December 19, 1903.]
scek elsewhere for a seaport terminus in their own territory. Moreover, the growing peninsula of Kowloon, which during the past few years has made such strides in population and the establishment of indes tries, will receive a serious set-back if the prove of this railway be indefinitely delayed. The gravity of the situation at the pre-ent monent is most pronounced, and no mere hanging up of the question will lo. The Colony hasn right to call on the Colonial Office to intervene and ask that the privilege secured by the Corporation shall he availed of without further loss of time or prestige. The interests of a great Colony | and of a great trade must necessarily rank higher with the authorities in Downing Street than those of any syndicate, company, or corporation, which having secured its talent clects to bury rather than to use it.
JAPAN, RUSSIA, AND GERMANY.
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DEATH OF A NOTED REFORMER.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. be her fault, this cryptic utterance may be flaw has been revealed in the Ordinance, left for others to interpret. Count VON BUE- will take the oarliest opportunity of so Low is foud of posing as a political Sphinx.amen ling it as to embrace cases of the kind It is Perhaps his riddles, after all, mean nothing before the Magistrate yesterday. in particular. Germany has other countries' eminently consoling to observe that the friendships to consider besides. Russia's. power of the police to seize and destroy the We do not believe that all Germaus are so putrid carcases is unquestioned. charmed at the idea of following in the train of Russia, as their country has done of recent years. Nor does it seem credible that the disinterestedness of Germany in Man. churia can be twisted into meaning a backing up of Russia's claims against all who question thom. If ermany, according to the literal seuse of Count VoN BUELOW's words, is neutral in the question of Manchuria, then no danger to the peace of the Far East, and therefore of the world, is to be feared from Berlin.
GRAVE FLAW IN PUBLIC HEALTH ORDINANCE.
(Daily 1 ress, 15th December.) In a case which came before the Seuicr Magistrate at the Police Court yesterday a serious flaw was revealed in the Public Health Ordinauce which the Legislative Council, in the interests of the public health of the Colony, should lose no time in repair- ing A Chinese boatman was arraigned on a charge of having brought into the Colony for humau food three dead pigs unfit for consumption, and thought the evidence went to show that these p.trid carcases and others which were thrown overboard as the police approached, were to be converted into lard and sausages, the magistrate came to the conclusion that he had no alternative but to dismiss the cases, as it was not proved that the defendant was the person who actually brought the putrid pigs into the Colony. The section of Ordinance No. 1 of 1901 under which the prosecution was brought is No. 82. It reads as follows; - No person shall sell or expose for sale or bring into, the Colony or into any market any food for man in a faintel, adulterated, diseased or unwholesome state or which is unfit for use, or any food for any beist or animal which is in an unwholesome state or unfit for their use; and any member of the Board or any officer of the Board or of the Police may seize any such food, and th· President of the Board on the recommen lation of the Medical Officer of Health or of the Colonial Veterinary Surgeon may order it to be indestroyed or he disposed of so as to prwent it from being used as food." The penalty for contravention is fixed at a fine not exceeding $100. In the case before the Court yesterday, the defendant stated that “a pig dealer told him to carry tle pigs," bat he did not know We are not the dealer's name or address. concerned much to know whether the de- fendant's statement in this respect perfectly true or not, but when it is remein- hered that this is not an isolated case of a small boat carrying pigs in the waters of the Colony, it becomes urgently necessary that the law should be so alterel as to ren der unavailing ingenions excuses of this kind. Quite a traffic, we believe, is done by boat- men who meet junks and Chinese steamers bringing in cattle from the mainland, and it is by no means a far-fetched idea that with the aid of these hoatueu the larger craft relieve themselves of any putrid car. cases they may hav- before reaching their mooring, where, if not before, they are pretty certain to be visited by the water police, The terms of the law ought to be sufficient ly comprehensive to render liable to the penalty any person found conveying putrid meat in the Colony except for the purpose of burial or cremation, and we do not doubt that the Governшgat, now that so serious a
