296
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
THE CANTON-KOWLOON RAILWAY.
(Daily Press, April 9.) It is gratifying to learn from the speech delivered by Mr. FRANK GROVE, the Engineer-in-Chief of the Chinese section of the Kowloon-Carton Railway, at the interesting little ceremony which took place at Canton on Wednesday that he Bees no reason at present to depart from the terms of his estimate that trains will be running for through traffic with the British section on or before July 1st, 1911. This will be nearly twelve months after the date by which the British section is estimated to be completed, but the announcement made by Mr. GROVE is welcome in Hongkong as
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be remembered. As an ancestor worshipper he anticipates posthumous attentions from hia offspring, but more material perhaps is the wish to secure that support which all Chine-e sons render to their parents or foster parents when ofertaken by old age. Where there is is no offspring Chinese buy and rear sons as their own for the same causes. Of course there is also the grossly commercial purchase of getting a boy for a small sum, training him to some trade or occupation and then selling him at a greatly enhanced value. With regard to girls the case is different. They are bought with a view to their being sold as servants in native families or being kept to the age when they can be profitably disposed of as wives or concubines. There is another fate to which many are condemned, and that is too well known to call for particular re-removing an impression that owing to the de- ference at present. With a knowledge of lay in starting the Chinese section we might these facts, it is easy to realise the commer- have to wait much longer than twelve months cial possibilities of kidnapping. Of course before through connection is established the risk is great, at least in Hongkong, but between Kowloon and Canton. There in neighbouring ports the nefarious trade cannot be the slightest doubt that the can be conducted in comparative safety. The railway will speedily lead to enormous method is very simple. A man or woman by developments in the district it traverses, appealing to childish feelings may induce a and possibly both the Government of little one to follow him or her, and once out of Hongkong and the Government of Canton sight of the family resilence, it is not diffi- will look at the start, more to the traffe cult to get away with the child. Children between intermediate stations for the returns stolen from Hongkong are usually taken to
than to the through traffic from terminal to the mainland whende negotiations are terminal. At least it is not very obvious opened with the parents for ransom or yet to the man-in-the-street how the railway where negotations are opened for their is going to successfully compete with the disposal. As a rule children are seldom steainboats for the great passenger traffic
The bought to be kept in Hongkong.
that exists between the two. An hour's risks of discovery are too great for that. difference in time of transit is not a matter They are usually sold to persons in Siam or of serious concern to the average Chinaman, Singapore. Boys are frequently sold to but the amount of the fare is a matter great contractors, and it is remarkable that they importance. It will probably seem to are passed like chattels from one to another many that H. E. Sir FREDERICK LUGARD without their realising that they are being drew a bow at a venture in suggesting sold. Otherwise it seems difficult to account
that H.E. the Viceroy of Canton might, for youths of eighteen and upwards when the railway is completed, run down not breaking their bonds and asserting to Hongkong after breakfast, take lunch at themselves ᎷᎸ. free agents.
Even the Government House, and get back to Canton immigration laws are evaded by those the same evening with plenty of time to responsible for the sale. Girls on the other spare for business or pleasure in Hongkong. hand are even more easily bandied about. That will only be possible with express Accustomed to regard themselves as little trains from terminal to terminal better than mere chattels, they make no running at the rate of forty protest at a change of ownership.
fifty miles
an hour. Nowhere East of Admittedly it is not easy to suppress this Suez, we believe, not even on the trans- evil. The Chinese themselves in reporting Siberian railway, are trains running at that the cases are given to distorting and ex-speed at the present time. Yet, if there is to aggerating the facts which make it difficult - for the police to appraise the state- ments made to them. Many report the loss of a child to "save face," and even the stolen children add to the difficulties be- cause they are schooled to call the parties uncle or father or mother and to tell the tales they have been ordered to tell, thus pro- tecting the people from whom they should wish to be protected. Then, strange to say, the law affords protection to the purchaser: It acknowledges the proprietary right of the individual who has bought an adopted son or daughter, or who has acquired an apprentice or a servant, Thus, though it be perfectly well known that a young person has been stolen, and the party buying him or her makes himself criminally liable if the transaction were other than in flesh and blood, the law caunot touch him, an immunity which is not calculated fo further the ends of justice or to enable those engaged in the work of suppression to strike at the root of this crying evil. Our authorities are faced with The bounden duty of removing this reproach from our midst and should beslir themselves by adopting measures which will make the infamous trafficking impossible and secure for each that personal freedom which the protection of the British flag is understood to afford.
or
[April 12, 1909.
