晚清西文報紙導要

the Americans working individually. Hence Wood took up the challenge
which was to mature in his own journalistic effort, the Chinese Courier
and Canton Gazette (2.2).
From 1828 to 1833 the Register was indeed a register of facts
and not a "vehicle for controversy." The Register declared it would
take no sides on the free trade argument and devoted large portions
of its space--after the price current and shipping information had
been recorded--to translations from the Chinese. Some controversy
did develop through the "letters to the editor" column, with William
Wood contributing under the signature "X." But editorially the Register remained so aloof that editor Keating felt forced to counter criticism by stating that "...the Editor of the Register,
and the writer of the commercial remarks, are both commercial men,
neither of them servants of the East India Co., nor in any way
influenced by that body...." As attacks from William Wood in his
new Chinese Courier and Canton Gazette became more personal, Keating
replied in kind, but the Register kept the controversy restricted solely to personalities and denials of influence by the East India
Company, which, in view of the Matheson ownership, might have
appeared superfluous.
News of the abolition of the Company's monopoly reached Canton
in August 1833, and was greeted with restraint in both newspapers.
After several months of irregular publication, the Register came
out in December 1833 as a free trade paper, advocating abolition
of the Company's Canton agency. In December 1844, the new editor,
John Slade, became a founding member of the British Chamber of
Commerce, which the paper thereafter supported. Opposition was
provided principally by non-British merchants and ex-servants
of the East India Company but also by those British, e.g. Thomas
44
45
:
Dent, in disagreement with the Jardine Matheson group. The violent split in the mercantile community was partially healed in 1836 with the formation of the more generaal Chamber of Commerce, but there was still scope for disagreement. The Register was highly critical of the policies of both Lord Napier and Captain Elliot, advocating from the first a more severe policy toward the Chinese but objecting when such a policy proved temporarily unsuccessful.
With the arrival of Slade as editor, Morrison ceased his con- tributions. Slade was himself competent in Chinese, and although the volume of translations diminished with the increase in the scope for policy discussion, Slade made significant contributions.
He was an advocate of the blockade of Canton, and by 1840 had developed an anti-American editorial attitude, the excesses of which were criticized by the proprietor, James Matheson. At one point the members of the American community canceled their subscriptions. The Register moved to Macao in 1839 and to Hong Kong in June
1843.
The following month Slade died, and the history of the paper is better continued in the Hong Kong section below.
The Register was first intended as a fortnightly, but through Wood's editorship it published only five issues irregularly, owing to the death of a printer as well as to Wood's unpopularity as editor and consequent lack of support and community contributions. For the next nine months the publisher attempted a weekly edition; actually "extras" were published of what was still a bi-weekly. From September 1828 to August 5, 1833, the paper was again a bi-weekly; from 1834 it was changed permanently to a weekly. November 1828 the price current, which had formed a large portion of the early Register, was published separately.
From
Volume 16 extends through the full year 1843 but with the transfer to Hong Kong in June the name was changed to Hong Kong (late Canton) Register (3.3.1).
2.2
Chinese Courier and Canton Gazette, 1831-1833
Hua ch'ai-pao yu Tung ch'ao-pao ####
William W. Wood
•
Publisher: T. Poole; editor: Contemporary sources give the publisher as T. Poole, who may have previously issued a price-current, converted under Wood's
Wood had been in the employ editorship into a weekly newspaper.
of the American firm Russell and Company, and account books in the Forbes Collection record regular payments to Wood for subscriptions,
This is evidence that the advertising, and unspecified purposes.
company supported and may have subsidized or even published the Chinese Courier. One authority (Britton) believes that the paper was merged with the Register (2.1.2) for the last few issues, but there is no contemporary confirmation of this, and it seems most improbable.
History
William Wood intended a frankly free trade paper, presenting
"We have entered upon his case with characteristic bluntness: discussions relative to the East India Company, because it is a field from which our brother editors within the jurisdiction of the monopoly are excluded." Wood's editorial policy tended to criticism of other British policies, and his American citizenship As his attacks became more violent, was advertised by his rival.
in early 1832 the Company canceled its subscriptions, to which action some, including Cordier, ascribe the failure of the newspaper. This is undoubtedly based on confusion as to the year, for the paper actually lasted some eighteen months more; but the story has never- theless been perpetuated. A more likely explanation of the paper's eventual closing stems from Wood's personal involvement with the young niece of a prominent American merchant and Wood's subsequent
The Chinese Courier had also, of course, departure from Canton.
lost its principal cause with the ending of the Company's monopoly, and the Register itself had been unleashed.
n
46
2.3
47
Now that Western merchants were writing on China and on the Chinese, a new account of this civilization would be available to Europe and America, one differing considerably from that furnished by the Jesuits and eighteenth-century philosophers. The Protestant missionaries, seeing a people without God, could find nothing con- temporary to praise. Wood's views may have been typical of many American merchants and are instructive for the balance they attempted to strike. In his Sketches of China (pp. x-xi), he wrote:
Prejudiced originally in favour of the Chinese, and very much influenced by the [Catholic] missionary travels, I was, as may be imagined, infinitely mortified to find on my arrival, that instead of exceeding the expectations which I had indulged, they fell considerably below the standard which I had formed of their moral and physical character. Although obliged to abandon my very favourable ideas of this people, and to reduce my estimation of their worth to a very low grade, yet I can by no means agree with those who deny them the possession of any good quality and declare them gifted with such dispositions, and vicious propensities, as to degrade them below the ordinary degrees of evil intention which characterize the most uncivilized nations.
This was in part, of course, an attack on the excesses of those commenting on the China scene for the Register.
Canton Press and Price Current, 1835-1844
Kuang-tung pao 廣東報
Publishers and editors: W.H. Franklyn (1835), then Edmund Moller The newspaper was under the direct influence, if not ownership, of Thomas Dent and Company, but Edmund Moller may have obtained control and certainly exercised an independent, but anti-Matheson, editorial policy.
History
Through 1835 the editorial policy of the Canton Press under Franklyn was dominated by a pro-East India Company sentiment which
reflected the editorial influence of James N. Daniell and possibly other ex-servants of the Company. Both the Company's last policies
and the maintenance of its Canton agency were defended.
Daniell left Canton in February 1836, and the new editor, the Prussian merchant Edmund Moller, directed a free trade, anti-East India Company policy, but one which also attacked the British Chamber of Commerce and the leading group of British merchants. Controversy between the Register (2.1.2) and the Press developed immediately, but even without the support of the dominant group, the Press was able to maintain itself in the limited foreign community.
Indeed, it flourished and in September 1836 was enlarged.
liminary judgment would ascribe its success, at least in part, to more thorough news coverage, sound editorial comment, and better
management.
A pre-
Indeed,
To state that Press had better news coverage is merely to conclude that it made better use of extremely limited sources. The Ch'ing government gave no press conferences, and despite the number of translations from the Chinese, a staple of China-coast journalism from the earliest days, very little was understood of contemporary
Chinese affairs. Thus the Press covered the Texas revolution with
a great deal more consistency and understanding than it did the changing Chinese attitudes to, for example, the opium trade. both the Register and the Press assumed that considerable progress was being made toward the legalization of the opium trade; when a Peking gazette recorded that opium imports had on the contrary been forbidden (July 24, 1836), the Canton Press was sufficiently surprised to issue a special edition or "extra" (October 13, 1836). Again, neither paper was prepared for actual war with China; neither anticipated Commissioner Lin Tse-hsu's
actions of March
1839, and his name was not mentioned until that month.
When war came, however, the Canton Press wished the British success in overcoming the obstructions to the China trade; it was similarly pleased with the ultimate results as embodied in the treaties. But the Press, which itself condemned the opium trade,


48
considered the war itself as wholly a British affair.
2.4
2.5
With the cession of Hong Kong, of course, the scene of foreign activity shifted to the new colony, although the Press, which had moved to Macao at the end of 1839, remained there until it ceased publication in March 1844.
It was, indeed, the
Although remaining in Macao, the Press showed a mildly skeptical interest in Hong Kong and is a source of considerable information relative to its founding and first years. first paper to consider itself damaged by the Hong Kong government's decision to award the contract for printing its gazette to a rival firm.
Friend of China, 1842,* 1860-1861 (see also 3.1 and 5.4)
中國之友
Chung-kuo chihyute
Publisher and editor: William Tarrant (1860-1861)
The early years of this newspaper (1842-1859) are described under Hong Kong. Released from debtors' prison, William Tarrant moved to Canton and reestablished his newspaper on a weekly basis. "Canton," he wrote, "had too long been without a reporter.'
" In changing the place of publication Tarrant wrote that he could not do better than "still further imitate the Friend of India, after which this journal was originally named." The Friend of China debated with the Hongkong Daily Press (3.5.1) the prospects of Canton's revival as a trade center and took the position that it would soon replace Hong Kong in importance.
Publication was renewed in Shanghai in 1863 (5.4.1).
Daily Advertiser, 1851-1852
2.6
Celestial Times, Jan.-Mar. 1855
2.7
Canton Observer, 1865
2.8
Canton Daily Shipping News, 1872-1874
*For information on the 1842 issue, see 3.1.1.
2.9
Canton Press, 1874
Published by the da Silva e Sousa of 0 Echo do Povo (4.2).
2.10
Canton Daily Advertiser, 1875
2.11
Canton Daily News, 1882
3.
