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December 6, 1909.] "
CHINA ASSOCIATION.
ANNUAL DINNER IN LONDON.
(FROM OUR OWN LONDON REPORTER.)
LONDON, November 4th. The annual dinner of the China Association at the Whitehall Rooms last night was a great success. Supporting the Chairman, MrJ. H. Scott, were Sir Robert Hart Lord Redesdale, Sir Cecil Smith, Admiral Sir Arthur Moore, Sir Charles Lucas, Sir Alexander Hosie, General Sir Alfred Gaselee, Major-General Sir Wil- liam Gascoigne, Sir Ihomas Jackson, Sir Frank Swettenham, Sir Hiram Wilkinson, Mr. Valentine Chirol, Mr Henniker Heaton, M. P., Mr C. S. Addis, Mr C. J. B. Hurst, Mr F. S. A Bourne, Mr C. H. Allen, Mr G. K. Nuttall, Mr Cecil Hanbury, Mr G. V. Fiddes, Mr H. Harrison, Mr Harold Hodge, Mr W. Harwood, Mr H. A. Gwynne, Mr Thomas Worthington, Mr W. H. Shelford, Mr J. S. Mackintosh.
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Among others present were- Sir Charles Dudgeon, Sir J. McLeavy Brown, Captain Spencer de Horsey, Captain Thomas James, the Bishop of Korea, Captain Bois, Captain Charles Lloyd, Major Marker, Sir William Matthews, Rev George Owen, Dr Wood, Dr J. Watson, Messrs A. G Angier, Clement Allen, B. F. Alston, A. Auderson, F. Anderson, R. C. Antrobus, R. H. Artindale, C. M. Bartlett, B. P. Bidder, F. C. Bishop. J. C. Bois, E. T. Boud, F. S. A. Bourne, H. F. Brady, Byron Brenan, T. Brown, P. H. Browne, R. H. Bruce, A. R. Burkill, W. B. Buyers, E. Allen Cameron, James Cantlie, R. Carr, W. Cartwright, G. Cawston, T. A. Clark, S. C. Clarke, E. Cleppli, Н.
R. Coombs, R. A. Cousens, W. C. Cowie, W. A. Cruickshank, R. A. Currio, Dr E. C. Davenport, J. N. Dawson, L. H. C. Dermer, T. N. Dermer, A. W. Dewhurst, W. W. Dickinson, F. D'Iffanger. R. P. Dipple, Fred Dodwell, G. B. Dodwell, B. C. Drake, G. B. Drew, E. G. Evans, E. W. Farnall, S. G. Fenton, D. Forbes, E. Gammon, A. S. Garit, G. C. Garfit, W. Gibson, E. Goetz, J. Graham, A. A. Graham, R. M. Gray, E. . Hancock, H. S. Hancock, A. P. Handley, J. C. Hanson, L. A. J. Hargreaves, H. Harrison, A. S. Harvey, Horace G. Harvey, V. A. C. Hawkins, G. S. Hein, E. Erskine Henderson, H. A. Herbert, F. E. Hesse, ehry Hewat, H. Hickling, N. W. Hickling. R. H. Hill, A. E. Hippisley, E. J. Houle. W. C. Howards, Sam Hughes, E. G. Jamieson, Geo. Jamieson, C. G. Johnson, G. F. Johnson, H. H. Joseph, Walter Judd, Crawford Kerr, Henry Keswick, A. H. King, P. H. King, W. S, King, P. G. Lambert, J. H. Lewis, E. G. Little. H. E. V. Longworthy, E. Gordon Lowder, A. P. MacEwan, J. Macgregor, C. Mackintosh, J. S. Mackintosh, J. A. Maitland, F. J. Marshall, E. Martelli, P. W. Massey, Sidney Mayers, F. W. Maze, W. Mackenzie, Alan Mclean, Carl Meyer, J. R. Michael. J. D. Monro, J. K. Morrison, S. Morris, G. S. Moss, G. K. Nuttall, W. Adams Oram, L. Oury, E. H. Oxley, J. W. Paton, J. H. Perry, J. C. Peter, H. E. Pollock, E. A. Probst, W. G. Pirie, J. H. Pinckvoss, Charles Radburn. O. G. Ready, J. P. Reid, F. Reiss, R. L. Richardson, H. W. Robertson W. Bruce Robertson, W. S. Robilliard, E. S. Roscoe, C. H. Ross, J. Roselli, E. F. de Rougement, C. V. Sale, F. Salinger, 3. S. Salinger, E. Samuel, W. J. Saunders, H. Saunderson, B. C. G. Scott, Colin C. Scott, H. E. Shadgett, C. S. Sharp, W. H. Shockley, J. Silverston, M. Silverston, A. P. Simpson, James Simpson, J. D. Smart, J. de Berniere Smith, H. Staples Smith, J. C. Smith, Walter Smith, F. T. Souter. Julius Stern, Gershom Stewart, H. J. Stockton, A. J. Sundius, E. Stanley Sutton, E. Tapply, Ross J. H. Taylor, F. E. Theodor, W. Theoder, Dr J. D. Thomson, Reginald T. Tower, A. M. Townsend. J. K. Tweed, Fred Ward, H. E. Ward, W. C. Ward, Charles Watney. E. S. Whealler, H. Whistler, H. Wilcockson, H. C. Wilcox, R. Chatterton Wilcox, A. S. Wilson, J. D. Wilson, James Wilson, V. D. O. Wintle, A. G. Wise, A. G. Wood, A. Zimmern. A. G. Wise, A. G. Wood, A. Zimmern.
