May 21, 1904.]
desperate defenders, and the last trace of Russian occupation will then be removed from the Liaotung peninsula. Meanwhile, "from the other side of the scene of war, on the eastern coast of Corea, all is curiously still, The Vladivostock squadron has retired from view to its base, and as to what the Japanese are doing or planning in the neighbourhood no news has come to hand for many days. The Westera operations apparently engross all Japan's attention. We say "apparently," for the development of the Japanese scheme of war has been so skilfully secret that it would be most foolish to make any definite assertion as to where a blow will next be struck.
BRITISH POLICY AT WEIHAI.
It
(Daily Press 20th May.) True to that policy of drift and vacilla- tion which has been the curse of our inter- course with the East generally during the last forty years, the British Government is again exhibiting the lassitude and want of tone which has now become chronic. It is unpleasant to have to repeat the same story from years' end to years' end, yet no sooner has our Foreign Office, by exertions which it would fain have us to believe were super- buman, dragged us out of one difficulty than immediately it almost seems to strive to get mixed up in another. We know the trouble with which the Government has been looking out both ways to obtain some quotable opinion which would appear to justify it in abandoning Weihai, and we also know the difficulties it has encountered in its self-imposed and unpatriotic task. has been lately whispered that in Sir CYPRIAN BRIDGE it has at last found an Admiral willing to say something which can be alleged in detriment of the place; but as the strong condemnation which they have hinted at has not ever over Admiral BRIDGE's signature been published, it is only reasonable to conclude that the pre- tended condemnation, doubtless written to order, and accompanied by so many condi. tions as to confute itself, is too dangerous до instrument to permit of its being published in full; and to publish a portion would only excite worse suspicions. The fact of the matter is that the more the posi- tion and capabilities of Wei!ai, whether as a military, political, or mercantile base, are taken into consideration, the more does the folly and madness of retiring impress itself on any unprejudiced observer.
i
Weihai was occupied as a counterprise to Russia's seizure of Port Arthur; opposition to her action was ostensibly withdrawn in consequence of Russia's declaration that she only intended to use it as the terminus of her Siberian Railway, and did not mean to fortify it. Well, Russia is still in Port Arthur; she has fortified it to render it, as she thought, at least impreg- nable. That Russia has got a little unpleasant foretaste of an eventual surrender is probably true; but if she have, it was not through any activity on the part of the British Government, who so far from showing any evidence of activity, on the contrary went down on its knees before Russia and Japan, begging the two in the mildest of language not to quarrel. It is always the unfortunate results of such undignified and old-womanlike conduct to inflame the passions it would appease, and the present is no exception. What would have been the result had our Government taken some more dignified action is of course impossible
to say.
One thing, however, cannot be called in question: the position could not have been worse than it is to-day, and Great Britain would not have had to stand
!
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
379
and none but the most petty of trades, It is true that as yet no manufactures, have sprung up in Weihai; but whose is the blame? The merchant and the manu- facturer are ready to invest their capital, no-policy of our Government, dabbling on but the shifting, shiftless policy, or rather
the edge of the stream, one minute putting its foot in the water, only the next to with- draw it in a terror of its own making, has hitherto prevented any advance being made.
HONGKONG'S FIRE-FIGHTING
SERVICE.
(Daily Press, 19th May.)
in a corner with her finger in her mouth. I actually pays the manufacturer better to So far, then, no change has come over the ship his raw material to Japan, have it military position, and the occupation of manufactured with the dearer labour there Weihai is as much a matter of moment prevailing, pay double duties, and bring the as ever. Indeed it is probably more so, for manufactured goods back to China, than to the retirement of Great Britain from so advantageous a position, we may be certain, Shanghai !
