August 8, 1908.]
According to this person's assertions, the Japanese Company's vessels are obtaining twice as much freight and passengers as are secured by the German steamers, although the N. D. L. passenger rate has been reduced to Y1.80 com- pared with Y4 charged by the N. Y. K. The Asahi's informant attributes the success of the Japanese service to the unpopularity of the German line with the Chinese.
VALEDICTORY TO AMERICAN
CONSUL AT SHANGHAI,
A well attended reception was held at Shanghai on July 24th for the purpose of wishing God-speed to Mr. James L. Rodgers, the popular American Consul-General, who is going to Washington on affairs of State. The American Association was well represented and in addition there were many prominent American business men,
missionaries and others present, who assembled to offer their good wishes to Mr. Rodger and a speedy return to the post he has so ably filled during the past fourteen months. The proceedings, which were of a most informal nature were opened by Dr. Gilbert Reid, President of the American Association who said in part:-We together at this time to wish you God-speed, not to say farewell, for you are still our Consul- General, merely acting as such in Washington rather than in Shanghai, and in doing so you will be the better able to strengthen the position of your Consulate and to further all the interests of Americans at this port, such as would not be possible by remaining here.
come
The other day we met here to congratulais onr new Judge on the establishment of an American District Court för China, but I understand from information which you are able to supply, that the larger proportion of civil and criminal cases are still loaded off on you as Consul General, a fact eutirely at variance with the spirit of the law which has been ensated, and which we trust you will succeed in making clear to the " powers that be" at Washington. We are strong in the belief that you as Consul-General should be relieved of all judicial duties entirely. Our Committee is to prepare a letter to this effect, lut your personal appeal with knowledge of the facts is very much aceded, if the wrong is to be righted, and our law is something more than a half-measure. One other thing I would urge, and I believe my fellow-compa- triots agree with me, and that is that all your influence be exerted for the final passage of some bill concerning Chinese wishing to go to our country as will be just to the Chinese and be no harm to our own people, but a real blessing.
CHINA: OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
that it cannot be robbed of that position in the future. It has the great Yangtze Valley babind it; it is the natural port of call between the New World and Asia; and commercially and otherwise, now, under these ob ditions, it seems to me that in Shanghai we should have everything that would do good to our nation and at the same time do good to others, because the influence of any one nation should not be confined to the benefit it produces to one's own countre, but should also take account of the benefit it can prduce to We all have a common burden other countries.
MISCELLANEOUS.
found on the morning of the 17th inst. in a A French infantry soldier at Saigon was
two bayonet dying state, suffering from wounds. He refused to denounce his assail ints. It has been said that the art of conversation is almost extinct, and a Hongkong correspond- ent of a Tonkin paper makes no exception for our greatest and best. When a Chinese Prince recently tiffined here, he says: la conversation de ses voisins tablé était plutôt maigre."
Aumi
hero, and each and everyone of us either as
The writer of the "Lettre de Hongkong" in individuals, or as representatives of governmots
L'Avenur du Tonkin has some gossip about the or corporations, should assume his share of that
official tiffin at Government House to which burden for the benefit of all. Now, there are
Prino Tsai Tse was entertained on his recent several things that I propose taking up in
visit hore. He says that there was a speech in Washington. I want to secure the institu- tion of adequate Consular quarters here, and English by the Governor which was not trans- by that, I mean quarters for every branch lated into Chinese, while a discourse, written in of the Government service operating here. I advance and read by the Prince in Chinese, was want to see the beads of the Post Office depart-bot translated either. The writer is either well ment to ensure that American mails shall be informed or very imaginative, for he declares delivered in the future with more regularity and that the Governor spoke of the Canton Hankow certainty than in the past, so as to get them railway and asked the Princs to "think of the here in as short a time as possible. There are various other things I want to do, one of which I am peculiarly interested in and was mentioned by Dr. Reid, and that is the matter of Chinese going to America. I have a letter from Mr. Foord on the subject; I shall have a con- ference with bim as soon as I reach home, and, no doubt, I shall be able to bring biok some good news in that connection, to the effect perhaps, that Congress is about to take aption.
HOME VIA SIBERIA.
nglish when the time would have arrived". If the address were not translated, the Prince is in a position to truthfully say "no savvey”,
The Kobe Pier Company has on foot a project to double its capital, which stands at Y500,000, and extend the present pier from 6 ft. by 42ft. to 1,20ft, by 6ft. As the position of the pier, however, is within the area to be reclaimed in the Mavor's plan of the barbour works, it is considered doubtful whether the reconstruction of the pier will be approved by the authorities. The net profit of the com- pany for last half-year is Y73,482, including a surplus of Y5,702 brought forward. Of this sum, Y1,000 has been set aside for the redemp- tion of capital, Y3,00 placed to the reserve, Y5,000 to the special reserve, Y8.000 to the reserve for repairs, Y5,000 to depreciation account, Y6,770 for bonuses to officials, leaving a balance of Y42,712, of which Y36 582 has been allotted for a dividend at the rate of 18 per cent, per annum, and the balance, Y6,149, carried forward.