(Daily Press, 14th December). The general impression of Europe now appears to be that Japan and Russia will not fight; and this is the case in spite of the acts that the Japanese Diet passed what amounted to a vote of censure on the Minis- try for its temporising policy at home and neglect of opportunities abroad ", and that the Yong-ampho question remains as difficult as ever. One very important indi- cation of the expectation of peace was to be noted in a telegram to the Ostasiatische Lloyd dated Berlin, 5th December. Accord ing to this, it was reported from Paris that, the first sixty million fanes of the large new Russian loan would be floated within the next few days. It is extremely unlikely that any such loan could be floated in Paris ut less peace were practically assured. With all the political affection which France may feel for Russia, French financiers (not by any means all financiers of French blood, it must be remembered) are not the men to risk their money for sentiment. Therefore we may fairly take it that France has good reason to believe in Russia's pacific declara. tions. In support of these latter, it is to be noted that the Russian reinforcements for the Far Eastern station are mostly winter- ing at Bizerta, on the northern coast of Tunis, and hot coming out at once. That the feeling in Japan's rather strong might be a more disquieting factor in the situation, were it not for the firm band which the Japanese Government has succeeded keeping over popular agitation during the past few months. It is true that an unprecedented criticism of the r ply from the Throne has marked the opening of the Diet last week; but we hear of no outward disturbauce. The temper of the Japanese nation has been sorely tried, and that there should a display of restiveness should occasion no wonder, There is no iudication that the admirable control exercised by the responsible authorities in Japau is growing any weaker. Could we be certain of the elity of the influence exerted by the Tsar in favour of peace we might similarly b assured about Russia us about Japan. Europe, however, as a whole seems to be- licke in the probability of a peaceful issue to a trying and difficult situition, judging by those political barometers, the stock ex- changes. What precise signitence is to be attached to Count VN BUELOW's speech in the Reichstag, as reported by REUTER, it is a little hard to say. It is long since we knew that there is no part of the globe in which Germany is so little concerned as in Manchuria." Why the orman Chancel lor should he at pains to insist on this we cannot guess, and as for his remark that if Germany is involved in a conflict it will not
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(Daily Press, 16th December.) The account which we publish in another column, contributed from outside sources, of the death and funeral of the noted Reform loader HUNG CHUEN FOOK (or HUNG KAM FOox) provides a curious com- mentary on the methods adopted by the Chinese Government to deal with those whom it adjudges to be its enemies. HUNG was a leading man in the revolutionary set going by the so-called League of Patriots or "Triads." While yet in his teens, he led an army of ten thousand, it is said, against the Viceregal forces of the Two Kwang provinces. The movement was unsuccessful. During his troubled life HUNG endeavoured, until grey hairs and old age overtook him, to bring about the consummation of his schem: for the reorganisation of the Chinese Empire and the deposition of the Manchu dynasty. It was in pur suance of his mission that he paid his last visit to Hongkong, only to die. The Cauton plot of last Chinese New Year's time will yet be fresh in the public memory: Hung was one of the prime movers in that movement As will be remembered, it was nipped in the bud before the plot came to maturity, and both in Canton and in Hongkong seizures of rebels and contraband armament of war were made. escaped. The latest development of the case that came to Europen ears from Canton after the event was that HUNG CHUEN FOOK had been captured in our midst by being drugged and decoyed to the Southern capital and was there awaiting sentence. Now that HUNG has been buried in our Christian cemetery, under the eyes of the Police, there remains the question: Who was it that was hauded over to the Chinese Government as being HUNG CHUEN FOOK? We under- stand, from information received through trustworthy sources, that the reported cap- ture of HUNG was all humbug. The Chinese authorities unquestionably offered a large reward for his head, and this led some un- scrupulous people to zet about providing a bogus HUNG, A man was obtained closely resembling the Reformer, and, after all the customary forms of decoying and drugging him had been goue through, he was handed over to the Viceregal jurisdiction at Canton as the veritable HUNG. It appears that the Chinese Government is now cognisant of the fact that HUNG CHEUN FOOK is dead and buried. The man who engineered the fraud upon them is in custody.
At that time HUNG
SIR F. SWETTENHAM'S
RETIREMENT.
(Daily Press, 16th December.)
The official confirmation from Singapore of the resignation from the governorship of the Straits Settlements of Sir FRANK A. SWETTENHAM leaves us still in the dark as It was only on the to the reason thereof. 12th October last that Sir FRANK SWETTEN- HAM left Singapore on what was stated to be a "short holiday" at home. There was no suggestion then, as far as we know, at Singapore that he was not likely to return, though in certain quarters hostile to him at Penang the rumour had been sat on foot, As that rumour was coupled with a whole-