332
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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fronted with a long calendar entirely male be located at Norfolk. "We have not up of cases of armed robbery, such as Sir room in New York, nor Boston, nor in FRANCIS PIGGOTT bad before him at Charleston, nor in San Francisco for our the February Assizes here, we can fighting ships to stand," Admiral SPERRY is hardly doubt that he would have taken reported to have said, and he added: "That much the same view of the punishment best is because Congress, in its superlative calculated to benefit the individual and to wisdom, has not seen fit to provide the protect society. Criminals of this type Navy with the accommodations that I think cannot be said to have a self-respect that is are needed." Admiral SPERRY's aspirations outraged by the infliction of a flogging. are for a fleet which will excel the British One of the "general principles" by which Navy. According to the report of the inter- the Government of India were guided in
view from which we have already quoted the amending the Whipping Act was that "whip-gallant Admiral expressed himself in these ping is peculiarly suited to brutal, cruel aud
"This nation will be a secure and sordid offences involving personal violence." peaceful nation when we have a large navy, The Government regard whipping as an when we excel Great Britain in numbers, unnecessary punishment for offences that are vans, sailors and ships. Until that time not of an active and daring character, and thes lay down that it is not to be inflicted when it | is likely to outrage self-respect. These are intelligible principles, aud if they are new to India, it cannot be said that they are new to Hongkong. For our Yokohama contem- porary to suggest that there is no distinction in this matter between the practice of the Chinese Courts and the Courts of Hongkong is too gratuitous to call for serious notice. To say, forsooth, that because our Houg. kong Courts recently inflicted the punisi- ment of flogging on seven desperadoes con- victed of armed robberies, that, therefore, we have no right to preach reform to the Chinese: no right to attack them on the ground that their laws are bad and their judiciary worse, is the reductio ad absurdam.
AN AMERICAN PACIFIC FLEET,
(Daily Press, April 22nd.) When the United States Minister of the Navy publicly urges the maintenance of a first-class Battleship Fleet in the Pacific as well as in the Atlantic, as RECTER informs us that Mr. MEYER has done at Boston, we may be quite sure that we shall not have many years to wait before the proposal begins to take practical shape. Evidence has not been wanting of late that the idea has been very much in the minds of the naval authorities in the United States, and that it has become a definite object of ambition with the naval men to have a Pacific fleet which, in the words of Admiral SPERRY will be " powerful enough to defy every nation." The plea of President TAFT in his inaugural address for a "strong navy" is fresh in the memory of our readers. "A modern navy" he said, "cannot be improvised. It must be built and in existence when the emergency arises which calls for its use and operation. My dia- tinguished predecessor has in many speeches and Messages set out with great force and striking language the necessity for maintain. ing a strong Lavy, commensurate with the coastline, the Governmental resources, and the foreign trade of our nation; and I wish to reiterate all the reasons which he has presented in favour of the policy of main- taining a strong navy as the best conservator of our peace' with other nations, and the best means of securing respect for the assertion of our rights, the defence of
interests, pur
and the
of exercise our influence in international matters." For the present, however, the stationing of a first-class battleship fleet in the Pacific is but an aspiration, as the naval experts of the United States are strongly opposed to the division of the present fleet into A lantic and Pacific squadrons. They consider that a bigger American navy is necessary before the proposal is practicable, and. moreover, that adequate accommodation for a fleet an essential preliminary requisite. "Great White Fleet" which has recently circumnavigated the globe has to
The
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[April 26, 1909.
