$426
CHANG.CHI.TUNG AND SIR ROBERT HART.
(Daily Press, 3rd December.) The text of CHANG CHIR-TUNG's memorial
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
Chinese Maritime Customs is not the sort of man to have overlooked the fact that n
Mor-
In some dis-
[December 12, 1904. memorial is full of repetition, and it is difficult to criticise what is only a reiterated deprecation of what he terms revolutionary propositions. His Excellency makes one admission which serves to support the Inspector-General's
memorandum. He
:-" In every province some prefecture says: or district may have a new piece of land brought under cultivation, land without an owner, quietly ploughed and sown without the knowledge of the magistrate. For many years such land has paid no taxes. Proof can be had, and the amount of
The mass of the
large portion of the area of any country must necessarily be unproductive, and there fore not to be brought into the taxpaying to the Throne in criticism of Sir ROBERT net. On the other hand, he may, as CHANG Haar's memorandum on taxation in China CHIH-TUNG alleges, have calculated on too has been published in the Shen-pao, and a large a fiscal yield. His Excellency objects translation of this interesting document has to Sir ROBERT's suggested rate of taxation, been given by our Shanghai morning contem- and also to its being applied equally to all porary. We have already dealt with the sum-land. He points out that in the South- marised version of its contents, and expressed eastern provinces, where land is very pro- our regret that an official who has in many ductive, the tax is now more than 200 cash instances shown, not only remarkable in- per mow, but in other provinces, where the additional revenue may very well be con- telligence and discrimination, but who has land is poor and the produce small, they do siderable." If this is the case, then hus there been great remissness on the part of exhibited a fair and proper spirit in dealing not and could not pay such a sum.
the officials, and doubtless great rascality. with foreigners, should now commit hi'nself over, the mow varies in area. to expressions of opinion that are to a great tricts, he says, it is 240 kung; in others, it It shows how badly a complete reform in extent retrograde and not a little mistrust is 360 kung; while in vet others, it is 720 the system of taxation and of its collection ful of foreigners. With the text of the kung. These variations are, of course, to be is needed. The Viceroy practically admits memorial before us, it may be worth while taken account of, and would be in any well- that the Treasury is systematically de- Unfor- considered new scheme of taxation. In frauded, but he does not say what propor- to review it at greater length. tunately His Excellency's pronouncement is pointing them out CHANG does service, and tion of the revenue is divertel therefrom. tainted throughout by the entirely mistaken contributes to discussion of a question that There would probably be no necessity for idea that the Inspector-General of the is admittedly a large one. When, however, any increase in taxation if the taxes were Imperial Maritime Customs is animated the Viceroy proceeds to say:-"It is im. only honestly collected. rather by a desire to wring the last cent in practicable to obtain uniformity in returns people are very poor and cannot afford to the shape of taxation out of the country from various provinces. Another cause of pay any material increase of taxation. What the country suffers from most is the for the benefit of the Imperial Treasury diversity is concealment of the true areas
swarm of official drones who fatten on the without any regard for the weal of the of farms, Rich proprietors hector and people. He says:—“What I fear is that bribe, and the amount of their dues is honey amassed by the industrious peasants. Sir R. HART's plans will lead foreigners to settled by a compromise. Poor proprietors They should be relieved from the burden of look with greedy eyes on our supposed occupy mountain land, or land bordering maintaining superfluous officials, who, being wealth. They will quickly form cunning streams; the land measurer may require insufficiently paid, squeeze and rob wherever plans to obtain control over our sources the same tax as from land better situated. opportunity offers. The Government should of revenue. Our system of government The occupiers are angry; sometimes they encourage the working of mines and foster will be thrown into confusion by many strike the officers and destroy the tax office. the promotion of new industries. Finally estimated tax cannot then be they should, with as little delay as possible, ambitious foreign schemes. It is not only The HART that is to be feared." And again, collected," then he argues from the true adopt the scheme propounded by Professor But with JENKS for a uniform national currency on in his concluding paragraph, His Excellency Chinese official point of view. CHANG adds :-
a gold basis, and thus prevent China being "The
memorandum of patience, perseverance, and absolute fairness HART is empty and wanting in truthful all these obstacles can be overcome, without made a dumping ground for the world's excess of silver and hampered in the pay- Now this is, we unhesitat- either causing riols or even creating a sense statement."
