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November 17, 1902.]
compensation when private and rested rights are injuriously affected for the public benefit.
Here follow the signatures.]
The Colonial Secretary has replied as follows:-
Colonial Secretary's Office. Hon kng, th October. 1902 SIR,-I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 18th iustaut for- warding a petition regarding the Public Health and Buildings Bill for the considera ion of His Excellency the Governor auf to inform you that His Excellency has already considered most of the poin's submitted in bis examination of the Bill. I have the honour to be, Sir, your obed.ent ser ant,
(Signed) F. H. MAY.
Colonial Secretary.
A. SHELTON HOOPER, Esq
JAPAN AND THE SIAMESE QUESTION.
[FROM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.}
various reasons.
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Tokyo, 5th November, By the end of this mouth the Crown Prince of Siam wil arrive here from America, a special envoy from the Siamese Court will arrive here from Bangkok in Si m's biggest war- vessel," the Japanese Minister from Bangkok will also arrive here; and there will probably be more talk of a matrimonial alliance between the royal houses of Siam and Japan. and of a rapprochement between the countries over which these royal houses rule. I should therefore like to give in the present paper some general ideas of Japan's attitude towards Siam so far us I have be able to understand that attitude.
In the first pa: e. I must say that there is no truth in the talk about the matrimonial scheme just alluded to; and it may safely be insisted on that no Siamese Priuce bas any prospect of carrying off to Bangkok as his bride a daughter of the Mikado. King Chulalongkorn would probably like such an alliance very well, but I do not think the Japanese would, and that for In the first place the Siamese Royal family is not g‹ od enough for them: the common people at any rate would hardly be inclined
to regard with satisfaction the marriage of an Imperial Princess coming of a semi-dirile family, to the future ruler of a small, imperfectly known and back ward state which was long tributary to China, On the other hand, the statesmen of Japan would very hearti y dislike any connection that would tend to bring them into couflic not only with Fiance but perhaps with England. Then again the future of Liam is doubtful. It can scarcely follow in the footsteps of Japan for the good reason that the strong midd e class which brought about the Restoration in this country and of which Marquisto, Couuț Okuma, Count Itagaki and other famous m n among the new peers were the leaders is non-existent in Siam. hese reasons tell equally against an alliance or ar pprochement between the two countries From a sentimental point of view such alliance would be fine; but the Empire of Japan is not ruled by sentimentalist as has often been shown. It is uled by very long-headed, unexcitable, well-informed we who are per- fectly well aware tl at Europe is extremely touci y on the subject of a Yellow League, and that any steps n Japan's part to form such a lea gue would prolably lose her the alliance of Great Britain and perhaps deal a death-blow to her future development.
all
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
the Corean Government; and also to study the Siamese question for themselves, with the result that they found the French case to be absurd, This was owing perhaps to the bad manner in which that case was presented by the French prints of Tonkin and Annam-one of these papers L'Indo-Chinoise Republicaine blaming the French Government latterly for not allowing the French authorities in Annam to cross the Mekong and annex as much as they liked of the terri ory that lay on the other side.
The news of the recently concluded treaty between France and Siam has a t served to make the Japanese feel better inclined towards the former country or les dispo ed to regard, the latter as having been balked. To better un- derstand their feelings on this point, it must be remembered that shortly after the conclusion of the Anglo-Japanese alliance the French Press worked itself into a tremendous passion over what it regarded as French designs in Siam and Tonkin,-a passion which the recent Franco-Siamese treaty now proves to bare been simulated with the object of withdrawing atten- tion from the negotiations that were to end in the loss of so much Siamese territory. The Japanese feel somewhat sore in consequenc and the Japan Times, a well-informed paper edited by Japanese, voices their feelings in the following editiorial :--
M
W&S
When the Franco-Russian Alliance or rather its extension over the Fr East announced shortly after the publication of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance last Spring, we did
not i esitate to welcome the announcement as su additional guarantee of peace in these quarters Since then, however, hints have not been lacking
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which would indicate that the extens on w:8 10 mark the beginning of a new policy of intrigue and coercion on the part of the agents of the two Powers, in Eastern Asia. And if the con- clusion of a new treaty between France and Siam which we reported yesterday is to be regarded as a first fruit of the alliance in its extended form it may justly be said that are now confronted all the Asiatic states with a
The very serious outlook.
be the first people to Japanese will not suspect some relation between the Franco-Rus- sian alliance and the new Franco-Siamese treaty aud full particulars in the latter connection when they are received here should be made a subject of careful study, espec.ally as one of the most ia- fluential of the Par sisu pa ers, according to a Reuter desp teh we publish this morning, is apparently well satisfied with its terms and this would mean that France has bad everything her own way. In the meantime we notice that Siam is engaged in or rather is being inveigled into another trouble of a more or less international character as some cuttings we give elsewh re would show. We cannot help doubting the wisdom of harassing Siam with another caus· of embarrassment at this moment, at least from the British side."
