212
A REGRETTABLE INCIDENT,
W&S
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
(Daily Press, September 19th.) The action of the French Vice-Consul at Canton in releasing a number of alleged pirates arrested by Chinese officers on the Paul Beau, under the circumstances reported by our Canton Correspondent yesterday, is, we think, greatly to be deplored, for several reasons, and not unnaturally the affair has evoked much indignation not only among the Chinese officials of Canton but among people of all nationalities who are interested in the efforts which are being made to suppress piracy in the Canton Delta. Briefly the circumstances as reported by our corres- pondent were that the Canton authorities received telegraphic information from Hong- kong that a gang of pirates was proceeding to Canton by the Paul Beau. Instructions were accordingly given to the superintendent of the Shameen Guard to have the alleged pirates arrested. The captain who ordered to effect the arrests interviewed the French Consul who give him a letter addressed to the captain of the Paul Beau. When the vessel arrived, the Shameen braves boarded the vessel and arrested seven or eight alleged pirates who were travelling as passengers. It was not until after the arrests had been effected that the Captain of the steamer read the Consul's letter and he then learnt that the Consul's instructions were not to permit the Chinese officer and his soldiers to arrest the pirates on board the steamer, but they could arrest them as soon as they got into sampans to go ashore. The Captain of the steamer immediately informed the Chinese officer of the contents of the Consul's letter and refused to permit him to take the prisoners away. At the same time he wrote a letter informing the Consul as to what had already occurred. The Vice-Consul went on board the Paul Beau and the Chinese officer and his braves had to leave the vessel at once, and be ordered the prisoners to be released. Some of the pirates, it is stated, returned to Hongkong by the same vessel, while others escaped ashore. We can quite understand the disappoint. ment and indignation of the Chinese officials. For years the Foreign Powers have been complaining of the inability of the Chinese Government to protect commerce from piracy in the Canton Delta, and as a consequence of this ineptitude a flotilla of British gunboats patrolled the waters last year for two months, until the Chinese had organised a proper patrol of their own. It is admitted that the Chinese authorities have since been exerting themselves to suppress piracy as they have never exerted themselves before, and it must be grievously disappointing to them to learn of the escape of a reputed gang of pirates through the active help of a French Consular official. The Chinese authorities had clearly recognised their dependance on the help of the French Consulate in the matter, and might reasonably have expected a ready disposition to co-operate. From the legal point of view, the Consul was well within his rights in declining to allow the men to be arrested on a French ship, especially as the authorities were admittedly acting only on telegraphic information, which might conceivably have turned out to be misleading. But when the Captain of the Shameen guard went to see the Consul, he should have been given to clearly understand the limits of the Consul's willingness to co-operate. Instead, he was allowed to leave the Consulate under the impression that he bad the necessary authority to make the arrest on the ship, and that being so, the Consul must share the responsibility for the subsequent misunder. standing.
One other point is to be noted as it indicates how a satisfactory way out of the difficulty might have been found. In the interval which elapsed after the Captain had read the Consul's letter until the arrival of the Vice-Consul himself, the men must be considered to have been in the custody of the Captain, and it is much to be regretted that the Consul did not pardon the misunderstanding on the part of the Shameen police officer, and co-operate with him to the extent of having the alleged desperados conducted off the ship and released where the police could have their own re-arrested them entirely on responsibility, Or, relying on the bona fides of the Chinese authorities, and having in mind the history of the effort to suppress piracy, the Consul might have accepted responsibility for the arrests, and, by being represented at the trial of the men, assured himself that his assistance had not been abused. We may assume that the inform- ation which reached the Chinese authorities came from one of the detective officers who are constantly on the trail of these brigands, Notwithstanding all the efforts which are being made by the Chinese authorities to suppress piracy afloat, and brigandage and kidnapping ashore, the authorities are aware that these atrocities are still of daily occurence in the vicinity of Canton, and it is, we repeat, much to be regretted that through the action of a foreign Consul a gang who had been tracked has been given another opportunity of resuming their nefarious occupation of preying in the worst possible form on Society. Clearly no intentional violation of foreign jurisdiction was committed, and in the circumstances the Consul might well have "stretched a point " in the interests of law and order and the benefit of foreigners and Chinese alike.
