محمد
t
882
be only two Interpreters and three Translators There are two Veterinarians. The native population includes 212,517 males, 118,432 females, and 121,767 children, This total (452,716) has nearly doubled the total of ten
years ago.
JAPAN AND COREA.
THE NEW AGREEMENT.
The Asahi publishes the following from its Seoul correspondent as the substance of the new Treaty agreed upon and signed at Seoul between Japan and Corea :--
-The Japanese Government, through the Foreign Office at Tokyo, will take charge of and direct the foreign affairs of Korea, and existing Japanese Ministers and Consuls will represent Corean interests abroad.
2.-The Japanese Government will take upon itself the duty of carrying out the existing Treaties between Korea and foreign countries; and Corea without the intermediary of Japan will not enter upon any Treaty or Agreemont with any foreign country.
3.-(a) The Japanese Government will appoint a Regent as its representative in Corea, who will remain in Seoul, with the prerogative of seeing the Emperor of Corea in person.
(b) The Japanese Government will appoint its Commissioners to every Corean open port and other place where the presence of such Commissioners is considered necessary. These Commissioners will take charge of affairs hitherto conducted by Japanese Consuls and all other affairs necessary for the execution of the existing Treaties.
4.-All the existing Treaties and Agreements between Japan and Corea, within limits not prejudicial to the provisions of the Treaty, will remain in force.
5.-The Japanese Government guarantees the security and will respect the dignity of the Corean Imperial House.
It is believed in Tokyo that the new Japanese. Corean Treaty will be ratified by the Emperor in a few days and simultaneously published in Tokyo and Seoul at the end of this month.
ANTI-OPIUM PILLS.
Some time ago, Viceroy Chang Chi-tung sent to the Chinese Minister in England directions to ascertain if there was any drug which would act as an antedote to the craving for opium, and the Minister appears to have been successful in finding some which have been made into a form of a pill called the Chih- Chiang-wan or "Strong Determination Pill," which has now been sent to Peking for sale. From an advertisement setting forth its merits we learn: This pill is made
Guardian by order of Chang, Junior
of the Heir Apparent, Button of first grade, and Viceroy of Hu-Kuang. The evil of opium is as harmful as that of floods, and wild beasts, or even more. During the reign of Yao and Shun (Emperors 2357-2255 and 2255-2205) the calamity of flood lasted only nine years, and the danger of beasts was but at Yintu. Now, the poison of opium lasts more than one hundred years and extends to twenty-two provinces. The victims are too numerous to count and it becomes worse every day, until we know not what will be the result. Degenerating the ability of men, weakening the spirit of soldiers and wasting the people's money, this evil is condition of responsible for the suffering China. The loss of money is a small matter; but both civil and military officials who once get into the habit of smoking become and degenerate. Time and money spent are nothing, education and experience hardly thought of. After a few score of years,
ia will not the 400 millions China all become semi-human and semi-devil monsters? With this pill, which is compounded of drugs produced by our Minister in England and America, hundreds of smokers in Hupeh have been oured of the cursed habit, and if later on the strict regulations applied to civilian smokers they will find themselves in a sorry plight. It is the interest of all therefore to cure themselves forthwith."
weak
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
|
INCURIOUS CHINA.
[December 2, 1905.
THE OPENING OF THE
The N-C. Daily News of Nov. 20 gives a very full report of this important event, from which we take the following extracts.
The ignorance of and want of curiosity about | SHANGHAI-NANKING RAILWAY. their own country on the part of Chinese of good position and birth is a fact which has often surprised foreigners in their reflections on and studies of China and her people, but the until recent lack of facilities of communication has been generally blamed for this absence of interest and knowledge. Now that the country is being opened up, however, no change is noticeable in this indifference, and whenever we bave discussed the question of other provinces with Chinese friends we have invariably met with a scarcely veiled contempt concerning them, and
and
at least absolute
all
uninterest as
"It was only in April last year that H.E. Sheng Kangpao, as Director-General of Rail- ways in this province, cut the first sod of the railway which, by linking up the great port of Shanghai with the great southern capital of China, is destined to be, though comparatively short, one of the most important of the many trunk lines now to be construoted throughout the Empire. Not much has been heard of the progress of the work during those intervening eighteen months, but instead of talking there bas been doing, with the result that the com- pletion of the building is already in sight. The opening of a short section of twelve miles on Saturday [Nov. 18] is mainly significant because it reveals that the sections beyond are all well advanced, and the sanguine on the Board of Directors are hoping to see the service through to Soochow in the Spring and perhaps to Nanking in the Autumn, Mr. Shen Tun-ho's desires may have run away with his belief a little at Saturday's auspicious function, but it is certainly true that it will be possible, unless most unforeseen events ocour, to travel by train to Nanking very much sooner than most foreigners had anticipated."
