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PEACE IN SOUTH AFRICA.
(Daily Press, 3rd June,) The firing of a salute by the British war ships in the Harbour at noon yesterday gave the first general intimation in this Colony that peace had been concluded in South Africa and that the long and terrible struggle was at an end. In the course of the afternoon we received from the Colonial Secretary's Office the notification that the following telegrara had reached H.. the Officer Administering the Government from the Secretary of State for the Colonies :- The representatives of the Boer forces still in the field have accepted the terms of surrender offered by His Majesty's Government." The hope therefore which we ventured to express in our issue of yesterday, that the obstacles in the way of a-settlement would not be of sufficient magnitude to prevent the conclusion of peace, has been fulfilled. It is needless to expatiate upon the feelings of relief and rejoicing which will be experienced through- out the Empire at the announcement. They can well be imagined from the sen- sation produced here. More than two years and seven months have elapsed since the Boer ultimatum of the 9th October, 899, brought to a climax the latent racial struggle between British and Dutch, which had made the condition of South Africa well nigh intolerable for many years past, and substituted for it a state of open war. This war has been one of constant surprises
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS ́AND COMMUNICATIONS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE.
(Daily Press, 3rd June.)
[June 7, 1902.
Of course affairs in South Africa are not yet clear, and it will be some time before the country can return to its normal condi. tion. But the contest has at least brought about a better understanding. The feelings of dislike and hatred which up till recently were paramount in the former republics are now giving way to better feelings. We have learned to look upon the Boers as worthy foes, whom it is an honour to have beaten in fair fight; and the Boers have in turn come to see that no designs against, the personal freedom or the property of the settlers was ever intended, or would have been for a moment permitted. In fact, we can offer to the Boers as subjects of a great and advancing nation better oppor- tunities than as petty independent states they could in their wildest moments have looked forward to. The expansion of South Afrien itself is only one of the roads of distinction open to our new fellow subjects, and the people who could put a DE WET or a DELAREY into the field are not unlikely to prove themselves equally energetic, and far more happy in bridging the cause of civilisation to the front in the still unim- proved regions of South Africa.
and within the last few weeks we find work on the extension railways through Rhodesin already so far advanced that the erection of the great bridge across the Victoria Falls It is characteristic of the expansive nature on the Zambesi River is actually being of the British Empire that in the middle of proceeded with on the spot. The extinc. a great war, and almost as a corollary of tion which was to fall on the British Empire that war, time and means should have been as a consequence of its action in South Africa found to bring about the two greatest ex has in fact curiously had the very contrary tensions of British communications that effect to what was reasonably looked-for- have as yet taken place. There is unforward to; and entirely independent of the tunately no reason to doubt that on the instinct of co-operation taught by the con Continent generally the prolongation of the test, England and Greater Britain find war in South Africa was looked upon by themselves in their improved means of the reactionary Powers as a grand time for communication the better prepared to meet exploiting their own special little games; any external strains. and the hope was father to the prediction that the Empire was so much engaged that it would never have time to spare In the circumstances the to look on. awakening to the knowledge that while the Empire was supposed to be sleeping it has really been engaged in extending and strengthening its communications, must have come as a surprise not only to the English people but to the world at large. The United States have not un- naturally been anxious to obtain more ready means of communication with their two recent acquisitions in the Pacific, Hawaii and the Philippines, and negotia tions for the laying of a submarine cable are already for advanced. It seemed an abnormal thing that while the East of Asia was closely connected with England by cables leading through the Indian Ocean, first, that the Boers should have been found as well as overland through the Russian absolutely prepared for the fight, so that lines, the States had to send their messages they started with tremendous advantages almost three quarters of the way round the reach the same destination. over an unready enemy; secondly, that with globe to the odds for the time being in their favour, Equally, naturally it might have been they did not press the attack when presumed that the nation that suffered they had successfully occupied large portions inost through want of more direct means of of British territory and had apparently only communication would have been the first It has curiously happened to advance to cause a general rising of their in the field. kinsmen under British rule; thirdly, that that neither has come to pass.
