September 14, 1901.]
A MEDICAL EXPERT FOR
HONGKONG.
(Daily Press, 9th September.) The community will be glad to learn that the Petition forwarded to Mr. CHAMBERLAIN asking for an inquiry into the sanitary condition of the Colony is likely to be productive of the desired result. In fact we believe we are correct in stating that Professor SIMPSON, formerly Medical Officer of Health at Calcutta, has been appointed to the commission, or is about to be appointed. Professor SIMPSON is an emi- nent sanitarian, and his experience of public health work in India should prove of value in invest gating and consider ing sanitary arrangements in Hongkong. He was born in 1855, and has been pro. fessor of hygiene at King's College, London, since 1898, and also edits the Journal of Tropical Medicine, as well as lectures in the School of Tropical Medicine. He was Medical Officer of Health of Calcutta from 1886 to 1897. At present he is a member of a Medical Commission in South Africa, which is investigating plague. It is not, Professor of course, anticipated that SIMPSON will come out alone to enquire into the conditions of things in Hongkong, but that he will be associated with an engineer of eminence, so that they can jointly deal with the matter in a thoroughly efficient manner. The dual appointment will also lessen the possibility of fads being introduced, as might be the case if a single Professor Simpson's ap- expert be sent. pointment is well viewed locally by those directly concerned with the drafting of the Petition, as he is not only a skilled sanitarian but also a strong man, who does not hesitate to give utterance to his real opinion.
PUNISHMENT FOR THEFT IN
HONGKONG.
(Daily Press, 13th September.)
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
221
than they could have any reason to hope | merits of Weihaiwei by the naval au for in their own country for the same thorities, it is well to insist on the more offence. A sense of humanity which en- | agreeable features of our acquisition of courages so ignoble a crime as theft is an 1898. injustice to law-abiding citizens. Measures adopted at present have not succeeded in THE keeping down our thieves and robbers, and the situation will be really serious if the authorities simply show themselves unable to cope with it.
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WEIHAIWEI'S PROSPECTS.
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ATTEMPT ON PRESIDENT
MCKINLEY.
(Daily Press, 9th September.) The cowardly attempt on the life of Pre- sident MCKINLEY in the grounds of the Buffalo Exhibition has aroused throughout the civilised world a feeling of intenso indignation. Outside the United States themselves, as can only be expected, the policy of the celebrated President has not lacked most vigorous criticism. Britons iu particular have reasons for questioning Mr. MCKINLEY's action toward their country. There have been occasions on which the anxiety to conciliate the anti-British alector has appeared to weigh too heavily with the United States President. But the difficul ties of his position have not been forgotten, and the verdict even of his strongest non- American critics must concede that in Mr.
(Daily Press, 11th September.) In the August number of the Empire Review there is to be found an interesting article on Weihaiwei, signed “ A Resident." a considerable There has always been amount of doubt expressed as to the utility to Britain of this acquisition in Shantung. and the question cannot as yet be taken as settled. The writer of the article mentioned, however, has no doubts as to the merits of Admitting the disadvantage Weihaiwei. arising from the fact that it has no hinter land, British jurisdiction stopping thirty miles inland, he still maintains that it still McKINLEY the States have had a President should be the future distributing centre of who has guided them through one of the
At present," he says, "that North China.
great crises of their history and seen them position is held by Chefoo, the treaty port, develope into a World-power. The circum- forty miles by sea to the west. Here
stances which brought this development steamers sometimes have to lie at anchor about have been, perhaps, mainly accidental. under Chefoo bluff two or three days but nevertheless the man who has been at before they can communicate with Chefoo the head of affairs during such a period itself." In Weihaiwei, on the other hand,
cannot be denied to some extent the quality of greatness. Weaker men might have they could always be unler shelter, could load and unload in a safe harbour and could one incalculable harm to their country; have the advantage of being under the President MCKINLEY has brought his suc- English flag. Chinese conservatism may cessfully through a really startling meta- delay the change from Chefoo to Weihaiwei, morphosis, and it is hard to imagine that but will not prevent it, should sufficient
any one among modern politicians in the As for the German United States would have done as well advantages be offered. hope of capturing the trade of the Northern
វន he has done, Should the hopeful Provinces by running a railway through Shantung and tapping the Yellow River, anticipations of the doctors now attend- ing him happily be fulfilled, an immense the writer in the Empire Review says :-
feeling of relief will pass over the world. It has to be universally recognised that The wishes of all other nations as well as Germans, excellent colonists as they are under the British flag, have not yet learned those of the United States must be for a
speedy recovery. The frequency at the present time in
The present Vice-Presi- to make their way under their own.
