissed the vapourings of the Teutonic press, when it said: "The Germau "journal of Shanghai, and several journals
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in Germany, allege that the purpose of the [Anglo-German] convention was to "confer on Germany rights in the Yangtsze equal to those possessed there by England. "If any significance whatever attaches to "such rights, their practical assertion would be directly opposed to the avowed purpose " of the convention, which is to preserve the integrity of the Chinese empire. It thus "follows that the German interpreters of "the document assign to it a meaning en- tirely subversive of its declared intention.
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They could not fail to understand "the futility of alleging that England, while pledging herself conventionally to abstain "from all aggressive designs in China,
really regarded the pledge
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as an engage- ment to promote the prosecution of such designs by another Power in conjunction with herself. Every German assigning "such a significance to the document must be fully sensible that he is endeavouring "to commit England to a purpose wholly foreign to her real object in negotiating "the convention." Nevertheless, the re- marks of various German organs seem to show that they are imbued with very curious ideas about the convention.
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hai, each nation now engaged in the work of garrisoning" the port will assuredly wait upon the others. But, provided that nothing untoward occurs in the shape of fresh disturbances, the retention of a number of foreign troops will ultimately become as ridiculous as it is already irksome to the civilian inhabitants. Then the question of expense may be allowed to weigh, with the result of a simultaneous withdrawal by the Powers concerned. It is difficult to see how otherwise their bona-fides in the matter of the convention can be established.
THE ARRIVAL: HE. THe gʊvernor'S CALL. had left Shanghai for this port, people here, Ever since it was known that the Bayern European and Chinese alike, have awaited with
brother of the Emperor of China, who has been entrusted with the important mission of pro- ceding to Germany to apologise for the murder of her representative in Peking, Baron von Ketteler, in May, 1900. The mission started from Peking on 12th July, and proceeded to here about 6 a.m. on the 25th inst. The Shanghai, which it left on the 20th, arriving Bayern was expected on Wednesday, but her arrival was delayed by a very simple incident. Time and tide wait for no man, not even for princes, and when the Bayern tried to negotiate the bar at Foochow she found the tide to be too low, and had perforce to wait till flood. Thus she was quite a day behind when Hong- kong was reached, and a rangements for the reception of Prince Chun doubtless received nu
THE CRISIS: TELEGRAMS, unexpected set-back. But there was no mis-
[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.]
SHANGHAI, 19th July, 8.6 p.m. Prince Chun lunched with the German Consul yesterday. His programme to-day, which should have consisted of visits with the British Consul to the Country Club, the Race Club, the Town Hall, the North China Daily News office and the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, with a lunch on board H.M.S. Arethusa, was all abandoned owing to his suffering from an attack of diarrhoea.
Shanghai, 21st July, 7.20 p.m.
It is officially reported that there is a serious secret society outbreak at Hsinghua. in Fohkien province, where is the Rev, Ohlinger's mission.
SHANGHAI, 23rd July, 5 p.m. The British gunboat Woodlark and the French cruiser Decidée have gone to Nan- chang, in Kinngsi province, owing to reports of friction between Protestant and Roman Catholic converts.
SHANGHAI, 24th July, 7.40 p.m. The natives report, with a certain appear- ance of truth, that the Chinese and Russian troops have been seriously defeated by the insurgents in South-East Manchuria, and that the latter are now destroying the telegraph lines.
SHANGHAI, 26th July, 7.30 a.m. Prince Su probably goes to London on a special mission.
An official arrived here to-day, having left Hsianfu on the 9th inst. He asserts that the Court absolutely has no intention of returning to Peking.
Admiral Bridge arrived yesterday, and proceeds to Hongkong on the flagship Glory on Monday next.