HONG KONG:
ENGLISH
3.1
Friend of China group
For comment on this group, see text below 3.1.3.
2.4 and 5.4.
See also
3.1.1
Friend of China, 1842
Chung-kuo chih yu 中國之友
3.1.2
3.1.3
Friend of China and Hongkong Gazette, 1842-1859 Chung-kuo chih yu 中國之友
Overland Friend of China, 1845-1859
Chung-kuo chih wai-yu
Date
1842
1843
1849
1850 (Aug.)
Publishers
Richard Oswald
John Carr (?)
William Tarrant
Editors
49
James White and J. Lewis Shuck
John Carr
Luiz d'Azevedo (acting)
William Tarrant
Ownership of the Friend of China was first vested in the long Kong merchant, Richard Oswald. llow long he remained as proprietor is unknown, but he had left the Colony by 1847 and may have sold to John Carr sometime between 1843 and 1847. There is no contemporary evidence to support the claim (advanced by Cordier and Couling) that the paper was first edited by J.R. Morrison and a Dr. Satchell. The American Baptist missionary, J. Lewis Shuck, was associated with the journal for probably not more than a year and appears to have been principally responsible for production. The British merchant, James White, probably remained until Carr took over in 1843.
50
51
D'Azevedo, who remained with the Friend throughout the fifties, edited the journal during Tarrant's absences in 1857 and 1859.
History
The first issue of the Friend of China--and its only one under this simple title until 1860--was published March 17, 1842 in Macao, as Vol. I, No. 1. The second issue, published March 24, 1842, under the title Friend of China and Hongkong Gazette, was also numbered Vol. I, No. 1, the editors stating that the previous issue should be considered a prospectus. Three policy sources were thereby incor- porated: first, the Hong Kong government, which ceased publication of its own gazette and incorporated it into the Friend of China; secondly, the missionary influence, both publications being connected with the missionary press in Macao and the assistant editor himself being a missionary; thirdly, the British merchant in the person of White, the editor.
The Friend of China was named after the already well-known Friend of India. Its policies were declared in the first of its first issues: it was pro-free trade, supported the British pleni- potentiary and administrator of Hong Kong Sir Henry Pottinger, was cautiously anti-opium, and pro-Hong Kong. The opinion on opium stated precisely the views of many moderates:
In common with every philanthropist we deeply deplore the addic- tion of the Chinese to the fascinating vice, and whilst we share such sentiments we are still not so over zealous and blinded by our regrets as not to acknowledge the utter inadequacy of all
attempts to suppress the cultivation, sale and use of this
potent exhilarant, hitherto attempted by the Chinese Government.
The early Friend was, then, a friend of the Hong Kong government, publisher of its official gazette, and an advocate of direct action to open up China.
In 1843 John Carr initiated a pro-merchant policy and consequently came to oppose the policies of Sir John F. Davis, Sinologist and governor of Hong Kong and Superintendent of Trade, 1844-1848, and
a former East India Company servant.
Carr's attacks on the government
led him in 1845 to be charged with libel, specifically for accusations against William Caine, a notorious government official; Carr was, however, discharged. The Friend lost the government gazette contract to the Hongkong Register (3.3.3) from April to September 1844, and in March 1845 lost it permanently to the new China Mail (3.4.1). By 1849 it had become The Friend, however, retained the title. further involved in the controversies surrounding government officials and was defending William Tarrant, who may already have been playing an editorial role in the paper.
It is with William Tarrant that the name of the paper is usually
and associated; he became its editor and publisher in August 1850, continued editing it in Hong Kong until jailed for criminal libel Although the Friend continued throughout its in September 1859. history to attack the corruption and injustice then rife in the government, and although this may have been the more colorful aspect of both editor and journal, the scope of the Friend is considerably broader and of greater significance to the student of history. Tarrant, while continuing to write in his own defense and supporting the mercantile community of which he was a member, developed a considerable range of Chinese sources which became particularly useful during the Taiping rebellion.
For
The Friend under Tarrant is important because of its China coverage. Earlier editions of the newspaper had covered the traditional China-coast subjects--first, mercantile, problems arising from the Treaty of Nanking, with important documents from both sides being reprinted in full; secondly, missionary and Sinological, with Dr. James Legge's early work, especially his arguments in support of
But in 1850 Tarrant alone of Hong Kong shang-ti for "God."
上帝 editors considered significant the disturbances in Kwangsi; in 1851 he noted their resurgence; in 1852 he reported the Ningpo riots; and by 1853 he was ready to declare the overthrow of the dynasty. The Friend of China, first to report the fall of Nanking, remained pro-Taiping to the end, despite the increasing reports of
52
53
ruthlessness and questionable administrative abilities of the "patriots." Tarrant was not sympathetic to missionaries and
therefore was not upset by later reports on Taiping "Christianity";
he was anti-Manchu and believed that the reform of China could not
be secured without the dynasty's overthrow.
To keep the journal informed, Tarrant set up a network not
only of Chinese informants but also of part-time correspondents. I.J. Roberts reported with a pro-Taiping bias from Nanking, while
D.J. MacGowan and William Lobscheid also contributed on the rebellion.
In a nineteenth-century context Tarrant was considered "pro-Chinese,
an attitude reflected in his willingness to report that the lorcha
"Arrow" was flying no British flag when boarded, a report referred
to by the Earl of Derby in the House of Lords. Tarrant was, however, opposed to the attitude of Yeh Ming-ch'en 1, considering
.
him arrogant--an official typical of the Manchu dynasty. Despite
these eccentricities Tarrant maintained a considerable following in
the British community, even during the jingoistic war period. The
harsh conditions of his imprisonment enlisted further sympathy, and
Tarrant was eventually released from debtors' prison by a public subscription sufficient to enable him to reestablish in Canton.
Other information
3.2
news from beyond Hong Kong was handled both by correspondents and by extracts from the other newspapers.
Eastern Globe and Commercial Advertiser, June-Dec. 1843
No copies of this short-lived newspaper have been found, and there is at least the suspicion that it may never have been fully functioning.
Somewhat later, January 1, 1847, the "New China Mail, Hongkong
But there is Monitor, and Philosophical Gazette" was announced.
no evidence that even one issue of this ambitiously titled publication was printed.
3.3
Register group
3.3.1
For comment on this group, see text below 3.3.9. ilongkong (late Canton) Register, July-Dec. 1843
3.3.2
3.3.3
Hongkong Register, 1844-1859 (except as noted in 3.3.3) Hongkong Register and Government Gazette, Apr.-Sept. 1844
3.3.4
3.3.5
Overland Register and Price Current, 1845-1859; July 1860-1861 China Chronicle, Hongkong Register and Eastern Advertiser, Jan.- June 1860
3.3.6
Overland China Chronicle, Jan.-June 1860
3.3.7
Hongkong Register and Daily Advertiser, June 1860-1861
3.3.8
The Register's Advertiser, 1853-1854 (?)
3.3.9
The
Date
Hongkong Register Daily Supplement, 1859
Publishers
Editors
1843
Jardine Matheson
Robert Strachan
John Slade, then (July)
and Co. (proprietors) John Cairns
William H. Mitchell
Until 1844 the regular edition of the Friend of China was published weekly, on Thursdays, and thereafter it was published
semi-weekly on Wednesdays and Saturdays. When in 1859 Tarrant
advertised the journal for sale, he claimed 1000 clear profit for
the first quarter of the year--a sum which appears excessive. He
claimed that the advertising paid all but editorial expenses.
overland edition was published monthly to coincide with the mails;
during 1853-1854 and 1857-1859, when the mails were experimentally
increased in frequency, it was published twice monthly. Beginning
with four pages, the overland edition was enlarged to as many as 14-16 pages by supplements, unfortunately not paginated with the
regular edition. The Friend contained market and shipping reports;
1849
1850
1851
Thurston Dale (June) William F. Bevan
55
54
Date
Publishers
Editors
1859
Richard A. Long
Richard A. Long Phillips
Phillips
1860
Malcolm MacLeod
Malcolm MacLeod, then J.C. Beecher
(Jan.-June), then Robert Strachan
1861
Henry M. Levy
James Jeffrey, then James L. Brown
Jardine Matheson and Company continued to have a financial interest in the Hongkong Register throughout its life, but after 1849 they were no longer the proprietors, although they did hold a substantial mortgage on the property--$14,500 in 1859, with
The notice announcing the Strachan's house security for $8,000.
sale to Strachan was co-signed by Andrew Short rede, publisher of the China Mail (3.4) but his connection with the Register, if any, is not known. Strachan, then in poor health and anxious to leave Hong Kong, sold to Phillips in 1859, but as the terms of the contract were violated, Strachan recovered possession later in the year. At this time the paper was probably managed by the printer, Manoel L. Roza Pereira (1.9.5?). Beginning in 1860 the Register, then under the control of MacLeod, a Canadian protege and employee of Jardine Matheson and Company, was published as the China Chronicle,
By mid-June Strachan Hongkong Register and Eastern Advertiser.
had again recovered possession, although this time not without financial loss, and Pereira took charge. Strachan left the Colony in 1861, by which time he appears to have sold to Henry M. Levy, with James Jeffrey and then James Brown as editors and probably
part owners.
