314
OPIUM.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
OLD AGE PENSIONS.
[May 16, 1908. to gain. The Korea Daily News has gone | crudescence of plague as we were before the to really extraordinary lengths, in its campaign was entered upon at all. The (Daily Press, 13th May.)
vernacular editions, to instigate revolt way in which the number of cases has The Hon. Mr. MURRAY STEWART is going against the existing and accepted order of swollen this season (suddenly, after promis- to ask the Government on Thursday a things. The misguided Koreans will now ing to be few) is A¤ unauswerable question which many people have been have to pay the consequences of listening to commentary on the effectiveness of our asking within the last few days. As it could its foolish and wicked counsels. In Anuam present accepted ideas as to prevention. never have hoped that such a piece of les troubles " seem to have arisen as a business could remain a secret, one wonders result of taxation, plus too much education why the Government took no immediate for native digestion, and though there are steps to take the community into its con- no foreigners openly championing the fidence regarding a message that must have insurrection, it appears that there is no such all-embracing effects. To begin with, lack of people willing to supply the we ure assured that, if there be really no insurgen's with arms and ammunition, for appeal against the hasty decision of Parlia- the usual considerations, of course. It has ment, if the China Association's protest falls even been stated that the arms addressed to on stony ground, we will see an early exodus Macho were intended, not for Chinese rebels, of a large number of the labouring popula- but for Annamites. The French papers tion of Hongkong, who will go to Canton or describe the situation at present as very Macao or anywhere where they can obtain inquieting, and business men are finding the drug that alone makes their drab it impossible to make any hoadway. Em- existence tolerable. It is a curious thing boldened by the reduction of the military that in bad times, when the masses are forces, the malcontents are coming out into worse off than usual, the consumption of the open, It is supposed, a Haiphong paper such luxuries increases. It is curious, but says, that there is now a thoroughly organized not inexplicable.
More trouble, more movement, which has actually got a cam- consolation, and this is said to be the paign fund deposited in a Hongkong bank explanation of the recently noted growth of thirty million piastres! While these of opium consumption locally, which and other ou dits" indicate a certain has sent Bengal opium up from $1,000 to $1,200 a
case. Property owners and managers of industries are seriously con- cerned. In the case of property, further depreciation is expected as a result of this hasty interference with the finances of an already overburdened Colony, and Insurance companies that have invested in mortgages will probably be among the sufferers. With regard to the curtailment of the export from India, it has been pointed out to us that this will tend to cheapen the Indian product at home and increase the Indian consumption which is already con siderable. Thus good achieved here (to speak in anti-opium phraseology) causes greater evil elsewhere, and Indians of intelligence assert that any attempt to stop the consumption in India will lead to administrative troubles compared to which the Swadeshi movement will seem a trifle. Evidently this question is peculiarly one in which even a Parliament of saints should look before it leaps.
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ASIATICS EFFERVESCE.
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(Daily Press, May 14th.) The Far East seems to be in a state of effervescence. The Formosans are giving the Japanese more trouble than ever, and the Korean insurgents, encouraged by the seditious advice of the Korea Daily News, bave made it necessary to despatch a brigade. Also, in Aunam, our French friends are greatly concerned about the threatening appearance of les manifes tanta. The Cantonese seem more than ever contumacious in the face of Peking, and altogether the state of the Asiatic world may fairly be likened to something effervesc. ing. There is little need to say anything, about the aborigines of Formosa; while the Japanese Government is acquitted of any desire for their extermination, it is evident that it would never do to attempt any policy of let alone with the irreconcileable savages who refuse to let their peaceable neighbours alone. In Korea, unpleasant as a vigorously organized campaign may appear, the rebels seem to have left the authorities no choice. It is a pity, and more than a pity, that those who know better should be so active in stirring up useless mischief. The Japanese in Korea are being troubled with the same stirring up of evil forces as troubled the British administration in Egypt, by out- siders with nothing to lose and something
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amount of exaggeration born of panic, there is no doubt that our Freuch neighbours are passing through an uneasy time,
PLAGUE.
(Daily Press, 14th May.)
