May 30, 1904.]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
trade. Circumstances forced it to a certain extent to undertake other duties, and the useful limitations which had hitherto kept its aspirations within bounds came to be forgotten or neglected. This, we are sorry to say, has become since the events of 1900 aggravated. We owe much to the Foreign Customs, and look upon it as the great guarantee against anarchy. The interests of foreign trade are, we consider, involved in its unimpaired continuance. But in order to guarantee its continuance it is above all things necessary that it should not by undue interference give a handle to its many enemies.
This is the lesson which recently seems to have escaped the memory of its chief advisers.
welcome the respite afforded by the apparently growing indifference of those most interested-namely the merchants and owners of shipping. It is therefore a source of satisfaction to ourselves, as well as to the different interests concerned, to find that the subject has once again been brought into notice, and that some progress has been made during the interval of time since elapsed. The result shows how persistent had been the efforts of those representing the Chinese Government to render the Pro. tocol ineffective. On his return from America, Mr. Goodnow, U.S. Consul-Gen- eral at Shanghai, proceeded in due course to visit the Viceroy at Nanking, with re- ference, amongst other business of import- ane, to the immediate completion of the Conservancy Board. He was probably not altogether surprised at finding the Viceroy prepared with a cut-and-dry alternative scheme admirably adapted for shelving for good the entire Article in the Protocol. Profesting, as usual when most obstructive, the greatest desire to remove all possible burdens on trade, the Viceroy spoke of the hardships on it involved by the proposal to make the Board raise its own funds by taxa- tion of the interestsadvantaged. Soouer than increase the already heavy burdens on the trade, the Viceroy was prepared to find the whole of the money required out of the or- dinary provincial revenue. Why should the foreign merchant and foreign trade be taxed, when he could put up himself all the money required? It was, of course, not difficult to see the actuating motive underlying this pretended assumption of disinterestedness; and it was equally plain that though the Viceroy was made the mouthpiece, the real originators of the scheme were to be found at Peking. In addition to the unwillingness of old Chin to do anything whatever which might be made instrumental in furthering the spread of foreign ideas in China, there was the marked jealousy in delegating any authority whatever to the hated foreigner, and this jealousy was aided and abetted by the Inspector-General and the whole staff of the Foreign Customs, who, sooner than permit so extensive a mass of patronage to pass out of their hands, were willing that the entire interests of foreign trade should be sacrificed rather than see any amendment come from so uncongenial a quarter. There was a time, of course, when the interests of foreign trade were safe in the hands of the Inspector-General and his staff-those were however, the days before the revolutionary ideas of Peking were adopted as their guiding principles. From the beginning it may be acknowledged that Sir ROBERT HART was a centraliser, and in his great work -the building up of the Inspectorate he thereby conferred a great and lasting benefit on China at large. There are, however limits, as our own Government has fo un, out, to centralisation, when instead of being a blessing, it actually develops into a curse Harbour conservation is essentially one of those departments where centralisation is seen at its worst, and experience here is not bounded by China, or even by Great Britain. It is therefore unfortunate that of recent
years the Maritime Customs should have gone out of its way to aid and abet by all means within its power the centralising instincts of the Government of the Einpress Dowager. The Inspectorate was above all never intended to be a political factor; il was felt at its first establishment that its natural ambition to become a power in the State was likely to be detrimental to its permanent utility, and for many years it was content to confine itself to its proper
■phere of collecting the duties on foreign
THE KOWLOON-CANTON RAILWAY.
