be rather classic, when a
can stow
steamer of 713 tons can carry 800 passengers below. But it is on board the Japanese steamers that the overcrowding has been
the worst.
I believe that I am
not exaggerating when I say
that there were on
the upper and lower
deck of the "Ise Maru"
and the "Stigo Maru"
passengers
who had to lie
down.
When the "Stigo Maru"
arrived at Chefoo en route
for Vladivostock, the Chinese
Authorities there telegraphed
to know whether something could not be done here to prevent this overcrowding.
Messrs. Jardine Matheson may say:
"Is it not possible to prevent this overcrowding by less stringent measures than by enforcing the Chinese Passengers Act, and thereby putting us to such expense and trouble.
I have other powers at my disposal, that I could put those steamers running to Vladivostock and Newchwang under control. Owing to a curious anomaly in our law, a ship leaving England is licensed to carry only a certain number of passengers, and is obliged to have a certain number of certificated officers in charge of her, and a regulated equipment of various kinds; but a British ship leaving a treaty port in China, unless she is under the Chinese Passengers Act, may set these rules at defiance,