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he imagines himself the corpse. (Laughter) Hongkong's strong points are the scenery, the bathing parties, Sir Paul Chater's collection of old porcelain, the nearness of Hongkong to Manila, the fog, and the excellence of the con- sular service. I list the fog as an advantage, for without it we should be short of a favourite topic of conversation. Hongkong is owned by the English, run by the Irish and financed by the Scotch-all except the hotels which are supported by American tourists. Queen's Road loads my fellow- Americans with No. 2 jade and Swatow drawnwork; they to go the races, drop their dollars at Macao and visit the Execution ground at Canton. When they reach America they write books saying the Chinese hate the missionaries and that it is a shame that the American Consuls on the China Coast should be chosen from broken-down politicians who wear celluloid collars and eat with their knives. To the globe-trotter Hongkong seems a strange, godless land-there is much to be done here but one gets fond of it, kind hearts are every where; and where may one find life so rich in interests, so stimulating, so full of possibilities? In Hongkong one can study the British people: Their solid quality is shown in roads, reservoirs, docks, homes carved into the granite hill. The tram line has been running 20 years without fatality. They take from seven to ten years to put up a public building, but it will be standing when your posterity come a century hence. What a commerce is here-an average of 60 steamers ever in the port; sometimes 20 coming and going in a day. It is estimated that the annual value of the freights is $250,000,000. There is absolute freedom here; you may drink yourself to death, as many do, or you may take on sainthood. There is no tariff; the streets present the most polyglot show of nations in the world. Speech is free and the Britisher speaks out man to man. Joint stock companies print their annual statements and tell the worst on the theory that light is better than darkness. Every shareholder is at liberty to abuse the directors in the newspapers. The Briton is the greatest grumbler in the world. It is his way of getting things done. When I first came I was depressed. I was convinced by what I heard on the tram that the Empire was falling to pieces, and that unless the present government fell, all was lost.. It was only when I took a hand myself in pointing out the way to run the empire that I found my mistake. The Briton throws rocks at statesmen while he lives-so they will be at hand to make a monument when he is dead. The Britisher is unemotional and avoids extravagances. The day after the typhoon of September 19, 1906, which wrecked some thirty steamers and drowned some 10.000 people within a few miles of this hall, I dropped into one of the departments on business, and the man behind the desk casually remarked: "It was quite a blow we had yesterday." The debris was cleaned up, charity was boundless and the community went forward. The Britisher loves a lord because he suggests the throne, but no one is exempt from his brief characterization He's a good sort" or 'He's a rotter" and rarely does he err in his judgment. The Britisher loves sincerity above all else; he despises cant to such an extent that he misses many good things lest they be not real. He is direct in speech, looks for the heart of the thing and has a native good sense that protects him from imposition. He is a difficult man to whom to sell a gold brick. Hongkong fronts од China. It is not the British idea to touch the life of the native on many sides as is our Philippine policy, and Americans hope to teach England some things in coloniza- tion in a decade more. The Chinese make the British rich and in return the British give them the law and order and justice, education and uplift, that ever flourish where the Union Jack flies. The Chinese appreciate the benefits of residence in Hongkong, and no measure the suggestions in honest government which the Chinese take to the mainland to make
44
ནཱ
4.
one can
them restless with "squeeze," favoritism, and inefficiency. I have come to have great respect for the commercial integrity of the British people their wholesome home life, for the man- liness of their men, the respect shown by children for their parents-and as for the ladies -you have but to follow the rule of Sir Chris- topher Wren's monument and to look about. Fellow Americans, you are on historic ground
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
this night. The United States opened Japan to the world, but it was the English people who in the early days with infinite sacrifice and appalling hardship and dauntless patience and courage lay siege to the dead conservatism, the ignorant conceit and the fierce opposition with which the Chinese people resisted the foreigner until finally the gates were thrown down. It is a story of peril, violence and tra- gedy on land and sea. War, typhoon and corroding disease ravaged these pioneers, but chosen youth of the British Isles forever sprung to fill the vacant places. Those who sought to trade were humiliated, way-laid and repulsed, and those who carried truth to the abodes of cruelty were, shamefully slain. The tokens of that awful struggle are all about you. You may read them on shaft and tablet in the streets and on the walls of churches and in the cemeteries of these coast ports; Happy Valley and Stanley are rich in the dust of those who died in the unavailing struggle of China to keep out civilization; and the coast waters are strewn with the bones of Englishmen who sailed away from the homeland they loved and never returned. It is not strange that Britons love this bit of their dominion planted on tho mountain side, which they found a pirate-infested rock and have made a Gibraltar over-looking the greatest of com- mercial ports of the world and the door of benefits to hundreds of millions of people. It is not strange the word Hongkong embodies to the British nation the Imperial Concept, for into these parts they poured their life blood and treasure; here they asserted the pluck and endurance of their great race; the spot kindles memories of heroism and diplomacy, of com- mercial aspiration; of the successful effort to uplift a race. And we are not the only guests and beneficiaries of this blood-bought port; nor alone we may enjoy its security and opportunities. Hongkong is open to men of every race, and while many states devise barriers and exclusions we and all may come and enjoy and go without restraint. As you go to your ships to-night, your eyes will turn back and marvel at the lights of the city on the mountain side. For miles they twinkle along the water front, and far, far up they scintil'ate until the lamps made by man lose themselves in the stars set by the Al- mighty. Riding safely in the harbour and each contributing a light are thousands of craft. ranging from proud steamships destined to remote ports, the tiny skiffs on which Chinese families under British protection sleep after the day's toil. To the north looms the dark. mighty, eternal skyline of strange, mystic, potential China just now stupidly awakening from her sleep of centuries to the call of civilization. Far to the East and West are lighthouses flashing warning and cheer to ships at sea. But again your eyes will seek the moun- tain side and the fascination of the lights that glow and throb and burn and seem to spell out for you the secret of her charm. Not alone you have sought to read the message of those lights of Hongkong. For sixty years millions of men coming and going have spelled solutions into them.