There was a preliminary reception, the Chair- man receiving the guests in the ante-room. The Bishop of Korea said grace, and after din per the usual loyal toasts were honoured on the dall of the Chairman.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
The CHAIRMAN, in proposing the toast of Prosperity to the China Association," said I propose to follow the example set by many of the distinguished men who have preceded me in this chair and review as briefly as possible the principal subjects which have engaged the attention of your committee during the past year, hoping that in so doing I may give some information which will be of interest alike to our guests and to the members of this Association.
THE SITUATION IN CHINA.
We had hardly risen from our last annual dinner when news came of the dramatic deaths of the Emperor and Empress Dowager. I should hardly refer to an episode so long past, but that it led indirectly to the early dismissal of Yuan- Shih-Kai, who has been acclaimed on all sides as the most capable living Chinese stateman, and to the lapse of Peking into a normal condition of somnolent drift, from which only such displays of energy as the recent anuouncement by Japan that she proposed setting about the Antung railway without further argument seem able to arouse it. Advantage was taken by Japan to settle a whole series of questions that might have dragged on indefinitely under less energetic handling, but which might perhaps have been arranged in some respects more agreeably to China if her statesmen were more willing habitually to discuss matters on a give-and- take basis. (Hear, hear.) On the terms of that settlement, mach might be said-a great deal more in fact than it is possible to say on an occasion such as the present but I may perhaps be permitted to give, expression to a regret which has, I suspect
Bet, occurred to many of us, that circumstances have not permitted a display of similar energy by other Powers in other parts of the Empire where other interests were at stake. We must all have deplored, for instance, the evaporation-I will use no stronger term of the pledge given by the late Viceroy of Wachang that the construction of the South- ern portion of the Grand Trunk Railway should be entrusted to British hands. We must have regretted also the apparent evaporation of the Anglo-German agreement of 1898 respecting railway enterprise in the Yungtsze Valley, and the kaleidoscopic transformation of the 1903 Agreement that the Hankow-Szechnen line should be entrusted to Anglo-American enter prise, into an International financial pool. We must have regretted also the whittling away of foreign control over the expenditure of mones loaned for railway construction, pari passu with the lessening value of the Imperial guarantee owing to the diminishing margin of revenue to meet the increasing charges of debt, (Hear, hear.) We cannot, I think, view Chinese finance without serious anxiety. China is a country of great resources, but those resources are undeveloped, and every obstacle is put in the way of their development. The potential revenue of China is great, but the potentiality depends on financial reform, and of such reform there is, to the ordinary observer, no sign. (Ap- plause.) The provinces have been heavily drawn upon to meet the incidence of the debt, and they have recouped themselves by issuing debased coin and bank notes,. a large proportion of which are unsecured. Yet the Government is talking of creating a navy at the cost of millions as though its resources were leaping and abounding as gaily as our own when Mr. Gladstone proposed to abolish the Income Tax, which a modern Liberal Govern ment proposes to raise, in times of peace, to a war figure. (Laughter and cheers.)