History
Following the death of Slade in July 1843, editorship passed to Cairns, who like Slade maintained a generally independent editorial policy. The first issues printed materials neglected From during Slade's illness, which makes them useful sources. April to September 1844, the Register obtained the government gazette contract, but dropped it voluntarily, the editor protesting
that the government notices arrived in such poor shape and required so many corrections that it was impossible to issue the newspaper The Register began publication in Hong Kong with all the
Cairns on time. prestige of the title "oldest newspaper" on the coast. continued to support the mercantile community editorially, but was relatively restrained in his criticism of Governor Sir John F. Davis (1844-1848).
The Register, in common with other Hong Kong newspapers, at first
This may appear surprising, but in published little European news. fact the problem was typical of those facing China-coast journalists. Since news came only by mail, the editors were reading their news at the same time that other foreign residents were reading their
It was the custom for London mercantile correspondents to letters. write lengthy and informative letters to the merchant houses by
Cairns every mail; thus all received the news simultaneously. solved the problem by arranging with the Straits Times to print the European news for circulation by the Register while the mail ship was in Singapore harbor. Thus, when the ship arrived in Hong Kong, Cairns could immediately distribute the Singapore-printed news-sheet, before post delivery.
Although editorial policy after 1849 was under the direct control of the publisher, Robert Strachan, it was influenced by the views of the editors themselves since Strachan was primarily concerned with the business side.
The Register became a supporter of the government under Sir George Bonham (1848-1854), despite the fact that the editor, William Mitchell, had previously written letters to the editor of the Friend of China (3.1) which were highly critical of both the government and the
In 1850 Mitchell was appointed a magistrate, pro-government China Mail.
"The sub-editor of the 'Register' has and the Friend commented:
got his reward; and truly--considering the government under which he serves--the offices are fit for the man, the man fit for the offices."
In 1853 the government gazette contract was awarded to the Register, but the gazette itself was published separately. In the
56
57
3
same year the Register began thrice-weekly publication of a supplement, the Register's Advertiser, distributed gratis to subscribers; publica- tion of this supplement probably ceased in 1854. The Register lost the government contract in 1855, and there is a suggestion that personal factors influenced the new governor, Sir John Bowring (1854-1859), in this decision. As the Register then turned anti- government and especially anti-Bowring, contemporaries naturally connected the two events.
Robert Strachan was himself a merchant with considerable commer- cial interests and his own advertisements appeared frequently. Not surprisingly, he pledged the paper to render services as a market record and general "Mercantile Journal." In addition the Register contained copious translations from the Chinese, including a com- plete translation of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms." Under the editorship of William Bevan, the Register became especially critical of the Chinese and, typically, ignored for many years the development of the Taiping's leavenly Kingdom. During the fifties, indeed, the Register developed generally into an opposition paper-- anti-Bowring, anti-Chinese, anti-French, and anti-missionary, although as a result of its anti-Chinese government position, it had by 1860 become reconciled to the Taipings. Unfortunately, Strachan's opposition had little of the violence or interest of Tarrant's, and there is evidence that the journal lost both prestige and subscribers during this period.
In 1858 Strachan decided to sell, but his difficulties with prospective publishers further damaged the reputation of the news- paper which failed finally between 1861 and 1863--probably in 1861. The first would-be publisher was Richard Augustus Long Phillips, whose extravagance and poor business methods made it impossible for him to keep the financial terms of the contract. Phillips did, however, make the necessary shift from a weekly to a daily issue through publica- tion of the Hongkong Register Daily Supplement. Strachan regained possession but was still in poor health and, under Jardine Matheson pressure, yielded the paper to MacLeod, With the exception of a
3.4
3.4.1
single mutilated copy of the overland edition, no copies of the Chronicle appear to have survived, but the style and pretensions
on
of the editor were criticized sharply both by Strachan and by the Chronicle's rivals, all of the latter laying stress, of course, the assumed policy direction by "East Point," i.e. Jardine Matheson. Surviving examples of MacLeod's writing support this general opinion. The last act was Strachan's resale, probably to Levy. By this time the Register itself was a daily with the additional sub-title, "and Daily Advertiser."
China Mail group
For comment on this group, see text below 3.4.11.
China Mail, 1845-1911
Te-ch'en (hsi) pao() $1
3.4.2
Overland China Mail, 1848-1909
3.4.3
Dixson's Hongkong Gazette, 1850
3.4.4
Dixson's Hongkong Recorder, 1850-1859
ilsiang-kang Te-ch'en tsa-hsiang chi-lu
香港德臣雜項記錄
×§ 32 §
3.4.5
Hongkong Recorder, 1859
3.4.6
Hongkong Shipping List, 1855-1857
Hsiang-kang hang-yun lu 香港航運錄
Hsiang-kang tsa-hsiang jih-pao ‡‡‡ »§ @ #
Ilongkong Shipping List and Commercial Intelligencer, 1857-1862
Evening Mail and Hongkong Shipping List, 1862
3.4.7
3.4.8
3.4.9
Evening Mail, 1863-1867
3.4.10 Chin-shih pien-lu (Hong Kong News), 1864-(?)
3.4.11 Chung-wai hsin-wen ch'i-jih pao
中外新聞七日報 1871-1872
די
BOSVELE Z
58
59
Date
Publishers*
1845
Andrew Short rede
1856
A. Short rede and Co.
1858
James Jeffrey (Andrew Dixson sole owner)
1860
1863
(James Kemp)
1865
(Kemp died)
1866
(Nicholas B. Dennys)
1867
Charles A. Saint
1870
1872
George Murray Bain
1873
1879
1894
1904
1906
China Mail Co,
1908
Editors
Andrew Short re de
Andrew Dixson (Te-ch'en) Andrew Wilson
James Kemp
Nicholas B. Dennys
Charles A. Saint
Nicholas B. Dennys James Bulgin (?) George Murray Bain
Thomas H. Reid
William H. Donald
A. Bellamy Brown.
The China Mail was originally published by a single proprietor, Andrew Short rede, although there appears to have been some support from Thomas Dent and Company, who had previously supported the Canton Press (2.3). From 1856 the paper was owned by A. Shortrede and Company with Andrew Dixson and possibly others as partners with Short rede; Dixson had been effectively in editorial control since 1854-1855. Short rede was absent from Hong Kong from May to December 1854, leaving permanently in 1856; he died in 1858, in which year Dixson became sole owner of A. Short rede and Company but with James Jeffrey as publisher of the newspaper. James Kemp continued publica- tion under the name of A. Short rede and Company and secured the services of Nicholas Dennys as editor, but the exact date is not known. After Kemp's death in November 1865, George B. Falconer,
*In this column, names in parentheses are those of owners of A.
Short rede and Company, which published the China Mail from 1856 to 1867.
his executor, sold to Edward Andrews in April 1866, who in turn sold to Dennys before June for $28,000. Dennys, a prolific writer and editor, was apparently not a sound manager; he borrowed heavily from Jardine Matheson and Company, and in 1867, when he was unable to pay $720 interest on the debt, James Whittal took over the re-
Whittal sponsibility for management on behalf of the mortgagor. secured the services of Charles A. Saint, the latter buying the paper from Dennys for $12,000 in August 1867, at which time the name of A. Short rede and Company was dropped. George Murray Bain became the publisher in 1872 and was thus for a little over a year publisher of both the China Mail and the Daily Advertiser (3.7.1); he sold the latter in early 1873. Dennys was Bain's partner from In 1906 1873 to 1875, at which time Bain become sole proprietor.
the China Mail became a private company. Upon his death in 1908 or 1909, Bain was succeeded as chairman of the board of directors by
his wife.
History
The China Mail was founded on February 20, 1845, by Andrew Short rede, as a weekly; it became a daily on February 1, 1867. Publication of an overland edition, the Overland China Mail, began in 1848; it was at first a bi-monthly and then a weekly.
In 1850, Andrew Dixson, an original employee of Shortrede's, began a commercial publication on his own account, Dixson's Hongkong Gazette. After putting out two issues, he changed the name to Dixson's Hongkong Recorder to meet the objections of the Friend of The paper lasted until 1859-- China and Hongkong Gazette (3.1.2). Dixson dropping his name from the title shortly after he became sole proprietor of A. Short rede and Company in 1858--and was absorbed by the company's Hongkong Shipping List and Commercial Intelligencer, which since 1857 had replaced the less ambitious Hongkong Shipping List, another publication for which Dixson's initiative was responsible. Dixson's Recorder was primarily a commercial journal almost entirely devoted to advertising, from
It was distributed gratis to some which all revenue was derived.
60
61
500-600 subscribers, three times weekly. Some shipping news was included and a minimum of space devoted to contributed feature articles. The Recorder had a brief existence as a daily in 1859 with the same coverage as before, plus an occasional selection of important edicts from the Peking gazettes. Advertising was accepted in Chinese as well as English, and a Canton agent was retained to secure Chinese patronage. That an independent advertising venture of such size and frequency of publication--the Recorder at one time ran to some four foolscap pages--could flourish in a colony where three other journals with high advertising content also existed is an important comment on commercial practices of the time.
