242
Chun-len would be handed over to the Chinese without the express sanotion of that Court, says our contemporary, and adds: From yester da, 's trial we may derive this one consolation ted by Dr. Barobet, inasmuch as he insisted upon a second warrant being issued for the arrest of Li Chun-lan on a different charge from the one on which he had appeared in Court,
that the correctness of this assertiɔn was admit-
The Magistrate, with Dr. BARCHET'S verbal concurrence, sentenced the prisoner to two months' imprisonment on a charge not on the charge sheet, and the latter was endorsed by the Assessor, "no complainant having appeared this charge is dismissed. This sufficiently indicates the provocation for our contemporary's concluding observa- tion, that
if this strange trial carries any lesson with it, it is that our Assessors must be of that stuff which, with the maintenance of perfect relations, yet leave the Magistrate convinced that he has seated by him a man who will not only see justice administered impartially, bat will have some thought for the digai'y of the Court and will insure respect for the cognizance taken of its proceedings by the Settlement authorities,
11
THE I.M.C.
14
[May 30, 1908. whole financial situation here is very unsatis- factory. The Chinese have been plunging or sinking deeper and deeper into debt for months 827,000,000, of which 813,000,000 are absolutely past. l'o German ́firms alone they owe
unsecured; and smaller but still very cousidar- able sums are owed to Japanese, French, and other foreign merchants.
Since I wrote last final official confirmation bas been given to the appointment of the Director of the Imperial Kailways of North of Newchwang. Mr. Chow is a British subject, China, Mr. C. L. Chow, to be Customs Tsotai having been born in Hongkong. Like many other prominent offisials in North China, he is a Cantonese and like most Cantonese, fie is a very able man and in every way a mode official. It was to the band of Southerners (Cantonese) whom
H. E. Yuan shih-kai gathered about him that the former Viceroy of Chibli owed maob of the success which characterised his administration. These include
became
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND | bering that there were casual flies in the amber of Sir ROBERT HART's record should be gentlemanly enough to deprecate inimi- cal guesses as to the record still in the making, and certainly to deprecate intrigues that have only such guesses for excuse. The Times even now congratulates itself that in 1885 Sir ROBERT HART declined the artless offer" of the Minister-ship at Peking, and it has in mind "the possible consequences" of 80 pro-Chinese a person occupying such a position. The funny thing is that it sprinkles him with eulogistic adjectives, cataloguing his many virtues and taleute, including his "shrewd perception," and yet never dreams of the possibility that in the views it disapproves, its paragon may have been right. It amounts almost to saying that it had implicit faith in his judgment, but that on several occasions he Mr. Chow himself, who before he judged unwisely. To say tilat his "douin-director of the I.R.N.C., was director of the ant will became supple and pliant" means China Merchants 3. N. Co., Mr. 8. C. Tasi, plainly that a strong man became weak. Customs Taotsi of Tientsio, Mr. Liang Tun Although Sir ROBERT HART has been nearly Yen, formerly Customs Taotai of Tientsin and half a century in China, although he is au
now on the Waiwupu, Mr. M. T. Liang, also a former Customs Paotai of Tientain, and undoubted authority on things Chinese, and the one man who really understands the afterwards of Shanghai, and now of the Waiwapu, H. E. Tang Shao I, lately Governor people, "with meek acquiescence he sought of Moakden and now of the Waiwapu, Dr. refuge in certain verbal assurances' which Mark, director of the Public Works Dapart- gave no guarantee, assurances which few
ment, l'ientsin City, and several others who people acquainted with the facts were prepar- would be a credit to any country. ed to accept." After that reference to the superior acumen of the "people acquainted with the facts," we have no option other than to believe that the Times considers that Sir ROBERT HART had become a dotard incapable of perceiving facts. Those who have had the privilege of recent com. munication with him know what a libel that is; his liver may be affected, but his brain most certainly is pot. It is still capable of teaching something to the Book The Times article, Club philosophers. which is reprinted elsewhere in this issue, need not bi further analysed. With the lead we have given, attentive renders will be able to see in it for themselves an example of how far illogical statements and unfair suggestions may be disguised with a gloss of pompous an- decent verbiage. The poison is served in milk of human kindness.
(Daily Press, May 29th.) The English newspapers, as might be expected, have bee busily discussing Sir ROBERT HART. Most of them, knowing a little, are simply laudatory; others, knowing a little too much, scem hard put to it to qualify their praise without seeming un- gracious. The frankly eulogistic as usual go to unwarranted extremes and suggest perfection; Sir ROBERT HART was a man among men, strong and strenuous beyond the normal; and so on. There is no need to quote them, nor to detract the exagger. ations, Sir ROBERT HART deserves more kudos even than he is likely to get, so the balance may adjust itself somehow. Most interest attaches to the comments of the Times, which while saying a great deal seems to be struggling to say more than it likes to Though the trusted counsellor of China, he was also regarded by foreign nations, particularly by Great Britain, as a custodian of their rights and privileges.' Past intrigues, past grumbles, are skated over thus, "If in the conduct of diplomatic negotiations he sometimes chose to consider that primarily he owed a duty to his Chinese associates, we are not now disposed to criticize him on that account. natural and inevitable that the warm
say.
