CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
October 30, 1909.] THE BRI ISH POSTAL AGENCIES. | but.
one
4
It has
(Drily Press, October 26th.) H.E. THE GOVERNOR when he addressed the Legislative Council last week was unable to give any definite information in regard to the Postal Agencies in China, some of the Treaty ports having agreed to provide the contribution H18 EXCELLENCY had suggested, while others had not. been suggested to us that the most simple and the most satisfactory method of getting over the difficulty, is by raising the rate of postage in the ports where the revenue of the Agency does not cover expenditure. If the postage rate to the United Kingdom and the British Colonies were raised from 4 cents to 5 cents, British residents in those places would not have a great deal to complain about. We have received two communica- tions to that effect
from Shanghai. Four cents is not the equivalent of penny, and the increase would not, therefore, be a departure from the Imperial Penny Postage rate, while the British Post Office would still be the cheapest in the East, for the rate by all other Post Offices in China remains at ten cents. "A Britisher," writing to a Shanghai contemporary, has pointed out that British penny postage was intended for the Empire, and not for British subjects resident in places out- side the Empire, and he suggests that the natural remedy for the loss at present incurred by Hongkong for postal connection with the Treaty ports is that it should either be borne by the Home Government on behalf of British subjects in those places, or be met by reverting to the 24d. or 10 cents per half-ounce postage to be paid by residents in those ports or by those posting to them It does not seem necessary to go so far as this at least, at present. The Imperial Govern- ment has undertaken to bear half the loss; the Hongkong Government is prepared to bear a moiety of the remaining loss, and we should think that if the balance can be covered by increasing the postal rate to the United Kingdom and the Colonies from 4 cents to
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withi all due deference to Sir ERNEST SATOW's experience, we think the the subject was under discussion in the view put forward by Lord CROMER when House of Lords is a very sound one. If a studying till he got to the East, he very often young man, said his Lordship, "delayed
tering of the language he never learned never studied at all, and if he got a smat-
tious. On the other hand, if he once got enough to be able to discuss difficult ques- grounded in England, he readily picked up specially true of the young man coming out local knowledge. That seems to us to be to China, where the task of acquiring the language is so formidable. If he came out, as the first British missionary did, possessing and thought of the people among whom his some previous acquaintance with the language lot is to be cast, he has at least a most valuable incentive to make such a thorough study of the language and customs of the people as can only be acquired by residence endorse the suggestion in LORD REDESDALES amongst them. We are not prepared to
better equipped in this respect than are the speech that other foreigners in the East are
the Committee went to show that foreigners British. If all the evidence placed before were cutting the ground under our feet" the Far East is concerned, it is because the we do not think it can be said that, so far as said foreigners are linguistically any the better equipped than their British com- petitors; and when LORD REDESDALE says of the fire for the foreigner in the Far East,'
we have been always pulling chestnuts out
of the remark on the particular subject under we confess we are unable to see the bearing consideration.
"L
46
receive greater encouragement in some of the Oriental studies certainly capitals of Europe than they at present receive in London. While in Berlin grants £10,000; in Paris and St. Petersburg, are made amounting to something like £7,000; and in Italy £4,000; in England the University of London receives an annual grant of £300 from the India Office, and King's College receives an annual grant of
£100 from the Colonial Office for the teach-
5 cents in the Treaty ports of China iting of Haussa. It has been the policy of the would be a most satisfactory solution of the the question.
ORIENTAL STUDIES.
(Daily Press, October 27th) The Report of the Committee appointed by the British Treasury to consider the Organisation of Oriental Studies in London
British Government to rely almost entirely on training abroad, but the Committee in their Report state that they regard as wasteful the present system adopted by the Foreign Office of sending out to the Far East men who may or may not possess the necessary aptitude for acquiring Chinese
and Japanese, which, they say, could easily be tested by a year's probationary training in England.
