408
in suppressing the Taiping Rebellion (as- sisted by the late General GORDON, the hero of Khartoum) entitled him to the erection of temples in Kiangsu, and amongst others a small one was raised about two years ago at the Hinchuanshan springs, near the city of Wusieh. When this temple was opened, the common people refused to give it the name suggested by the mandarins, viz., Wenchung Sze, or Temple of Elegant Loyalty," but persist in designating it the Maikuo Sze, or Temple of the One who Sold his Country.
CC
It is well that the natives of Kiangsu are not disposed to condone the evil that Li, HUNG-CHANG effected during his long period of office as a mandarin, for the empire is still suffering from the results of is covetous love of money. It was through his instrumentality that the Russians acquired such a foothold in Manchuria, and had he lived longer it is probable the Muscovite chain would have been riveted more firmly on the neck of China. Happily, however, LI HUNG-CHANG was gathered to his fathers before the present crisis loomed, and the direction of the State has fallen to more patriotic if not more sagacious hands. Had LI HUNG CHANG survived, it is possible that the whole course of events would have been altered, and that instead of China pre- serving a strict neutrality at the present time she would either have been dragged at the tail of the Russian war chariot, or while avowedly neutral she would have been secretly working against Japan. Lr's influence at the Court at Peking was great, and he was distinctly hostile to Japan, whom he never forgave for being the victor in the Chino-Japanese War. He. like his Muscovite friends, began by despis ing the Japanese and ended by biting the dust. The secret of LI HUNG-CHANG'S Rus. sian proclivities was to be found in the corruption practised by the Russian officials; a fellow feeling made him wondrous kind. The Chinese populace know how to appre- ciate purity of administration, though they never think of following a good example in this respect, and though they expect only moderation in the gentle art of" squeezing from their officials, there is a point to which they will not submit in silence if they do not openly rebel. The LI brothers both reached this point, and justly earned the execration of their countrymen for venality and treachery.
THE CLOCK TOWER.
(Daily Press, 23rd June.) As the site for the erection of the New Post Office and other Government Depart- ments is still in the very first stages of preparation to receive the foundations, it is perhaps superfluous to enter into any speculations as to the probable date of the completion of the building. The building will rise fair and stately some day, and we can only hope that by the time it is ready for occupation the wants of the Colony will not once again have quite outgrown the accom. modation provided. There is something, however, we should like in all humility to suggest. A site was prepared for the
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
ment decided that it could not vote the small sum required, and the commencement of the work was deferred-shall we say to the Greek Kalends? For it is a noticeable fact that works postponed by the Govern- ment have a knack of drifting into the background and being heard of no more officially. Even a Governor, unless be has a strong determination, usually bows to the non possumus of the Colonial Treasurer, and much as Sir HENRY BLAKE desired to see this tower stand holdly up in front of the far-extending Praya, he appeared to have no power of initiative in the matter.
As the question seems likely to be hung up indefinitely, and neither those who wish to see the Pier provided with waiting-rooms and a proper shelter, nor those who are anxious to shift the clock from its present tower seem to have any chance of attaining their desire, we would like to suggest that it is perhaps not too late to make other and perhaps more practicable arrangements. It is true that the plan of the Post Office has been sanctioned and passed and the contract for piling the foundations has been let, but as the work has not been more than commenced, it would be possible to allow for some deviation from the accepted plan. What we would suggest, therefore, is that an alteration should be made in the design to admit of the erection of a handsome clock tower at the north-east. corner of the building. There would, we imagine, be no great difficulty in arranging for this altera tion. It would probably entail rather heavier piling in the corner, and some little rearrangement of the design for the water front of the building, but nothing that the architects could not easily provide for. If this suggestion were adopted, matters would be greatly simplified, both for the adornment of the city and the comfort and convenience of the public. The plan of the waiting- rooms and roof of the Blake Pier made by Mr. FISHER could then be modified, by the elimination of the Clock Tower, and the existing Clock Tower could be removed so soon as the new building was sufficiently advanced to receive the clock. While making this suggestion, however, we by no means retreat from the position formerly taken up when we strongly ad. vocated the immediate erection of the Clock Tower as designed by Mr. FISHER. We should still prefer to see this erected, inas. much as it would occupy a site specially prepared and which projects beyond the Praya with the object of making the clock visible from every part of the Harbour. Nor do we for a moment retreat from the advocacy of the immediate removal of the existing Clock Tower, which has now be come practically a useless obstruction to the street traffic that surges around it. At the same time, it is well to recognise facts as they are, and if we cannot have an indepen- dent Clock Tower, at once an ornament to the City and a convenience to the shore and floating population alike, we are willing to accept the best substitute for it that we can get.