THE OPIUM QUESTION.
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to the Throne that poppy cultivation had been eradicated in the five provinces of Honan, Shan- tung, Shansi, Kiangsu, and. Anhui, yet the Customs Report of 1908 says native dealers estimate that, of the opium consumed at Chiniang, three-fifths was Kiangsu drug and he balance came from Szechuen, Yunnan, Han and Shantung. It may, of course, have been eradicated in the meantime, though the process must have been remarkably rapid. I make the point only to confirm the need for statistics if we are to estimate rightly what is taking place, and I would endorse the regret expressed by the British delegates at the Commission-on which Great Britain was so ably represented by Sir Cecil Smith, Sir Alexander Hosie and other distinguished gentlemen--that no statistics were produced by the Chinese of the area under poppy and of the quantity of opium produced in the Empire. No doubt in some regions a considerable diminution is being effected, though we may doubt eradication being quite imminent. Our advices tend, in the meantime, to justify the apprehension which has long been expressed that the prevention of opium smoking would lead to indulgence, in its stead, in morphia and other drugs more harmful in their effects than opium smoking,
have alluded to the loss of revenue which China must experience if and when the aboli- tion of opium cultivation and import really take effect. The revenue of Hongkong, a large proportion of which has been derived from the Opium Farm, is already seriously effected. The Imperial Government has promised a substan tial contribution towards the loss it has im- posed, but that contribution will apparently be insufficient to obviate the necessity of devising other sources of revenue. The recent imposi- tion of an import duty on all wines and spirits brought into the Colony is probably one of the least objectionable taxes that could be devised. Such a duty has, I believe, been in operation for some considerable time at Singapore. really regrettable feature is that it constitutes a first interference with the status of Hongkong as a free port. (Hear, hear.)
BRITISH POSTAL AGENCIES.
The
To people who have never been further East than Suez the question of a British Post Office at Tientsin may seem too small to be worth troubling about. But those of us who have been in the furthest East know the value of "prestige," and it is upon the question of prestige that we are content to rest the importance, nay, the necessity, of maintaining a British Post Office at the great Northern port or elsewhere, SO long as France, Germany, Japan, and others do the same. It seems to me that the Empire should accept the entire responsibility instead of placing part of it on the shoulders of Hongkong and the ports. (Applause.) The British Government, or the departments of it which are concerned, have got as far as offering to accept half the loss in- cidental to keeping up British Post Offices at the Treaty Ports, if Hongkong will make good the other half. Hongkong has expressed willingness to agree, provided tho ports will bear half of its half, but why should Hong- kong pay for maintaining these Post Offices ? (Applause.) And how can a cosmopolitan settle- ment like Shanghai grant a subsidy to an exclusively British Post Office? If it did, other nations might surely apply for similar subsidies, and we should have further indefinite complica tions introduced in to an already sufficiently complicated situation.
The one feature of the Mackay Treaty to
HWANGPOO CONSERVANCY. which China seems desirous to give effect is the Another enterprise in which finance seems stipulation that import duties should be raised likely to cause difficulty is the conservancy of in exchange for the abolition of likin. But the Hwangpoo. In its hurry to terminate a we may be excused if we feel less than confident, concert in which every instrument seemed play- under the circumstances, that likin would being a different tune-(laughter)-after the Boxer abolished, or that it would not be promptly re- imposed under some other name. (Hear, hear.) For not only is there no sign of administrative reform or economy, but we see offices being multiplied, while the prospect looms of the loss of the large revenue-large relatively for hina -now yielded by opium This Association has held aloof from any discussion of the Opium Question as a moral proposition, and I therefore refrain from touching that side of it. We hear a great deal of abolition and reduction. It was stated in a recent number of the North China Herald that the Ministry of Finance had reported
trouble at Peking, diplomacy exacted from China an undertaking to set aside a certain sun for this purpose, without looking beyond to a period when that sum might be exhausted. Yet that time seemed recently to have ar- rived, the money having been spent; the work being incomplete and considerable risk being run that much of what has been done will be undone unless fands are promptly forthcoming. It is now announced that, by direction of the Waiwupu, the Tao tai of Shanghai has allotted 3 0,000 taels to complete the closing of the Ship Canal and make the