V
running between Canton and Shamshui, which, we understand, shows results that are probably not excelled by any railway of the same mileage in the world. feel sure that when once the Canton-Kow- loon railway is open to traffic all doubts which may now exist as to the probability of it attracting sufficient traffic to cover ex- penses will speedily be resolved. There can be no doubt that as sections of the great trunk line between Canton and Hankow are completed, and as the mineral wealth of the interior of China is developed, there will be an increasing volume of both freight and passenger traffic over the line to Kowloon, for as His Excellency Sir FREDERICK LUGARD pointed out, it will be of enormous advantage to the Chinese to have railway access to a great emporium of trade like Hongkong, and with goodwill and hearty co-operation on the part of those who control the two sections of the line we ought to be able to look forward with confidence to the prosperity of the enterprise.
RANDOM REFLECTIONS.
It was rather unfortunate that so many official changes should have taken place on the first of April. Suggests that somebody has been “had."
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The ice war is opportune. The warm days are coming and we can view their advent more comfortably when we reflect that we can have more ice in our drinks than before.
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*
The boys who chase the balls on our tennis courts have not advanced so far as those in Manila where they have gone on strike at one club for a higher rate of compensation for an afternoon's work. They wanted thirty cents instead of the regulation ten cents, but whether there were blacklegs or whether they were made to see wisdom they returned to business at the would probably have combined a strike with a old rate. Had they been Chinese boys they boycott. So far we have been spared a labour dispute of this sort, and we may rejoice in our good fortune, for would it not be terrible to chase our own tennis balls on a hot afternoon?
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Who said Hongkong was in a bad way Let him retract. Let him eat financially? the leak. Let him for ever hold his peace: We are not in a bad way. On the authority of the Colonial Secretary and one would as soon think of disputing with a lady as with the gentle. man who presides over the Colonial Office-we know that we can spend the little matter of eleven thousand dollars without its affecting our mone- tary balance. Revenues may shrink, but maskee! presented, and keep smiling. we are always able to foot whatever bills are
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*
How curious! Pardon, dear reader, the pun is not intentional. The exclamation was inspired on reading An edict, by the request of Im- perial Household issued yesterday appointing the work of binding up the hairs to form a cue H. E. Shih Shu, the Grand Secretary, to perform for the Young Emperor on the date of the expiration of the Imperial Mourning."
be any considerable through passenger traffic it will only be obtained by greatly reducing the time of transit taken by the river boats. Ordinary trains, stopping at every station along the line of route are not likely to average more than twenty miles an hour. As the entire length of this line will be 112 miles, a speed of twenty miles an hour gives about six bours for the journey against between seven and eight by steamer. Then the cost factor enters into the question. On the German railways in Shantung the passenger rates per mile are 5 cents for the second class, 2 cents third class, and 14 cents fourth class. If these rates obtained on the Canton-Kowloon railway the fare of a fourth-class passenger would amount to $1,40 for the through journey, whereas by steamer the fare for steerage passengers is 70 cents, by day boats, and 50 cents by the night boats; and it has been much less when competition was keener. These are questions upon which it is interesting to speculate now, but they will all doubtless be settled in
Tune "God Saye the King." course in a way' calculated to attract a
The above extract from the Siamese national traffic remunerative to the railway.
anthem should be sung, three times for nine all know that the railways at present run-
consecutive days before breakfast and whilst ning in China earn good dividends, and as
fasting. A copy of it, signed, should be sent to nine different acquaintances, with a request to an example of what may be done in South
Pass it on." The results will be found surpris- China we have the short length of railwaying, the recipients being in cordial agreement.
due
We
A fortnight ago I had a reference to the endless chain prayer which is being circulated in Hongkong by some misguided zealots. The subject has evidently inspired & correspondent, who, I am afraid, is sarcastic, for he writes as
follows:
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SNOWBALL SERIES NO 2. Oh, whatana Ssiam! Oh, whatana Ssiam! Oh, whatana Ssiam ! Ana Siam!