have his cotton spun on the spot in would be followed up by the entrance of some other and more enterprising Power. We have had many instances of late of the worthlessness of the respect paid to their most solemn engagements by the Powers on the Continent; our own Government cannot plead ignorance, for it openly spoke in the Commons of the impossibility of binding a Power like Russia. Is Lord LANSDOWNE sanguine enough to believe that Weihai would be vacant twenty-four hours after the British flag had been hauled down? Politically retirement would be tantamount to declaring ourselves out of the game. Had we never occupied Weihai it would under existing conditions be bad play to accept it, even as a gift. Russia is being called to account for her misdeeds general-
It will have been seen from the report of ly, and practically her existence as an the meeting of the Legislative Council on empire is being questioned; it would be Tuesday that the local Government is satis- manifestly impolitic still further to complified with the present means for extinguish- cate the political tangle. For precisely the ing fires in the City of Victoria. At least, same reason it would be in the last degree in reply to the Hon. H. E. POLLOCK'S impolitic to throw into the arena another question whether this were so, the Colonial apple of discord. As the case stands, we Secretary said that the means of extingusih- hold Weihai: we can employ the influence ing fire was considered “ reasonably suffi- its holding gives us in the Gulf of Pechili cient." We doubt whether the public will to useful purpose, not only in the general be as satisfied as the Government, in spite settlement of affairs which must shortly of the latter's confidence. We are not in come about, but in the interest of China favour of wild outcry on such a subject as herself. China is not in a fit frame of mind our fire-fighting service, and we have only to be trusted with edged tools; the Dowager dealt with the subject in the past in a Taz'at is still occupying the place of the
moderate way: Nevertheless we have wit- legitimate Emperor, and the Palace ropes nessed not a few fires here in the dry are still being manipulated in an alien season, and we cannot admit that reason- interest by the Russian Minister at the able sufficiency" is the best terin to apply to capital. Weihai and rngland have yet our resources against the danger. We know their mission but half performed; is it a that it is promised that with the ridermain njoment to entertain thoughts even of system's introduction all will be much throwing up the sponge?
better, but the ridermain system is not yet introduced, not can it be for a long while. The Colonial Secretary admits that at present, in times of intermittent supply, water is available at adequate pressure only on an average fifteen minutes after the alarm of fire has been given. That a conflagration has ample time to gain firm hold in a quarter of an hour is obvious. Many of our readers no doubt have been witnesses to this fact in Hongkong, and have been at fires here where the absence of a timely supply of water has caused a great multipli- cation of the amount of damage. The Government seems content that this shall
The third reason against retiring is to mercantile men, and therefore in the eyes of most of our readers, the principal, and that is the commercial. Weihai is in North China the only spot where the benumbing influence of Sir ROBERT HART and, we may add, of Sir JAMES MACKAY 18 not the law of the land. It affords the one bright spot where manu- facturing industry, and the growth of an export trade, are still possible in the interest of China herself; then, no less than in that of the world at large, our continuance at Weihai, not necessarily as a military base, has become a matter of moment. The nominal opening of ports, done for the sole purpose of attracting provincial funds to the capital, there to be wasted, or, worse than wasted, used for the debauchery of the State, is the actuating motive in all these pretended reforms. The real depressing influences are still at work, and the only difference from former conditions is that whereas of old exactions on trade went into provincial treasuries, where the law of demand and supply put a practical limit to suicidal tariffs, they are nowadays con- contrated in doctrinaire hands to whom killing taxation, provided only it be carried out by rule and compass, is a thing of joy and beauty. That there is a limit in each case beyond which increase of taxation positively reduces the collection, is a phase of political economy which has never entered into the heart of the Inspector-General to conceive. The lessons of the introduction of the cotton-spinning industry in Shanghai should show our Government how essential in the interests of trade it is to have it unhampered by petty interferences. It
remain the case until we have ridermains in working order. The Government is more easily contented than the public. We must, we suppose, take the expert opinion of the authorities on the efficiency of their own fire-engines, but with regard to the question of the use of sea-water for extinction of fires we may be permitted, perhaps, to suggest that the Government's consideration of the matter was not conclusive. The scheme has not been adopted, the Colonial Secretary told the Council on Tuesday, as it has been ascertained that it would cost nearly as much as increasing the rain-water reservoirs. There have, nevertheless, been experts in this very Government's service who did not look on the cost as prohibitive; and it must be remembered that sea-water can be used solely for fire-extinction or for that and the flushing of the low levels com- bined, which two uses would not therefore dip into our drinking water supply as the present system of employing rain-water for all purposes does. The growth of our supply of potable water would not be so utterly inadequate, were we able to devote