24
speaking, paying her way.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
OPIUM.
(Daily Press, 13th December.)
4
One of the items set under liabilities is that of nett profits of foreigners remitted to home
We assume that the allusion in the extract countries, estimated at sixteen millions of
that follows, taken from an article in our Haikwan taels. If this be considered ex-
entitled "An cessive, we are asked to remember that no Shanghai contemporary, amount has been included to represent the Evening Stroll through a Canton Street," "I strolled into nett profits earned in China for banks is to the Daily Press.
A leader in a representa having their head offices elsewhere. Coming two opium dens. to assets, exports and imports via the land tive paper, a few weeks since, indicated that frontiers are not recorded, but it is estimated there is a great divergence of opinion on that the exports preponderate in value by what is called the opium question.' It four million taels. The most interesting seems to me, however, that the revelations item is the amount set down as remitted or of these low, damp, dirty, dark dens would brought to China by Chinese emigrants, viz, convince most people that only evil can
This estimate is
come to those who frequent them. Some seventy-three millions. believed to represent the minimum. Twenty-smokers are yellow and emaciated. Many seven millions are set down to expenditure appear to be in good health. One old on railway and mining development, and it fellow, nearly seventy years of age, con- is pointed out that with regard to railway fessed that he had smoked for forty years, development, China's liability is all in the and admitted that he spent $3 per mensem. future even interest being now paid out Yet he looked hale and vigorous. At the of capital-and that the money so spent beginning of the conversation, many con- must be regarded as a commercial asset of tended that the pipe stimulates the energies. the Empire. Foreign travellers are supposed A little quiet talk, however, will, elicit the to spend six millions in China, but that, of confession that the whole thing is bad, and course, must be mere guesswork. Reverting that, in the end, physical deterioration to the item already mentioned, that of generally fellows addiction thereto.”
is interesting, but if it be intende l as a sort foreigners' profits sent Home, we quote in
of rejoinder to our recent observations on extenso the following interesting details :-
Among the elements disturbing any cal- the methods of the International Reform culation are the following: All Foreigners Bureau, is not appropriate. We bad nothing to say on that occasion in defence of the are not thrifty as are the Chinese; many invest their savings in China; much that use of opium, as, academically, we might would otherwise be saving is sent for the have had; nor did we attempt to deny that
only evil can come to those who frequent support of children and dependent relatives; it happens sometimes that widows and their low opium dens. We never had any doubt that in China opium was responsible for a "Drink" is great deal of misery, just as elsewhere.
families remain in China; while some men regularly invest at home, others as regular- ly invest in China; etc. On the other hand, it is generally true that Foreigners return home, and, sooner or later, take their savings with them. In the absence of precise information we must, however, assume a basis of calculation, and that least open to hostile criticism will be the following:-(a.) Most Foreigners invest their monetary savings, while in China, in real estate here, or in local enterprises
shares or debentures. (b.) Against the savings of those who do not do so, but regularly remit capital home, may be put as offset the holdings of Chinese in Treaty port real estate and in the shares of local
companies. (c.) Though local investments may be held out here temporarily, sooner or later they are reinitted either as annual income or as realised capital of those who
have left China.
(d.) On these grounds the sun total of:-(i.) Net rentals froin real estate in the various ports, and (ii) Dividends of all local companies (including the Hongkong nad Shanghai Bank) may be taken as fairly representing the remitted savings of Foreigners in China. Here, as under other headings, we must take Hong- kong as essentially a part of commercial China. Ou this basis we find:-Shanghai nett rentals, Hk. Tls. 4,500,000; Hongkong, Hk. Tls. 2,500,000; Other ports, HE! Tls. 2,000.000; Dividends of joint stock com- panies and interest on debentures (hang. hai Stock Exchange), Hk. Tls. 7,000,000; Total, Hk. Tls. 16,000,000.
In these details is not included the profit earned in China by banks other than the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corpora- tion; nor is allowance made for losses on investments in, e.g., cotton mills.
56
We vouch for the untruth of this story.
makee catch se plenty fire- How fashion.
yon extinguishers?" asked a local Chinaman in his friend's godown. "Hai-yah! B'long awli. So fashion my makee catch twen'-fi' per cent, off my plemiam; and maskee! All piecee have got
petloleum inside.”
