CO129-206 - Public Offices & Others - 1882 — Page 53

154

THE LONDON AND CHINA TELEGRAPH.

In all cases in which Japanese, especially Government depart- ments, are plaintiffs in our Courts, it is eminently desirable that the fullest investigation should be accorded, and the judgment based upon the clearest reasoning.

Severe indisposition has compelled Mr. Martin Dohmen, H.B.M. acting consul at Yokohama, to take leave of absence. His place will be filled by Mr. J. J. Enalie, the senior member of the consular corps in Japan, with the exception of Mr. Russell Robertson, who is now acting judge of H.B.M. Court for Japan. The appointment of Mr. Baslie has been received with much satisfaction, because the nomination of Mr. Dohmen about three years ago was regarded as improper, in view of that gentleman's shorter service and inexperience. The appointment of Mr. Hannen to be acting chief justice of the Supreme Court for China and Japau has enabled the arrears of appeals to be cleared off. Several cases tried here in 1977, and appealed to Shanghai, have been decided; but the delay, expense, and anxiety have weighed heavily upon the suitors. The probability of Mr. Rennie being promoted to the chief justiceship of Shanghai and Mr. Hannen appointed to Yokohama is a gratifying prospect to the com- munities of both ports, where the gentlemen named are well known and highly esteemed.

The Kaitakushi, or Colonization Commission, a department of the Government which has been for years past regarded with the utmost aversion and suspicion, is now fiually abolished, the government of Yezo being assimilated with that of other parts of the empire. Hakodate, Sapporo, and Nemuro are made the seats of three ken; and the business of colonisation will hence forward be attended to in a separate department in the two latter ken. This change will probably save the national purse seventy per cent, of the former cost of this service under the loose administration of General Kuroda, who is now said to have resigued his office. Probably, finding his occupation gone, no other alternative was left for General Kuroda.

The settlement is a prey to fatty robberies and burglarious openings of warehouses and abstraction of portions of their cou- tents. The police do not seem equal to the task of suppression or detection; and this, combined with the intolerable condition of the settlement, again auggests the necessity for the formation of a municipality in which the residents shall be properly aud effectively represented. The new order in council contains re ferences to municipal and land regulations applicable to the open ports of Japan, which revive the hope that we may eventually succeed in placing this settlement under our own control; and to enforce the observance of the regulations upon those whose defiance of all laws is now a standing reproach to, and teatimony of the weakness and inefficiency of the courts of those nations enjoying extra-territorial rights yet unable to control their own people.

[FEB. 21, 1882

It is now stated that Mr. Shishido will not be removed from the Japanese Legation at Peking, but will return to his pot in March. The Loochoo question is, according to the Japan Herald, likely to crop up again during the summer, and "tb.) foreign emissary of the Japanese Government, still Larries in Peking," where he is supposed to be endeavouring to do some. thing in the grievance between the two Empires. The Echo du Japon also refers to the same question. Two Loochooan dele- gates, who visited Peking with the idea of enlisting the aid of China to recover the lost independence of their home, have recently committed suicide, driven probably to desperation by the delays and sinuosities of Celestial diplomacy.

KOREA.

FUSAN.

A Japanese newspapar, the Mainichi Shimbun, recently printed note to the effect that Ri-Saison, step-brother of the King, assisted by three formerly distinguished officials, had attempted to break out into rebellion; but that their scheme was nipped in the bud, and the conspirators were arrested. Now the same paper gives further intelligence from Seoul stating that the three ex-officials wore beheaded and dismembered on the 2nd Dec. The heads were suspended by the hair from poles; and the arms while the dismembered trunks were left lying on the ground at and legs, roughly wrapped in straw, were put on piles of faggots, the foot of the same. The second unmes of the traitors were Ri-Saisen, in consideration of his being the nearest relative of placarded on the exposed corpses, but not their family names, the Sovereign, had his capital sentence remitted, and was exiled. prison by biting off his tongue. Re Reisboku, one of the would-be rebels, committed suicide in

Rumours are afloat that the King has sent a message to Peking asking for arms and soldiers to expel the Japanese who have fastened on two settlements on the shore opposite the West cruel, and that the Koreans are minded to rise and massacre Coast of Japan. All accounts agree that the Japanese are very them. The Chinese, it is stated, are even more sensitive about Korea than about Loochoo.

