292
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[April 18, 1904,
concord which was, according to the sanguine admirers, to promote a state of universal peace, but which has already laid the foundations of what must at no great lapse of time prove to be the bloodiest and most revolutionary of wars yet seen.
and accommodation for yet larger vessels | ascending steamers, was fairly well cleared, everywhere provided. Under the stimulus and for the last twelve months or so a thus given trade was everywhere growing steamer, onee over the Taku Bar, has in bulk, and nations once comparatively found DO difficulty in reaching the insignificant growing rich and important. Tientsin Bund. With that all further China alone was standing still. Commerce, progress has been practically suspended. for its economical carrying on, annually Two of the worst bends, the work on which demanded larger ships; and to accommoda'e had been actually commenced in the early these harbour improvements were indispen- part of the last summer have been allowed THE CHINESE IMPERIAL POST. sably requisite, and a large portion of the to lie without any further steps being taken, revenues of the various states were regularly while the Taku Bar, the clearing of which devoted to these improvements. China is of the utmost importance to the trade of alone was content to see herself left in the the place, has been entirely neglected, and background, with the result that her com- this year is in a worse state than ever, the merce was stagnating, and her importance ordinary vessels trading with the port being amongst the nations rapidly disappearing. as a rule delayed three and four days owing Nor was this all; the difference between to the want of any defined channel through China as she was, and China as she might the flats, which during the whole of the be, was becoming so marked that the more month of March did not at even the highest covetous of the states were openly talking of tides carry more than nine feet of water, dismemberment. China, they talked, had so the average being less than eight. The mismanaged and wasted her resources dredgers, it is true, are there, but the old that it was time that she should give excuse is still paraded, that there are no way to more profitable nations. Such funds available to set them to work. Still was the common language of the Con- more unsatisfactory is the state of affairs on tinental Powers at the beginning of the Whangpoo. Here the board was actual- 1900; the events of the succeedingly elected. The constituents, as was natural, summer aggravated the situation. As the ruling powers at Peking were evidently bent on placing every possible obstacle in the way of foreign intercourse a special clause was introduced into the Protocol, providing for an improvement in the trea- ties already referring to the duties of the Chinese Government in regard to navigation. The three open ports of Tientsin, Shanghai, and Canton were more especially provided for. During the occupation of Tientsin the Provisional Government had already taken some steps towards the improvement of the Peiho River; & dredging plant had been obtained from Europe, and a good coinmence- ment had been made by works undertaken with the object of gradually removing some of the inconvenient and dangerous bends which had for some years had the effect of completely closing the river to steamer traffic between Tongku and the Bund at Tientsin. It was stipulated that the works thus begun should be carried on till all the obstructions possible were removed. With regard to Shanghai, the inadvisability of placing the local improvement works in the hands of a body having its headquarters at Peking was fully recognised, and an elaborate, much the same as. that re- cently proposed for the Port of London; wherein all interests, native as well as
foreign, were to be represented, was drawn up and finally approved. This was so far
carried out that the elections under the
scheme actually took place, and everything seemed ready for the actual inception of the undertaking. At Canton the requisite measures were left to be undertaken under the authority of the Maritime Customs, while at Tientsin the work undertaken by the Allied Commissioners, it was understood, would be continued and the port rendered accessible at all times for ingoing steamers. It is curious to see how all these well-laid schemes have been permitted to pass out of recollection, and affairs to drift back into their old state. At Shanghai, as mentioned above, the election provided for was actually held, and the new body of Conservators met
and elected a Chairman. With this vast amount of business performed, the Con- servators adjourned, and nothing more has been beard of them from that day to this, while the condition of the approaches has been steadily going from bad to worse. In Tientsin a couple of useless bends had been removed by cutting passages through the narrow necks of intervening land, with the result that the fairway of the river, which for the past four years had been blocked to