The error of such a line of argument as our German contemporaries adopt is obvious. There is no proposal for an Anglo-German condominium in Central China, and no stretch of the interpretation of the joint convention can avail to cover this. No one in Great Britain has counter- anced such a gloss on the document, and the other Powers who, with various degrees of sincerity, subscribed to its guarantee of the integrity of China have certainly no idea of reading any such meaning into it. If the writers who have been endeavouring to distort the plain intention of the agreement, with all the subtlety which they can com- mand, were to devote their energies to seeing that, as far as they are concerned, the agree- ment shall not become merely a dead letter, they would be serving their country's in- terests far better and would avoid giving | Kaisha informed us on Friday afternoon that a The local agents of the Nippon Yusen grounds for suspicions of that country's telegram from the Head Office in Tokyo cam? honesty. It cannot be doubted that the to hand on the previous evening (24th inst.), unwise utterances of those Englishmen who reading as follows:-"Kinshiu Maru strande ! talked so much about the "British sphere Quelpart Island, Corea, 20th July, on the of influence in the Yangtze Valley
only voyage from Moji to Shanghai. Passengers succeeded in arousing the jealousy of other and mails safe. We have no further particulars. nations, and helped to imperil the integrity Moji for assistance."
Are sending Wakanoura Maru to-night from of China. There exists now a plain com-
The Kinshia Maru (American Line) left Seattle on the 24th pact, to which every Power has assented, whereby the continuance of the Chinese
Jane last for Hongkong via Japan ports and Shanghai.
take on the second occasion, and when the Colony awoke from its slumbers yesterday morning it was to find that its distinguished visitor was waiting to be welcomed.
We are told that when Prince Chan left the C. M. 8. Anping at Shanghai, he landed to find advent. a city and people en fête in anticipation of his The Chinese were out in their thousands, filling road and pavement, and soldiers and police who had been deputed to conduct the Royal visitor through the various had simply to force a way for the passage settlements to the Bureau of Foreign Affairs
which bore the Prince. Hongkong yesterday of the green chair, curtained at the sides, did not turn out in thousands, not even in
hundreds, and the hitoh which occurred at Blake Pier rendered the Prince's landing a very tamo spectaols. Of course, as has already been said, what would in ordinary circum- stances have been the occasion for a great display of international courtesy had, owing to the motives of the Prince's journey to Berlin, to be observed in very sober fashion.
When the Norddeutscher Lloyd steamer Bayern was moored at No. 3 Wharf, Kowloon, at 6.45 a.m. yesterday, a representative of the Daily Press boarded her in search of information. The steamer, he was told, had fine weather all along, and the passengers enjoyed a very pleasant trip from Shanghai. Prince Chun seemed to have especially enjoyed the journey. He conld not help doing NO, added Captain Beeker, as he ran his oye over the fine ship under his command, Enquiries regarding "Prince Chun's health showed that His Highness has entirely re- Shanghai. He appears as though twenty-three covered from the attack of dysentry he had in
or twenty-four years old, while in reality Le is only in his twentieth year. He is not tall- in fact, he is if anything below medium height.
The Chinese gunboat anchored on the other side of the harbour fired a salite as the Bayern made for the wharf, and the foreign warships hoisted the Yellow Dragon. At Foochow, the salutes are said to have been so numerous and rapid that the smoke completely enveloped the Bayern, which had difficulty in coming to a safe anchorage.
It was about 9 o'clock when H.E. the Governor, accompanied by Mr. R. Twyman, H.B.M. Vice-Consul at Canton, on the steam-launch Victoria, paid his call on the Prince and ascer- tained that the return visit at Government
House would be made at 11 s.m. His Excel- lency then re-embarked and came back to Hongkong.
THE PRINCE'S VISIT TO GOVERNMENT HOUSE.
It had been intimated, as we said, that His
Highness would call on H.E. at Government
House at 11 o'clock, and the launch Victoria was placed at his disposal. Great numbers of Chinese, principally of the working and coolie classes, were waiting along the Prays between Blake and Murray Piers, and when the launch, flying at its stern the Yellow Dragon, was seen to be steaming for the former pier, a rush in that direction began, and a crowd of betwee 1
two and three hundred Chinese soon lined the