November 21, 1903.]
their best to reassure the victim and endeavour to restore some feeling of con- fidence, but unfortunately, to his request as to whether either was prepared to render him some more practical assistance than mere sympathy, both have found themselves compelled to return h negative answer.
In point of fact it is, of course, impossible to assist China, who in her present condition is utterly incapable of acting as a reasonable being, and whose first instinct, were assist- ance given, would probably be to turn round and bite the hand that was offering help.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
367
HONGKONG AND SOUTH CHINA | Quite so; and therefore, admitting, for the
RAILWAYS.
sake of argument, the unprofitableness, fiuan- cially, of the railway, it becomes more than should show its concern. ever a mutter in which the whole Colony This is an under-
At
off our
(Daily Press, 16th November.) In his speech at the laying of the founda- tion stone of the new Law Courts on Thurs-taking which is vital to Hongkong's future day last, H.E. the Governor sp-ke of the prosperity; it will not pay a single firm to coming time when drowsy, disjointed China build a line on its own account; and time is shall have been aroused by the bustle of ever passing and the danger of Hongkong great railways carrying her merchandise, being left out in the cold drawing nearer. when the reciprocal trade of East and West What, then, is pointed to as the remedy P will be indeed as an ocean to a lake, and Surely concerted action. This is an affair Hongkong, with her unrivalled position and which touches the general welfare and the Still whatever the cause, the position is by her armis flung wide for the unrestricted revenues hereafter of the Colony. The case no means deprived of its humiliating aspect,
commerce of the world, will see her crowded is one for the Colony as a whole to take up, and the most humiliating feature of the shipping spread into the deep-dredged bay headed by its Government. The Govern whole is that the impasse has been mainly of Yaumati and waiting to load or unload brought about through our own fault. at the wharves of the Kowloon terminus of watch the threatened blow struck at the ment of Hongkong cannot afford to sit and Always ready to take advantage of an opening the great arterial railway from Canton to city over which it rules. Commercial extinc- of the sort, Russia has been driving home the Hankow. The picture is an enticing one. tion of such a place as Hongkong is more wedge, and as the timber in front opens out but, before we give ourselves up to admira than a commercial matter, it is a political under the pressure, so in a geometric ratio tion of the prospect, it is as well to think matter of the utmost possible importance. does her ambition. A few months ago Rus in how near we are to realisation of it. Yester- Alone of the European Powers which have would have been willing to make terms for day saw the opening of the first piece of acqured for themselves footholds in China, being peaceably permitted to occupy a por- line in connection with the Canton end of Britain has made no attempt to connect tion of Manchuria: already she has widened the Canton-Hankow railway, a subsidiary those footholds with the interior. her desires, and now goes so far as to claim line, it is true, but still an earnest of what is Weihaiwei we voluntarily cut Corea. Nor is her earth-hunger content
to come. From Hankow southward con- chance of opening up part of Shantung with this modest meal; her agents are afield siderably more has been done, so that we by a British line. in Mongolia, and are already teudering to
may consider that the Canton-Hankow sixty years of occupancy, we have not a At Hongkong, after weak, feeble China their treacherous offers project is within measurable distance of its yard of rail running into China, while a few of help to restore her sadly shattered rule; consummation. It is recognised, pretty well hours' journey away there will soon be seen and China, with the example of Manchuria universally now, that Canton will not be the before her, listens fondly to the tempter.