(Daily Press 16th March.) The new Postal Department established by Sir ROBERT HART under the supervision of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs bas so far been a great success, and although it has not yet been regarded by the Treaty Powers as sufficiently to be trusted to justify the abolition of the foreign post offices in the Treaty Ports it is extensively used by foreign residents in all the Treaty Ports. At present, of course, its field is limited eveu in China, and until that Empire has an or- ganised internal postal service it cannot obtain admission to the Universal Postal Union. But the service as organised by the Imperial Maritime Customs is undoubtedly both reliable and effective so far as it goes, and if it could be extended through the in- terior, after the manner of the Japanese Postal Service, there would be little cause for complaint. It is interesting to learn that some hope of such an extension is now opening up. According to a despatch from Peking, the Boards of Revenue, War, and Commerce are drawing up a joint memorial to the Throne, recommending the abolition of the old Courier Post Department and the handing over of the transmission of all Government and official despatches through- out the Empire to the Chinese Imperial Post established by Sir ROBERT HART. The memorialists propose that the funds hitherto paid out of the Treasury for the support of the old Courier Post should be handed over to the Inspector-Gereral for the extension of the new Postal Department in order to meet the requirements of the case. This Courier Post has, it seems, been in operation in China for nearly two thousand years, and it is undoubtedly a great step for the Im- perial Government even to consider the handing over of the entire official and pri vate mails to the Chinese Imperial Post, to the exclusion of all other modes of trans- mission, and looks well for the trust reposed by the Imperial Government in the adminis- That trust is, tration of Sir ROBERT HART. of course, about as complete as it well could be, and very amply deserved it is. The Chinese Government have learned to depend most implicitly upon the unfailing revenues secured from the Imperial Maritime Cus- toms, and they are perfectly well assured
other any
service the Impector- General may organise and have under his complete control may be depended upon not only to work efficiently but also to yield, in due course, a handsome return.
seeing that the vast majority of the trade is in British bands, preferred to elect a British representative. This, though there was no suspicion of unfair dealing, gave offence to the German representatives, who for some incomprehensible reason desired to hold the controlling influence in the Board. Then a personal altercation arose as to who was to be Chairman. The United States Consul- General had been elected in the manner provided in the constitution, but the Deputy Inspector-General conceived that his office entitled him to act as Chairman. It has been apparently found impractical to recon- cile these two competing claims, and the unfriendly feeling displayed by the dis- appointed German element has intervened to prevent any adjustment of the difficulty. In Canton under the control of the Mari. time Customs similarly nothing has been done. Thus the whole thing, which needed only a little good feeling and a genuine desire to set to work, has been wilfully shipwrecked on that biggest farce of modern time-the concord of the treaty Powers. It is of course difficult or impossible to see any way out of the difficulty, but the result is important as showing how utterly the new doctrine of concord between the Powers has broken down when applied to any useful or practical end. In theory it has been held that each sovereign Power should have equal rights and equal say, and were each to really work for its own proper interests such a coutention might, of course, work towards a practical end; but this is not the case. As a rule, the smaller Powers, having practically no interests to be affected, range themselves on one or other of the greater Powers, generally on the side of that which makes them the most reckless of promises. It needs little divination to
Whilst, however, the Government of ceive the inevitable result. Russia, and the China is entirely satisfied with the working circle of Powers whom she succeeds in of the Postal Service established by Sir bringing round her, scoff, of course, at ROBERT HART, and will probably sanction anything not pointing to Russia's personal its ultimate extension through the various aggrandisement. Germany, ever ready, provinces, thereby gradually superseding in her strange fascination, to help her neigh- the native service, and while the foreign bour over the stile, provided only that she residents in the Treaty Ports make liberal can thereby administer a check to England, use of the facilities afforded by this service, whom she curiously affects to believe is her it by no means follows that the Treaty natural antagonist, has become an adept in Powers will be content to accept it. They the art of obstruction, so that the United may urge that, however successfully the States and England, who control the service may now be conducted, they have lion's share of the trade, and are both not a sufficient guarantee that it will be sincerely anxious to 100 the conditions maintained. Sir ROBERT HART is not im- improved, in all cases when by this un-mortal, cor is it absolutely certain that the natural "concord" things come to a vote Customs will always continue under foreign find themselves irretrievably left out in the management. The Chinese officials are not cold. Such is the strange effect of the for one moment to be compared to the
per-
that
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