Judging from the prospectus, the Hongkong Shipping List was in- tended as a definitive list based upon the findings of a European staff member who would go out in the company's own boat to meet and then board every ship entering the harbor. The List was to be sent to Canton and Macao every evening. The change of name in 1857 probably indicates a change in scope, for some time before 1859, the List had become a daily in embryo, including at least part of a column of news. In 1862 this change was acknowledged and the name was changed to Evening Mail and Hongkong Shipping List, at least partly in response to the competition of the Daily Press and the Hongkong Register, both of which had had daily editions since 1857 and 1859 respectively. In 1863 James Kemp shortened the title to Evening Mail, a title retained until 1867, when the weekly edition or China Mail was stopped--probably as an economy move on the part of James Whittal, Jardine Matheson's representative--and the daily took over the original "China Mail" title. Whether or not this change was undertaken for reasons of economy, it was justified in that the increased frequency of the mails resulted in an obvious duplication between the China Mail and the Overland China Mail. Thereafter, the China Mail became the daily with the Overland as the weekly edition. Publication of the overland edition ceased in 1909.
As but one product of a printing establishment, the China Mail was from the outset part of a larger operation. Moreover, its
proprietor, Andrew Short rede, most probably had journalistic
as well as printing experience; he also had a larger staff at his
command, including Dixson as overseer and three other Britons, a
bookkeeper, a chief compositor and seven Portuguese compositors.
In 1864 the China Mail establishment began publication of the Chinese-
language daily, Chin-shih pien-lu, which was sold to
a group of Chinese in 1883 but which did not survive the century.
In 1872, another Chinese daily, Hua-tzu jih-pao □ & 華字日報 (Chinese Mail), was published. Certainly at first the editor of
the China Mail exercised some editorial supervision, but the Hua-tzu
jih pao was soon considered an independent newspaper, that is, one
with its own editorial policy. Thus we have not listed it as a
China-coast newspaper. Nicholas Dennys was responsible for further expanding the publishing activities of the China Mail; these included
the relatively short-lived Notes and Queries, China Punch, and Papers
on China. In addition to these periodicals, the China Mail, in
common with other large newspaper establishments, published occasional
books, guides, and, specifically, a Who's Who.
Policy
The newspapers previously mentioned in these annotations, like
others founded later, were "personal" organs, reflecting decided
opinions of the single man who dominated the paper, or of the interests
which supported it. The China Mail was more institutionalized; for
part of the period 1845-1858 it was so much a government gazette that it had hardly room for its own reporting, while under Dennys in 1866 it was accused by the Hongkong Mercury (3.6) of being more a literary journal than a newspaper. But there were personal periods--for example, Dixson's activity in the mid-fifties as in-
vestigator of the Hong Kong government's seamier side, an activity arising from the China Mail's opposition to Governor Sir George
Bonham (1848-1854). And it must also be remembered that the China Mail held the contract for printing the government gazette from
1845 to 1853 and from 1855 to 1858.
62
The early China Mail was principally composed of advertising and officially published government proclamations and notices. There were, in addition, feature articles contributed by experts, missionaries, and Sinologues; some typical subjects include mining in China (July 9, 1846), the Triad Society (August 20, 1846), the finances of China (January 21, 1847). The journal retained a correspondent in Canton in the forties and in 1851 concluded an agreement with the London Daily News for an exchange of news, with Shortrede contributing to the Daily News on his return to Scotland in 1856. During this early period the China Mail was characterized as pro-Hong Kong government by its rivals. In the sense that it supported the principal acts of Governors Davis and Bowring (1844- 1848 and 1854-1859), this is a reasonably fair characterization, but it does not follow that the paper was a tool of that government. Indeed, in 1848 the government began proceedings against the China Mail for failing to register under the provisions of the Registration Ordinance; in the 1850's Dixson's investigations were hardly mani- festations of subservience; and as has already been stated, the journal did not support Governor Bonham, who in 1853 transferred the gazette contract to the Hongkong Register (3,3).
The China Mail has also been characterized as pro-American and even pro-Chinese, although this latter judgment must be understood in a relative sense. Certainly the newspaper did not express mer- chant views; in 1847 the Canton merchants canceled their subscrip- tions over editorials in the China Mail which accused them of wishing to force entry into Canton, even at the cost of destroying the population. This milder policy toward the Chinese and opposition to the merchants' demands gave the paper some considerable influence in Great Britain, which was, according to Dennys, its principal market.
During the fifties the paper built up a corps of contributing correspondents in the outports and also in Labuan, Calcutta, and San Francisco. Andrew Wilson, editor from 1858 to 1860, became the London correspondent. Although the China Mail noted the Kwangsi
63
disturbances, it did not follow the Taiping rebellion as closely as did the Friend of China, was surprised by the fall of Nanking, translated Taiping documents and decided in 1854 that the movement had no Christian basis, and received information from such corres-
In pondents as I.J. Roberts, William Lobscheid, and S.W. Bonney. the sixties correspondents wrote from Japan and Paris.
After Dennys left the editorship in 1873 (?), the paper became less sympathetic toward the Chinese government, although it noticed
The and considered the qualifications of Chinese as individuals. general policy appears to have been to avoid controversy with Shanghai, to support the llong Kong government, to fight and fight hard against the Macao slave trade in coolies, and to voice severe
The criticism against the policy of British ministers in Peking. China Mail had indeed become a strong advocate of intervention, basing its criticism of official policy on the supposition that the Treaty of Tientsin had reduced China to the status of an Indian principality. With this assumption granted, it is easier to under- stand how the journal could have castigated Sir Rutherford Alcock as a traitor for giving up British "rights." Similarly, the China Mail was hostile to Sir Robert Hart, Inspector-General of the Imperial Maritime Customs, and opposed Sir Thomas F. Wade's policy-- although it did register surprise that the Wade of the Margary
Given this view Affair could also negotiate a Chefoo Convention.
of the Chinese, it is not surprising that the China Mail bitterly attacked the policies of Governor Sir John Pope Hennessy (1877-1882), who attempted to treat the Hong Kong Chinese as partners and undo the stringent legislation of 1857. Hennessy, unfortunately for him, combined good intentions with poor administration, and the China Mail hounded him long after he had left the Colony. With the arrival of Sir George F. Bowen (1883-1885), the China Mail again supported
the administration.
L
64
3.5
65
3.5.1
3.5.2
3.5.3
3.5.4
3.5.5
Daily Press group
For comment on this group, see text below 3.5.5.
Daily Press, Ships, Commerce and Colonies, 1857-1861
Tsu-tz'u pao 子孖刺報
Hongkong Daily Press, Ships, Commerce and Colonies, 1861-1911
China Overland Trade Report, 1857-1888
Hongkong Weekly Press and China Overland Trade Report, 1869-1911
Hsiang-kang ch'uan-t'ou huo-chia chih
1857(?) 1860
紙
William Harvey Bell
Alfred C. Dulcken
Date
Publishers
Editors
1857
George M. Ryder
Yorick Jones Murrow
1858
A.L. Agabeg,
1866
Yorick Jones Murrow
William Harvey Bell (lessee)
Alfred P. Sinnett
1868
1869
1875
R. Chatterton Wilcox
1876
W. Pustan and Co.
1878
R. Chatterton Wilcox
1889
D. Wares Smith (manager)
George C. Cox
1900
D. Wares Smith
Sergeant
(joint lessee with Cox)
1904
1908
T. Wright
B.A. Hale (managing editor)
The first publisher of the Daily Press, George M. Ryder, appears to have been an American. From the first, however, Murrow was the dominant figure, although he obtained full ownership only in 1858. Murrow retained the proprietorship of the Press throughout his life and, after his death in 1884, ownership remained in the family. In 1911 the heir was a son, Colonel H. L. Murrow, then in Hong Kong.
Murrow gave up direct control of the Press, however, at the end of 1865, leasing the newspaper to William . Bell.
Murrow left
Hong Kong in 1867 and founded the London and China herald (8.2), which he also edited. Bell's lease expired in 1876 and the paper was managed by Murrow's solicitors, W. Pustan and Company, until
1878.
D. Wares Smith, formerly of Shanghai, appears to have been connected with the Press as early as 1870, for he was manager in
Smith moved from manager to Bell's absence both then and in 1876.
joint lessee with George C. Cox sometime between 1889 and 1900, remaining in this latter role through 1911.
Beginning in 1860 the Daily Press then published a full-scale Chinese newspaper, Chung Ngoi San Po (Chung-wai hsin-pao #), but this cannot be considered a "China-coast newspaper"
Its first editor was Wong Shing and, therefore, is not listed.
(Huang Sheng), described by Murrow as "cautious to timidity," although if this judgment is relative to Murrow's editorial policy, Wong Shing might still have been adventurous by modern standards. The policy of the Chinese newspaper was not that of the Daily Press itself, for which see below.
From November 1859
to May 1861, the overland edition carried
a local news supplement of four pages, an unusual and valuable
source.
Policy
Sir Robert Hart is quoted as saying, "There is no public opinion in China, save Murrow's." Certainly the Daily Press was founded Murrow as the personal vehicle of an aggressive China merchant. was typical of the individualistic, aggressive, and intelligent Britisher encountered in the East during the early nineteenth century. Indeed, only when Murrow's enterprises suffered a temporary setback during the second Sino-British War did he commit himself to
Immediately he journalism and publication of the Daily Press. entered the bitter conflict which characterized the first period of Hong Kong journalism and caused the imprisonment of Tarrant of the Friend of China (3.1). Murrow first made an enemy of Tarrant
66
67
by following a policy sympathetic to Cheong Ah Lum, owner of the bakery which sold poisoned bread to the Hong Kong foreign population in January 1857. Tarrant had suffered personally. But Murrow refused to approve the resulting panic measures the colonial government under Bowring thought necessary. Indeed, Murrow opposed Bowring on other grounds and in April 1858 was imprisoned six months for libel; he had accused the governor of favoring Jardine Matheson and Company, where Bowring's son was employed. Murrow edited his paper from jail and on his release condemned the harsh treatment meted out to Tarrant for a similar offense. But against Caldwell and Bridges, the principal characters in the early Hong Kong drama, Murrow was more successful, testifying against the former in the Civil Services Abuses Enquiry which caused Caldwell's dismissal from the public service.