to the characteristics, needs, or opportunities offered by other parts of the country. Needless to say if this is the attitude and result in regard to their own country, the majority of Chinese are still more ignorant and indifferent to the conditions of other countries, and the fact has at last made itself apparent to the officials interested in the extension of China's trade, and the Board of Commerce has lately issued a the provinces very sensible notice to advocating the turning over of a new leaf The Board advocates the in the matter. immediate study first of the geographical and commercial" conditions, with the climate needs of the people in the Chinese empire, and points out the disadvantage of the people of one prefecture having no
Commencing at a moderate rate, the knowledge even as to how those in the next prefecture live. The Board urges the viceroys train steamed past the outskirts of Shanghai, now stretching so far into the county, past and governors in all provinces to instruct the merchants through the agency of the chambers
the new creek bridge at the end of Markham Road, past the factories and flatures, into of commerce to remedy this state of things and persuade the pople to travel about their own
green ricefields, broken by grave mounds and clustered trees biding the homes of the country and learn something about its climate
workers dotted about the fields or lining up to and trade and customs, and also to go abroad
see the newest wonder. It was noticeable that and thus gain experience which may be turned to account in trade development. This is
there were no signal posts by the railside, but advice and something which is
at about every 100 yards a Chinese bearing a sound greatly needed in China, but the result of dragon flag was stationed, bis function ap- it will be prospective rather than immediate.parently being to warn any too curious of his It is the next generation which is going to countrymen against wandering on to the metals and meeting the fate of Stephenson's 'ooo.' ben-fit by the steps being now guardedly taken by China's advanced officials in the direction of The track is a single one at present but the the tree of knowlege. The schools springing readiness for a future duplication. It raus to embankment has been made up,--perhaps in up in all provinces in which some knowledge of the true place occupied by China in the world Naziang in almost a straight line, with practi- will gradually replace the old-time belief that oally no gradient, and the only gerious natural that she is the pivot of creation, will eventually the largish creek just this side of Nasiang. obstacle encountered in this part of the line was bear fruit, if not in a greater humility at least
The smaller creeks were usually filled in, or, in the power to realise in some degree the claims of others and the ways in which where the stream was required for irrigation China can best advance the interests of her purposes, culverted. There is to be one inter- own people and profit by, instead of vening station at Chonju, and here the pace was reduced almost to stopping, but over a railing against her next door neighbour. The advice now given by the Board may not lead considerable distance a speed of 42 miles per the father to forsake his native counting house hour was attained. Naziang was reached in but it may prompt him to send his son to school just over half-an-hour." to learn how these things can be," or to travel maybe through the length and breadth of the land. But of the two it is perhaps easier for the Chinese student of things in general to travel and investigate commercial questions abroad than in his own country where conservatism and custom block him at every turn, and where no knowledge or information can be gleaned untaxed either by an elastic obligation, in kind, or in coin. Peking Times,
THE KIUKIANG-NANCHANG RAILWAY.
Lord Li's inaugural speech was thus trans- lated:
the Director-General, H. E. Sheng Kungpao, "Gentlemen, -In the unavoidable absence of
Yellow River Bridge of the Ching-Han Rail- who has gone North for inspection of the way, the constraction of which has just been completed, the honour has devolved on me to preside in his place at this opening ceremony for the first section, between Shanghai and Naziang of the Shanghai-Nanking Rail. way, and I am greatly pleased to see the number of foreign and Chinese guests who have graciously come to take part in the celebration. On this occasion I wish to say a few words to In regard to the above Railway we are in you, gentlemen. In my opinion, the advantage of a railway lies in its offering intercom. formed that a Hunanese by the name of Li with three others has contracted for the construction munication between land and ses, so that in of 60 li of this line. The main terms of the Europe and America, in all large commercial contract appear to be that the contractors ports where shipping congregates, there you undertake to construct a section of the line of find the starting points of railways, of which the length above stated, to be located by the London in England and New York in America, said Railway Office after a survey and an
are notable examples. In China, Shanghai is The the best situated seaport in the continent of estimate of the same have been made. work shall be carried out in accordance with Asia. Ships coming from the Pacific, Atlantic, the cost and the time stipulated by the Railway and Indian Oceans to China all take Shanghai as the principal rendezvous. Its natural advan- Office, and all expenditures in connection there- with shall first be paid by the contractors and tages and its large volume of trade can almost afterwards regarded as a loan to the Railway be compared with those enjoyed by London and with interest at the rate of 4 per cent per New York, while in point of free navigation all annum, beginning from the lapse of three the year round, it is equal to the above-named months after the commencement of work. It places, and is incomparably superior to all the other maritime ports, and the Yangtze ports in is stated that no adverse criticism has been made against the conclusion of this contract. China. Therefore, in discussing the economic China Gazette.
advantages of railways in China, we must take
11