s
September 28, 1901.]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
THE TREATMENT OF ASSASSINS | death-penalty conveys to some morbid
(Daily Press, 24th September.)
Among the incentives which exist to prompt such terrible outrages as the murder of the late President MCKINLEY and others who have fallen martyrs to the hand of an assas- sin, the fact of notoriety has undoubtedly always counted for much. The problem for the administrators of justice after such crimes have been committed therefore is to
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punish the evil-doer without giving him the chance of figuring as a victim in the eyes of the less stable section of the community, It has been long recognised that the effect; of a more or less public execution is rather to lend a spurious halo to the perpetrator of the murder than to convey a salutary lesson. In countries like Italy, where capital punishment has been abolished. the sentence of imprisonment for life in solitary confinement is doubtless effective, for the pitiful romance of death on the scaffold is lacking to signalise the murderer's end. BRESCI, the assassin of the late King HUMBERT, committed suicide in madness induced by his punishment, and 'his fate thereby attracted far less attention than if he had been hanged or beheaded soon after the commission of his awful deed. In the great majority of cases of attempted assas- sination the guilty parties have beefadjudged insane; even in cases where the crime has actually been perpetrat:l the murderer his. usually had the benefit of whatever doubt may have existed. The recent purder in Japan of Mr. HOSHI TORU has furnished an extremely interesting example of the way in which the tribunal before whom the culprit is brought to justice may regard the affair. As will be seen from the intelligence already giveu, IBA SOTARO,, who killed the deceased Japanese statesman, got off with lite imprisonment, the Tokyo Chiho Saibansho finding that there were extenuat- ing circumstances. In this connection some j remarks in the Kobe Chronicle are worth quotation. Our contemporary
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minds the glory of martyrdom. The deci sion as to the right course to take in the punishment of such crimes is indeed a hard one. In many ways the method adopted in dealing with King HUMBERT's assassin seems to combine the maximum of punish- ment with the minimum of notoriety. But the punishment, nevertheless. is to many revolting inhumanity: The question is whether such people as Bresci, CZOLGORZ, and their numerous predecessors retain the right after their crimes to be considered human.
THE CRISIS: TELEGRAMS, |
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT,
Suanghai, 23rd September, 10.47 a.m. A Hsianfu despatch reports that the Imperial Court will procced, to Kaifeng-fi, Honan, and will remain there for two years.
HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE
COUNCIL.
A meeting of the Legislative Council was held ou the 26th inst. in the Council
Chamber. Present:-
His EXCELLENCY th› GOVERNOR (Sir HENRY BLAKE, G.C.M.G.).
Hon. Col. L. E. BROWN, R.E. (Commanding the Troops).
Hon. J. H. STEWART LOCKHART, C.M.G. (Colonial Secretary).
Hon. H. E. Poplock, K.C. (Acting Attorney General).
Hon. Commaniler R. M. RUMSEY, R.N.
(Harbour Master).
Hon. C. McL. MESSER (Acting Colonial Treasurer).
Hon. W. CHATHAM (Acting Director of Public Works).
Hon. A. W. BREWIN (Registrar General). Hou, C. P. CHATER, C.M.G. Hon. T. H. WHITEHEAD, Hon. J. THURBURN. Hou. J. J. BELL IRVING. Hon. Dr. Ho KAI!
Hon. WEI A YUK. Mr. C. CLEMENTI (Acting Clerk of Councils).
NEW MEMBER.
Mr. A. W. BREWIN took the oath and his seat vice. the Hon. F. H. May, C.M.G., on leave.
THE ESTIMATES.
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yielding a sullen submission; but that wherever our flag floats, when the tocsin of war had sounded, the swords of free peoples leaped from their scabbards and the British Empire stood forth solid and compact with the fervour of patriotism throbbing as strongly at the ex- tremities as in the heart of England.
The serious troubles in the North of China have affected this Colony less than might have been expected. These troubles are yet too
recent to enable us to form a fair estimate of
their cause, and it may be that history will show that there have been grave fanlts and Sonth we have been spared the horrors, that mistakes on both sides, but happily in the
have deluged some of the Northern provinces with blood, and I am glad to say that the relations of this Colony with Canton have never been more cordial."
During the past year the amount of shipping entering and clearing from the port was greater than at any period of its history, and the returns show that the financial position of the Colony is satisfactory. A grave local misfor- tune was experienced og the 9th November, when the Colony was visited by a typhoon, the disastrous result of which must be fresh in your memory. In that terrible night 10 launches and over 11 junks were sank in the harbour, and it is calculated that between Hongkong and Tai O over two hundred lives were lost. I wish to express here my admiration of the ready and abundant charity with which the inhabitants of every nationality relieved the distress of the sufferers.