379
pean members of their staff acquiring a knowledge of the Chinese language and study? affording the necessary facilities for the So far as we know, there is only one firm in Hongkong-and that steps in that direction, and has been able to a Japanese firm-which has taken serious
all other Chinese assistants, save an office dispense with the Chinese compradore and
are brought by the firm to China, and after boy. We understand that Japanese youths spending a few years in Hongkong or sent into the interior of China in order to Shanghai learning the language they are improve their knowledge not only of the language, but
of Chinese methods of business. This is the ideal system, and we other Japanese firms. For obvious reasons understand it is likely to be adopted by
exactly similar lines, but the foundation of no European commercial house can work on
the School of Chinese in the University of London,
now accommodated in King's remarks) a proof of the interest of the College, is (as the Committee in their report
of their staffs so far as a knowledge of the great China houses in the better equipment
paraphrase Chinese language is concerned, and, to CROMER, it
a remark made by Lord
the man who, if he cannot get rid of the that a wonderful advantage is gained by will readily be admitted
interpreter, knows sufficient of the language- to be able to check interpretations.
THE LATE PRINCE ITO.
(Daily Press, October 27th.) Words are inadequate to express the horror dastardly outrage which has robbed the and the sadness evoked by the news of the Japanese nation of its foremost Statesman. the history of his country, for he has been Prince Iro's history since the year 1867 is prominently identified with every phase of progress in the creation of Modern Japan. He will figure in history as the maker of the Constitution, and as the wise and far- seeing Statesman who has for at least a Throne, inspiring and guiding the great full quarter of a century stood behind the
front rank among the Powers of the world. movements which have elevated Japan to the Four or five times the Prince has filled the office of Prime Minister, but whether in or out of office he was always the adviser on whom, more than any other, the EMPEROR relied. When Korea became a Japanese
contains much that is of interest to British | Yet we believe we are correct in saying that protectorate it was Iro who went to Soeul
the system which the Committee deems "wasteful" is the system followed by nearly every missionary organisation working in the Far East. The Committee regard as successful the system of training, at Cam bridge, the student-interpreters for the Levant, and of training, at Oxford and Cambridge, officials for certain branches of the Egyptian and Soudanese Civil Services Hence the Committee reach the conclusion that as the best results are attained under this system of training at Home for service in Egypt and the Sondan, so must it be for service in the Asiatic countries. When we come to the section of the Report which deals with commercial students we find Mr. KESWICK saying that "if we are to make progress in those [Eastern] countries
residents in the Far East, whether they are in the Consular and Diplomatic Services, the Army or Navy, or engaged in Commerce. Lord REDESDALE, who was Chairman of the Committee, was in the 'Sixties in the Diplomatic Service at Peking and subse- quently at Tokyo, visiting the latter capital again, with Prince ARTHUR of CONNAUGHT, in 1906. Among the seventy-three witnesses examined by the Committee were several men who have figured prominently in the Far East, including Sir ERNEST SATOw, Sir HENRY BLAKE, Sir CLEMENTI SMITH, Mr. W. KESWICK, M. P., and Mr. ADDIS. From a speech delivered by Lord REDESDALE in the House of Lords on September 26th we learn that "there was almost unanimity of opinion on the part of the witnesses as to the desirability of giving young men who were being trained for the East preliminary
and to keep the advantage that at instruction in London, though the opposite present we possess over our competitors of as Sir ERNEST SATow." Certainly few of edge of the language. I regard it as of view was taken by so eminent an authority other nations, we must not neglect a knowl- the witnesses who discussed the subject from the very first importance." With that the point of view of the young man coming observation few will disagree, yet if we look to China or Japan were more competent around the Colony of Hongkong, how many
express an opinion on this point,
firms do we find insisting on the uro
to
as the first Resident General to draw up and ment, bringing order out of chaos in the inaugurate a revolutionaryjscheme of govern-
administration, and so promoting the welfare
and progress of the country. There is no question that PRINCE ITo accomplished dur- ing the two or three years he held the office of Resident General a great work in honest government, and there is abundant Korea in laying solid foundations for good and evidence of appreciation on the part of the
ore enlightened Koreans as well as by his observers. Still the very nature of the task own countrymen and foreign independent
at the hands of a Korean political fanatic made some disaffection inevitable, and it is
that the venerable statesman of nearly three score years and ten has fallen while in
Manchuria on a visit which he himself
only a fortnight ago, on the eve of his
deplored in all the chancellories of the departure, declared to have no political significance. His death will be deeply world, as his commanding influence in the politics of Asia was a factor of the greatest importance, and the consequences of its
removal are difficult to estimate.