This first stage ended, Murrow continued a highly personal policy. He continued to criticize Jardine Matheson, attempted but failed to have the case against the retired Colonel William Caine reopened, pursued an anti-China Mail (3.4.1) campaign, and attacked W.T. Mercer, nephew of former governor Sir John F. Davis (1844-1848), colonial secretary and, from March 1865 to March 1866, administrator of the Colony. But perhaps Murrow's bitterest attacks--and greatest public service--were directed against the increasingly notorious Macao slave trade in coolies.
The Daily Press pursued a milder policy under subsequent editors but continued to attack the China Mail. With the editor- ship of Alfred C. Dulcken, the newspaper became more critical of the Chinese and especially of the Manchu regime. On this basis the Daily Press supported the Nien-fei
rebels and opposed
those foreigners employed by the Chinese government, including Sir Robert Hart and others in the Imperial Maritime Customs. Dulcken also developed an anti-missionary position, while becoming less critical than his predecessors of the Hong Kong government itself.
The student who has first read the files of the China Mail may perhaps be excused for reaching the conclusion that the Daily Press is too irresponsible to be worth serious consideraton. But this
3.6
obvious contrast again is but a reflection of the different approaches to journalism, and it should not result in this valuable source being ignored; well-written and thoughtfully edited, the Daily Press provides an essential balance. By the late sixties it had an ex- tensive coverage of the China coast and had direct connections with the London and China Herald. The newspaper continued to expand in scope and through 1911 stands as one of the important sources for China-coast history.
Ilongkong Mercury and Shipping Gazette, June-Dec. 1866
Publisher: G.M. Bain; editors: W.F. Ferris, then (Oct.)
G.M. Bain
Both Bain and Ferris appear to have had a financial interest in the newspaper from the start, and there is some question as to who was actually in control. Ferris had been the Daily Press (3.5) court reporter and responsible for some of the more lively articles. When Sinnett became editor in 1866 and the paper's approach to problems became somewhat more tame, Ferris determined
to establish
a new newspaper and enlisted the support of the newly-arrived George Murray Bain. On October 29, 1886, Ferris, apparently without warning, sold his interest in the Mercury and left his post as editor. Bain declared his intention of holding on and actually took over the editorship. The paper failed, however, at the end
of the year.
As regards policy, the Mercury was critical of demands for the opening of the Yangtze to trade on the basis of British right and objected to the extreme position of the British press in China with regard to Rutherford Alcock and others who either supported his position or were themselves employed by the Chinese government. paper has a professional appearance and, should 1866 be important to the student, might well provide important supplementary information in support of its unusually mild views.
The
68
69
3.7
3.7.1
The Advertiser series
For comment on this series, see text below 3.7.4.
Daily Advertiser, 1869-1871
Hongkong Times Mail Supplement, 1873-1876 (?)
Publishers
Editors
Hsiang-kang kuang-kao pao
3.7.2
Daily Advertiser and Shipping Gazette, 1871-1873
3.7.3
Hongkong Times, Daily Advertiser and Shipping Gazette, 1873-1876
3.7.4
Date
1869
H.P.C. Lassen
1871
G.M. Bain (Oct.)
1872 (Mar.)
Dennys transfers to China Mail (3.4)
1873
George Duddell and William Curtis
William Curtis
(Curtis dies)
Thomas Preston
1875
Nicholas B. Dennys
The publication began as an advertising sheet, but news was added with the change of proprietors in October 1871. In March, the publisher, G.M. Bain, acquired the China Mail and transferred Dennys to edit that newspaper. Duddell and Curtis transformed the sheet into a regular daily newspaper in 1873. After the death of Curtis the interests of Duddell were handled by Jardine Matheson and Company, through whom all letters between Preston and Duddell passed. Since the survival of these letters permits of more precision in describing the business aspects of the Hong Kong Times than per- haps any other China-coast newspaper of that period, a part of the information preserved in the archives will be considered below.
In 1872 there appeared, bound in with the Advertiser, a quarter- page size Chinese supplement of one leaf. The first is dated June 17 and one or two issues survive--in the British Museum holdings at least.
Policy
Through 1871 the publication was little more than an advertising
sheet. Under Bain policy was coordinated with that of the China Mail.
William Curtis was a newcomer to the Colony, and he took the
rather unusual position that the Macao coolie trade was not as bad
as supposed. In any case, as the Times often pointed out, the plight of the poor in Hong Kong was sufficiently terrible to exhaust the moral indignation of any single person. By September 1873,
Curtis had so far modified his position as to agree in the iniquities of Macao, changing his objection to Hong Kong anti-coolie trade legislation from disapproval per se to questioning its effectiveness.
In other editorial matters Curtis's lack of background in the long Kong scene was apparent, and after his death in August 1875, his
assistant Thomas Preston found it impossible to salvage the news-
paper's editorial reputation. A preliminary reading suggests, however, that the newspaper was improving, and perhaps Curtis was justified in his claim that the Hongkong Times at least "stimulated the local press."
The Preston-Duddell correspondence
In 1875 the Hongkong Times was owned by two partners--George Duddell, publisher of the Brighton Daily Mail and Oriental, then resident in Brighton, and William Curtis, the editor, who lived in
Hong Kong. The remainder of the staff consisted of Thomas Preston,
who handled the "literary side," B.G. Emanuel, a local Portuguese
who acted as accountant and shipping reporter, and two European
printers. At the end of July, Curtis, who was in poor health,
turned over the acting editorship to Preston and left the Colony,
dying only three days out to sea. Preston thereupon began corres- ponding with the surviving partner, who, feeling himself unable to cope with so complex a matter from that distance, appointed Jardine Matheson as his representative.
Thomas Preston was then responsible for a considerable organiza-
tion. He hired at $150 a month J.W. Terrey, a resident of Hong Kong
with some experience on American newspapers, to write leading articles
70
71
and perform other reporting chores, despite his duly-noted lack of shorthand. (In a colony where verbatim court reports were considered by the local subscribers to be a very important feature of a newspaper, shorthand, a traditional but currently neglected journalistic skill, was of course especially important.) There is also independent information that M. Machado, recently dismissed from the China Mail, was employed on the Times in 1873. Preston soon had difficulties with Emanuel, whom he fired; bearing in mind the Hong Kong atmosphere, however, there is no necessary reason to suppose that Emanuel had gone mad, as Preston claimed. Machado
may have been a replacement. In any case, a financial statement reveals that the Times was valued at b1,000 for type and furniture and 1,252 for the presses, and that Preston's salary was £300 a year. Despite the presence of two European printers, job printing accounted for but 12 per cent or so of total gross receipts.
In addition to the Hong Kong establishment, Preston had regular correspondents: in Bangkok, F.C.C. Kobke; in Tientsin, H. Beveridge; in Canton, James Parker; and reciprocal arrangements existed with newspapers beyond China. For China outstations, the Times sent a free subscription to a leading merchant house in return for their
filling out of a standard information form. The new editor was sufficiently concerned with the quality of his newspaper to realize that with the cable through to Hong Kong, certain changes were required. As for the European news supplied to Hong Kong subscribers, Preston was critical of the dependence on copying from the London and China Express (8.1.4) which, he claimed, copied in turn from the
London Times. He urged Duddell to send him copies of the London Times
directly and to consider providing Reuters cable service. As far as
news for the overland edition was concerned, Preston realized that
commercial information would go by private cable, and he therefore
urged substitution of other local news in the special mail supplement.
But the Hongkong Times was, after all, a small newspaper with total subscriptions under 400. Preston claimed that if he could
top 500 he would have the largest circulation of any China-coast
3.8
newspaper--a statement which places these newspapers in proper journalistic perspective, although it hardly affects their interest to the researcher.
By March 1876, it became apparent that the Hongkong Times could not, despite the editor's efforts and financial injections from Duddell's Jardine Matheson, expect to be a commercial success.
agents ordered an immediate close down with six months' wages paid. At Preston's request the paper was permitted to continue publication but, failing to find a purchaser, it was closed at the end of April
1876.
Hongkong Telegraph, 1881-1911 Shih-mi hsin-wen + P
蔑新聞
tien-wen pao 香港電聞報
Date
1881
1895
1899
1901(?)
1906
1910
1911
Publishers
or Hsi-pao or Hsiang-kang
Robert Fraser-Smith
(Shih-mi)
J.J. Francis, Q.C.
Chinese syndicate,* J.P. Braga (manager)
Editors
Robert Fraser-Smith
Chesney Duncan
E.F. Skert chly
E.A. Snewin
A.W. Brebner
J.P. Braga
Dr. J.W. Noble
E.B. Helme, F. Lionel Pratt, A. Hicks
The longkong Telegraph marked a return to the personal journalism of earlier years, and within the first few years of its existence was sued twice for libel. The publisher was released from jail in 1890 on the sole grounds that he was supposedly dying from a disease contracted in Hong Kong. Fraser-Smith's policy was pro- Hennessy (1877-1882) and anti-Bowen (1883-1885), in direct opposition
.
