436
a
legislation, has "galloped abroad," and unemployment appears to be more extensive in the kingdom than ever. A strong argu- ment can certainly be made out for business government," but the inaugural meeting of the John Bull League cannot be regarded as the death knell of the party system. The aims of the League will un- doubtedly command a large amount of sym- pathy and support, and if it were only led by a ROSEBERY instead of by a BOTTOMLEY there is little reason to doubt that the League would speedily become a powerful factor in determining the choice of candi- dates for Parliamentary honours.
TRADE MARKS IN CHINA,
[November 22, 1909.- upon the general principles which the Viceroy of the Eastern Three Provinces and the Governor of Shingking Province agreed upon with the Japanese Consul-General in 1907... Detailed course be arranged by the Viceroy and the regulations in respect of such mines shall in due Governor with the Japanese Consul-General. This is the Article which was recently under the consideration of the State Department at Washington, and against which, according to the indiscreet utterance of Mr. CRANE, the Department contemplated lodging a protest. The precise meaning of the Article 18 a matter of interest and importance to all Powers having Treaty relations with China, and we may presume that some of them have sought and obtained the necessary explanation without the noise and publicity inadvertently created about it in America; but the interpretation of the Article has not, so far as we have observed, received any publicity in the Press, nor does to-day's. telegram furnish the explanation. In view of the very explicit denial that the Agreement creates a mining monopoly for Japanese and Chinese along these railway routes, we infer that the words all mines
to be in the English translation are construed as all existing mines. In the Portsmouth Treaty by which Russia agreed, (Daily Press, November 18th.)
subject to the consent of the Chinese The United States Government is now
the railway between Chungchun and Port apparently satisfied that when China and Government, to transfer and assign to Japan Arthur, the "coal mines belonging to and Japan negotiated the recent Agreement regarding Manchuria it was not intended to
were included in the transfer. It may be shut the doors of that province, or more worked for the benefit of the railway particularly the railway zones, against that the reference in the Article is confined mining exploitation by Europeans and to these mines, and to such mines as have Americans, as the terms of the Agreement been worked for the benefit of the Antung- seem to suggest. It is not stated in the Mukden Railway; and probably it is only on the understanding that Chinese may, telegram we publish to-day whether the
which the American Govern- if they chose, assurance
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND Chinese convicted of improperly using British-owned marks have been punished at the Mixed Court at Shanghai with very There is something salutary effects. characteristically Chinese about all this, for China seems to be under no obligation to issue these "proclamations having the force of law "unless the marks they concern (vide the United States Treaty)" have been regis- at such authorities proper tered by the offices as the Chinese Government establish for such purpose, on payment of a reasonable fee, after due investigation of the Chinese authorities and in compliance with reason able regulations." That the local authorities at Shanghai do now actually prohibit by proclamation the imitation of foreign trade- marks when requested to do so, shows clearly enough that there is little or no (Daily Press, November 17th.) /
excuse for the unconscionable delay in No progress appears to have been made by the Central Government towards issuing issuing, conformably to Treaty stipulation, satisfactory regulations for the registration reasonable regulations" for the registra- of trade-marks." This extract is from the tion of trade-marks. Foreign trade-marks. British Consular Report on the trade of patents and copyright are as flagrantly Shanghai, which was presented to Parlia-pirated in China to-day as 'ever they were ment last month. China, by Article VII. of the MACKAY Treaty of 1903, undertook to establish offices where foreign trade-marks might be registered on payment of a reason- able fee. Regulations had consequently to be drawn up. In the American Treaty it was stipulated that these should be "reason- able regulations." In 1904 China published what were described BS
provisional regulations' for
the registration of trade-marks, but many of them were of so to render unreasonable a character as the draft unacceptable to the Powers. The counter draft submitted by the Foreign Representatives to the
Chinese Government in 1905 formed the subject of
THE CHINO-JAP N MANCHURIAN AGREEMEN 1.