To some with evil design they have spoken the avenging power of the British Empire. Little children have clapped their hands with glee at the fairy land; eager youth fresh from the fireside have translated them into ambition, power and riches; old men going home to die have canvassed their life story in the flickering show and looked higher up for the light that shall never be dimmed. Lovers hare fancied they read cherished names in the tracery of the lights and how many have sailed away, their hearts reach ing out with ecstacy for the living; and how many have watched the lights until they were lost in the distance, their eyes wet with tears for the dead left behind. But what will they mean to you to-night, my brothers of the sea, America's chosen ones, trained by the Republic for the defence of the motherland? Some of you already having proved your courage in war for justice and in the defence of the weak. Believe me as one who has lived with these British men for three years who has been taken into their homes, been permitted to share their joys and to grieve with them in their sorrows-believe me that the reserve of these people, broken for you this week so splendidly, covers the warmest and most faithful of hearts-that the blood which gave us Wash-
-men
now,
[March 20, 1909. ington and Lincoln and which in our own veins calls us to acquit ourselves like men,
flows strong and true as in the days of our fathers who were themselves Scotch or Irish or Welsh or English; and that for you the lights of Hong- kong read clear to-night these words "Great Britain and America--one then, one please God, one for ever." (Prolonged applause)
HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR Ssid→ Upon me it devolves this evening to reply to the toast of "The Colony" although there are many present who by their longer residence and greater experience, especially my friend Sir Paul Chatër, are better fitted to reply to this toast. Still I think perhaps on second thoughts that this might not be correct. know of the oft quoted couplet of Burns;
Oh, wad some po'er the giftie gie us
race
more
You
serve
in
Tae see oorsels as ithers see us. Those who have lived a great part of their lives. in this colony may perhaps not be able to bring that independent criticism and that appreciation which those who have been in other lands for
many
years, endeavouring to their country, can bring to the task speaking on behalf of this colony. I put it to you who are visitors here--I speak in an excess of modesty that you have never seen so beautiful a place in the world as Hongkong excepting always your own native lands (Applause) You will no doubt have travelled up to the Peak on the tramway--it is an unsight- ly object but a very useful one, excepting when it interferes with the prolongation of a festive evening. You have looked down on the har- bour of Hongkong where the flags of all nations float over stately vessels and innumerable junks are assembled in the friendly rivalry of com- merce. You will have looked out on the other side on the expanse of Pacific Ocean studded with in- numerable islands between which junks with sails spread look like butterflies on the water; and that view is the same as it has been for two thousand years when we had not
the started in
did of nations and not possess the luxuries of modern civilis- ation like China, including the taxi-cab and taxation-(Laughter.) Fifty years ago, to quote a well known description, Hongkong was a barren rock infested by pirates. To-day it is a centre of industry infested by sugar factories, cement works, docks and tramways. You will probably agree that the pirate was perhaps the
picturesque; but his charges were exorbitant and we prefer the tramway. We welcome our visitors this evening to Hongkong and hope they will carry with them friendly and pleasant recollections of ourselves. We hold to them the right hand of followship and good will, and hope we succeeding in showing how cordially we welcome them; but it is not for us to judge. Our principal guests this evening belong to that great sister nation which advances in the forefront of progress in this twentieth century, a nation whose population probably embraces the grea. test number of white races that exists under any single flag on territory undivided by seas. In recent years the United States has taken under its protection the islands of the Philippines and have thus become close neighbours of ours. hope the intercourse between us both in business and pleasure will increase rapidly from
business I Io year. there is room for a large and mutually' beneficial expansion of our relations, and I shall always do my utmost to promote that object. In our social relations we have recently had experience of your world-famed hospitality when our representatives visited your port. I trust that will be an annual event and that you will send over teams to us to compete in sports on our own grounds. I find it difficult sometimes, gentlemen, when I meet American of- ficers and gentlemen to realise that we do not live under the same flag. Our common literature and similar way of looking on things, the fre- quent identity of names and surnames,—all these are points of close relationship and some- times we are tempted to think that we have the privilege of close relatives, a privilege of mutually frank, and sometimes very frank criticism of each other. Personally I think that criticism is ап acknowledgement, an unrecognised acknowledgement of the close relations which exist between us and ong may it be before we substitute for it
1
year
to
are
out
I
think
1