*The Chinese group included Lau Chu Pak and Ho Fook as directors and (Sir)
Robert Ho Tung and Chau Siu-ni as shareholders. They probably had control of the paper until 1910 or 1911.
i
72
3.9
73
to the policy of the China Mail (3.4). The newspaper was, therefore, relatively sympathetic to the Chinese and tolerant of their resistance
to modernization. Fraser-Smith himself opposed a Hong Kong tramway project on grounds which one might have expected from a worried
Hunan taotai. Later policy under the Chinese syndicate is an
important subject awaiting thorough research.
The following assessment of the Hongkong Telegraph has been provided by J.M. Braga, whose father, J.P. Braga, was for a time editor and manager of the paper:
My father took charge of the Hongkong Telegraph at the request of a group of Chinese, led by [Sir] Robert Ho Tung, and the policy of the paper seems to have been to stress Hong Kong's place in the scheme of things, with emphasis--where possible and considering the general feelings at the time--on the increasing infiltration of the Chinese into Western-style business. But the paper was not to lose sight of the fact of British control of Ilong Kong's activities. The paper was sympathetic to the minorities--Catholics, Portuguese, Eurasians, Indians, Parsees, etc.--but had to keep an eye on the advertisers' feelings. They were mainly British.
At least in the first years of publication, the Telegraph pub- lished no overland edition, but rather reprinted important articles in the regular edition before departure of the mails.
In 1911 J.W. Noble, a director of the South China Morning Post (3.9), appears as publisher, foreshadowing the subsequent merger
of the two papers.
South China Morning Post, 1903-1911
Nan-hua ch'en pao
Date
1903
Publishers and editors
Directors: C. Ewens, A.G. Ward, G.W.F. Playfair
Editor and general manager: Alfred Cunningham
Sub-editor:
Compradore:
Douglas Story
Tse Tsan Tai 謝讚泰
Tse Tsan Tai
Date
Publishers and editors
J. Scott Harston
1904
New director:
Sub-editor: George T. Lloyd
1906
New director: J.W. Noble
1907
1911
New directors: Father Robert, R.G. Shewan G.T. Lloyd General manager and secretary:
(succeeded Cunningham as editor later in the year) Editor: A Hamilton, then Thomas Petrie
The South China Morning Post developed from plans formulated by Alfred Cunningham, then on the staff of the Hongkong Daily Press (3.5), and Tse Tsan Tai, later to become the newspaper's com- pradore. The original policy intention was for the newspaper to support the reform movement in China, but the extent to which it actually carried this through must be the subject of further research. The prospectus, as drawn up in February 1903, indicated that the new company planned to absorb the Victoria Lithographic Company of A.G. Ward. Playfair, another director, was manager of the National Bank of China, which had been established in the early 1890's to associate Chinese and foreign capital in a local bank--thus its representation on the Board of Directors was another potential source of pro-Chinese influence.
Within a year of publication the company claimed its newspaper
In 1904 the paper was had the largest circulation in Hong Kong. advocating self-government for Hong Kong; between 1906 and 1910 it criticized the government for not preventing the influx of Chinese subsidiary coins, accusing it of fearing to displease the Canton Viceroy whose mint was profiting thereby; in 1911 the paper sided with unofficial members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council in criticizing the conduct of the Public Works Department. Although the paper did not stoop to personalities, and handled these criticisms as substantive issues, they were hardly of The sufficient significance to brand the paper a crusader. company also issued the South China Weekly Post, but this was more a weekly magazine than an "overland" edition.
!
74
75
Despite promising beginnings the company underwent difficulties and in 1907 brought about a change in management. Cunningham was dismissed, an action which he unsuccessfully contested. The presence of J.W. Noble as a director of the South China Morning Post and (from 1911) publisher of the Hongkong Telegraph (3.8) indicates that a connection had already been made between the two former rivals, By 1915 at least they were published by the same company.
3.10
Catholic newspaper group
3.10.1 Hongkong Catholic Register, 1878-1880
3.10.2
Catholic Register, 1881-1888 (?)
These papers, published by F.D. Guedes, deal principally with Church matters and contain important news letters from missionary stations. Although of only marginal interest here, they do include regular news items and comments on local personalities, events, and other newspapers.
4.1.5
4.1.6
however, a popular one. The publisher is listed as E. Ferreira, with C.M. Chaves as assistant.
O Porvir, 1897-1907
Publisher: Lisbello J. Xavier; editors: Carvalho, then (1902) L.M. Xavier
M. Fernandes
This newspaper represented the young Portuguese who had been emigrating from Macao in increasing numbers since the 1880's, seeking the more favorable economic opportunities of growing Hong Kong. O Porvir's policy tended to foster the split developing between these newcomers and the older Portuguese residents of Hong For Kong, who were British subjects, educated in British schools.
For a reacion to 0 the paper's brief Macao existence, see 1.15. Porvir's policy, see 0 Patriota (4.7).
O Portuguêz na China, 1860 (?). See 1.5.3.
4.
4.1
•
4.1.1
4.1.2
4.1.3
4.1.4
HONG KONG: PORTUGUESE
Newspapers formerly published in Macao or Canton
A Voz de Macaista, 1846 (?) - (?)
Editor: Manuel M. Dias Pegado. See group 1.5 (especially 1.5.4), and 4.1.6.
Verdade e Liberdade, 1852-(?)
Editor: José Maria da Silva e Souza. See 1.20.
O Noticiario Macaense, circa 1870
See 1.10.
O Independente, 1869-1873, 1880-1882
Editor: José da Silva
For the Macao periods, 1867-1869, 1873-1880, 1882-1898, see 1.9.2. The editor maintained his reputation for outspokenness in Hong Kong and was involved in libel suits. The newspaper was,
4.2
O Echo do Povo, 1858-1869
Publishers and editors:
4.3
4.4
João José da Silva e Souza (1858),
António da Silva e Souza (1869)
O Echo was one of the more ambitious Portuguese newspapers, with correspondents in Macao, Manila, Yokohama, Shanghai, Bangkok, Bombay, Timor, and Lisbon. A portion of the paper was written in English. Unfortunately, the publisher became involved in libel suits and the paper suspended publication from September to December 1868. In January 1869, publication was resumed under the direction of José's brother, António. But another libel acton and António's failure to comply with the newspaper ordinance led to 0 Echo's closing later in the same year. (See also 2.9.)
O Movimento, 1863-? (a weekly)
O Amigo do Progresso, fl. circa 1868
One reference states that this journal was published in 1850.
76
77
4.5
Guedes sequence
5.1.3
North-China Overland Herald and Market Report, 1865-1867
4.5.1
O Echo da China, 1884-1885
Publisher: Florindo Duarte Guedes
5.1.4
North-China Herald and Market Report, 1867-1870
One source gives the editors as "J.J. da Silva e Souza and, later, António José da Silva e Souza," but this seems to be the result of confusion with 0 Echo do Povo (4.2).
5.1.5
North-China Herald and Supreme Court and Consular Gazette, 1870-1911
5.1.6
Daily Shipping News, 1856-1862
5.1.7
4.5.2
O Extremo Oriente, 1885-1898
5.1.8
Daily Shipping and Commercial News, 1862-1864
North-China Daily News, 1864-1911
Publisher: Florindo Duarte Guedes; editors:
Guedes, and
Tzu-lin pao ***
M. Fernandes Carvalho
The newspaper had financial difficulties and suspended publication in 1889, 1892 and 1898. Carvalho became editor of 0 Porvir (4.1.5).
Date
Publishers
1850
1856
4.6
4.7
O Hongkong Alegre, 1889 (?)-1890
Publisher and editor: J.D. dos Remedios
This may only have been a humor magazine.
O Patriota, 1900-1911
1861
Edwin Pickwoad
1863
1866
Pickwoad and Co. (J.B. Tootal, managing prop.)
1878
This newspaper sought to heal the differences between the
1880
pro-Portuguese and pro-British members of the Portuguese community in Hong Kong. Thus it sought to modify the effects of 0 Porvir's
(Mrs. Janet Pickwoad, managing prop.)
George William Haden John C. Thirkell (temporary)
1881
(4.1.5) policies.
1886
1889
5.
SHANGHAI:
ENGLISH
1906
1911
Henry Shearman
J. Mackrill Smith,· Charles Spencer Compton
Nichol Latimer
Editors
Henry Shearman
J. Mackrill Smith, Charles Spencer Compton
Samuel Mossman
R. Alexander Jamieson
Richard S. Gundry
5.1
5.1.1
5.1.2
North-China Herald group
For comment on this group, see text below 5.1.8.
Items
5.1.1-5.1.5 mark the evolution of the overland or mail edition;
items 5.1.6-5.1.8, of the daily edition.
North-China Herald, 1850-1867
Pei-Hua chien-pao
北華捷報
North-China and Japan Market Report, 1858-1865
Frederic H. Balfour
J.W. Maclellan
R.W. Little
H.T. Montague Bell
0.M. Green (?)
