July 2, 1904.1
Carriage of qualified surgeon, with necessary medical stores.
The
Storage of drinking water (vide rule 113, as amended the 24th February, 1903, under Indian Emigration Act, 1883 "').
Provision of adequate distilling apparatus (vide Schedule "C" to the rules under The Indian Emigration Act. 1883 ").
The dietary for each indentured emigrant on board ship shall be as follows per day :-
Not less than
14 lb.
Rice, not less than 1 lb.. or flour or
bread stuffs
Fish (dried or salt) or meat (fresh
preserved)
or
05
Fresh vegetables of suitable kinds
14
Salt
1
Sugar
{k{
Chinese tea
Chinese condiments in sufficient quan-
tities.
Water, for drinking and cooking
OZ.
1 gallon
or such other articles of food as may be sub- stituted for of the articles enumerated in
any the foregoing scale as being in the opinion of the doctor on board equivalent thereto.
NOTES EXCHANGED BETWEEN THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE AND THE CHINESE MINIS. TER ON BIGNING CONVENTION OF MAY 13, 1904.
Foreign Office. May 13, 1904. SIR, By Article VI of the Convention about to be concluded between Great Britain and China with regard to Chinese subjects leaving the Treaty ports of China under Indenture for service in British Colonies or Protectorates it is provided that:
+
For the better protection of the emigrant and of any other Chinese subject who may happen to be residing in the Colony or Pro- tectorate to which the emigration is to take place it shall be competent to the Emperor of China to appoint a Consul or Vice-Consul to watch over their interests and well-bein, and such Consul or Vice-Consul shall have all the rights and privileges accorded to the Consuls of other nations.”
His Majesty's Government consider it specially important that the persons appointed to occupy. for the purpose named, the position of Consul or Vice-Consul should be experienced officers of Chinese nationality, that they should be ex- clusively in the service of the Emperor of China. and that in each case the name of the person selected should be communicated to His Majesty's Government, and their agreement to the appointment obtained.
I have the honour to inquire whether the Chinese Government are prepared to meet the wishes of His Majesty's Government in the matter. If so, and if you will inform me accord ingly, this note and your reply might be attached to the Convention in order to place on formal record the arrangement concluded.-I hure, &c.
Chang Ta-Jen.
(Signed) LANSDOWNE. &c. &c.. &c.
Chinese Legation.
May 13th, 1904. My LORD MARQUESS,-In reply to your Lordship's note of this date, I have the honour to state that the Chinese Government are in entire accord with His Britannic Majesty's Government as to the great importance they attach to the Consuls and Vice-Consuls to be appointed under Article VI the Convention about to be con- cluded between the two Governments being men of great experience, and will consider it a duty which they owe to the emigrant to confine the selection of these officers to such as in all respects conform to the requirements specified in the note above referred to, which, together with the present one, it has been mutually agreed shall, in proof of this understanding, be appended to the said Convention.
I have, &c. (Signed) T. Y. CHANG. The Marquess of Lansdowne, K.G..
&c., &c., ko.
Japan papers report the death of Mr. Robert Meiklejohn, of Yokohama, for many years proprietor of the Japan Daily Advertiser.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
P. & O. STEAM NAVIGATION CO.
The Report for the half-year ended March 31 states that the return of troops from South which had been continued for three years during Africa practically ended the transport service,
the War in that country, and the receipts show in that respect a considerable decline during the past half-year, compared with the figures in the corresponding period of 1902.03. The return of a number of vessels to their normal employ. ment has, however, been the means of improving the general freight earnings to a considerable extent, notwithstanding the continuance of very
引 low carrying rates. The passenger receipts contrast unfavourably with the figures of last year, which is partly due to the fact that the comparison is made with a period which embrac- ed the traffic arising from the Indian Durbar, i and partly to the effect of a lower tariff (inter alia, the removal of the coal surtax) and the extension of the Company's return ticket system. of which the public have largely availed them selves. The Eastern trade has shown no greater buoyancy, as regards rates of freight. than for some time past. Certain circumstances have proved additionally unfavourable, such as the disturbance in the export cotton trade from Manchester, and the cessation of trade between Bombay, China, and Japan, due to the inflation of cotton prices and to the war between Russia and Japan.
The Company's intercolonial steamers have, therefore, not been able to find | their usual employment. Coal will prove slightly dearer during the currency of the present financial year, and the labour charges continue in every direction on a very heavy scale. The net effect of the half-year's work shows a fair result, and the Directors have declared the usual interim dividend on the Deferred Stock at the rate of 7
per cent. per annum. The present main contract comes to an end early next year. After prolonged negotiation, the Directors have agreed with the Postmaster-General for a new contract to carry on the same services as at present, but with a considerable acceleration, during a period of three years from February. 1905. The most important feature in the new service will be the acceleration of the Indian mails by 24 hours, and their regular delivery at Bombay in a little over thirteen days from Charing cross. This, and the other improve. ments stipulated for (which include a more rapid transit, both of the Australian and China services), will involve a large additional ex- penditure, towards which the Post Office will contribute £10,000 a year. being an addition of that amount to the present subsidy. but which in certain eventualities may hereafter
be reduced.
