*
248
SERVICE.
(Daily Press, October 6tb.)
was
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
INDIAN POLICE IN CHINA.
reflections. In
(Daily Press, Oct. 8th.). There is no overwhelming probability that the Shanghai troubles with the Sikh police will afford useful lessons; but they do inspire several obvious the absence of personal observation of the rebellious men's actual demeanour, we cannot, of course, injustice in commenting that our neigh
be safe from
THE NEW ALL BRITISH MAIL means of transit, As for Shanghai and Japan the Overseas mail will probably be more favoured, and judging by what they have accomplished in the past the latest There was naturally some misunderstand-transportation plan of the C.P.R. will meet ing of the claims of the new Canadian mail with considerable popularity. Both com route as a time-saver, not only out here, but panics maintain an excellent service on land even in London. We have already made and sea and enjoy the confidence of the it clear how the whole week is being travelling public as well as that of business saved", without beating the rapid service houses whose correspondence and freight of the viâ Suez lines. Mr. ALLAN CAMERON, they have safely carried for so many formerly of Hongkong, in a conversation years. with our London representative, anxious to dissociate his company from the wild statements of some of the London newspapers, echoed by Rauter, which had it that mails would now reach Hongkong in nearly a week less than had previously We do not been done by any other route. publish the interview as written by our London representative, for the reason that we have quite recently given similar facts and figures at length. The great thing is that the mails leaving Liverpool may now travel entirely on British ships and trains, and reach the Far East more quickly than they ever did before-by that particular route. The previous time via Liverpool and Vancouver was about forty days. The Suez route will always be the quicker for Hongkong and Singapore, so far as we can see; but it is expected to land the Liverpool mail in Shanghai in 27 days, and in Yokohama in 224 days. The latter sounds almost Jules-Vernesque, but Mr. CAMERON worked it out in this way--Liverpool Quebec, seven days, Quebec-Vancouver, four days; and Vancouver-Yokohama, 111 days. That is over ten thousand miles in 221 days, or about 445 miles a day. To manage this, special pains are being taken. The train of sleeping cars, diner, mail and baggage cars, is subjectel to rigorous examination lest some petty accident cause delay, and the finest engines and most expert engineers and crews are employed. The connecting traiu has precedence of all
other traffic.
As we have said, however, Hongkong can have only an academic int rest in this affair, with perhaps an added touch of Imperial pride. For business, however, between Great Britain and the Colony, we still rely upon the P. & O., the Nord- deutscher Lloyd, and the Messagories Maritimes services, which are giving every satisfaction to those having bus ness trans- It would be, as actions at both ends. our correspondent " Outis " recently pointed out, impossible for the C. P. R. to improve upon them, even with its wonder- fully accelerated service. The P. & O, express, which leaves Charing Cross every Friday and connects at Calais with the company's Brindisi express, arrives at the Italian port on Sunday evening and is run in conjunction with the India, China and Australian mail service at Port Said. This enables the mails and passengers to be landed at Hongkong in about 27 days, and during the North-East monsoon in 281 days. There are many occasions upon which the P. & O. have delivered their mails in much shorter time as, for instance, so far back as 1893, when the s.8. "Oriental" and the Peninsular" bad mails aboard at Hongkong which left London only 24 days before. Shanghai was then reached in a little over 27 days. These are perhaps exceptional cases, yet it cannot be gainsaid that the punctuality shown by the P. & O., the German and French mail lines, in regard to the delivery of mails well under the 29 days, is sufficient justification for an expression of opinion by merchants at Home that, so far as Hongkong is concerned, the mail services via Suez are the more rapid
bours appear
<<
to have been somewhat
(October 15, 1908. complaints that they are brutal towards Chinese, for whom, in both cities, they have a fine contempt. This is only one aspect of a situation that has to be reckoned with amid such cosmopolitan conditions. Our Shanghai contemporary complains of the "almost pronounced hostility between the constables and Oue or more of the [ European] inspectors." We have no besitation in saying that in this regret- able connection all are tarred with the same brush. Foreign policemen look down on their Indian colleagues, for no better reason than that they are not "white," and the Indians repay it with interest in the case of the Chinese, who are believed to return the compliment with an intellectual disdain of both. But what can be done against such prejudices, woven in the warp ant woof of human nature? In our Indian military contingents here we see a better sympathy between officers and men, due doubtless to braver masculine qualities. As a matter of opportunities for mutual appre‘iation of the fact, the Indians at Shanghai cannot be said to have offended beyond redemption. Stories of higher wages elsewhere affect more than Indians; and in their petition for increased pay, drafted and forwarded by an American attorney, they committed no serious impropriety. When that did not meet with the response they expected, they struck work. This was no doubt grave breach of discipline, but in matters of discipline we usually begin to count from the top. We note suggestions that the Shanghai men are not officered as they ought to be. All these things make us think that too much has been made of the incident.