Some time ago we published references to the Trans-Siberian route to Europe, supposed to be re-opened. It now appears that Far Eastern residents desirous of reaching Home quickly would do better to avoid this route for some time get. A gentleman whose evidenc, we regard as entirely trustworthy writes to the
via Siberia just at present involves serious Japan Chronicle, showing that to go Home delays, extra expense, and considerable discom
The N.-C. Daily News correspondent at fort, owing to the heavy pressure on the
Y chou, Szechwan, reports that there is a grow- available rolling stock Agents appear to having demand there for foreign goods. He says: been somewhat reckless in booking seats they could not supply. There are also hearsay com. plaints of scant courtesy" and loss of luggage. No doubt things will be managed batter after the line has been open longer at present, passengers are advised to turn their affention
elsewhere.
•
•
I notice that quite a number of people are wearing leather shoes, made by local cobblers. The leather is of a decidedly poor quality and soon wears out. If a good cheap shoe be put on the market in this place I think it will find a ready sale. Some of our citizens have bought shoes made at the Chengtu Industrial School, but they do not like the make. What they
ENGLISH ELECTION CARTOONS IN waut is a shoe that will polish and look like the
PEKING.
Mr. Rodgers replied in part) as follows:- of the
Discussing the remarks made in Parliament I S&W . not
one long ago in New York papers, a discussion on affairs with reference to the Times disclosures of in the Far East, in the course of which it English election cartoons (Chiness | Labour was mentioned, 88 peculiar pha e of question) being reprinted in Peking, the Pek ng Chinese life, and especially of life in Shanghai, Times says:-The whole onus of responsibility that any official who remained here for the is here thrown on the British Charge d'Affaires, -space of one year and preserved his reputation (and the Government dodges behind the old was doing pretty well. Now, gentlemen, I have familiar screen of "no official information". been here fourteen months, that is, two mouths We can rather fancy, however, the kind of beyond the limit, and yet I see this demonstra- snubbing Mr. Carnegie might have received had he ventured to put forward the Chinese print as tion here to day to express appreciation of my work, and so it is no wouder I should feel a serious basis for international negotiation or a diplomatic note, misleading and mischievous gratified (applause). I wish to say here that in going to America my heart is set on the objects it undoubtedly was, and was intended for which I am about to make the journey--to obtain for Americans in Shanghai, and for the benefit of our country, adequate and proper facilities
for the
of transaction
I want business under adequate methods. to see a building here in which will be housed the various departments of the United States Government service established here. It is absolutely essential that we should have anch ́s building not because the absence of it is inconvenient to me personally, aud I take it that you, gentlemen, who have business here at this Consulate, do it as well in the existing establishment as in a more pretentious edifice; but it is a proper, adequate home for the Con- zular establishment that i want to see here, and I want to see our country assume its proper place in the galaxy of natious in this city, as in every other city (applause). I need not say to you that. Shanghai must and will be a great oity. Ita geographical position is such
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"
to he. Being moreover, a reproduction more or less of lying cartoons and caricatures actually circalated in Eavlaud, official remonstrace wou'd be handicapped, and "official information' reduced to a faros. Dr. Morrison's' massage, albeit falling on the hard and stony ground of a wilful ignorance, may serve to indicate to a few thinking men at home how thoughtless acts in the fancied and conscienceless seclusion of the homeland may rebound on some far away corner of our beads in the empire, and the increasing need that there is for a wider and more imperial line of thought and public sentiment. That it is possible to carry imperial considerations to an extreme which paralyzes action and creates a fatal hesitancy we have had many opportunities of witnessing, but it is questionable whether in the present day that danger is as serious as the self-engrossed insularity which never gets a glimpse of the empire as a whole all.
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foreigner's. In fact they want everything to look like the foreigner's. Their straw hats are nearing the shape of such hats as you will find in Shanghai, their cats are straight-sleeved and button down the front; they try to write with a lead pencil instead of a Chinese pen; they want foreign pictures for their shops. All this is a feeling after something diff rent from their old way of living. It seems quite evident that the next generation will require more luxuries than their fathers are accustomed to
"
Au attractive little volume just come to hand is the Guide to Tsingtau. It gives a very com-- prehensive description of the German pro- tectorate in China, and being well written and nestly got up (having 82 beautiful illustrations, eight maps, and a plan of the tɔwa) induces a keen interest in the places described and a desire to see more of them. Should this be the result, the Hamburg-Amerika Linie, from whose office this little book has been sent, will be pleased to give the necessary information. It is explained that the name Kianghon, usually associated with the seat of the German adminis- tration.in Chian, is the name of the bay as well. as of a town in Chinese territory, and it is the bay which gives its name to the German Kian- chou district. The capital, the only town, and the only Europeau habitation in the protectorate The guide- is Tsingtan, "the green_isle". book olaims Tsingtau to be the healthiest and cleanest place in the whole of China, and the writer describes the native inhabitants of the province as "harmless, good natured, kind and attentive to travellers, whom they do not as yet overcharge, which makes travelling there chesp
and safe
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