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I regret deeply that, notwithstanding the precautions taken in the early part of this year, plague re-appeared in the spring in epillemic form and raged with great violence during the summer months. The Medical Officer of Health and the Sanitary staff spared no exertions to check its ravages, but so far I fear that we cannot claim to have discovered either the prevention or the cure. It is, how- ever, our plain duty to leave nothing untried that science can suggest to save the Colony from the recurring visitations of this disease, and I have no doubt that you will cheerfully grant the necessary funds to carry out any recom- mendations that may be made after examination by responsible experts. I have approached the Secretary of State for the Colonies on this subject, and have received an intimation that Mr. Osbert Chadwick, an eminent Sanitary Engineer, will come out at the end of the year to examine and report upon the sanitary condi- tion of the Colony. I have no doubt that this will be agreeable to the people of Hongkong, who are naturally in a state of great anxiety on II. E. the GOVERNOR said :-
the subject of sanitation. It has also been Hon. Gentlemen of the Legislative Council-intimated to me that a medical man with expe- As is usual when laying the Estimates before rience of the plague epidemic elsewhere will be you, it is well to take some account of the sent to consult with the Medical Officers of incidents of the past year affecting the Colony, the Colony. I hope nost earnestly that the to consider our position generally, an to result of these visits may throw some light render to you as far as can be done in a short upon the causes of this annual visitation of statement an account of our stewardship. It is plague and enable us to combat its attack with needless to say that the sad event that touched & greater measure of success. The telegrams all our hearts most deeply was the death that have passed on this subject will be laid on of our great and dearly loved Queen, for whom the table to-day. Outside the plague mortal- all the world has mourned, and to whose ity, the death-rate of the Colony compares memory a great memorial, worthy I hope of the favourably with that of any Colony in the East, greatest among the great, is projected in Lon- or any port in China. During the continuance don. Towards the cost of that memorial all of the epidemic the business of the port was the Colonies are contributing. Our people of seriously interfered with by the withdrawal, Hongkong hare with their usual liberality sub- from the Colony of many thousands of Chinese scribed $77,860, to which sum I propose that who feared that in the event of their contract- this Council shall add $50,000—a proposal that ing the disease they could not, if they so desired, I am certain will meet the approval of every return to their homes. Representations were member of the Council.
made on the subject by the Chamber of Com- The war in South Africa, waged under merce and by the inbabitants generally-repre- circumstances of exceptional difficulty, and sentations to which I gave my strongest support extending over an area nearly as large as the-but His Majesty's Government did not feel whole of South China east of Yunnan, has cost justified in assenting to any regulation under which plague patients could return to their who have laid down their lives in the most homes. I hope, however, to be able to come to sacred of all duties-that of upholding the an arrangement with the Viceroy of the two honour of their country. But their sacrifice Kwangs that will admit of the transfer under has not been in vain, for the war, with all its proper precintions of Chinese suffering from tedious and trying incidents, has shown that the disease who may desire to proceed to Canton the qualities of high courage and patient deter- for treatment, and thus relieve the anxiety that mination that have built up our Empire are as impelled so many of the Chinese to abandon for
a time their occupations in this Colony. strong and dominant as at any period of our history, and it has demonstrated that the British Empire is not, as some have thought, a conglomeration of loosely bound protected countries, of Colonies restless under a cen- tralised Government, and of subject nations
That IBA's punishment has been reduced one degree is a small matter in itself, and it be urged with some force that
may imprisonment for life is a sentence far less likely to exalt the assassin in the minds of the populace as a martyr to patriotism than the infliction of capital. punishment. It will be recalled that when Viscount MORI was murdered, and his assassin executed, for years afterwards pilgrimages were quade to the grave where the latter was uriel and offerings of incense and flowers made. A sentence of life imprisonment at least prevents such an unfortunate exhibition of sympathy for violent deeds done from patriotic motives; while it has the further advantage of "showing that in the eyes of the law life is "sacred and is not to be taken lightly, even "when the offence is most grave.
Altogether it seems regrettable that on such air important occasion the judges who tried IBA SOTARO found themselves "unable to issue a weighty, condemnation "of the act and the reasoning by which IBA "has sought to justify himself before the "country." The cases of Mr. Hosar's murder by IBA and of Presidents many thousands of the flower of our people, MCKINLEY'S murder by CzoLGORZ are of course very different. We know of no plea urged by the Polish anarchist in extenuation of his deed; IBA SOTARO insisted on his patriotism. CZOLGORZ has been found guilty of murder in the first degree and will presumably end his life by elec trocution; the Japanese assassin doomed to spend his remaining years in prison. In neither case can any sane man discover a romance. Unfortunately the
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Next to plague our most dangerous disease is malarial fever, which observation proves to be the result of inoculation by anopheles mosqui- to. I have determined to enter upon the heavy task of training the nullahs flowing into the
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