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August 21, 1908.]
corps which every member should be enger to see flourish. Is this want of energy due to indifference on the part of the Hongkong youth in any occupation that does not partake of the nature of a pageant? It is to be hoped not. Members of the Corps should keep the traditions of British Volunteers before them and make up their minds to emulate the example of ether Volunteers in the Empire by putting their shoulders to the wheel.-Yours, ⚫to..
AN ONLOOKER.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY PRESS."
:
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE 1 REPORT.
yesterday on the subject of limewashing and cleansing, one cannot but admit the truth of a certain amount of his reasoning. Doubtless the experiment in Second and Third Streets has proved successfal ន far 08 the eclansing of houses is concerned, a d it seems on first reading to be a perfect'y reasonable proposition that the operations there should be continued and even extended to other districts. The byelaws require that owners shall limewash and cleanse throughout their houses twice a year; and such limewashing and cleansing, says the President, should do much to check the annual outbreaks of plague. Also it has to be remembered that under the same byelaws householders are required to keep their houses clean. Then why should it devolve upon the house-owner to wash the floors every six months. If the sanitary inspectors were doing their duty the householders would have to keep their floors clean. Why should the house- owner biennally be called upon to do that which it is incumbent upon the tenant to do always under the supervision of the officers of the Sanitary Board As well say that the house-owner must ge that the tenants wash their faces twice a year. House-owners are not avers to complying with the requirements of the Sinitary Bout in the matter of keeping their bouses sweet and clean, but suppose that, as is happened lately, they carry out these requirements in the samo manner as was satisfactory to the Board a year ago, surely they are entitled to have their houses passed as being thoroughly finished off. If the Board insist on the cleansing and limewashing of houses then they may claim that the insides of the chimneys should be treated, which is reductio ad absurdum. The word "throughout" might mean something or nothing. As the President defines it, it might that even the window-paues must be
mean
houses, these are generally covered with soot to begin with and limewashing spoils rather than improves their appearance, and it certainly does not add to their salubriousness. Smoke is as much plagae-repelling as is limewashing, though it may not be in accord with our ideas of public health.
Hongkong, 17th August. SIE,It is rather a pity that the question of the efficiency or non-efficiency of Volunteers should have come to be discussed in public print, but since the ball has been set rolling I may as well give it a kick. Volunteers, like poets, are born, not made, and I am rather afraid the Hongkong Volunteer Corps has been unfor tunate in the matter of its births. It doesn't seem to have got hold of the right stuff. Now, I am & Volunteer here, and have been one too, at home, and I must honestly say I never stood in line
any where with individuals possessing more peculiar notions on the subject of amateur soldiering than here. Some appear to imagine that the sole aim of volunteering is the wearing of a uniform that shall be as much in the style of a fashion plate as possible. What can you make of s man who complains that the bally uniform is too much like an ordinary Tommy's, old chap; people think we're soldiers"? Should not be rather feel prond that people make such a mistake and pay him a compliment that neither his appearance nor his intellect entitles him to Now an agitation has been starfed in the Corps for a new pattern of dress uniform, something pre-limewashed. As for the kitchens in Chinese sumably with a lot of buteous and braid that will look nice in a photograph. The thing is a farce. Look at the contingent that want home for the Coronation. Were the motives that prompted its memb. rs to come forward in every case the outcome of a patriotic desire to see this Far Eastern portion of the Empire fittingly represent.dst such an historic ceremony? Not by a long chalk. One, I know, had terminated his engagement here, and the trip furnished such an easy means of getting back home; besides, there was the journey over Canada, with enough cheap romance at the end to fill a penny novel the music of the bands, the cheers of the crowd, and the tramp of the There are other cases that could be cited, Lat time and space and a perhaps misplaced regard for the susceptibilities will not permit of their being dealt with. The place to see some types of Volunteer, though, is at the annual instruction camp, when, seated at the long deal table and drumming impatiently with his fingers on the white cloth covering it, one calls for more padding, boy, chop-chop in a voice whose volume would make any ordinary company sergeant-major sit up in round-eyed amazement. Then, dinner over, our hero flicks the crumbs off his uniform, still showing the creases and emitting an odour of camphor, lights a cigarette, and strolls to the canteen, where, over a cherry brandy, he talks of six-inch guns, etc., with all the air and none of the knowledge of a veteran. But they are not all like this; there are in the Corps men who would be an acquisition in any body of civilian soldiers, and these do their best to maintain the traditions of the regiment to which they have devoted their services. They have a hard fight of it, and though the victory is not so complete as it might be, they succeed at least in imparting to the Corps something of the appearance of trained, disciplined men. These are the Volunteers we want--not per- sous whose ambitions never soar beyond the forage cap stuck at a fetching angle over their right eur. Such men are worse them useless, and the sooner they resign the sooner will come peace to the mind of Yours, etc.,
men wot drills."