CHINESE PUNISHMENTS.
|
13
foreigner who has witnessed the punish- ment. is robbed of half its horror by
Mr.
drugs.
man he B&W
常
1+
Meadows declares that the sliced to death did
punishment being allowed. however, affords not even utter a groan. The fact of such a
opportunity and scope for a licence in brutality which is nationally demoralising and disgrace- ful, and its abolition is therefore commendable. The Chinese, on the other hand, have a very pronounced dislike to decapitation
times
on the
Chao.
principle that a man is of no more use in another world than in this, without his head.. Decapitation therefore is likely to go. We are not disposed however, to welcome as its substitute the death by strangulation known as This gruesome means of exit, if less ghastly than the slaughtering by decapitation so long associated with China's name by travelling writers, is performed by means of two ropes passed to the back and front of the victims' neck and twisted at each end by two operators until strangulation ensues. We are informed that it sometimes requires to be repeated three
before being effectual, and that the sentence therefore may ocenpy from half to a whole hour in execution. This strikes us as backward promotion up the ladder of civilisation, beside which even the gory spectacle of a headless trunk after one skilful blow is painless dentistry" by comparison. If H.E. Wu Ting-fang really desires to meet the Chinese prejudice for a whole body, and at the same time satisfy the ends of justice by a punishment fitting the crime, we would arge him to consider and use all his energies to introduce the spedy and equally effective form of strangulation practised in Europe of hang- ing. Hanging or strangulation will, however, not possess the same deterring horror for the Chinese as decapitation with its attendant dis- grace, and the change will we doubt. not be universally approved.—l'. & T. Times,
|
HONGKONG.
0
A rock snake twelve feet in length was killed on the Peak on Sunday.
Sergeant Perkins of the Police, who had his foot seriously injured while on duty with the Fire Brigade at the godown fire at Kowloon, is progressing favourably, and it is hoped will be able to leave hospital in the course of a week
or two.
His Lordship Sir William M. Goodman (Chief Justice) has admitted to practise as au attorney and proctor in Hongkong. Mr. Harold George Charles Bailey, who has come out from England to take up the duties of managing clerk with the firm of Messrs. Johnson, Stokes and Master, solicitors.
Inspector Donald J. McKenzie, of the Sanitary Department, has been transferred temporarily to the service of the Witwatersand Mining Syndicate for the supervision of the coolie camp at Laichikok. In all probability he will accompany one or other of the transports to South Africa in the near future.
I can
As we have mentioned more than once. Wu Ting-fang and other high officials are just now much engrossed with the work of revising and improving China's penal laws, preparatory to au investigation also of her civil laws. They have already discovered that there is such a wide divergence between the Celestial and any Euro- A correspondent writes:- What is the meau - pean code that any hope of bringing them into ing of the Sailors' Home? I was always led line is futile, and no serious effort to do this to believe that the Sailors' Home was for therefore seems likely to be made. The great providing shelter for destitute and unemploye<l philanthropic principle of punishment as seamen, but apparently such is not the case now deterrent, rather than retribution. is but very in Hongkong. On whom this fault lies I am imperfectly understood in China, where there unaware, but a fault there must be somewhere. seems few intermediary steps between exemp-considering the number of masters, officers, tion and annihilation. Predisposing canses, engineers and seamen in general who are extenuating circumstances, and the possi-practically on the beach in Hongkong. bilities of moral evolution, are depths which quote one case out of many that of a Captain-- Chinese judiciary cannot plumb. Wu Ting- Captain Coffee-who died in the Government fang, however, is endeavouring to modify some Gaol. This man had first-class certificates of the penalties of crime, and to if possible do second to none in Hongkong, and there are away with such details as are offensive to both several more in the Colony who will follow him foreign and Chinese prejudice. Foreigners to Happy Valley if something is not done at have, for instance, always regarded with the once towards the alleviation of their distress. greatest horror the terrible punishment of During his stay in Hongkong Captain Coffee Linchih, or slicing to death process, which we was employed in various capacities and executed are delighted to hear is ear-marked for abolition. many commissions. What I want to know is Strictly speaking, and doubtless originally, the whether Captain Coffee was refused admission idea of Linchih consisted of a fearful and whole- to the Sailors' Home or whether he refused to sale mutilation of the limbs before decapitation, go into the Home. At present the Home but in practice only a few preliminary cuts are appears to be the refuge and retreat of all the given to the body, on the ear, nose, eyelid and undesirables who care to apply for admission breast over the region of the heart we believe, | (so long as they are not British), and there is a and even the suggestive torture of this, accord-suspicion that a man who goes there minus ing to T. T. Meadows, said to be the only dollars meets with scant, if any sympathy."