356
RRINCE CHUN'S RETURN.
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[November 4, 1901.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDO- CHINA.
(Daily Press, 30th October.) There can be no doubt that France has now realised that in the possession of Indo- China she has a property with great poten- tialities. It may be assumed that, apart from the efforts of that remarkable man M. DOUMER, recent events in the Far East have opened her eyes to the necessity of making use of what she already has if she is to play an important part in the anticipa ted exploitation of China. The ambition is a very legitimate one, and under certain conditions will be beneficial to the Eastern world. These conditions, it may be briefly stated, are abstention from rapacious poli- tical and geographical expansion, bringing France into conflict with her neighbours, and a substitution of commercial expansion, to the advantage both of France and of these neighbours. Hitherto French policy in Indo-China and Southern China has been marked by unwarranted aggressions, fol- profit the territorial gains. If this policy is to be pursued the result can but be dis- astrous ultimately. The dreams of the wildest French colonial expansionists seem to include the complete annihilation of Siam and the extension of French influence east- ward to Canton and north-westward to Szechuen, deliberately bringing the British and French boundaries into contact. This, it may safely be asserted, could only take place if the British Empire reached that state of decadence which its enemies pre- Such geogra- tend to foresee coming on it.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
various members of the Imperial Clan. In | Should the Capital be fixed, in spite of the the ordinary course of events, had not the Dowager, at Peking, Kaifeng will none the (Day Press, 26th October.)
Dowager, then no longer legitimate Regent, less prove a sink of corruption that for To confess that we know absolutely nothing interfered, the succession would have been years to come will seriously hamper the about what is going on in Peking at the arranged for by the Emperor himself adopt embarrassed finances of the entire Empire. present time may be imputed to us for ing n son and heir to succeed to the Empire, Still the home coming of Prince CHUN, righteousness. It may, nevertheless, be and continue the Imperial sacrifices; and should that young man prove of sounder accepted as a fact that Prince CHUN is on according to almost universal custom, such metal than his brother or cousins, may his way back from Europe without having adopted heir would have been a son of his affect for good the present almost hopeless This is the most sanguine view accomplished the programme of visits and brother, the Prince of CHUN. The Prince situation.
to be taken of the reasons that have sight-seeing laid out for him. We are told has not yet been blessed with an heir, to that his return at an earlier period than the best of our belief, but as he is in good determined his sudden return. originally intended has been brought about bealth, and has not been forced like his by special instructions from Peking; and as brother into vicious habits, there is no the only apparently new event in the situa- reason for apprehension. The Prince him- tion is the return of the Court, which at self cannot without such a breach of custom last seems in a fair state of being accom. as would practically amount to sacrilege plished, we are led to surmise that the succeed, but the difficulty here is the return of the young prince is in some man- deliberate act of the Dowager, in having ner connected with the new arrangements thrown discredit on her own choice in the likely to be made. If, however, we are Person of the Emper. It is therefore not ignorant of what is actually going on, we at all improbable that a family council may as well acknowledge that our ignorance will force itself, even on the Dowager TSZE of the intrigues being carried on behind, HI, as a necessity of the moment in order backs in the most intriguing of all countries to extricate herself from the impasse into and of all courts is still more profound, which she has by her acts run herself; and There are of course people who know the with this too may be connected the seeming innermost secrets of the Dowager T8zE HI; state of uncertainty as to the movements of who can tell us who were her father and the Court. That the Emperor should be mother, and can answer for her sisters, and desirous of returning to Peking there is her cousins, and her aunts. Of course-
little doubt, as it is in consonance with all officially-Her Majesty is the daughter of his previous actions, birt that the Dowager, HWEICHENG, Sometime Taotai at Wuhu, who has inflicted such wrongs on his house, but our earliest gossip about her was when and humiliated the Throne, not only in the she ran about as a servant, buying petty eyes of foreigners but of its own subjects, household necessaries in the streets of should be desirous of avoiding a spot where Peking. Such of course is the way of all every stone is eloquent of failure, is no less Asiatic kingdoms, and it does not do to in consonance with all we know of her make too many enquiries as to the antece- character. The Dowager to whose mis-lowed by no reasonable efforts to turn to dents of the fair ones whom the monarch 'directed zeal the present abasement of her