[ternational finance, on which alone great financial fabrics can be erected capable of commanding the confidence of the world; there are among them, as amongst every other people, individuals whose immediate interest it is to so lower the momentary standard of security, that certain documents in which they are interested but whose face value does not come up to the world standard, may be put on the market at an enhanced price out of all proportion to their intrinsic value. The commercial world cares little or nothing as to the ownership of the money pissing through its hands provided that the money be of the intrinsic value represented on its face, or be imme- diately transferable into such. It troubles the Chinese merchant little whether the bill of exchange or bank note he receives in payments for his goods bear an English or a Chinese name on its face, provided he feels certain that it will be paid in full at due date on presentation. The English merchant is equally indifferent; his sole anxiety being that it shall be met at due date. and his interest in the transaction extinguished: The extinction of indebtedness' is in both cases the object aimed at; if the Leung Kwang Provincial Mining Bauk eg. offered the same securities and facilities for the due payment of its obligations as, say, the Hongkong aud Shanghai Banking Corpora Ition, and the accounts of each were equally open to the inspection of parties interested, it would be a matter of perfect indifference whether notes of the one or the other were tendered in extinction of an indebtedness. Now with all foreign banks of issue, before they obtain the privilege, certain very special formularies have to be complied with; and in most cases notes payable on demand re- quire certain deposits in hard coiu or bullion to be placed in some government department, where they are kept instantaneously ready in case suddenly called on, failure to pay a note on demand being legally an act of bankruptcy. Nothing at all similar occurs with regard
any Chinese whether a bank of issue bank,
accounts accessible to
we shall be in constant danger." What is the danger, it may be asked, in which the United States is assumed to stand? No conflict with Great Britain is suggested as within the range of possibilities. Is there fear of Japanese aggression? No. Admiral SPERRY is credited with having said: "Japan could not now do us any harm, even if she desired to do so. She has not any fighting force. She is not building any new hattleships." Yet in almost the very next breath the Admiral is represent d to have said: "Suppose there should come a conflict to-morrow. How futile would he
or efforts to protect Hawaii the Philippines-that is for the moment. think that Congress should realise our position in this respect. We do not care for war but one never knows." And again: "The safest way to permament peace is to be in possession or a big commanding navy, not a threatening one, but one that could go out and make the others run like a scared wolf if there was occasion." This seems to us to far exceed President TAFT's idea of a "strong navy commensurate with the coastline, the Governinent resources and the foreign trade of our nation." America's length of coastline, though it amounts to no less than 13,000 miles, cannot be said to need a navy which will excel the British in guns, sailors and ships. Nor can such an ambitious idea be considered as com. mensurate with the resources of the United States Government, nor again does America's foreign trade justify such an amazing programme of naval expansion. But America is a young nation, and in the matter of naval protection, as we are so often reminded, it is necessary to take long views. The prospect is not an attractive one. With America and Germany going in for navies which are to excel the British, and with Great Britain resolved on a two- Power standard to maintain her naval supremacy can we say that the world is increasingly assured of the permanence of peace which all are professedly aiming to secure? We think
This game of "beggar my neighbour' means panic rather than peace,
not.
CHINESE BANKS.
(Daily Press, April 23rd.) That the Chinese as a people are perfectly well able to understand that the general unwillingness of foreign banks, and foreign ners generally, to have any more than the most infinitesimal dealings in native bank notes professing to be "pavable on demand" does not proceed from any indisposition to use "Chinese" money, but is a phase of that general principle of confidence, which is at the bottom of every mercantile trans. action beyond mere harter, it would be an unjust reflexion on their commercial ability to deny. But though, as people the Chinese are perfectly capable of recognising those universally accepted principles of in-
not. No
to
or
the
public are rendered by any Chinese bauk with the exception of the so-called, though not by the Imperial Government itself recognised, "Imperial Bank of China", which is really a bank conducted on foreign lines. No statistics are given of the face value of notes outstanding, nor can at any moment even the roughest estimate be formed as to the amount of reserve at hand available for meeting notes and other bills
payable on demand." The question then becomes one, not of whether the money presumed to be represented by the note issue be Chinese or Foreign, but whether there be any money at all. Now, as we have said above, the Chinese are perfectly aware of the fundamental law governing the value of securities, and no nation in the world is quicker in applying them in their own interest. The condition of the subsidiary coinage of China is a case point, the exchangeable value of every silver or copper piece issued by every mint in the Empire is daily recorded in every shroffing office in the land, as well as how much each is affected br over-issue, or over alloy. Industries, such 89 the tramway lines, which of necessity have to accept payment in subsidiary coins, find themselves entirely in the power of these associations of shroffs, who make the exchange from day to day. There is little doubt that by arrangement with the provincial mints they have been in the habit of fixing beforehand the rate at which they were prepared to accept each issue of debased copper or silver. Even beyond this there are pretty plain indications