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SUNDAY LABOR IN HONGKONG HARBOUR
THE HONGKONG JUBILEE, 1841–1891.
The Right Reverend Bishop Burdon delivered the following address at St. John's Cathedral on the 21st of January, 1891, on the occasion of the Special Service held in connection with the celebration of the Colony's Jubilee :----
WHAT WE HAVE DONE,
"It is too late now even to ask the question whether England was right or wrong in taking possession of this island fifty years ago. Whatever may be said of the morality of those old wars, we have a right to claim that we have more than justified the act by returning to China something vastly more valuable than we took. We took a treeless, barren, useless Rock, the abode of a few hundreds, or at most of a few thousands of Chinese fisherman, ready on occasion to exchange their peaceable occupation for piracy, and we have long since made it a security of peace with China and a profitable home for tens of thousands--at the present moment two hundred thousand-of Chinese who have been attracted hither by the abundant means of obtaining a livelihood and even wealth under the security of a just and stable Government. We have illustrated at China's own doors, without the aid of the Chinese classics, the fabled times of their early hero-emperors, when the people came of their own accord to settle under their rule.
By our public works we have provided employment for hosts of China's poor who could at best have eked out but a miserable existence in their own land or might have perished in the frequent floods and famines to which China is unhappily subject. We have by our educational institutions, government and private, given an impetus to, if we were not the first to introduce, a desire for something more than the study of the Chinese classics. We have thus awoken something like new hopes in the heart of this old country, while we have at the same time been a means of physical benefit to vast numbers of its population.
race.
The Necessity for Sundoy Best.
In one of the early Debates in the House of Lords with reference to our occupation of Hongkong, one speaker pointed out-I forget the words, but this was their substance--that by raising a sort of English town on the side of this mountain island, we should by our roads, our drainage and our houses bo presenting a model for imitation by the Chinese in their own land. But China's genius for the present at least, does not lie in road-making or drain-making, or even in seeing the necessity for providing light and air in their dwellings; and hence the aspiration expressed by the noble lord has thus far not been realized. But he was on the right tack, nevertheless, when he suggested that a bit of English civilization should be planted here which might provide lessons for the Chinese to be learned in due time. There are parts of that civilization, not actually physical, and yet, leading to physical benefit, which it would have been well if we had introduced from the commencement, and which it is not too late to introduce even yet. One of the most prominent of these, more noticeable in England by foreigners than elsewhere, is the English Sunday Rest. There can be no doubt of the benefit of it to our own We have only to look at the Chinese to see the evil of the utter lack of it. Strong and patient in labour as the Chinese are, they have neither the healthy mental nor physical tone of our own people. Other causes are of course at work, but this of unresting toil, so far as the labouring classes are concerned, has set its mark on their faces and their minds. Should we in this Christian colony, where the Chinese as a rule are in far happier circumstances than in their own country, allow the same unresting toil to continue? Is there no possible way out of the difficulty? I cannot and will not believe it. China is not a country much given to imitation, but there no telling what effect would have been produced if from the first the Sunday rest had been established here for all ashore and afloat. It would at all events have been a striking proof to the Chinese from Canton to l'eking that we care for something else beside buying and selling, and it would probably have had more effect on the nation than all our public works put together. The Chinese here who are released from work on the Sunday evidently enjoy the rest, and there must be many among them who do lose some cents over it. "Amid all the wisdom and charity of this community, some means might be devised by which this essential
SUNDAY LABOR IN HONGKONG HARBOUR.
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feature of English civilization could at last be established here, for the good of many of our own people as well as for that of the Chinese labourers. Union of all will do it, and by doing it we shall be setting an example of English civilization that will tell for good on far more than those immediately affected.
Our Responsibilities.
Jubilees come and go, leaving behind them the lesson for all No man liveth to himself. Our Jubilee would be no cause of rejoicing, if it contained no record of good work done. All life's duties honestly attempted, some good actually accomplished, won though it may be out of our very mistakes and failures-this must be our record. High principles and aims, right thinking and right doing-this must be the character of the life we are to live, not for self but for others. Across the wide reach of nearly five and thirty years I seem often to hear the echo of Lord Elgin's words, when he was addressing the tea merchants of Shanghai, reminding them that the responsibility of those who have a faith that reaches to Heaven' is vastly higher than that of those 'whose faith does not rise higher than the Earth.' In our life, commercial, social, personal, with such a faith as ours, we all can, if we will, successfully fight life's battles, do life's duties, and at length win life's crown in an eternal jubilee.
THE MISSION TO SEAMEN ON THE * SUNDAY LABOUR QUESTION.”
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We have received the subjoined letter from London direct, and publish it with pleasure as it affords us great satisfaction to find that the objectionable maintenance of old-time slavery is receiving such consideration from the classes injuriously affected, as must inevitably lead to a general recognition of the right of mankind to one day's rest in every seven. With a strong backing at Home, throughout the Australasian Colonies and India, there can be no doubt whatever of the local Marine Officers' Association succeeding in winning for themselves that right which has been too long denied them--REST ON THE SEVENTH DAY.
MISSION TO SEAMEN, Strand, London, W. C.
16th January, 1891.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "HONGKONG TELEGRAPH,”
DEAR SIR,-I have the honor to inform you that the Committee of "The Missions to Seamen" have received many and strong complaints from captains, officers and crews of British merchant ships, and from clergymen and other friends of sailors in various foreign and colonial ports and in H. M.'s possessions abroad, especially from Hongkong and Singapore, as to the prevalent practice of working cargoes in such harbours on what ought to be the day of rest, and the consequent cessation of worship on the Lord's day on board the ships in which this labour takes place.
This is a fruitful source of unhappiness, discontent and demoralization on board ship, preventing many respectable English seamen from continuing in such trades, their places being filled by foreigners, including Africans and Asiatics, whose foul lives still further debase moral conduct ander the British flag, To their houor, some shipowners and merchants forbid this working of cargoes on board their ships, and give their officers and crews the day of rest when in port; yet this individual action places these few owners at a pecuniary disadvantage in competition with their less considerate rivals in trade. In many trades, though, this demoralizing practice does not obtain.
Happily, also, there are many foreign and colonial ports in which the Sunday working of cargoes is either expressly forbidden, as in some Australian and New Zealand ports, or is greatly diminished by the operation of a tax on Sunday working of cargoes, as in Bombay harbour; or is very seldom practised, as in Scandinavian waters.
The missions to Seamen are universally investigating and considering this matter, with a view to officially suggesting that the restrictive rules found to operate beneficially in some harbours might be more generally enacted.
Hongkong, February 1891.
Yours faithfully,
WM. DAWSON,
Commander, R.N.,
Secretary,
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