March 19, 1906.|
the_organisation of the British Army. While General TERAUCHI promptly dis- claimed this interpretation of his remark hen it was brought to his notice by reports received through his General Staff of the feeling of resentment it was reportedtolare Created in England, yet the answer as it was misinterpreted exactly fitted in with the motive of Mr. OISHI, who interrogated the MINISTER on the subject. For in an interview with REUTER'S correspondent he authorised the statement that his "sole motive in calling attention to the British Army organisation was his desire to assist the noble ally of Japan in effecting a most difficult but indispensable reform. He had not the slightest intention of wounding British susceptibilities. A stimulus from outside often helped, he thought, to facilitate the accomplishment of a difficult task." If that was Mr. Oishi's intention he seems to us to have entirely misconceived the menning of the clause of the Treaty which surely does not sauction the interference of either lower in the administrative schemes of the other. General TERAUCHI'S disclaimer, while it is not as clear on this point as it might be, is sufficiently emphatic in its repudiation of the construction placed upon his reply to Mr. OISHI; and now, in diplomatic parlance, "the incident is closed," and, as at the end of another fanious comedy, we are ableto breathe again and say
All's well that ends well." But though closed, the incident will not be for gotten, because the unconscious irony of Mr. OISHI's statement is certain to appeal strongly to the critics whenever the sub- ject of Army reform comes under discussion
NEW TRADE CENTRES IN CHINA,
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CHINA OVERLAND TRÅDE REPORT.
101
the opening of suitable trade centres along | encouragement of foreign trade, the banish- the railway routes. So the Government is ment of mutual distrust and the increase of forestalling the Powers in this respect. friendship. Upon the honest attempts of Whether from the view. point of the foreign the Chinese themselves depend the fulfil- trader, commercial settlements under ment of the pious wish for " perpetual Chinese control will be satisfactory is a ques and peaceful bond between China and tion which may for the present be reserved; all nations." We are inclined to think it is certainly a remarkable sign of the times that in resolving on the opening of that the merchants and gentry of so many these places under Chinese control, one places in the interior manifest such intense of the main aims China has in view is to eagerness to welcome the foreign trader prepare herself with object lessons for within the walls of their cities.
the time when she will attempt to follow so far in the footsteps of Japan as to ask of the Powers the surrender of their extra- territorial jurisdiction in the Treaty Ports. That time, however, is yet a long way off, and the Chinese authorities need to give much better proof of their administrative capacity, as well as of their friendliness to the stranger within their gates, than bas been shown hitherto, before the Powers will seriously consider any proposal tending to the surrender of extraterritorial jurisdiction But these steps tend in that direction and the future of such places as Chinan will be watched with interest.
We notice a striking criticism in a Nor- thern contemporary on what is described BLS the craze for the opening of these new trading centres, but the criticism seems to be based on the assumption that places approved by the Throne have been opened forthwith without the slightest preparation having been made. "If bona fide commercial expansion was aimed at," says the Peking and Tientsin Times, "China would in the first place endeavour to ascertain which would be the most advanta. geous place to be opened from the foreign standpoint, as all trade has to pass through foreign hands; and this point being settled conditions might be attached to the effect that no port or centre would be so opened until at least three or four consuls and merchants signified their intention of going, there within a given time. Instead of this the Chinese are opening these centres wherever they have an idea they should be opened, and with little regard to the trade conditions governing the place or the prob- abilities of it being likely to attract commercial representatives. Not only this, but they still further qualify the boon hy surrounding it with conditions which are both arbitrary and prohibitive." We think this criticism a little anjust, for the Throne has not approved the opening It has become difficult of late to keep without inquiry into the prospects of count of the number of places the Chinese the places concerned. Our contemporary Gov rnment is ieing asked by the mer-proceeds to refer approvingly to a report chants and geatry in all parts of the Empire to open as centres of international trade. Chinanfu in Shantung was the first of such places to be opened, and at the inauguration ceremony in January last the GOVERNOR of SHANTUNG announced that Chinan was but the first of many towns in the interior which the Chinese Government of its own initiative proposed to open to the trade of the world. HIS EXCELLENCY's remarks, however, did not suggest that the Government would show any undue baste in the matter, for those present at the inauguration ceremony were informed that the prosperity of all the commercial centres subsequently to be voluntarily opened by China to foreign trade would "rest on the foundations laid at Chinenfu." The inference to be drawn from this remark is that the Chinese Govern- ment regarded Chinantu as an experiment, and that not until the Government had scen and were satisfied with the fruits of that creation would they plant these foreign trade centres wherever the demand existed for
ཥྛ
(Daily Press, 18th March.)
