THE
Hongkong Weekly Press
VOL. LIX.]
AND
China Overland
Overland Trade Report.
CONTENTS.
Epitome
Leading Articles :—
The Progress of the War
HONGKONG, SATURDAY, 7TH MAY, 1904.
A first detachment of S. Petersburg | Volunteers, numbering 160 of all classes of Phaz society, started for the front on the 2nd
819 inst., amid frantic enthusiasm.
350 .351 .851
The Socialist organs in Berlin affirm that the great German shipyards are building at extra pressure destroyers and torpedo-boats for 352 Russia. These are exported in sections to .853 Libau, in order to conceal the breach of
354
neutrality,
The Japanese victory on the Yalu is extol- 355 led, alike in England and on the Continent, as a great feat of arms of incalculable moral effect; though the German and French papers contend that the Russian force on the Yalu was small and never intended to do more than harass and impede the Japanese.
.356 3.56 358 356
The Whangpoo Conservancy
The Press, the Public, and the War
The War
Hongkong Sanitary Board
Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce
Coolies at Hongkong for South Africa
Cholera on the French Mail
855 355
Fire in Bonham Strand, Hongkong
European Lady Attacked
The Wreck of the Haitien
The Whangpoo Conservancy Board
Notes from the Botanic Garden■
Taingtao
Mercantile Bank of India, Ld.
Shanghai Spring Races
.857 877
Royal Hongkong Yacht Club.....
Water Polo
Hongkong
Commercial
Shipping
Canton
BIRTH.
$56
356
857
357
The trial was due to commence on the 5th inst, at Kobe of Mr. Curtis, editor of the Kobe Herald, who is being prosecuted before the Kobe 358 Saibansho for having published certain informa- 358 tion violating the instructions issued to the Press by the Japanese Naval Department. No details have reached us so far.
360
On the 29th March, at Aberdeen, Scotland, the
wife of DAVID WOOD, Public Works Department, fired a blank charge and stopped the Osiris nine
of a daughter.
MARRIAGE.
On the 25th April, at Ningpo, before B. H. Mortimore, H.B.M. Consul, JOHN O'SHEA, to EMMA GOMERSALL.
DEATH.
of
On the 27th April, at the General Hospital, Shanghai, WILLIAM FRANCIS STEVENSON, Sydney, N.S.W., late of I.M. Customs, Shanghai, aged 60 years.
On the 3rd inst., the Russian gunboat Krabri
hours off Brindisi. After two hours' detention the mails were sorted. The Russians demanded the Japanese mail, but this was not touched, being at the bottom of the ship. After the Russians had examined the mails, the Osiris was allowed to proceed.
Reuter's correspondent at S. Petersburg directed the defence of Port Arthur, reports the wires that Admiral Alexieff, who personally attempt to block the passage on Monday was repelled. The fire-ships, armed with Hotchkiss guns, maintained a hot fire, and when sunk the crews took to the boats, the majority being killed by the Russian fire. The Russians saved
Hongkong Weekly Press thirty clinging to wreckage.
HONGKONG OFFICE: 14, DES VEUX ROAD CL. LONDON OFFICE: 131, FLEET STREET, E.C.
ARRIVAL OF MAILS.
The French Mail of 1st April arrived, per the steamer Ernest Simons, on the 4th inst; and the English Mail of the 8th April arrivel, per the steamer Simla, yesterday, the 6th inst.
EPITOME OF THE WEEK.
The plague cases in Hongkong for the year numbered 71 up to noon yesterday. One European case was in the latest return, the only one of the Jear.
Negotiations with several financial houses in London are approaching a conclusion for the issue of a loan to Japan of £5,000,000 at 93, bearing 6% interest, the security to be the first charge on the Japanese Customs.
Admiral Kamimura's fleet twice attempted to hombard Vladivostook between the 25th and 28th ultimo, but was prevented by a constant fog. It is now reported that Admiral Utin has engaged the Vladivostock squadron off Gensan.