The Government are about to establish Custom Houses, the working of which is to be on much the same principle as the one now adopted by Chiua in collecting her revenue on foreign bottoms.

CHINA.

PEKING.

A very serious quarrel took place some ten years ago between a military mandarin named Chen Kuo-jni and Li Shih-chung, Commander-in-chief of the forces of Kiang-aan. Aa edict appeared in the Peking Gazette in 1971, in reply to a memoriał from Taeng Kou-fan pou the subject, degrading the two officers for their anseemly brawl. The Shen Puas of Jan. 2 contains a

We have enjoyed, as best we could under adverse conditions of trade, the holidays incident to the season. Christmas was observed by foreign residents in various ways; and the new year by our Japanese friends. Poverty and stagnation are, however, too visible through the outward show of festivity; and it is evident that if this country is to maintain its commercial rela-proclamation by the Governor of Au-hui to the effect that, acting tions with the world to the satisfaction and advantage of those on the Imperial authority, he caused Li Shih-chung to ba concerned, a thorough and radical change must be made in the arrested secretly on the night of the lat of the current moon in restrictive laws which impede trade and embarrass every prohia garrison, and then and there beheaded. ducer and merchant alike.

The mail vid United States, originally intended to leave Jan. 10, is postponed to Jan. 21, to the great inconvenience of mer chants bere and the annoyance of those in China whose letters are on the way to connect here with the steamer that was to leave on the 10th. The withdrawal of the excellent and regular service of the P. & O. Steam Navigation Company has been a source of much loss and inconvenience to foreign mercantile interests in Japan; and the probability is that a memorial will shortly be addressed to H.B.M. Government praying for its restoration.

A general meeting of the Asiatic Society has been held at the Chamber of Commerce, Tokio, the Rev. J. L. Amerman, Vice President, in the chair. Mr. Ernest Satow read a paper entitled "Notes on the Early History of Printing in Japan."

It is stated that Afr. Tekeha Pinpei, President of one of the Provincial Assemblies, has been decapitated in his own house, and his wife mortally wounded by three unknown men, who announced that robbery was not their motive. It is supposed they were actuated by private spite, or had some political object in committing the crime.

A serious mutiny among prisoners broke out in the prison at Hamamatsu, Shidzuoka ken, on the 24th Dec. Eighty prisoners combined to escape, and made a desperate attempt to carry their plans into exvention; but guard and police were at hand, and, by use of arms, the ringleader being shot dead at the outset, the revolt was subdued, but not until many were seriously wounded on both sides.

The Japanese newspapers state that the Miyee-kan, iron sheathed corvette, one of the three constructed by Sir E. J. Reed, on her return voyage from Persia, where she had been on a special mis- sion, showed signs of deterioration, supposed to be due to de- fective construction.

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The Courier reports that the Sub-Reader, Chang Chi Tung, has been appointed Governor of the Province of Shausi. This pro- motion is a remarkable one, from the fact that a Sub-Reader belongs to the fifth degree of rank, whereas a Governor of a Province is second in grade only to Viceroy, us the former has almost equal power with the latter, and has under his immediate command the whole of the military forces of his Province. A Sub-Reader, ou the other hand, holds but an insignificant office, and the only importance that attaches to it is on account of the freedom of speech permitted in memorialising the Throne-&pre rogative which is shared by the Censora. The sudden promotion of Chang Chi Tung from insignificance to importance is to be traced to his having written the famous memorial against Chung How and his more recent intrepid letter to the Viceroy Li Hung regarded by them as one of their shining lights, destined shortly chang, In politics Chang belongs to the Tso party, and he is to blaze into the refulgence of a Viceroy.

The North China Daily News correspondent writes:-- The French Minister and his family have arrived after a very con. arrived. It must be a source of the greatest pleasure to all Peking siderable absence. The British Minister and Lady Wade have also residents to see Lady Wade once more. Important negotiations with the Viceroy regarding opium duty have, it is reported, been occupying the attention of the British Minister and Chinese high offloats at Tientsin, and doubtless the interests of the victims of the opium vice, as well as those of the two countries more especially interested, lave not been overlooked by either statesman. Tsa Tsung-tang joined their deliberations at Tientsin on his way south. China has a few en- grapple with this enormous question. Very considerable interest secnis lightened and able atatesmiau at present who scem determined to taken in the subject at present, and if nothing effective is now done it ia to be feared another equally good opportunity may not arrive. It stands to reason that before the Chinese are able to drain their own

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