The later allusion is of course to the alleged cccupation of the Malay state of Kelantan by the British; and the boldness of it on the part of a semi-official organ and in face of the Anglo
These Japanese alliance is to be admired. fiauk expressions seem to indicate that, however calm and prudent may b. the statesmen who now sway the destinies of Japan, the popular imagination in this country is not quite uniu- fluenced by the dream of a Free Asia.
The Manila Cablenews of the 1st inst. says: The Moro situation is koking more hopeful than it did several weeks ago, and General Summer feels disposed, according to his tele- grams to the division hea quarters, to allow the refractory Moros more time to consider the proposition of peace before reducing their forts.
At the same time it must be confessed that in Japan there is a small jingoist section headed by Prince Konoye which waruly sympathises with Siam and which would perhaps take an imprudent manner of showing that sympathy if it had the chance. The Japanese generally know little about Siam and care less, their whole atte. tion being concentrated on Corea and China; but some sympathy for Siam, accom- panied by some corresponding irritation against France. as lately excited auleng the general public in this country by the violence of the French papers on the occasion of the engage- ment by the Siamese of a Japanese judge as legal adviser. This led the Japanese papers to Foint out that they had never made any objecceived the G C.V.O. from the King, and is the tion when French employees are employed by possessor of numerous European decorations.
The Crown Prince of Siam, who left London on the 3rd ult. for Siam, travels cia the United He is expected to reach States and Japan.
The Bangkok early in January 1ext year. Crown Prince has spent the past nine years in England, where he has received his education, at Harrow, then at Sandhuist, and then passed Camberley, through the Staff College at Later be entered at Christ Church, Oxford, where he made history his special study, writing a treatise on the history of the Poles.
He re-
CANTON.
[FROM OUR CORRE-PONDENT.]
383
Canton, 8th November.
CHARITY FOILED BY PIRATES.
During the drought which caused such vast destruc ion of rice-crops in Canton and the outlying districts, the charitable institutions Qi-yuk Tong and the Kwong Chai. Tung Wa, Kwong Yan, Sat Sio, Snug Chi-g and other hospitals got up subscriptions, and sent men to Wahn and Chiakiang to buy rice and bring anton to be sold to the poor at it ba k to ebe p prices. The Acting Prefect Kang has also petitioned the Viceroy and obtained some money from the Government for the same purpose. Some ships were chartered to bring the rice to Caut n. On their way hither, when passing the Water ily Mountain, a number of pirates attacked them, and carried away over 2,000 bags of rice. to the value of over ten thousand taels, Yesterday the charitable institu- tions presented a petition to the Punya Magistrate to beg of the Viceroy to cause the arrest of the pirates and the reo very of the rice, and also to s nd ma-of-war to convoy the 1est of the rice.
AN ARTFUL RUSE.
The Namhoi Magistrate is well-known as one of the ablest and most scheming officials in Canton his strategy is such that it seldom A f-w days ago he went with a number fails. of soldiers into the v lage of Sa Tow to sup- press a big clan fight, When there he ordered geatry and elders of the belligerent parties to appear before him on board the mandaria boat; they came fully expecting to meet a frowning face or to hear a severe lecture. Instead, in a pleasing and conciliatory manner, he bade them sit down, and requested them to advise their people not to fight for a mere trifling motive
They but to live at peace with each other. were so well le sed that they have consented to bind themselves never to fight again; the Magistrate then requested them to surrender all their arms. After the bonds had been signed and the arms surrendered, he ordered them to be detained, and on conating them over, there being more than three thousand piec s of arms, he ordered them to be confiscated and fined the possessors fire taels apiece, amounting to 15,000 taels or more. Then the elders and gentry knew that they had fallen into a trap.
SWATOW.
[FROM OUR CORESPONDINT.]
Swatow, 4th November. THE KWONG HING COMPANY.
In writing about this concern in my last etter I was led, through information received to hold very pessimistic views with regard to its continued existence. Erents here have proved otherwise. Messrs. Bradley & Co., who had imported ten chests of opium as a test case, left them, owing to some difficulties in the Cust ms Godown. After days of procrastina- tion they took delivery of two chests yesterday, and one was, immediately after leaving the Customs premises, seized hy rauners, armed to the teeth. of the Kwong Hing Co. On being avprised of this Mr. Richardson, head of Messrs Bradley & Co.. proceeded without delay to the opinm tax office and, his interview not being satisfactory, he reported the matter to the British Consul. The latter, on being informed of what had happened, repaired at once to the Kwong Hing Co's premises and asked the officials there to have the chest of opium released at 4 p.m.
In defiance of the Consul, they have refused to comply with his order and are still retaining the opium. The action of the Kwong Hing Co., which caused great consternation among the Chinese, particularly the opium merchants. can only be regarded as very high-handed and as a distinct and flagrant
It is ro ry breach of existing treaties. strange and surely coring to a farce that China can be permitted so utterly to disregard existing treaties in allowing members of an Opium Farm, the formation and existence of which was strongly protested against by both the Hongkong Chamber of Commerce and the representatives of the British Government, to
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