TWO CHINESE SENSATIONS.
(Daily Press, 9th October.) THE telegraphic news items relating to Fur Eastern matters which we were enabled to give in our yosterday's issue were of more than ordinary interest and importance. Prob- ably the one message that would be read with most interest was the intimation from
panicky" over the business. They declare that the calling out of the Volunteers, and the enlisting of the services of the British bluejackets, to deal with eighty Indians who had refused duty, were wise precautions. They may have been, but we cannot resist the conclusion that these precautions would also have the effect of magnifying in the minds of the men their own power and im
However, as we have admitted, Portance. people on the spot ought to be in a position to form a more trustworthy judgment than we are; and it cannot be denied that the withdrawal of eighty guardians of the peace. from the streets of such a peculiarly situated розі- Settlement as that of Shanghai, was tion not to be regarded without serious concern. As we have, in Hongkong, num. bers of the same class of public servants, and as there have been petty exhibitions here of precisely the same discontent, due to exactly the same causes, we take consider able interest in the development of the situation. It is not an interest, moreover, that is confined to these two important our Shanghai correspondent with regard to All over the Far East the services Sir ROBERT HART and the control of the centres. of our Indian fellow subjects are widely Imperial Maritime Customs. In the last employed and generally appreciated. In few months we have heard perhaps more
case of Sikh police, we the
have about this department than has been said or come to regard their position and quali-written in the last four decades. The ties 2.9 peculiar to themselves.
sudden appointment of Chinese Commis. retiring Captain-Superintendent of Police at sioners to assume such control as was Shanghai, Major Bo18BAGON, stated in a formerly vested in the Chinese Foreign report last year that the Indian police are Office at once excited the most extraordinary useless for work other than that of a streau-apprehensions among the constituents of ous nature, such as point duty, regulation of the various foreign Powers, and particularly traffic, and the duties of a soldier. For in the British Press. It was easy, and the finer sides of perhaps natural, to jump to the worst criminal investigation, the Chinese detec- conclusions as to China's good faith in the tives and specially trained Europeans are
matter. Diplomats were more conservative far ahead ofthem. As fighting men, however, than the majority of newspaper critics, but the Indian police had his heartiest com-
their actions bad, of course, to be largely mendation, and he urged the authorities determined by the pressure of public opinion. to enlist more of them. Their conduct in That opinion, as so volubly expressed, or the riots more than justified their Chief's rather inspired, in the newspapers at Home, praise. Perhaps the Shanghai authorities did not carry as much weight as it might will now feel more regret that they allowed otherwise have done. It appeared so obvious the provision of a Sikh Gurdwara
that many of the European journals were religious and charitable institution for not particularly well-informed, and that which the Sikhs long ago petitioned they were merely following one another's stand over owing to difficulty in obtaining lead. This so often happens in connection from their opportunities for investigation with events geographically far removed that business men out here have learned to discount a good deal of it. That is partly
detective work and
The
-- &
-to
matter said it is an admitted fact that the site. Major BoISEAGON in urging this further an Indian travels and settles the more easily and quickly does he deteriorate, morally and physically. At Shanghai the general appearance of the men would make it seem, iu view of this statement, that they must have been wonderfully fine men at home. At Hongkong we cannot honestly allege any serious deterioration, either moral or physical. There are sometimes
one
reason why the Chinese regard the resident public as less friendly than the homestaying British public to which some of their reformers and diplomats are so fond of appealing. In this instance, the positions were partly reversed. We shared with our senior Shanghai contemporary the honour