·་
TWO STRIPES.
LIMEWASHING AND CLEANSING.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE “DAILY PRESS.” Hongkong, 14th August. SIR,With reference to Нов, Dr. Atkinson's declarations at the Sanitary Board
But worst of all is the provision that the work is to be done to the satisfaction of the Sanitary Board. If that means anything surely it means that the Sanitary Board must define what is to be done. Otherwise owners are open to persecution on all sides. The owner may do his best to comply with the requirements and yet find when he has done his best that it still falls short, whereas if he knew what to do he might be perfectly willing to do it. There can be nothing more exasperating than for a man to do what be thinks is required of him and then to find that it does not satisfy the authorities and must be done prastically all over again. Mr. Hewettis suggestion that all terms used in the byelaws should be defined specifically is oue that must commend itself to all, and the sooner that he done, whether for bad or worse, the sooner will one of the problems with which the Sanitary Board and householders alike find themselves face to face be satisfactorily solved.-Yours, etc.,
KEISS.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY PRESS."
Hongkong, 16th August. SIR,-In commenting on the trial of McEwen, the ex-Inspector of Markets, recently accused by the Government of accepting bribes, the Press rightly asked whether the men who had sworn to offering bribes to the accused public servant were to be prosecuted for this offence. No answer to this question has been publicly given, and I should like to ask whether it is a fact that the Government induced the men to give evidence by offering them a free pardon for the offence of which they unblushingly acknowledged themselves to be guilty? Perhaps it would be too much to expect the Government to confess this very unsatisfactory proceeding, but silence and failure to discharge an obvious public duty do but lead to the conclusion that the rumour is well based.
145
at the trial of the murderer of the Chinese Reformer in Gage Street The complicity of the Canton Government in this dastardly outrage on British soil was clearly established. but so far as the public are aware nothing has been done by either the Colonial or the Hom Government to exact an apology or reparation.
Yours, &c.,
May I also ask, sir, what the Government has done in the matter of the disclosures made-
4404-0
ARGUS:
THE HOUSING QUESTION.
TO THE MDITOR OF THE 'DAILY PRESS."
Hongkong, 21st August. SIB, We hear much of the hardships of the Chinese, of there being insufficient houses for them and of the Government turning them out into the street without a roof to cover them, and so forth. There are hundreds of houses at Hungbom and Yanmati, new and sanitary in every respect, absolutely without an occupant, and even the miserable price of $4
A floor is insufficient to attract tenauts. A Chinese coolie would sooner pay 84 a month for sleeping s; ace in Hongkong than fifty cents for the same space in Kowloon. This in itself could afford no grounds for objection were it not that he makes it a prima facie case always for obtaining more wages from his employer. It is an undoubted fact that Chinsse love to herd together; they detest being isolated. Hongkong has many attractions which Kowloon does not afford, added to which the coolie, who, we will say, works in Hongkong and lives in Kowloon, cannot ever be fare of getting to his work in time. Unless this state of things is remedied Hongkong Chinese will never live at Kowloon,
The "service" (P) to Yaumati and Hunghom consists of native-owned launches which con- form to no time-table or rules and which will keep their fares waiting an hour or two, sooner than make a start without the full com plement of passengers. This could be remedied in either one of two ways. (') To have a regular service of electric trams connecting Hunghem and Mongkoktsui with Tsimshatsui and each other. (2) To have a regular service of ferry: boa's under Government or European control running be ween Hongkong and Yaumati and Hongkong and Hunghom. No doubt the existing "Star" Ferry Company would undertake the service without subsidy, if the Government would guarantee it against actual loss for five years, The Government wishes to preventovercrowding... and turns people out into the street if there is a contravention of the Health Ordinance, yet it. makes no effort to cope with the numberless difficulties which arise from its endeavours to improve the public health.
In the matter of enterprise the citizens of Hongkong are miles ahead of the Government, and any remunerative venture is jumped at at once, but the Government cannot expect private individuals to lose money for its benefit Let the Government therefore give a Ferry Com pany or a Tramway Company some such guarantee as I have referred to, and I make bold to say that the overcrowding question will be relegated to the archives of an unsavoury and forgotten past. Yours, etc..
MAGPIE
THE EXCHANGE AND TRADE PRICES.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY PRESS:
Hongkong, 18th August. SIE,-I see in your advertisement, columns that the Ice Company has very properly, owing to the rise in Exchange, reduced the price previously charged for jce.
Would it not be well for many local stores, especially those supplying provisions, eto, to follow the wise and just steps of the Ice-Co, P The stores here think only of increasing their prices when the exchange when the pound is cheaper, no tion is taken of their price-lis public is unfairly called = n exorbitant prices now charged
Is it not time that the try and do something to stop and thus confer a boon to the hard the poor Yours, etc
BE JUST
but
གཤ་མ་ཧཱུཾ། རE.