August 21, 1905.]
Chapter VII., referring to “placards " and
meetings," are as follow:
"No person shall post up or exhibit or cause to be posted up or exhibited in or near any street any public notice or proclamation in the Chinese language without the permission of the Registrar General. The Registrar General may refuse such permission whenever he considers that the publication of such notice or proclamation would be prejudicial to poare or good order.
No Chiness shall hold or be present at any Chinese public meeting whatever, not being a meeting solely for religi us worship, without a permit under the hand of the Goverbor, which may be issued to the occupier of the house in or near which the meeting is to take place, or to the person convening such meeting. The last clause dates from the year 185×
when provision was nade for written licences which would permit "the holding of Meetings to consider in a lawful Way the Redress of supposed Grievances," an apt, phrase when Applied to the present affair. The first was originally a temporary provi- sion, which Was assented to by His Excellency W. H. MARSH in October 884, "in view of the disturbed state of the Chinese population in this Colony," The wording was identical; and we can think of no subject more likely to prejudice "peace or good order" than the present boycott as it seems to be understood by the common people. The Government is admittedly anxious to be considerate and indulgent to the Chinese community; but we do not think for one moment, that such placards as have been posted elsewhere will receive the required permission of the Registrar General. Ati present we hear of no application to use such placards; but it is quite clear that the typical meeting is not to soberly deliberate ways and means for carrying into effect a policy decided upon, but rather to spread
IL
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
I immediate gain to all the others, British, German, French, Italian, and so on. With self interest like that to help, it is only natural that the Chinese should rely on the Sympathy of all non-American traders. That they have not got it strengthens our opinion that the boycott has got out of hand through bad management and methods, and is now a common danger. It has be haved like bre—the simile has been used by a contemporary, but is too obvious to enjo; copyright-which is a "good servant but a bad master." The boycott is no longer servant to a cause, but master of a situa- tion in which passions and prejudices whose overcoming has been the laborious task of years, threaten to overwhelm every thing. And nothing can be lost by a "masterly inactivity at this stage. The thing can be taken up again where it leaves off, if the mobs of Western America should get their way. It is eminently undesirable in the meantime, to take the local view of it, that Hongkong should be upset by a belated reinforcement of a movement that is already being discouraged in other places.
;
19
A MATTER OF PRESTIGE,
"
are able to
31
are
(Daily Press, 16th August.) In reproducing a short but forcible protest from the editorial columns of the Singapore Free Press, with whom we sympathise in the matter, we should say that it comes too late. The announcement, made by us some time ago, that "General" BOOTH had promised to couvert Japan,' seems to have given the impression that as
Army yet the operations of the " unknown in Japan. This is not the case. Officers and uniforms and bands were in Japan before "General" BOOTH made his last Eastern tour. In the streets of Yoko- bama, and, we believe, Tokyo also, the procession of the "Salvation Army already been seen, and heard. Anything more melancholy, or ludicrous, or patently irreverent and indecorous, according to the point of view, than a native "hallelujah cortege it would be difficult to describe But Brst we mayquote our contemporary,
as follows:
•
1
had
タラ
the disturbing news of what at present must be described in the old-time phrase as supposed Grievances.” For President ROOSEVELT has promised that the real grievances shall be stopped: Mr. TAFT, Secretary of War, and other lading mem. bers of the American Cabinet, have lifted no uncertain voices in sympathy and en- couragemeut of hont-fide Chinese prot st and the only reasonable course for the Chinese, who have vindicated their It is to be truste i for the sake of the diguity spirit and shown their power, is to await of the British side of the Anglo-Japanese alli- the result of WU TING-FANG's mission to
ance, that the Japanese Government will politely Washingtou. Yesterday the Chinese Com-intimate to General Booth that his suggested inercial Union met and decided to petition Salvation Army campaign in Japan is entirely His Excellency the GOVERNOR for per- inexpedient, and cannot be sanctioned. It is mis-ion to hold a public meeting. As such all very well for the slummy and criminal classes a meeting is now supererogatory, and as it of London and other big towns in what are called civilised countries to derive what benefit they seems almost impossible to keep these
can from the crude corybautic methods of the agirators to the point, when they de meet, Salvation army. But to present these to our we suppose it not unlikely that the appli- allies in Japan, as the type of British spiritual cants will be advised to defer their project methods, will be to put Britaif in a sorry posi- to a more convenient season. Under the tiou before a people so dignified and self-restrained French Treaty of Tientsin, Article XIV.,
as the Japanes. From his point of view General Booth means well, his ideas of sympathy and we understand the Chinese Government
encoura ement for the submerged tenth are is being asked to stop the placards and meetings, which have quite got out of hand, admirable in their place, but as to the impolicy both political and spiritual, but chiefly the thrusting the Salvation army apparatus of frombone, tambourine and big drum on a nation inspired by such lofty idea's as the Japanese, could only result iù vulgarising the English |
What is good and p'e in Japanese eres helpful in Whitechapel or Rateliff Highway may be quite otherwis in Tokyo. And it is on sound political grounds that we believe it to be prejudi ial to the relations between Japan and Britain that the Salvation army should be 'allowed to run loose through the towns and
villages of Japan."