"
CHINA FOR THE CHINESE.
(Daily Press, 21st September.)
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38
September 28, 1908.
C
is undeniably a wide-spread suspicion of the foreigner and all his ways, but it is less in evidence among those who are in closest touch with the foreigners at the treaty ports, than it is among those who know least about them. In 80
the
of China for cry far
loads to exclusiveness, the Chinese "' to an antipathy towards the foreigner and all his works, and to the retardation of national progress it is not a cry which will lead to the benefit of China. In the rail- way and mining laws of Chiun this spirit of exclusiveness is already too much in evidence. China can abundantly secure her national rights and interests ยท with- out hampering the development of the resources of the country by placing absurd restrictions upon the employment of foreign skill and enterprise. It is indeed fortunate for China that the Rights Recovery Party, though noisy, is yet a comparatively small party in the State.
We my, however, confidently reckon on its growth, and we only hope that as appreciation of the nation's need of outside help becomes kegner their cry of "China for the Chinese" will be free from any manifestation of anti- pathy to the foreigner, and be used rather for the encouragement of a healthy spirit of emulation in progressive enterprise. At present "China for the Chinese" may have various interpretations. To some it bears the interpretation of Chinese against the Manchus; to others Chinese against the European; and to the few perhaps it means a desire to see China by her own efforts taking rank with the advanced nations of to be yet the world. But there seems lacking in
the State a party which does not see in the investment of foreig capital and the employment of foreign skill and energy a menace to national rights
and interests.
\
CHINA AND REPRESENTATIVE
GOVERNMENT,
(Daily Press, September 22nd.) It would certainly appear somewhat unfor. tunate that at the time when China is generally credited with considering seriously the desirability of introducing representative government in some form, the unfavourable side of that system has become markedly apparent in more directions than one. state of matters in the British Parliament, where measures which are unquestionably
The
A Chinese student contributes to one of the English magazines an article on the political parties in China in which he incidentally explains the meaning of the catchword China for the Chinese as signifying merely that the Chinese people will maintain their national rights and interests against anyone, from within or without, who attempts to endanger them, and not as that they are in any way anti-foreign. It will be allowed that "China for the Chinese" is a not in accordance with the views of the perfectly legitimate patriotic sentiment, nation at large have been forced through but it had its genesis in jealousy and hatred simply because the Liberal Government has 80 large a majority at its back, and in some of the foreigner, and we fear that there is
as for example the Old Age very little evidence to show that it is not instances, still the predominating motive in the minds Pensions Bill, against the opinion of those of those who make most use of the sbib- undoubtedly best qualified to judge, is boleth. Can this cry, indeed, be anything certainly not encouraging, and leads to the else than essentially anti-foreign in the suggestion that there may be a limit to the present state of China? If China means to principle that in the multitude of counsellors bring herself into line with the advanced there is wisdom. This proverb is no doubt nations of the world she needs to avail true if the counsellors are all mea qualified herself extensively of foreign help and to judge, and uninfluenced by personal con- guidance, of foreign capital, foreign skillsiderations. But, where these two essential and energy, and foreign resourcefulness. elements are wanting, government by mere The sentiment of China for the Chinese" numbers is apt to be as faulty as government Emerson long not new. History abounds with mani. by any single individual. festations of it from the beginning of foreign ago pointed out that Democracy carried to intercourse
an extreme was in reality only Autocracy in another form; and of late years, there has certainly been much, not only in Great Britain but in other countries to prove the truth of this view, much as it was doubted at the time when it was pronounced. There is undoubtedly a danger that strong and well organised conbination among the masses may become as oppressive as high handed action on the part of the higher classes; aud it caunot be denied that in the present day
with China. It has beeg
11
manifested much more strikingly than it is to-day. But "China for the Chinese meant then and would still mean nothing but stagnation and retrogression. It is a more euphouious cry than the "Out with the Fankwei" of fifty years ago, but the motive underlying it all seems the same. Evidence is wanting that the ory of "China for the
is not in its nature and purpose essentially anti-foreign. There
Chinese