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A Haiphong paper calls attention to the! readiness with which Chinese traders profit by the Tonkin-Yunnan Railway. At the import- ! ant trading centre of Mongtse customs trade values have risen from about fourteen millions
of francs, in 1897, to to over 44 millions ten years later an increase of 30 per cent. The tin mines of Hokeon furnish much traffic to the line. The output there rose from 2.500 French tons in 1897 to 4.000 tons in 1908.
The fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Yokohama as a treaty port will be celebrated ou July 1. At a recent meeting of the committee in charge of the arrangements it was resolved :— To discharge fireworks day and night on the day of celebration. To provide procession-cars, and illuminate the streets. To unveil the late: Naosuke Ii's bronze statne. To hold base-ball matches, boat-races and other sports. To post- pone various impending religious festivals to that day.
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
SOCIALISTIC LEGISLATION.
(Daily Press, June 12th) Mr. LLOYD-GEORGE must be a proud man 10-day after having successfully carried through the House of Commons his great scheme of social legislation disguised as a financial measure so that it evades the hostility of the House of Lords. The author of a recently issued book, entitled The Menace of Socialism," describes Socialism in a happy phrase as "an aspir- ation linked with an appetite" aud combin- ing "the dream of justice with the secret Pope of loot. In the debate on the Budget which took place in the House of Commons we note that Mr. PHILIP SNOWDEN M.P.
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whom citizen H. G. WELLS, the famous novelist, counts as one of the sanest leaders The work of segregating the lepers in the of the Socialist movement was particularly Philippines is being done very thoroughly and enamoured of this Budget, and he declared rapidly all over the archipelago. The provinces to the House that there is no way under of vindoro, Mashate, Romblon, Capiz, Hoilo. Heaven by which you can make the poor Antique, Negros. Samar and Leyte have been better off except by making the rich poorer. goue over three or four times and it is believed that but few if any lepers remain therein. On And, putting on the mantle of the prophet, some of the other islands a few have been located! he informed the House that "this Budget and will be picked up on the coming trip. This is not the last tribute the idle rich classes work of segregation has been going on since of this country will be called upou to pay 1906. Up to that time the relief extended to for dealing with the problem of poverty lepers was more in the nature of aiding the which their riches are responsible for." We individual leper; the larger project of exter-
are told in one report of the debate that minating the disease from the archipelago was
this utterance caused " a wave of unrest" never taken up to any extent.
which was even more evident on the The Japan Mail says:-"A long telegram Liberal than on the Unionist benches. sent by Mr. Chirol to The Times on the 30th altimo and published in that journal on the Liberals may dissent from this view, but 2nd inst., is referred to by Japanese leading
it is impossible for anyone to disguise Mr.
the fact that the doctrines enunciated by with newspapers
satisfaction. much Chirol was able to say that he found in Japan this Socialist member of the House of Com- a spirit eminently friendly to England and con- mons underlie the whole conception of the ciliatory towards China. He was also able to Budget, and that in the scheme of social legis say that Japan's attitude towards the Fakumentation the Budget embodies a precedent and Chientao problems, as well as towards other questions pending between herself and China. is just and moderate. The telegram bined with the leading article which appeared at the same time in The Times will certainly have powerful influence in swaying English opinion."-It will be noted that the Mail which is in a position to know, says the tele. gram was sent by Mr. Chirol, and not by the Tokyo correspondent of the Times.
coin-
is created which is certain to be followed to the greater disturbance of the security of capital which is the basis of prosperity in its widest sense. Whether it will work all the injury to capital and the industries it feeds that is Dow anticipated, time lone will show. It has been argued cery forcibly by the Opposition that the Budget will frighten away capital. The Commandant d'Olone has returned to France
Prime Minister's reply to that is "Where is after two years spent in Western China and
Where is it going North Eastern Tibet, at the head of a French capital going to By "to
to find a resting place and a breeding place mission of exploration. He made many interest
where it will be more ing discoveries in this little-known quarter of
secure than in the globe, which will be related before the Royal England?" Germany, Mr. AEQUITH told Geographical Society in London, in response to the House, had to face a financial position an invitation from that organisation. The mis. besides which that of England was "chi'd's sion under Commandant d'Olone traversed the play." Capital might go north and south. country in the upper valley of the Hoang Ho
east and west, it might traverse the whole occupied by the warlike race the Hsifani who have
of the civilised would—“ it would still find never been subjugated by China, and who form a practically neutral state between China and itself confronted with a Finance Minister no Tibet. "As to religion." Commandant d'Olonless necessitous than his right hon. friend." says, "they have made a salad of several Yet prominent bankers in London are re- theologies. They practise simultaneously Bud-presenting that the flow of capital out of the dhism, Brahminisın. and a primitive religion not unlike that of the primitive Greeks and Scandinavians, worshipping the spirits of the plains, rivers, and mountains."