Thanks to when the tide turned, even though the odds were now heavily in our favour, the success of Lord ROBERTS on the western flank so the Boer front; rapidly "crumpled up' and lastly that, after the annexation of the Orange and Transvanl States in the summer and autumn of 1900, the Boers were able to carry on for so many months a gallant but hopeless guerilla struggle. The history of the war, no doubt, has still much to reveal. In the meantime there is little room for other feelings than those of gladness that the end has been reached at length. A great task, now waits to be accomplished and one that will try to the full the British genius for. colonial government. Its suc- cessful performance will be the best answer to the cries of decadence which have been so freely hurled at us during the conduct of the great war now ended:
Mr. M. Arakawa, Japanese Consul General inondon, is returning to Japan on leave in September, next. Mr. Ariyashí, Elève-Consul. who reached London about two months ago, will not during. Mr. Arakawa's absence, which is necessitated by the ill-health of his wife..........
1
-L'Opinion (Saigon) says that a company has just been formed having for its object the development of the trade on the coast of Ag nam between Haiphong and Singapore. The mer Meltä of 600 tons takes up the run, the Marquis de Barthelemy and tales. They propose with at the following ports leav- ** Dồng hồi, Tourane, t'am Raigné, Phan-rang
The Melita, until now under Captian Courtaden, "well himay will pass afterwards
of Captain Leprevost,
the energy of the British colonies of Canada and Australasia, not only is the British Empire first in the field in laying a sub- Pacific cable, but the whole extent between Vancouver and New Zealand is expected to be completed well before the end of the Our very good friends on the current year. continent of Europe no sooner heard of the intention of the States to be first in the field than they at once took advantage of the opportunity that seemed to offer of being level with England on the subject of telegraphic communication with China by throwing in their lot with the United States, and making provision for branch lines from Manila. We have no reason to complain of the arrangement, and would willingly enough have chipped in, but the whole thing was done so ostensibly to get them selves freed from any obligation to England that we have little sympathy with their feelings now that they have discovered that it would have been more in their interests. to back, the other horse.
MR. CHADWICK AND THE
WATER QUESTION.
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(Daily Press, 5th June.) Mr. OSBERT CHADWICK's report on the water-supply of Hongkong, which was laid before the Legislative Council yesterday is a refreshingly outspoken afternoon, document in many respects. In his general” remarks on the scheme, which he proposes, Mr. CHADWICK dwells on the pressing character of the water question, -which-is- one that should take precedence of all other sanitary improvements, such as those of sewerage and drainage. May not the presence of cholera in our midst, he aske (writing on the 18th April), be due to the fact that, owing to the scarcity of water- works water, people are collecting water from all sorts of places, such as nullahs and streams, obviously open to contamina- tion ? The actual scarcity of water is "not the only, indeed, the principal to the public health. The
three years since the proposition of the late
Again, on the African continent, it is but "intermittent system, under which the
"mains are emptied, för a CECIL RHODES that an all-British railway " portion of each day, makes it from Cape Town to Cairo was within the ** contamination to find its way limits of possibility, and offered a fit sub"mains. If, by any mischance, the bacillus ject for British enterprise, was looked open
"of cholera were to find ita as chimerical in the highest degree. Its mains, the consequences migl
"An incident”” similar feasibility as a practical work never, indeed,
“occurred at Maidstone entered into mens' minds, and a railway to
Consequently every the moon seemed almost as much within the limits of practicability. The three years
“to obviate the necë. that have elapsed have seen many things
systent" and, as thin before undreamt of taking place in the
ouce, steps should be African continent, now "dark" *no longer. rmittent syster Khartoum is now within the reach of sum
possible." It i mer holiday seekers; Take Nyanza is wie goes on, to acts already connected by railway with the sea He therefore recommends
" menace
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ich
:
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