Marol 4, 1907.)
Company paid to the German lines, principally, ( we Belleys, to the North German Lloyd, about £47,000 in respect of the year 1904, and they received. £63,000 from the German lines for 1905. For the past year the combine may be expected to receive about £60,000 from these companies, as the results of working should not be less favourable than for 1905.”
That the change did not and does not tren An attack particularly aimed at German shipping is now taken for granted; and there is more colour for the theory that it is a part of the keen rivalry between the White Star and Cunard companies. It was known that the Canard people were think- ing of a chinnel terminus for their big, new, fast steamers, and the White Star manager is suspected of having jumped into it merely to forestall them. Instead of rate-cutting, a policy which failed, they seem to have started a new game of harbour-claim-jump. ing. But more plausible, because more natural, is another explanation, which shows that the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board has killed its own golden goose by being too grasping. Not content with their steady average of nearly four cent profit, the Board was promoting a Bill in Parliament empowering them to levy dock tonnnge rates on gross instead of net tobnage, or on a proportion of the gross tonnage. This proposal was objected to and opposed by the Cunard people, there being a big disparity between the gross and net tonnage of the larger luers. A Par liamentary Committee also reported against the proposed change, but apparently the Docks and Harbour Board remained stiff- necked in the matter, with the result that Liverpool is being deserted. į
CHINESE REFORMS AND REACTIONS.
(Daily Press, March 1st.) Last year there was more rejoicing over the alleged symptoms of reform in China than mauy who know the Chinese believed to be warranted.
This year, though only two mouths of it have passed, there seems to be no doubt, even in the ranks of the most in- corrigible optimists, that the pendulam is on the backward swing. It is inexact to say that truth always lies between two extremes, but in this case it seems safe to suggest that the pendulum of Chinese politics has not really been swinging at all, as what clockmakers call the anchor-escape. ment (of prejudice) has been more or less jammed these fifty years. However, assum- rig as a many go that there was a notice. able swing toward what foreigners call reform, it is sufficiently clear this year that there is no hope of it reaching the point at which the (reform) movement will be set steadily aging, China was never more anti-foreign than she is to-day; old-fashion. d Mand arindom is again rampant; and, as a well-informed contemporary puts it, "those in power, generally speaking, are desirous of abandoning altogetter the sait of that knowledge and learning for the introduction of which they are indebted to foreign energy and enterprise, and the value of which they are fully capable of estimat. ing." Enlightened officials who do see the real needs are too few to count; and as we have recently seen, if they attain a position of influence and begiù to work as their intelligence prompts them, the old woman at Peking intervenes with crippling results, There cannot be too much emphasis put on the incidents that show how Cuina is Cuina till; that even where modified by moderu enlightenment, the limitations of the people are much what they were before the foreign teachers came. Witness the magistrate
pur.
ata
western
CHINA OVEŘLÁND TRADE REPORT. in South West Chihli, a man who had three years' training in Japan. Recently a defendant in a law uit, in open court, said "I refuse to accept your decision. What do you know of the law? Go to your brother-the ambassad ır court-and ask him what is Chinese law." The official stool up, and in a meek tone, sail" This is my first post. I may be wrong. Excuse me." And the case ended there, or, rather, has been taken to a superior court, one of thirty-thre cases that have gone there, entirely due to the official's ignorance of the rudiments of law, That is a change. A magistrate of earlier date might have found means to silence that bold defendant for ever, as well as seiz, his estate; but it is a question if the mesker, modern specimen can be of greater service to China. One of the more striking reform of last year was the “abolition" of judicial torture. The Wucbang correspondent of our Shanghai contemporary shows how premature were the rejoicings over that, by his story of the treatment of a rice-Christian prisoner called Liu. deserves punishment, but he should not Possibly this man have been tortured into a The enlightened officials, having this point 'confession." urged upon them, have replied that
"torture ander ordinary circumtances is abolished, but where the judges are satisfied that the evidence is sufficient to condemn s
mau to death he is so condemned and then evidence from him.' torture can be applied to obtain further
ons somewhere.
The
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ASIATIC EMIGRATION.
(Daily Press, March_2ud.)