(Daily Press, 30th May.) Free Press recently on the question of the With some of the remarks of the Singapore Kowloon Canto Railway we
We do not know thoroughly in accord. much about the Crown Agents in this
are arost
particular, and do not yearn to know any thing by experience. If the British Imperial Government, or the Colonial Government, by permission of Downing Street, undertook to make the railway they would no doubt call for teaders and not resort to the Crown Agents, who fulfil a useful office in their way, of course, but should not be made intermediaries in such a matter as the con- But with struction of a State railway. te following sentences from our Straits c 1.temporary our readers will, we are sure, alagree: Sir MATTHEW NATHAN is not
"6
46
("
L
nly a high authority on defence, but as Royal Engineer, as having served in "the Soudan, and governed the Gold Coast, "he knows well the value of improving rapid communication with the great back country of China. Let Hongkong take "a leaf out of the book of Russia through "railway policy, and at any cost see the -a double
14
$6
Five and
line constructed out of hand- line, too, to begin with. If the barvest is "to be reaped, there should not be ม "moment lost in getting the seed put into "the ground." No time should be lost indeed, but for other and still stronger reasons than those named above. a half years have already been lost, and with it a large slice of the prestige Great Britain enjoyed in the Far East formerly as being foremost in every great work Not only 80, but and enterprise. her great commercial outpost in Eastern Asia is daily running the risk of finding
395
The
constructed by British capital and laid by British engineers, and that the work does not drift out of our handa. Other nations are not only eager to secure con- cessions for making railways in China, but also swift to carry them into effect. Russians, the Germans, the Belgians, the French, and the Americans are all engaged in the work, and other concessions are being applied for. Only the other day we an- nounced that a railway was being projected from Macao to Canton, and that Chinese capital was freely forthcoming for the enter prise. We now learn that a concession has been applied for, or granted-we are not sure which to lay a railway from the city of Chaochow-fu to Swatow, thirty-five miles in length, a line that cannot well fail to pay, for the traffic is great between the two places. This line should, by good rights, have been placed in British hands, for British interests greatly predominate at Swatow, but we believe it is in the posses- blame other Powers if they are more enter- sion of some foreign syndicate. No one can Prising and secure the prize first, but it is to be deplored that Great Britain, which was the pioneer in opening up China to foreign trade, and which has always possess- ed so preponderating a share of that trade, should allow herself to be left so hopelessly in the rear in the matter of railway enter prise. The marvel is that foreign capital and enterprise have not been allowed to construct the tramways in the city of Victoria. It took twenty years to talk about them, but they have at last been laid, and laid so long before being brought into use that the track is being worn away before the cars commence running.
"THE REAL YELLOW PERIL."
(Daily Press, 27th May.)
In the latest number which has reached us
46
from Bombay of the Times of India there is a long and interesting editorial article entitled The Real Yellow Peril." To-day being the fourth anniversary of the practical outbreak of what is commonly known as
the 16 · Boxer Rebellion," the discussion of the Yellow Peril seems to be appropriate, especially as the subject has been brought up again prominently by the Continental Press in Europe lately. The cries of the period when the German Emperor's melo- dramatic picture summed up what number- less people really believed have been revived. That Russian interest ultimately has much to do with the inspiration of these. cries must be recognised; but that they have an alarming effect outside Russia also cannot be denied. Partly the echo of rival in the Chinu seas wherein she them in the Paris papers and in the German has been for more than half a century pre-Press may be due to direct Russian prompt- eminent as the distributing centre for the
trade of South China.
It is to be hoped that the efforts being made by the local branch of the China Association and by the Hongkong Chamber of Commerce will bear good fruit before long. We want to see the reproach wiped off British enterprise that it is a laggard in the race for concessions for railways; we want to see railways in China which have been constructed by British capital and built with British materials.
We want above
ing, but we believe that there is also a genuine dread of the Peril in quarters un- touched by Russian influence, moral or pecuniary. Even in English papers we can find traces of the panic, and in some British Colonial organs there are more than mere traces.
It was not unnatural that the
Boxer rising should cause serious reflection on the possibility of China's millions realising the force of numbers, and not merely claim- ing their own, partly torn from them by Western aggression, but proceeding to all things to see the New Territory opened retaliate by expansion at the cost of the between Kowloon and Canton established, when he wrote under the influence of the up to trade, and communication by rail West. And undoubtedly Sir ROBERT HART, and from thence to Hankow and Peking. famous, siege of the Legations at Peking, We want to see Kowloon constituted at produced a notable effect upon European once and effectively the seaward terminus minds. Here was a man who above all of China's great main railway, which will foreigners of any time was acquainted with traverse it from the capital to the City the Chinese by practical experience; and if
It is he foresaw of Rams, and thence to the sea.
twenty millions or more of especially ours to see that the final section is Boxers armed, drilled, disciplined, and