C
This
23
We would even admit, if pres- sed for an opinion, that tobacco smoking has also wrought much mischief. That, how- ever, would be a different thing to admitting that legislative bodies should everywhere be guided by self-styled "reform bureaus," and abolish all that such people have dis- covered to be capable of abuse. We did not consider that this particular lot of re- formers showed either good taste or sensible policy in requesting the British
Premier to ask his Government to cancel·
"C
evils." The "reformaniacs" would not
[January 14, 1905. "the whole thing is bad, and that, in the end, physical deterioration generally follows addiction thereto." The Oriental has absorbed the sense of Sr. PAUL'S advice to be all things to all men. His notion of politeness is to please the foreign interroga- tor by saying what he thinks he is expected to say, and heartily agreeing with what he conceives to be the foreigner's opinions. It has been noticed how frequently, when a
foreigner experimentally drops a hint that he is a Buddhist, or a Fire Worshipper, or something of the kind, the Chinese or Japanese "Christian" drops his hypocritical professions of grace. A Japanese referring to some of his national converts spoke of them as " untamed rhinoceroses, simulating tamed, as the easiest way of getting things good for their rhinoceros-flesh." Chinese who, in opium dens, tell foreigners that opium is a bad thing are probably about as sincere as the man who, at the hotel bar, proposes "Down with the Drink.”
HONGKONG JOTTINGS.
January, 9th.
When I wrote last week of the heroic rescue in the harbour by Dr. Forster, the Assistant Medical Officer of the Port, and suggested that
the reward of the Royal Humane Society's Medal was richly deserved, I overlooked the necessity there was for the holding of a coroner's inquest in consequence of the death inquest the circumstances of the rescue of the of one of the occupants of the boat. At the two Chinese children were placed on record in the evidence; the jury very properly took notice of the act of gallantry in a rider to their verdict, and the Coroner promised that the attention of the Government should be called to it.
I notice in the Times that Sir Frank
Swettenham, the late Governor of Singapore, is still asking for information as to how the
Crown Colonies are to be treated if the
electorate at Home decide to abandon the existing fiscal practice. He points out that
there are British Crown Colonies which are absolutely free from all trade restrictions, and
that they produce practically nothing. He
instances Hongkong which, in value of trade, is the fifth largest port in the world, and the dishonourable treaty," and with that Singapore, the seventh or eighth.
"Will these 56 be phrase in mind, our comments were directed and other Crown Colonies," he asks,
a tariff. and charge to show that the dishonourable character of compelled to have that treaty with China had not been de-all their imports, thus raising the price of liv monstrated. It is not necessary nowadays ing and working for every class and trade and to advance arguments to the effect that nationality in the colony, with nothing to set will not enable the Administration to reduce sedatives and stimulants are desirable against it except an increase of revenue which taxation in other directions, unless it be to lower the price of opium and spirits for the benefit of opium smokers and spirit drinkers ?" The Singapore Chamber of Commerce, Sir Frank Swettenham adds, is so impr. ssed with the necessity for maintaining the absolute free- dem of its port that it is now petitioning the Government to abandon a great harbour im- provement scheme, lest, at some remote and should be imposed on shipping. Mr. Cham- berlain, I suppose, is the only man who can be looked to, at present, for an answer to Sir Frank Swettenham's questions, but no answer is yet forthcoming from auy quarter. If there is to be a conference on the fiscal question, it Colonies should be represented. It is a matter is certainly very desirable that the Crown in which the Chamber of Commerce or the local branch of the China Association inight do some- thing in the way of seeking information and let'ing it be known that Hongkong has a local interest in the question which is not so insigni. ficant as the average elector at home may be disposed to think.
"
be convinced; and the almost spontaneous discovery and use of such things, by all peoples, and in all times, however much it might be emphasised, does not appear to have occurred to any of them as evidence of their necessity and inevitability. The cor- respondent of our contemporary can scarcely be considered a satisfactory advocate by the reformers, after his honest but indiscreet admission that a septuagenarian, who had looked hale smoked opium for forty years, and vigorous." Imagine Sir WILFRID LAWSON admitting that a man of seventy, after Drinking for forty years, could possibly be hale and vigorous.. No, in setting about reforming, at the wrong end of the stick, the obvious procedure, and the procedure usually followed, is to emphasise the telling points and to ignore all evidence that may happen to be unfavourable. This admission from Canton is the first direct evidence brought to our notice that opium smoking could be habitually indulged in without harmful results, and whereas before we had no doubt that it was a bad habit we now entertain some doubt. We attach no value whatever to those “little quiet talks," in which the opium smoker confesses that
unforeseen date, any form of harbour dues
Some of the Police Court reporters have of late been agitating for a desk. The authorities have actually attempted to oblige them, and now, in a dim corner of the court is placed a desk with sitting accommodation for two. I understand the desk is built on the model of a