went
111
to
Their in-
could not claim to have done. They have gone into the highways and byways as enjoined, and have played the good Samari- tan; but they cannot pretend to have exhausted the field that lay before them, and in going to Japan they go too far. They have fallen from grace in imitating their rivals; and they threaten to wreak more mischief than the missionary societies whose operations are already known in the Orient. It has always been our opinion, apart altogether from the political point of view, that until the work that lies to their hands is accomplished, such associations have no logical justification for going abroad to seek for new. worlds to conquer. Much sympathy undoubtedly the Salvation Army because-specifically because-it was taking up the duty that the others neglected in their zeal to provide the unconsciously sinful 'heathen of tropical lands with woolen comforters and Bowdlerised scriptures. trusion into the foreign field of mission work, and especially their Chief's theatrical and timely announcement, savours strongly of the advertisement. They must forfeit all the tolerance, sympathy and even respect that they have earned in Europe, if they insist on pursuing their charac teristic tactics in Asia. Even in Europe, where familiarity has reduced the shock to good taste and true reverence, they might have achieved as much by methods savour- less of the circus: in Asia, the same methods are more unsuitable to the environ- ment than many believe the creal itself to be. They are not only unsuitable: they are impossible, aud useless. Japanese have always shown surprise, sometimes well-bred, sometimes not; and often they showed undisguised contempt and amusement when the raucous pietists made their public A homely illustration is, appearances. however, always more convincing than one readers who neither know nor care how the drawn from outside; and there are, no doubt, Japanese are likely to look upon these things. Let them, in order to understand the justice of and need for our contemporary's Army practices in China, and there will be protest, imagine the effect of Salvation
little need to say more. There would not be so much incongruity, perhaps, as in Japan, for General BOOTH's soldiers out-Chinese the Chinese when it comes to a matter of noise but the effect upon the Chinese mind would not be a wholesome one for the European resident to contemplate.
CABLE SERVICES.
(Daily Press, 17th August.) We have heard but little lately of the Pacific Cable connecting Vancouver with the Australian Colonies. The line carried out at the joint expense of the Canadian and Australian Governments, with con. siderable assistance from the British, has,
so much so that some of the originators of, former as in our case the more imporlaut, of in fact, fallen upon evil times, and the
the movement have taken alarm. By that Treaty, the Chinese Government under- takes to dissolve all associations whose action interferes with free competition in trade, or tends to the crest on of monopolies in any form. These boycot assemblies have not only done that, but as recent news indicates, they have been 8.riously threat ening foreign trade in general, and thus opening the way for a return to the intolerable state of things existing when, foreign trade was undergoing its early struggles for a footing.
J
It certainly cannat enhance the prestige of the British nation: it is more than possible General
It is patent that in advocating the dis-that it will prove derogat ry. couragement of the movement at this stage, our motives are above suspicion. A boy cott of American commodities means au
Booru and his workers have undoubtedly realised one aspect of Christianity and worked up to it in a way that other sects
Governments concerned have for the last two years been called on to pay heavy sums towards its maintenance. It is curious to have to remark that this want of success has not occurred through any misconception on the part of the promoters, but is directly due to the jalous action of the Eastern Extension Companies. Alarmed at the threatened loss of their monopoly this complex of companies has been making Jalmost superhuman efforts to retain itä position, endangered by the construction of the trans-Pacific cables. The main object of the British Government in becoming a partner with the Canadian and Australian Colonies was the possession of an all-round British cable girdling the world. Inciden-