Henry Shearman died in 1856 and his executor, Smith, took over
Several of the editors had a financial the paper for a month. interest in the company, including Mossman, Gundry, Haden, Balfour, and probably others. Latimer died in 1865 and Pickwoad in 1866; the controlling interest of the company was then in the hands of Pickwoad and Company, including Mrs. Janet Pickwoad, who conducted the business in the period after 1880, and Henry Morriss, son-in-law of Edwin Pickwoad, From 1866 to his death in 1878, John Broadhurst Tootal had an interest in the paper, and was managing proprietor.
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History
The North-China Herald was founded by Henry Shearman; he was assisted by a staff of three, including printers. The paper was at first a weekly, containing extracts from other China-coast newspapers, a summary of the week's news, and commercial information. There was no overland as a separate publication, but a special edition was issued before departure of the mails. By 1863 the North-China and Japan Market Report was published for European subscribers and was included with the North-China Herald. There are grounds for assuming that at the end of 1865, material from the company's market report and the special edition of the weekly were combined into a specifically designated overland edition, the North-China Overland Herald and Market Report, while the original newspaper continued as a local weekly. Since 1856 the local weekly had been supplemented by the Daily Shipping News, designed chiefly as an advertising sheet, but in 1862 this had been expanded to the Daily Shipping and Commercial News, and in 1864 to a regular daily, the North-China Daily News.
The weekly North-China Herald was, therefore, something of a duplication; it served neither the European nor the local market. In March 1867 it ceased publication and the overland edition dropped the word "overland" to become simply the North-China Herald and Market Report; it was, in reality, the overland edition of the North-China Daily News. These title changes may be contrasted with those in Hong Kong's China Mail group. In 1870 the company bought the rights to the title "Supreme Court and Consular Gazette" (5.3.4) and a final change was made in the title of the "overland" edition.
The North-China Herald numbered among its correspondents such persons as I.J. Roberts, D.J. MacGowan, Walter H. Medhurst, Sr., Theodore Hamberg, W.A.P. Martin, Thomas Wade, E.C. Bridgman, J. Elkins, Rev. R.Q. Way, John Bowring, T.T. Meadows, Rev. J.L. Holmes, Griffith John--a list by no means complete.
In the 1870's corres-
pondents included Thomas W. Kingsmill, Alexander Wylie, W. F. Mayers, A.J. Little, J.H. Taylor, T.T. Cooper, F. Major, J.A.T. Meadows. The simple listing of these names, all correspondents during this
early period, indicates the basis of the newspaper's reputation. These officials, businessmen, and missionaries wrote for the Herald largely as a public service, and the Herald on its side gave space to those of differing views, a unique feature of the paper's early
policy.
Although there is no quantitative evidence, there is reason
to suppose that the combined circulation of the company's publications. was the largest in Shanghai and, therefore, in all ports except Hong Kong. (Comparison with Hong Kong newspapers remains a problem.) By 1906, for example, the company employed an editor, a sub-editor,
and six reporters.
It also published the Chinese-language
Hu pao
Policy
, which is not considered in this guide.
The meaning of "official" in the context of China-coast newspapers has been considered in Section II. Unlike the Hong Kong newspapers, where "official" was an epithet linking the publication with a none- too-savory government, in international Shanghai the connection was less to be avoided. But its significance was limited. The North- China Herald and the North-China Daily News were designated as the official organs for publication of consular and embassy notices, but any implication that this resulted in the newspapers' reflecting British opinion on the China coast--or even "official" British opinion--is manifestly false. Specifically, in 1859 the group was confirmed as the official publishers of notifications of the British Superintendent of Trade and the British Legation; in 1860 of the British Legation in Yeddo; in 1861--and in China only--of all official notifications from British authorities in Japan; in 1862 of Shanghai
consulate notices.
Henry Shearman was a devout man, and the North-China Herald supported Protestant missionaries in China. By the late 1860's, however, criticism of missionaries can be found; the policy varied as the editorship changed hands. The newspaper first noticed the Taiping Rebellion in 1851 and by 1853 had become very interested in
80
the reported Christianity of the rebels. Disillusionment came in 1854, but the paper did not become anti-Taiping until Compton's editorship, with Mossman taking the extreme anti-Taiping position. Space was given to the Nien-fei in 1866-1867.
Editor Compton stated that there was no room for gossip in his paper, which would remain a record of passing facts. As the Shanghai community was still small, local news circulated in advance of a weekly newspaper, whose role was conceived almost in the simple terms of Matheson and the Canton Register (2.1.2) in the days of the East India Company. The growth of local news was stimulated, of course, both by the publication of the daily edition and by the growth, complexity, and diversity of the Shanghai foreign community itself.
•
Even a brief annotation should record these particular items of significance. On January 3, 1857, MacGowan noted the drying up of the old Yellow River bed. The Herald's Tientsin correspondent, J.A.T. Meadows, put the blame for the Tientsin massacre squarely on the Catholic missionaries themselves, but editor Gundry rejected this position and put the blame on the populace--not on the officials. Gundry's position was not anti-Chinese government, but it was far
more conservative than that of his predecessor, Jamieson, who later edited the "pro-Chinese" Cycle (5.16).
Under Gundry's editorship,
the Herald was primarily a merchant's newspaper; yet Gundry did
report such Chinese news as the activities of Tseng Kuo-fan
5.2
81
professionally-managed enterprise with some claim to the authoritative- ness which students have subsequently granted it.
But the claim has
not been fully substantiated, and we must state again that research should not lean too heavily on this single source. Thorough research into China-coast newspapers may permit a more definitive evaluation,
but that is still to come.
Shanghai Times group*
5.2.1
Shanghae Daily Times, 1861-1862
5.2.2
Shang-hai mei-jih shih-pao Ð¤‡ #
Shanghae Weekly Times, 1861-1862
It
No copies of this short-lived newspaper have been located. was edited by a Smith, presumably not D. Wares Smith of the later Supreme Court and Consular Gazette (5.3.4). The proprietors were W. Wynter and Company, and the newspaper closed following Wynter's departure from Shanghai with several debts unpaid. Reports in contemporary China-coast newspapers state that the Daily Times and its weekly mail edition contained trade, commerce, and market reports. The China Mail (3.4.1) considered it "a very respectable sheet."
The North-China Herald (5.1.1) was a target of considerable criticism
from the Times.
5.3
Recorder group
For comment on this group, see text below 5.3.4.
Shanghai Recorder, 1862-1869
藩
潘 and Yakoob Beg 阿古柏帕夏 , and he took gratification
5.3.1
from the information that the newspaper was read in translation by Chinese officials, including Li Hung-chang. however; enough of a realist to temper his pride with the recognition that the Chinese officials were probably not getting sufficiently accurate translations to permit them to understand the full import of the newspaper's articles.
Shang-hai tsai-chi
上海載紀
He was,
5.3.2
5.3.3
Commercial Record, 1864-1866
Daily Advertiser, 1864
The North-China Herald was not, then, the only company publishing newspapers on the China coast, but it maintained a reputation for comprehensiveness, and by the end of the century was certainly a
*The newspapers in this group are elsewhere referred to as "Shanghai..."
and are indexed with this spelling.
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5.3.4
5.4
5.4.1
5.4.2
Supreme Court and Consular Gazette and Law Reporter for H.B.M.
Supreme Court and Provincial Courts and the Consular Courts of China and Japan, 1867-1869
Tsui-kao fa-t'ing yu ch'in-shih kung-paoK $ 最高法庭與欽事公報
Publishers
Cope, Chesire and Co.
Editors
J.T.F. Bowker
Date
1862
1864
C. Treasure Jones
1865
1866
D. Wares Smith
C. Treasure Jones
A.C. Dulcken
The Shanghai Recorder at first had both a daily and a weekly edition, and later added an overland edition, the Commercial Record, which was highly regarded by the China Mail (3.4.1). The weekly local edition was stopped in early 1865. The Daily Advertiser was circulated free of charge, with its revenue coming from ad- vertising only; it was discontinued on the grounds that the older newspapers had monopolized the advertising. In 1867 the new publisher replaced the Commercial Record with the Supreme Court and Consular Gazette as the overland edition of the Recorder. The change was more than one of name only, however, as the Gazette published officially supervised transcripts of cases in the Shanghai law
courts.
The newspapers were advertised for sale in 1868 and sold in December 1869 for 1,000 Shanghai taels. The North-China Herald
(5.1) bought the title of the Supreme Court and Consular Gazette for 400 Shanghai taels and took over its functions.
Friend of China group
Friend of China, 1863-1869
Chung-kuo chih yu 中國之友
Friend of China and Shipping Gazette, 1869
Publisher and editor: William Tarrant (except 1868-1ate 1869,
C. Treasure Jones)
5.5
William Tarrant brought his exiled Friend of China north from Canton and began Shanghai publication in January 1863 (see 2.4
and 3.1). Between July 1868 and late 1869 the paper was run by C. Treasure Jones, but Tarrant regained control after he became dis- satisfied with the former's management policy, and sold the equip-
Jones may have initiated ment that same year and returned to London.
the alternative title, only one reference to which has been found. There is evidence that Tarrant on leaving Shanghai in 1869 sold the title to London's Anglo-Oriental Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade, which subsequently published a periodical by the same name.