delights to honour. It is easy to find a country is due is this year sixty-six. She has father in China, and JAPHET, had he been proved herself physically a strong woman, adenizen of the Empire, would have had and in the nature of events will probably little opportunity for adventure in the live for many years more. search. Any way there seems some ground nately just at that age when ambition, in for the belief that Her High Amiableness the absence of other passions, is apt to grip NALASHI is not so pleased as she might be tightest its victim, and having once tasted with the choice she made of young PU CHUN power she has shown berself loth to as the Emperor. PU CHUN has not been a relinquish it. The immediate result of all good boy, and worst of all he has not felt this is that the Empress has made up her impressed with awe of Her High Amiable- mind-to stop at Kaifeng, a spot where we ness, of whose antecedents he probably may very well leave her. If this were the knows too much to induce reverential only result of the contest we might rest fairly respect. But NALASHI made one great satisfied, but unfortunately the end is not mistake, and like all other bungles it has yet. The Imperial family has fallen to such arisen as a bugbear in her path. With low condition that there is not a single perfectly needless insult to the present individual of sufficiently strong intellect to Emperor, she had Pu CHUN declared as assert himself, even in the Dowager's successor to her sou T'UNG CHI, altogether humiliation, and it remains still doubtful ignoring in her temporary rage the actual whether the Emperor will dare to go on to Emperor on the throne; now, however, that Peking or be content to resume insignific- events have declared themselves against her ance in Tsze Hr's palace, as a well trained hasty choice, she is thrown back on her sleeve dog. At best Kaifeng is but a poor wits, and finds the difficulties of the situa- place for a capital. It has neither road nor tion gathering round her thick and fast. water communication, the plain in which it The Fifth Prince, TUN SIN WANG, being in is situated, once fertile, has by centuries of open rebellion, has effectually placed him- misgovernment been reduced to little better self outside the succession, and the only than a desert: the trees that once preserved eligible branches are the families of the the surface have been extirpated, the Yellow Sixth and Seventh Princes-Prince KUNG River is a continual source of terror, and and Prince CHUN respectively. Both of the winds of spring clothe the district, often these the Dowager TSZE HI has succeeded for days and weeks, in impenetrable storms by her maladdress in alienating. On the of dust-the waste of the cultivable soil, decease of T'UNG CHI, the son of the first, Were the Court of China different in its the senior, was passed over, and the heir of ways, its presence and the amount of money the latter, who she hoped would prove diverted to the neighbourhood might be more subservient to her ends, was selected. some little benefit to the inhabitants. The Unfortunately the present occupant of the Court of China is not, however, of that Throne remains without issue, nor is nature; wherever it fixes itself it eats like a there any hope that any will arrive, canker into the soil; its residence at HSIAN and as the Dowager took upon her has proved the final ruin of that city, and self to appoint a successor, unless that its stay in Kaifeng is not likely to prove appointment be regularly cancelled, the more beneficial. Kaifeng's defence is its succession is sure to be disputed between utter poverty-it could not be poorer than the various legitimate claimants. Alto-it is-but this is a poor look-out for the gether there is in the succession enough to future of China. With Kaifeng as capital excite serious apprehension amongst the 'all the present abuses will be perpetuated.
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She is unfortu-
phical expansion, however, is certainly not desired by the non-official residents of Indo- China, the wisest of whom have for years been protesting against the neglect of the solid advantages offered by an exploitation af already acquired land in the pursuit of Land-grabbing shadowy empires beyond it. loes not appeal to the merchant, who sees his government caring nothing for the de- velopment of resources ready to hand which would enable him to become prosperous. And the merchant certainly has common- sense on his side.
However, as we have said, France seems to be turning her attention to the potentia- lities of her present Indo-Chinese empire. Recently the Press of Indo-China reported that the last word has not been said about the Yunnan railway scheme, to which it is proposed to devote seven times the revenue of the whole of Indo-China. It seems cer- tain at least that a Commission of Enquiry is coming out, but whether it will con- sider the whole question of the railway or merely the question of routes cannot yet be said. If our Southern contemporaries are not misinformed, the anti-DoUMER party, if we may call it so, has managed to make itself beard at last in Paris, and now that the effects of the Governor-General's visit to France have somewhat worn off, his ideas are being a little more carefully discussed. It will doubtless be to the This may be so. eventual profit of Indo-China if it is, for, clever man as is M. DOUMER, his relations