}
[June 27, 1904.
WAICHOW A TREATY PORT.
(Daily Press 24th June.) We learn through a Northern Chinese newspaper that at the request of Sir ERNEST SATOW, the British Minister, the Waiwupu has given the necessary instructions for the opening of Waichow in Kwangtung to foreign trade. Waichow, as many of our readers will recollect, was one of the five ports which the MACKAY Treaty stipulated should be opened to foreign trade on the same footing as the places opened by the Treaties of Nanking and Tientsin. We have always regarded Walchow as an im- portant addition to the list of Treaty Ports, and when we learnt last September that owing to opposition on the part of Chinese officials, and appare indifference on the British side, no preparations were being made for the opening of the port at the same time as the others, and that there was a probability that this port would not be thrown open at all, we commented on the importance of the matter to Hongkong, and urged that the Colonial Government would be neglecting its duty if it allowed this splendid opportunity to be lost to the Colony of onening up the territory at the back of Mirs Bav. The importance of Waichow to Hongkong is made clear when we repeat that if this port were joined by railway to Kowloon it would, from its position, become the natural distributing centre for the whole of the East River and right up to the borders of Kiangsi, whither the Waichow prefecture extends, and would open up a vast area which promises
lucrative returns for trade. What the Colonial Government may have done in the matter of representing the importance of the subject to the Foreign Office we do not know; but the question was taken up by the China Association in London on advice from the Branch in Hongkong, and a letter was addressed to the Foreign Office regarding the desirability of the immediate opening of the port to foreign trade.
We may assume that the decision to open Waichow is the result of much persuasion, for the Treaty stipulates that if Article VIII., dealing with the abolition of lekin, does not come into
operation, the right to demand under it the opening of Waichow and three other ports shall lapse. Whether Article VIII. will come into operation or not is still a question to which no definite answer can be given, but the British Foreign Office has evidently been convinced that it is eminently desirable in the interests of the trade of this Colony that Waichow should be de- clared a Treaty Port, whether Article VIII. of the MACKAY Treaty comes into operation or not, and the result is, as the Chinese newspaper report has it," the Waiwupu in "addition to instructing the Inspector- "General of the Imperial Maritime Customs "to that effect, now instructs the Viceroy " of Liangkwang to appoint officials to carry "out the stipulations relating to Waichow."
Situated though the city of Waichow is in the centre of a large and populous district, our previous articles on the subject have made the fact clear that until there is railway
erection of a new Clock Tower and a shelter the exception of the Negritos and the Moros connection with. Waichow its foreign trade
for passengers using the Blake Pier, yclept Pedder Wharf. It was so seriously intend- ed to carry out this much-desired and needed shelter that plans were called for by the Government and a prize of $250 offered for the best plan. The competition was won by Mr. FISHER, architect in the Public Works Department, and the then Governor, Sir HENRY BLAKE, decided upon its erection at an early date. But the Govern-
The presence of the Filipino Commission in San Franscisco led to a newspaper controversy as to whether the Filipino people are of Malay or Japanese origin. The Call asserts that with the native races are of Malayan extraction. The Call prints portraits of Filipinos to prove its contention, placing Japanese alongside of Filipinos. The Chronicle publishes Aguinaldo's picture to show that the islanders are Malaysian. We don't know how the question was settled, but a Solomon asked to give a decision on the point might very well say both contentions are probably correct, for does not the balance of testimony declare the Japanese to be of Malaysian origin ?
will be of no considerable importance. By sea it is a distance of 150 miles from Hong- kong, and steamship connection is impracti cable; but by land, Waichow is only fifty miles distant from Mirs Bay, and the present roads are excellent. The construction of a railway from Kowloon presents no engineer- ing difficulties, and we imagine that the capital for such a line would be raised with- out much difficulty, especially now that many
ہو