dent, Mr. THEodore RoosevELT, may be an Hongkong of house-burglaries, stealing
Kiaochow, their own colony, the strained admirable person, but he cannot inspire from ships and work-yards, watch and
relations existing between the officials and the confidence given by the fact of Mr. purse-snatching, and petty thefts of all
the mercantile community are taost no-
MCKINLEY being at the White House, kind suggests that we are making a mistake
ticeable. The naval and inilitary officers which, for all the ocensional agressions in our manner of dealing with such offences,
despise the merchants and seem wholly which have marked the President's two terus and that the absence of sufficient deterrents
unable to recognise the fact that the only of office, is yet a guarantee of the peace of is encouraging one of the worse traits in
ne of outlying possessions is for the enthe world. At the present moment no our native population. Hongkong has
couragement of trade and the only object greater calamity could befall the United never had a good record in the matter of
in acquiring them is its development."
States than the loss of their leader of to-day. thieving, but we doubt whether the state of
A Resident thinks affairs has been so bad before as it is now. Holding this view,
The fate which The strength of our police-force is, as we that the construction of good roads in the The moment when he is out of danger will
be awaited anxiously. overtook Presidents Lixcous and GARFIELD have pointed out often before, below what territory of Weihaiwei and the running of it should be; but even if it were up to the
seetus, from the most recent accounts, to a light railway or tram-line to Chefoo would ** once won, the
have been averted in the e140 of President proper stardard, it could not hope to pre.be half the battle, for
MCKINLEY. That his escape may vent a large number of the robberies which ¦ splendid trade of Northern China would le
It might stop cases of snatching in in the hands of the English." The writer certainty can but be the universal wish. the street and even of smuggling away appears to underrate the great awakening What prompted the outrage is at present articles stolen in work-yards and godowns, of German energy in China, which makes But much of the larceny which ocents is it very unsafe to conclude from past history that we shall have a comparatively simple committed inside houses, in such a way as to arouse suspicions as to the honesty of the task in competing with Germany in the native servants, Where no clue can be future. Moreover, there is the practical
A case of considerable interest and of import - found as to the thief, no proceedings can be monopoly of railway-construction for Ger-
ance to the residents in the British concession taken. But where the police lay their many in Shantung. In the circumstances
of Tientsin was heard at the Consular Court on hands on the guilty, there is a necessity | it is unwise to be unduly optimistic. Never -
the 30th ult., when Mr. Buchan, a well-known for inflicting a lesson. We do not advocate ¦theless the establishment of a civil com-" any brutality, but certainly we think that missionership at Weihaiwei and the trans- and respected resident, was charged at the in the more outrageous cases of robbery ¦ ference of the civil, as well as the military, instance of the German military authorities flogging should accompany sentenecs of | headquarters to the mainland appear to with assault. The charge was that he "did on the 27th July last unlawfully a sault a German imprisonment. At Singapore this is the augur well for a more progressive policy on
with a flyflap.” The ovidence showed that the case, and the results are good. In spite of the part of Great Britain henceforward. We orderly named Pani Burger by striking him German was cycling on the right-hand sido, in the outery of extreme humanitarios at ¦ have always maintained that there were
It was nd. fare of all the traffic of the town. home, flogging has been used with effect in great possibilities in Weihniwei, did Great cases of epidemics of crime, and there is no Britain not voluntarily deny herself the mitted, however, that Mr. Buchan (who was
A Resident" is even
riding a rostire pony) flicked Burger with the reason why the same treatment should not | enjoyment of them. be applied to Chinese out here, especially as more hopeful, perhaps excessively so, but as-whish, constituting a technical assault, and a it is a much lighter form of punishment after the scant justice done to the general ' fine of $3 including costs was imposedl,
occur.
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unknown. So far it is attributed to what are vaguely called anarchist principles; yet the would-be assassin is declared to be sane,
a statement which it is difficult to credit.