them. The demand seems to exist in a sur- prisingly large number of places, for it is stated that almost every day mention is made in the Northern native press of peti- tions being sent up to the Throne praying for the opening of some fresh city. The Government's complaisant attitude towards the movement is in some quarters regarded as not so spontaneous as it appears. It is suggested that if China does not of her own free will open up the interior he Government has sufficient foresight. to anticipate that the great progress which is being made in railway construction throughout the length and breadth of the country will inevitably be followed by much pressure on the part of the Powers to secure
FRENCH AND GERMAN
RELATIONS.
(Daily Press, 14th March.)
It would seem that after the differences of opinion regarding the policing of the new Morocco which had arisen between Germany and France had gone up to almost fever heat, under more peaceful and pro- bably wiser councils some way of escape with- out needlessly compromising either party has been discovered. France and England, secure in the thought that no new combina. tion to affect the immediate interests of either had been contemplated, naturally looked only to the immediate present. The disturbed state of Morocco was a momen. tary source of trouble to both, which might at any period become dangerous, and there. that at Hsin-ning, in Kwantung, the fore invited some immediate interference gentry and merchants, in asking for the so us to bring Morocco more into line with place to be opened are taking time by the Europe. As at the eastern outlet of the forelock in raising funds to make roads, Mediterranean the two nations had made build houses, and construct railways which common cause; and Egypt and the passage will connect the town with the cost and the of the Suez Canal were now on a perfectly warts of Hongkong and Macao. This is safe footing: if France should at the wes- contrasted with the state of things attern extremity undertake such a work of Chinanfu, “ where before he knows whether regeneration as England had accomplished business will make it worth his while, the in the east, it was clear that the safety foreign merchant is required to start his of the Mediterranean was assured, at all connection with the place by leasing certain events for the next generation, and that lands, building expensive premises, on which both could rest secure; while the trade of he may or may not realise face value or be Europe with the East was for the future justified by commercial prospects in invest-placed on a safe basis. So thought France, ing at all.' These remarks might have been and so on looking into the matter came to written even of Hongkong in its early days. think England: each had gained its object; But given the opportunity to trade in such and neither had any desire or even idea places as Chinan there will not be want that anyone else could by any manner of ing the men prepared to take ordinary means find anything in the arrangement at business risks. As to what steps, if any, which to cavil. It certainly never entered China is taking to ascertain the views of into the mind of either to interfere in any the foreign representatives regarding the way with the free use of the Mediterranean suitability for foreign trade of the places by the whole world; and the probability is the Government is voluntarily onening we
that not one statesman in either country have no information; but if what has hap-ever wasted a thought on what to him pened at Chinan is followed at the other centres which are to be thrown open, our contemporary's criticisin would have no great value. Within a month after the opening of Chinan, a British Consul, a German Consul and an Americau Consular Agent were established there. Building operations have been in active progress and quite a foreign community is developing. If the restrictions which surround the privileges of trade in these places are such as to render. the advantages illusory, and foreign trade, is bindered rather than fostered, the Chinese Government defeats its own end. China's avowed object in opening these places is the
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would have at once seemed a policy as foolish as it would have been suicidal. Whatever ideas might in the eighteenth century have passed through the minds of the statesmen of the day as to the feasibility of making of the Mediterranean a "French Lake," those ideas certainly found no standing room in the policy of the nine- teenth. Even LESSEPS in his wildeat moments of ambition regarding his great creation, the Buez Canal, never ventured on such a dream. Why France and Eng- land, then, in squaring up the little private grievances each thought it had against the other at the two extremities of the Medi-
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