"1
discussion for some time, but towards the ment has received on the subject came Japanese in thecome associated with the
end of 1906 an entirely new, long and com- plicated draft was submitted by the Chinese Government. It proved to be almost as unacceptable as the original draft, and the Chinese Government were informed that the 1905 draft was considered the document on which future negotiations should be based. Notwithstanding this intimation, a revised version of the 1906 draft was sub- sequently submitted by the Chinese Gov. ernment, but as it still contained many of the objections of the original, the Foreign Representatives were unable to approve the document and could only
"
refer the Chinese Government once more to the 1905 draft. The regulations are still under consideration," and are likely to remain
so until the Chinese Government is able to agree with the Powers as to what is meant by the teri "reasonable regulations." The Treaty in that respect, as in many others, remains practically a dead letter.
Not entirely, however, for it is possible to register trade- marks with the Imperial Maritime Customs. The "
provisional regulations," to which we have alluded, provided for the establish- ment of a Bureau of Registration, and the Maritime Customs at Tientsin and Shanghai were designated to serve as Branch Offices for receiving applications. Though the regulations as a whole were unacceptable to the Powers, the Maritime Customs at Shanghai has continued to record the trade marks sent to them for that purpose, and the Consul-General strongly advises British trade-mark owners to take advantage of this facility "which may prove of great
use
when
as proof of ownership registration of trade-marks has been initiated." We note with satisfaction that no reluctance has been shown by the local authorities at Shanghai to prohibit by pro- clamation the imitation of British marks when requested to do so, and that several
ownership of these mines, that the Chinese Government has given its consent to the transfer, for since 1904 it would seem to have been the settled policy. of the Chinese Government not to grant mining concessions unless free opportunity is given to Chinese to provide hält the share capital. If the supposition is correct that it is only to these existing mines that the Article refers, then there would appear to be no substantial griev-
from one -or both the signatory Powers, but we have previously expressed the opinion that, whether the inquiry as to the exact meaning of the Agreement were made at Peking or in Tokyo, a repudiation of the suggestion that the Agreement closed the door against Europe and America could be confidently anticipated. As far back as 1900 Japan subscribed to an Agreement to uphold the policy of the open-door in China; again in 1907 Japan and Russia entered into a short agreement "to recognise arisen proves the need for more precise but the misunderstanding that has the independence and the territorial integrity statement of the intentions of the Treaty of China, and the principle of equal oppor-makers, and presumably the position will tunity for the commerce and industry of all now be made clear in a diplomatic note to nations in that empire," and the signatory be attached to the Treaty. Powers furthermore engaged to uphold and defend the maintenance of the status quo
and the respect of that principle by all the peaceful means possible to them. In the following year (1908) an agreement of similar purport was made by Japan with America. Japan has always honourably observed her diplomatic engagements, and therefore nothing could seem more improb- able than that Japan would in 1909 enter into all agreement with the deliberate intention of violating this constantly-reiterated pledge-a pledge to which all the other Powers have like wise subscribed and recognise as essential to the preservation of peace in the Far East and then calmly proceed to defy the whole civilised world by giving full publicity to the Agreement. Manifestly, the idea could not be seriously entertained. Yet the English translation of Article IV. of the Agreement clearly conveyed the impression which is now pronounced to be a misunderstanding The article in question has been translated
as follows:---
"Article IV.—-All mines along the Autung- Mukden Railway and the main line of the South Manchurian Railway, excepting those at Fushun and Yuentai, shall be exploited as joint enterprises of Japanese and Chinese subjects
ance,
OPIUM AND MORALS.
best
(Daily Press, November 19th.) The Under Secretary of State for the Colonies can hardly be congratulated upon the defence of the Imperial Government's Anti-Opium policy which he made at the Straits Settlements dinner in London if an adequate idea of that defence is conveyed in the REUTER'S telegram we published yester- day. It was bold but not very compliment- of the ary to the public opinion Straits, for Colonel SEELY to claim that this policy was supported by the thought" in the Straits and at Home. This was tantamount to saying that the "best thought" was not represented in the general conclusions reached by the Commission appointed last year to inquire into matters relating to the use of opium in the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States. That Commission found, among other things, that the evils resulting from the use of opium had not been suficiently striking as to call for particular investigation on the part of the official medical witnesses who gave evidence, and in view of the wide experience of these gentlemen of circum-