23
it was
"the pre-
sympathy with the Chinese race, which he conceived very early and has never since withheld, should remain the predominant influence in his mind." This is ma- guanimity of the de mortuis order. Sir ROBERT HART'S official career is "practi- cally terminated," therefore the Times dues not care to say all that it feels it could about a custodian of foreign interests whose pro-Chinese sympathy was dominant influence in his mind." Of Sir ROBERT BREDON, just grappling with his duties at a time as critical as any that has gone before, to say such things is obviously embarrassing. Yet they can be said and they have been said, and the Times shows! no such shy reluctance as it does in the case of a career CC
practically terminated," and therefore safe from harmı. Nothing has éver been alleged against the present In- spector-General that is not now hinted by the Times against his illustrious predecessor. Even to say so much was unwarranted; what Sir ROBERT HART has done, his critics know; what Sir ROBERT BREDON may do, they can only guess. Those whose gentlemanly instincts shrink from remem
TIENTSIN.
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.]
May 10tb.
In my last letter I mutionel that Sir Robert Bredon had done a very popular and liberal deed in coming to the rescue of the
Haibo Conservancy Commissioners by provid. ing them with funds for the continuation of the raking work in the Ferguson Channel aoroas the Taku Bar. What the Acting Inspector General has done is to offer the Haiho Con- have to be paid back, but in the meantime it servauoy Board a loan. This loan will of course
has
deepened channel across the Bar to be restarted enabled the work of maintaining the
without any of the delay that might otherwise have occurred through the obstructive atti- tude of the shipping interests.
Attention has been redirected to the serions commercial depression in Tientsin by the suicide on May 5 of two prominent Chin-se merchants in the Native City, Mr. Yen Yueh Ching and his
BOU,
Ho Te Bank, Tientsia, for amounts totalling They had drawn post lated cheques on the
about Tls. 69,050, and being unable to honour them, not having a single tail to their credit at the bank and being worried with other serious liabilities, amounting altogether to a million, they resolved upon suicide. The father, having cansed his wife to hang herself, went out with his son,
and the two drowned themselves in the river. The wife was subsequently found and resuscitated.
It is feared that this financial disaster will affect other Chinese firms in Tientsin and l'eking and perhaps also several foreign firms. The
One of the cleverest and ablest of the officials
named is H. E. Liang Tan Yen, who unfortun victim of opium smoking. He is ately is a affected by the Imperial Ediot forbidding opium-smoking amongst officials, and offered to resign. But H. E, Yuan Shih-kai knows him to be too valuable an official to lose, and declined to accept his resignation. Instead he gave him a holiday with a view to enabling him to effect a cure. The circumstance is one of those that the Chinese indications which sho
earnest about Government is seriously in
putting down the opium evil,
An event of some importance was the appear. auce ou May 5 of the first number of The Chinese Public Opinion," a new tri-weekly paper, published in English under exclusively Chinese auspices in Pexing. The editor is Mr. Chu Chi. The claim is made that it is "the first real Chinese newspaper in a foreign language." The object of the editor is to discuss foreign actions from a Chinese standpoint. We should assiduously strive after bridging over the gulf that separates foreigners from Chinese in these days per- haps more than ever before. But above all and everything our aim and tendency is, and ever will be, as long as our paper is privileged to run its course, to publish the Public Opinion of our country. We shall do it in a jast attitude to both sides, but our language will always be plain and opso. We shall try to fight the good fight for the welfare of our noble and sublime call, we shall suffer ourselves, Emperor and his Empire. And for this our if needs be, to be blamed, imprisoned, don- demned and no matter what punishment is meted out us, we will always publish our opinions. This is not only our right, but our
duty."
THE ROYAL SANITARY INSTITUTE.
The following_are_the_results of the pi aminations held by the Hongkong branch on May 25th and 27th 1908,
Sanitary Science as applied to Buildings and Public Works, (Recommended for Certificate). Samael Robert Boyd; Inspectors of Nuisances Examination, (Recommended for Certificafe), Robert Hudson, Frederick Ernest Beach.
The following were the Examiners: - Hon. Mr. W. Chatham, C.M.G., Director of Pablic Works, Hon. Dr. Atkinson, P.C.M.O., Mr. P. N. H. Jones, Ast. Director of Public Works, Dr. W. W. Pearse; M.O.H., Capt. Shinkwin, A.S.C., Mr. E. Ralphs, Mem. Sanitary Institut Hon. Secretary, Mr. Alfred Carter, Mom. Sanitary Institute, Moderator. The above recommendation brings the total number of Sanitary Certificates gained in Hongkong since the formation of the local branch op te
39.
j