A wealthy Chinese merchant of Singapore, whose name is given as Taotai Chang Hsin- nan, is officially reported to have been granted permission by the Boards of Commerce and Foreign Affairs to construct a line of railway from Swatow to Taochow, the capital of the undertaking to be Chinese. The Taotai has also procured some mining rights and a capital of Tls 2,500,000 is stated to have been already subscribed by Chinese merchants of Singapore and Hongkong.
the war.
According to accounts received at Chefoo there is no lack of provisions at Port Arthur. It is stated that the cost of footstuffs has only advanced 25 per cent. since the beginning of This is partly accounted for by the enforcement of a tariff prohibiting dealers from enhancing their prices beyond the limit specified from time to time by the Russian authorities. Junks, too, are said to be busy smuggling neross food from China to some point on the coast north-east of Port Arthur.
Messrs. Gilman & Co., Lloyd's agents, have received the following telegram from Saigon:- "A hurricane has passed over here doing considerable damage to property. Ships broke adrift, but without causing any damage to shipping (European). The hurricane did con- siderable injury to native craft. Heavy storms on the coast. Several small craft have suffered. The smaller ports in the district have also felt the effects of the storm, but full particulars of the damage have not yet been received."
No. 19
The N.-C. Daily News publishes a despatch to the following effect, dated Peking, 28th April: -Wang Chao, a highly educated and well- known Chinese reformer, has been seized and sentenced to imprisonment for life, on the ground that he is a supporter of Kang Yu-wei, which is not the case. His friends fear that he will be secretly condemned to a similar fate to that of Shen Ke-wei, who was barbarously beaten to death last
year.
from General
A despatch has been received at 8. Petersburg battle of the Yalu, in which he refers to the Kuropaktin describing the extraordinary vigour of the Japanese artillery attack. The Russian losses were very great, but are not yet exactly known. The 11th Regiment lost 3 Colonels, the 12th Regiment 9 Company Commanders. wounded have been put in the hospital at Eight hundred Fenghwangcheng. Twenty-eight guns were abandoned, the majority of the men and horses being killed. According to those who took part in the battle, at least 3,000 or 4,000 were killed.
Last week an examination was held at Canton -
which should interest all who wish well to
China.
students abroad, twenty to Japan and twenty It is proposed to send forty young to other countries, and five hundred candidates presented themselves for the examination. A Daily Press representative had conversations with several of these young men, and found moderate and constitutional lines. The feeling among them great eagerness for reform along for Japan was very strong, and the Japanese victories were heard of with delight, Japan's cause being recognized as common with that of China.
The Board of Commerce at Peking has been instructed by Imperial rescript to take note of a memorial sent in by the Acting Viceroy of the Min-che Provinces, naively announcing among other things that he will cancel the agreement made by his predecessor with certain foreign capitalists for the working of certain mines in the five northern prefectures of Fohkien, and make new ones with them, because the privileges at present given to the concessionaries are too large, and calculated to injure Chinese mining interests. Plans are to be devised to enlist both foreign and Chinese capital to work the rich mineral deposits.
The Kobe Chronicle is not disposed to attach very much importance to the elaborate story of the sale of Japan's war plans for 400,000 yen; in fact, our contemporary rather ridicules it. It says:-"As to the story being concealed from foreigners, we may say that it has reached us during the last few weeks in at least four different forms, the only point of agreement being that Japan's plans had been sold by an army officer or officers. According to the ver sions of the story recived, the guilty parties have committed suicide, have been shot without trial, have been shot as the result of the con- fession of one of their number, have been shot · as the result of a court-martial, have committed hara-kiri by instructions! After considering the various versions in circulation, the only con- clusion at which we could arrive was either that the story rested on baseless rumour, or that the fact behind it was of the slenderest possible description." And the Chronicle points out that the story has been "confirmed" by the Manila Cablenews.
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