These difficulties were en-
ment of her indebtedness to foreign Powers. ingly assert, a great injustice to the Inspec- of injustice. tor-General. No country has ever been
countered in the registration of titles and Such remedies cannot, as CHANG CHIH-TUNG more loyally served than has China by Sir the survey of the land in the New Territory, tries vainly to make out, be either classed as unwise finance or clever novelties. They ROBERT HART. He has always set the in- but they were all peacefully overcome, terests of China before ever thing, and though at a great expense of time and are plain remedies for the ills that China while he has striven, in the first place, to trouble, owing to the involved claims made, now suffers from, not in any way likely to secure to the Imperial Government the and the landowners are now more than provoke insurrections or work mischief; and it is devoutly to be hoped that the Empress revenue due
to it, he has never lost satisfied with the result, which has been in- sight of the well-being of the Chinese cidentally to increase the value of their Dowager and her advisers will resolutely refuse to be scared by such transparent people, and has repeatedly made suggestions property, in some cases materially. for the improvement and increase of pro- The counter proposals made by CHANGbogies as those raised by CHANG CHIH-TUNG.
The CHIH-TUNG are not very important. but ducts and the promotion of trade. memorandum that has called forth CHANG- some of them may be considered by After laying CBIH-TUNG's vehement denunciation was the Imperial Government. drawn up solely in the interests of China, it down that it is the duty of all to adopt no eye to the advantage of the Governors and Viceroys
methods suited to the conditions of each foreigners. If the latter have any reason to find fault with Sir ROBERT HART it is that he considers them too little, and inva- riably makes their interests secondary to those of his employers. We are indeed surprised to find any Chinese critic ready to ascribe to the Inspector-General the design of exciting the cupidity of foreigners by any betrayal or exposé of Chinese wealth. The Chinese Government are, fortunately, well aware of these facts, and the somewhat intemperate remarks of CHANG will find, we believe, no endorsement in Peking.
and with
Had the Viceroy CHANG CHIH-TUNG con- fined himself to a fair and straightforward criticism of the Inspector-General's memo- randum be would bave done good, and not harm. There is doubtless some force in some of his remarks. When, however, he objects that Sir ROBERT HART's estimate of the taxable area of land in China is misleading, inasmuch as the Inspector- General has included the lakes, rivers, and mountains in that area, he is, we think, We leaping to an unjustified conclusion. should hardly think that Sir Robert Hart could have made such a miscalculation. An authority like the great organiser of the
provincų to ensure a larger collection of money so far as it can be obtained with- out creating new taxes, he goes on to say:-
..
Let
LI HUNG CHANG'S ALLEGED TREACHERY.
(Daily Press, 5th December.) The remarkable letter written by the late Li HUNG CHANG, with which we recently dealt in this column, has been regarded very differently by our Shanghai contem- porary, the Herald. There is, of course, room for differences of opinion on most subjects; but we have to confess that a study of ur contemporary's comments on this letter leaves us in some bewilder-
The amount must not be oppressive nor the procedure plainly worn-out and one- sided. Certainly the method should not be an enormous addition to the land tax to the Let neglect of other sources of revenue. there be cutting down here and there. each region be made to produce that which it is adapted for. Let all unite their strength ment. In that now famous communication to raise what is required. Although an unearthed by the Times, L HUNG CHANG incredibly great addition to the revenue is begged YUNG Lu to carry on the policy of not to be thought of, yet, little by little, an letting Russia alone in Manchuria until the ounce here, a catty there, iuch by inch, and anticipated war with Japan ensued, and then to side with the winning Power, whichever foot by foot, a substantial result may be fairly expected." All this is very fine, but it might be. Our contemporary admits, as we did, the accuracy of Li HUNG CHANG'S it is little good generalising in this manner.
His Excellency had said boldly that prevision, and the shrewdness of the man; If little could be done in the way of increasing but professes to see, in this very letter, taxation on land, but that more accurate evidence in support of the theory that its measurements might be taken, and economy | writer "gold China to Russia." The chief exercised in the collection of the revenue, point of the letter lies in the sentence, special care being taken to prevent leakage, we might have agreed with him, but he has no really reasonable alternative to propose to Sir ROBERT HART'S suggestion. His
·
Thus we shall get back Manchuria,” and we are quite unable to understand how our contemporary can make that square with its idea that the deceased statesman was selling-