The Japanese Settlement at Hankow appear- to be flourishing, the Japan Mail says. The number of houses and inhabitants is increasing daily. It is expected that buildings for a fish
market and a vegetable market will be soon erected. A consulate is to be built in aly, and an elementary school is to be transferred to the town from some place which is not mentioned in the telegram. Ground for a Japanese club has been purchased at an outlay of 4.5 0 taels, and work has been commenced on a building which large firm is spoken of as engaged in putting up particularly impos· ing premises. Its partners are Mr. Takagi, of the Mitsui House. Mr. Tachibana, of the Okura
is to cost 15.000 dollars.
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House, and Mr. Kao, head of an exchange shop at Wuchang. It has further been decided that the terminus of the Yel-Han Railway shall be on the river's bank. immediately opposite the Japanese Settlement, and this is expected to have a great influence upon the development of
the latter.
country, which they regard as inevitable, has already commenced, and it is prophesied that the Income-tax officials at the next quarter will observe both a marked decrease in the income received from home invest ments, side by side with a marked increase in the income returned by conscieniu taxpayers as derived from foreign invest- ments. Lord CREWE, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, speaking at the annual dinner of two Associations of Bankers dealt with this topic in a way which suggested that if capital flowed out of the Unite Kingdom it would flow largely into the iritish Colonies. He reminded his hearer that balf of the holdings outside the United Kingdom was held in India and the Colonies. With regard to the Crown Colonies, in 1906 fengkong raised £1,100,000, at 3 per ent.; in 1907 the Straits Settlements raise £5.000,000 at 4 per cent., convertible bonds rears; and in 1907 running for Southern Nigeria raised £3,000,000 at 4
fire
[June 21, 1909.
per cent., for the purposes of development. Those loans are held in England. The cita- tion of these facts might serve to indicate that good investments may be had in the British Colonies, but it is no answer to the argu. ment that the Budget is having the effect of diverting out of the United Kingdom & good deal of capital that is needed at home The Socialist seems to forget that it is a very wide world we live in, and he does not recognise that legislation which drives capital out of the country does not solve the problem of poverty, but accentuates it.
MISREPRESENTATIVE LEGISLATURES.
(Daily Press, June 14th.)
It is somewhat strange that in England and America at the same time we should find legislative chamber, nominally representa tive, so thoroughly mis-representative of the feelings and opinions of their respective nations as are the House of Commous and the Senate. For long the American nation the burdens had been groaning under imposed on it by the ultra-protectionist ariff, which, without a corresponding in- crease in incomes, was, raising to famine prices all the necessaries of life. President ROOSEVELT had felt the pr ssing need for relief, but uncertain of the action of the House at the moment, and deeming it in- expedient to introduce so disputatious a measure in his last year of office, he had passed it on
new President and a new Congress, who would be able to approach the question with more unfettered mind.
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Somewhat in a similar manner, the minds of the nation at large had in England been gradually awakening to the absurdities of Cobdenian so-called Freetrade, which was gradually sapping the foundations of the industries of the land; and was actually pandering to the exclusive protectionism of the Continental Powers, in this respect following the lead of Germany. Though the manufacturers and financial classes were rapidly awaking to the evil results of the helated policy of the Cobden Club, the masses of the workers, into whose minds Freetrade (we use the compound as a single word advisedly), had been instilled as a fetish, and dishonour to which would bring on them dire disaster, were still infected with modern Cobdenism. Though the Government of Mr. BALFOUR, then in power, was dispoved to look favourably on some amendment in the financial department of the triff, its members were by no means unanituous, and leaders would not under any circumstances have made tariff reform the subject of an appeal to the country. The affair was, however, complicated by other corsiderations. The Government and un- wisely raised into a political question the importation into South Africa of Chinese labour under conditions of employment that were capable of being misrepresented as approximating
slavery; and their opponents, though well aware of the false- hood of these assertions, were yet prepared to take advantage of the falsehood to further their political ends. The result was a dis honourable drawing together of the extreme Cobdenian section of the pretended Free. traders, and the socialistic element among the working classes at the time of the last general election, and the return to Parlia ment of an altogether new political section, united only on the one point of revolution. No one institution of the country has been safe, but the principal point of attack has been property; the wealthier classes being openly plundered
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