(Daily Press, 15th May.) The President of the Local Government Board (Mr. JoHN BURNS) in a speech on the Unemployed Question a short time ago in. cidentally mentioned that the Government's Old Age Pension Scheme would provide pensions for a million persons. On the basis of 5/-a week, or £13 per annum, this would mean an annually recurrent expen- diture of £13,000,000, plus about half a million to meet the cost of administering the system. According to our recent London telegram the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposes to set aside out of the Budget surplus a sum of only £1,240,000, which will not suffice to provide pensions for even 100,000. So modest a scheme as this is unlikely to satisfy the Labour leaders of England who appear to have had it in their minds that the Government would base its proposals on some such scheme as that propounded a few years ago by Mr. CHARLES BOOTH. Two schemes have been under consideration by the Local Government Board-one drawn up by Mr. CHAPLIN'S Committee of 1899, and that of M. CHARLES BOOTH, Last year this Board issued સ memorandum giving information as to the cost of these two schemes. "The cost of the CHAPLIN scheme (53. to 78. a week pension) was estimated, to rise from £8,029,000 in England and Wales and from £10,780,000 in the United Kingdom (1907) to £9,219,000 and £12,004.000 in 1921 respectively, assuring the age limit to be 65. And on the same assumption the cost of Mr. CHARLES BOOTH's scheme (58. a week. pension) for the United Kingdom was estimated to rise from £27,508,000 in 1907 to £30,632,000 in 1921, excluding the cost of administration." Practically no saving in the cost of the present Poor Law administration was expected under the CHAPLIN scheme and only £2,000,000 out of an expenditure of £14,000,000 under the Booth scheme.
The executive staff of the Sanitary Board has been greatly diminished, as was men- tioned at the necting on Tuesday, and we wonder how this is affecting the work required in connection with the unexpected augmentation of the outbreak of bubonic plague, Recent discussions of sanitary administration have given us some insight into the method of organization, the alloca tion of specific duties to the subordinate members of the staff, and the present cou- dition of affairs compels speculation as to whether this high organization is bound immoveably in red tape, or whether it has the elasticity that commonsense would seem to hold desirable. We hope that in times like the present, when there appear to be an extra daily percentage of plague, that the higher officials are able to discriminate the
respective values of the various operatious; which works, that is to say, are immediately imperative, and which may Contrasted with these figures, the amount temporarily be neglected. We should Mr. ASQUITH proposes to allocate out of his suggest, for instance, that the men who are surplus revenue for Old Age Pensions vainly attempting to cope with the fecundappears absurdly small; but there may be rat, would be more usefully employed at present in cleansing and disinfecting work, and as many others as can be spared. It would be just as feasible, we suppose, to cure the rats or prevent them collecting plague bacilli, as to exterminate them altogether. It appears that wet weather, by making the Chinese in congested areas retire indoors and shut themselves up, conduces to the spread of tl.c disease, while fine weather, tempting the poor people to spend more of their time, sleepjug and waking, out of doors, restricts it. This on the face of it, suggests that perhaps the official objections to letting varandahs be made more habitable have been mistaken, though intended to check undue interference with the free ingress of fresh air. It is an idea, any way, orth pondering by the more rational of the members of the Board. The sunshine of April did more to check the ravages of smallpox than all the combined efforts of our highly organized Health Department; and it is distressing to find, after all the money, time, and expert skill employed, that we are nearly as helpless before a re-
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no fierce opposition to the scheme on that account from the men who have been anti- cipating a very much larger vote. They probably are well aware that wherever Old Age Pension Schemes have been initiated the public expenditure at the beginning has invariably been moderate, and that there is no finality to schemes of this character. In Germany where there is compulsory State insurance to provide for sickness and Old Age the Government contribution to the. fund has grown from 6,040,000 marks in 1891 to something like 50,000,000 marks now; in Belgium where insurance is not compulsory but the State subsidises providence, the State contribution increased from 1,497,000 francs in 1900 to 4,700,000 in 1906. in New Zealand the payment by the State in 1899 was £127,819; for 1908 it is estimated at £335,000. schemes the prospective pensioner contri- butes towards his pension, while he is able to work. But it has been insisted in England by the leaders of the Labour party that for the United Kingdom the scheme must be universal and non-contributory.
In all these
Mr.