final southern terminus of th railway, but of miles of country of the richest character a great foreign line, opening up hundreda To all appearance, it is but a repetition of the that some spot on the coast affording deep- and connecting Canton with one of the other old story of the wolves; casting the children
water anchorage for ocean liners will be greatest cities of the Chinese Empire. One one by one out of the sledge may indee chosen, whither the trains will run through grows rather weary of using the word "dis- momentarily delay the inevitable death Canton. The only question in, where will struggle, but none the less surely it must
this spot be? For Hongkong the question policy in China, and weary indeed of the grace" in connection with British_railway cope. Russia has not yet reached to the
uarrows itself down to the issue whether the whole subject. But it is a weariness which submit of her ambition, and has already spot will be in Kowloon or elsewhere. If else- marked out the continent of Asia as her where, then a blow will be struck at Hong- and of the verdict which will be passed on must be overcome for the sake of the future, prey. Will Germany and the other Cou-kong from which it will be impossible for the tinental Powers find themselves any the
is not a place to which we have merely come us by those who come after us. This Colony better able to withstand
to make money. It is, in a way, a trust which when European Russia has in addition
has been handed down to us by the makers all the military force of northern Asia behind her? For Japan the danger is no
made money for themselves proves (though of Hongkong. That they at the same time less menacing, and is
it is not a matter which requires any more more immediatel Russia, with full possession of all northern Asia, has already a commanding fleet in
prving than it has recived in hundreds of East Asiatic' waters
years of history) that it is possible to be a sound business man and a benefactor of But she has more; she already owus some of the finest har
one's country as well. Certainly we are not bours on the Pacific coast; nor is this
deficient in sound business men bere. Must sufficient, for in Siberia, from the Urals to
it be said that we have none ready to come the Pacific coast, she possesses a country
forward, at this emergency, and face the rich in iron, coal, and nearly all the other useful metals. She is already tring her
action which should have been taken so many years ago? We are convinced that
the assault
Colony to recover. Our prosperity, if not our existence, is bound up with the fact of our being the trade junction of South China and the outer world. Take this privilege away, and the Island drops (commercially speaking) to the rank of a fortress and dockyard, practically a Far Eastern Gibraltar, and little else. Hongkong cannot stand the interposition of a new deep water port be- tween her and the trade of Canton and the interior. Such an event would mean that the fate of Macao would be ours. alarmist exaggeration, but a fact which must be recognised by sober judges. For- tunately there is an alternative. There is
This is no
hand in a small way at extending her the alternative of building a line from Kow there will be no opposition on the part of the
arsenals in the Far East; the time will probably come within a measurable distance when she will be able to turn out of her own dockyards an Asiatic navy without requisition ng her European arsenals. The nearest historic parallel to the present con. dition of Europe is to be found in the thir. teenth century, when JENGHIZ KHAN hung like a thundercloud over the eastern fron- tiers of Europe. Europe then was fascinat. ed before the progress of the invader, as is momentarily China. It was not her prowess nor the preparedness of her arsenals that camo to her aid, but the simple fact that the empire of JEN BIZ fell of its own weight, and the internal divisions of the grandsons of the great warrior compelled the advanced squadrons to beat a hasty retreat from their European conquests.
loon to Canton. There is in existence a concession. How long is this to be allowed to lie idle? Do the present concessionaries intend to take it up? And if not, are the prospects of the Colony to be sacrificed to
their inaction? These questions have been asked, in one form or another, for years. The answer is not yet forthcoming. A few years more may pass, and the questions will not be worth answering. But what will then be the verdict of our successors and descen-
dants?
has not left the bigher officials blind to facts local Government, for their experience here connected with Hongkong's position with Sunday of the Hon. F. H. MAT cannot regard to South China. The speech on
recognition of the meaning to Hongkong possibly be interpreted except as a full
of the railway question; H. E. the -overnor's views, it is known, are even more pronounced. What seems to be lacking at the moment is any power of initiative. Enormous improvements (Daily Press, 17th November.)
have been made in the New Territory since In writing yesterday of the threat to it was ceded to Hongkong. But the New Hongkong's position through British in- Territory will not be of much use to us action we might appear to be doing an
merely as a vegetable-garden and a cattle- injustice to the concessionaries of the Kow-raising district. It should be important to loon-Canton railway; and this we by no us as the door to Kwangtung and the means wish to do. The question is not, of neighbouring provinces. In a few years' course, one which can be settled off-hand. time it promises to develop into a back-door At the meeting on the 10th inst. of journalists It is contended, with a great show of force, merely. To say no more, this would be a and business meu at Tokyo, it was unanimously that a line from Kowloon to Canton will poor reward for the men who struggled soʻ resolved that the present uncertain situation is calculated neither to safeguard the country's never pay its way, from a merely financial hard in the nineteenth century to make
Hongkong what it is now.
interests nor to maintain peace, and the nation therefore arges the Government to take resolute steps. We take this from the N-Q. Daily News.
point of view, and that it is unreason- able to expect that anyone is going to sacrifice himself purely for the good of the Colony and in the interests of posterity.
The U.S. Vice-Consul at Amoy, who was alleged to be implicated in the Chinese im migration frauds in Manila, has been exonerated.