President of the United States deals with. In his recent message to Congress, the
pressing for practical consideration both in a question, which has been long been the United States and in Great Britain; We refer to the ma: ner in which aliens, dr to speak more specifically, Asiatics, are to former country and by individual Colonies be dealt with in individual States in the in the latter. This question, which has of late pres-ed itself to the front in various directions, is really one and the same in America
applies to individual States in the United and in Great Britain. What Siates applies equally to individual Colonies in the British Empire. From what President Roos SVELT stated, there appears to be a hope that something will now bs done in the United States towards the solution of the difficulty which arises from the recognised independence of individual States in respect to their internal administration. The independence as applied either to individua. soundness of the principle of individual
Britain is beyond question. The difficulty, States in America or to each Colony in however, is to draw an exact line between what is merely an internal or local inatter and what is one of general and even at times of international importance. Upon this piat, the suggestions of President ROOSEVELT are worthy of careful attention. statutes of the United States he amended He recommends that the criminal and civil in such a way as will enable the President acting for the United States Government, which is responsib'e in international relations
enforce the rights of aliens under Treaties He states that the Federal Government has ɔme power in this direction, and promises to exert such power toward putting an end to the trouble which arose respecting the exclusion of Japanese from the schools in San Franci›eo. It is clear, however, that he recognises the necessity for some definite settlement of the difficulty. able." be says,
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It is unthink- "that we should continue a
Chinese; and there is rash for the That is characteristicilly Chinese, official
missiounry's bitter comment that "the abolition of torture is about as much An accomplished fact as the suppression of opium or the closing of shops during the first fortnight of the Chinese New Year." The shops are c'used at New Year time, but purchasers can always get what they officially closed at night, bu “
waut. City gat s are will always open
cum baw boycott was to prove Chinese unity and patriotism, but there were always Chinese who evaded the one and disproved the other. And then there is the incident of policy under which a given locality may be the re ent capture of a notorious rubber by allowed to commit a crime against a triendly a magistrate, accomplished oly when the nation, and the United States Government magistrate took the precautios of deceivingimited, not to preventing the commia- his own underlings. Recently the Viceroy of the crime, but in the List resort to at Canton has received instructions from
defending the people who have committed Peking that in futurs triennial examinations
it against the will be held in every province "of people
consequences of their wrong doing have already obtained Toun Sre
Precisely the am· diffi·ulty which the and Ku Yax degrees", and that successful
President points out in the United States candidates will receive official positions exists as between the Emprial Government in the Government service"-in the service, and her Clonies; and is likely to be accen- that is, of the Government supposed to have tate as time goes on and the power of the ablished the ld, useles
working cla«ses, who are anxiou‹ to exclude qualificatiɔn, in favour of methids giving
Asiatic competit on, increases.
It is recog- candidates the useful and practical attain-nise that the time has come when some un. ments so necessary at this juncture.
derstanding should be come to between the it not be thought, in view of thes, and Imperial Government and the Colonies for other similar incidents, that the Chinese are
the settlement of questions which are partly that the United States will be in a better of an Imperial character. It is probable position for settling such a question than Great Britain and that what may be a feasible remedy as between the Fed:ril Go- vernment «nd in lividual Stales may not be so easily applicable as between the Imperial Governm at an i the Colonies. What, how- ever, may be do sê in the United States will jnterest in Britain and may at least form a a doubt be watched with considerable basis upon which a solution to this difficulty may be found.
who
44
system
of
Mar
as yet unfitted to emulate Japan, even if they had the will?
A special committee appointed to report upon the forestry business in Korea has returned the following report :-(1) On the left bank of the action of the Japanese and Korean Govern. Yalu River the work is to be done by the joint
ments. On the right bank the work to be done is still under negotiation with China. (2) As for the money necessary * supplementary socount should be appended to the bäriget. (8) On the right bank of the river about one and the trees divided into twenty four grades hundred miles (4 Japanese ri) should bi occupis i The number of trees is estimated at 109, 0,030 and the average value per tree is fro Y5.
W
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tions as Great Britain and the United States It is curious that two such practical na- should both have omitted to make provi. Y3 to | sion against so obvious a d'foulty na'that
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