Reports of contemporaries are not flattering. Hong Kong news- papers despaired, urging that some one put Tarrant out of his misery. In the absence of any significant run of the Friend of China, too much credence should not be put in such general comments, however. Certainly under the editorship of C. Treasure Jones, there were
But the Friend probably both editorial excesses and mismanagement.
of China was quoted in other China-coast newspapers; it had regular reports from Tientsin; and it numbered among its correspondents Augustus F. Lindley and Colonel Schmidt, who served under Ward and Gordon during the Taiping rebellion.
Shanghai Evening Express, 1867-1871 Wan ch'ai-pao
#k
Publishers and editors:
then C. Treasure Jones
C. Treasure Jones and C. do Rozario,
After selling the Shanghai Recorder (5.3.1), C. Treasure Jones founded the Shanghai Evening Express with C. do Rozario in October
Jones gained 1867. It was Shanghai's first evening newspaper.
complete control of the paper but had to cease publication tem-
Creditors porarily in April and May 1869 for financial reasons. forced Jones to accept the management of N.B. Bonney and Company. The paper ceased publication in 1871 and Jones left China a bankrupt.
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5.6
5.7
5.7.1
5.7.4
Shanghai General Advertiser, fl. 1872
This publication started as a mid-day advertising sheet but in 1872 is said to have contained items of local news.
Celestial Empire group
For comment on this group, see text below 5.7.10.
Shanghai News-Letter for California and the Atlantic States, 1867-1871
Shang-hai t'ung-hsin 1 iêu in là
5.7.2
Shanghai News-Letter, 1871-1873
5.7.3
Shang-hai ch'ai-pao
上海差報
Shanghai Evening Courier, 1868-1875
Shanghai Budget and Weekly Courier, 1871-1873
Courier and Budget:
Publishers
C. do Rozario
Date
1868
1871
1872
Hugh Lang
1878-80
1879
Thomas Preston (?)
Gazette and Celestial Empire (to 1890):
Loureiro and Co.
Frederick Henry Balfour
William Venn Drummond
Editors
Hugh Lang
Thomas Preston (?)
Frederick Henry Balfour
John R. Black
John H. Johnson (May- Oct.), Athol Mayhew
1873
1874
1877
1878
1880
John S. Trenwith
Shang-hai ching-lang yu mei-chou ch'ai-pao 每週差報
上海錦囊與
1881
1883
Athol Mayhew
John G. Thirkell
5.7.5
T
Shanghai Budget and Weekly News-Letter, 1874-1875
5.7.6
Evening Gazette, June-Sept. 1873, 1874-1875 Wan-pao 晚報
1879
Charles Rivington,
John D. Clark
1891
5.7.7
Morning Gazette and Advertiser, 1874
5.7.8
Celestial Empire, 1874-1911
Hua-yang t'ung-wen 東洋通聞
華
$, or Tung-yang t'ung-wen
1894
1906
John D. Clark
(managing director)
Mercury and Celestial Empire (after 1890):
John G. Thirkell
John D. Clark
John D. Clark (ed.-in- chief), Henry O'Shea (ed.) Thomas W. Kingsmill (ed.)
R.D. Neish
1907
5.7.9
Shanghai Courier and China Gazette, 1875-1890
5.7.10 Shanghai Mercury, 1879-1911
Wen-hui pao 文匯報
Publishers and Editors
Shanghai News-Letter: The newspaper, basically a mail edition, was founded by John Thorne and Howard Twombly and supported by American merchants. Hugh Lang bought the paper in 1871, and shortened the title,but he did not merge it with his Shanghai Budget until the end of 1873.
Balfour was probably the proprietor of the Courier to 1881, with Drummond and Trenwith as lessees. There is evidence that Mayhew and Thirkell, too, were lessees and that the paper was finally sold to Clark in 1890. Thomas Preston was actually manager and may have been the publisher from 1878 to 1880. Some sources state that he was editor in 1879, but if so, the appointment was probably temporary and acting. J.R. Black, editor of the Courier in 1878, is said to have been involved in the founding of the rival Mercury the following
The year Rivington's interest in the Mercury ended is not known, year.
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87
but it was before 1888. Carl Fink, editor of the German Shanghai newspaper Der Ostasiatische Lloyd (6.8.1), was a director of the
Mercury at least from 1909 to 1911. This was a reflection of an old connection, because early issues of Der Ostasiatische Lloyd
were printed as a supplement to the Courier.
History of the group
Unlike most previous "groups," the present group is not one of homogeneous ownership, but is based rather on subsequent amal- gamation. This may be obvious from the list of publishers and editors--and it will require separate consideration of several of the papers under "policy" below. The grouping nevertheless is convenient, since it limits the number of unconnected Shanghai newspapers which this guide must consider.
The Shanghai News-Letter was founded first and remained through- out its independent existence solely a mail edition designed for an American audience. In the following year, 1869, the Shanghai Evening Courier and its overland or mail edition, the Shanghai Budget and Weekly Courier, were founded by Rozario after his break with C. Treasure Jones and his loss of control of the Shanghai Evening Express (5.5). When Hugh Lang decided to amalgamate his Shanghai News-Letter with the Courier series at the end of 1873, the Courier's overland edition was renamed the Shanghai Budget and Weekly News-Letter.
Meanwhile the Evening Gazette had been founded in June 1873, but it ceased publication temporarily in September when its offices burned down, resuming early in 1874. In April 1874 the Morning Gazette and Advertiser was circulated free to subscribers but
probably did not last the year. Also in 1874 the Celestial Empire with the sub-title "a journal of native and foreign affairs in the Far East," was founded as the mail edition of the Gazette.
When Lang died in 1875, Balfour, publisher of the Gazette, bought the Courier and the titles of the daily represent this change--Shanghai Courier and China Gazette. The title of the Courier's mail edition was lost, however, being replaced by "Celestial Empire." In 1879 the Shanghai
Courier was enlarged to two daily editions--the principal one being published in the morning, with an evening supplement free to sub- scribers--but this experiment lasted only from April to September.
The Shanghai Mercury was founded as a rival daily newspaper
The daily in 1879. In 1890 it bought out the Courier-Gazette group. kept the name of the Mercury; the overland or mail edition that of the Celestial Empire. The combination survived through 1911, the last year considered in this guide.
Policy
The Shanghai News-Letter, if the few surviving copies are rep- resentative, was designed by its two American merchant founders for
One issue, for readers in "California and the Atlantic States."
example, advocated the establishment of an American Far Eastern naval base; another discussed the merits of merchant-consuls as true representatives of the United States. The newspaper was opposed to the opium trade and welcomed the Burlingame Mission, suggesting that its advocacy of an American base was more in answer to the policy of European powers than evidence of advocacy of a "strong" China policy.
The Courier and, especially, the Mercury were major newspapers certainly of importance equal to that of the North-China Daily News (5.1.8). But just as the News is usually read and judged by its mail edition, the North-China Herald (5.1.1, 5.1.4, 5.1.5), so most of what follows is based on a survey of the Celestial Empire. The group had correspondents in Chinkiang, Chefoo, Newchwang, Kiukiang,
and Tientsin, and Hankow by 1873 and in Peking, Nanking, Mukden, Kweichow by 1876. Contributors included Alexander Michie, William Mesny, Herbert Giles, and Baron von Richtofen in the early days; but the scope of coverage naturally grew with the years, and this
In 1889 a list of the remains a subject for further research. Courier's staff included a Chinese reporter and translator, and such Chinese staff members became quite common with all China-coast newspapers by the turn of the century.
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In general the Celestial Empire prided itself on its "independent" policy, and in 1877 the editor criticized the North-China Daily News for its presumption in assuming to be an "official" paper. As the Courier supported the Mitkiewicz banking schemes, however, there is a possibility that the American influence on policy, inherited from the Shanghai News-Letter, was continued. This would account for the severe criticism of the obviously British-oriented llerald and the Tientsin Chinese Times (7.1).
The scope of the Celestial Empire is described in an advertise- ment as follows:
The wide scope of this periodical, embracing as it does, informa- tion of the most varied nature on matters connected with China and the Chinese--their language, literature, customs and politics; local and foreign intelligence; a complete compendium of all the commercial news of the week, with the well-known Shanghai statistics of imports, and export-tables of tea; and summarizing the literary gossip of every European mail, upon its arrival from the best of London papers--renders it peculiarly adapted alike for circulation at the outports and in Japan, and for transmission to one's friends at home.
The weekly also reported fully on the local courts, including the U.S. consular Courts.
But with all this regular news coverage, the Celestial Empire, especially under Balfour, did not neglect Sinology or the arguments of the missionaries. John S. Roberts contributed articles on the meaning of "shang-ti" in opposition to the views of Dr. James Legge. A revised and fully annotated translation of Fa Hsien's "Record of the Kingdom of Buddha," with criticisms of previous translations was, perhaps, the most ambitious Sinological contribution, but it is not an isolated example. Later the Celestial Empire watched China's progress in "Westernization," commenting that although readers might laugh at the thought of China's progress- ing too fast, such a danger was indeed looming in the distance.
5.8
The editor quoted Wen-hsiang to the effect that once the Chinese did industrialize, the West might not like the speed with which they
did so.
As noted above, at least from 1909 the Mercury's board of directors included the editor of the German Shanghai newspaper
Der Ostasiatische Lloyd, which was printed on the Mercury's presses. The policy significance, if any, of this connection has yet to be
determined.
Cathay Post, 1885
Editor: F. Essex
China Gazette, 1894-1911
5.9

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