CO129-372 - Public Offices - 1910 — Page 389

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quarter would raise the price of all commodities. The Viceroy was reported to have remitted the hi-kin duty on rice for three months in the hope of averting a crisis. In one case, two students recently returned with sharpened wits from America were the cause of flour mills at Haichow and Tsing-kiangpu in the Chinkiang region being looted. They sold orders on the mills for flour at low prices, and in this way made off with a considerable sum, The disturbances occurred when the orders were presented and dishonoured at the mills. The Chinking authorities found it necessary to provide 20,000 dollars for the purchase of rice to be sold to the poor below cost price, in order to preserve order till the refugees could return to their homes.

At Haukow the refugees had been sent home, but returned to the city in considerable numbers, and the authorities appeared to be unable to provide the requisite supplies of seed and especially of cattle. His Majesty's consul-general at that port reported that the prospect of a heavy wheat crop was ruined and the first tea crop imperilled by wet, while the native trading community was disturbed by the impossibility of filling the large contracts for vegetable tallow entered into with foreign firms, chiefly French and German. Here also the price of food and all necessaries was abnormally high, rice being at over 9,000 cash a picul. At Changsha the price of rice had been artificially raised by the Hunan gentry, who were reported to be keeping a large stock at an up-country centre. It must also be remembered that the financial position of farmers in Shansi and Szechuan has been seriously affected by the prohibition of cultivation of the poppy, and it is perhaps surprising that only isolated cases of armed resistance occurred when the seedlings were uprooted by the authorities in provinces where it formed one of the chief sources of the people's livelihood.

The robberies, piracies, and local disorders, which are of more or less frequent occurrence among the less peaceable inhabitants of the southern provinces, are of a totally different and less serious nature. During the last quarter His Majesty's consul at Amoy reported that Pingholisien, on the Fukien side of the Kuangtung border, had been raided by 500 armed ruffians. After informing the inhabitants that they had come to kill all the local officials and turn out the foreign missions they made a demonstration at the yamên and attacked the magistrate, who escaped with a slight wound in the back. The band then dispersed, and a few days later 500 troops from Foochow were sent to Pingho, where their presence was no doubt a more serious infliction than the rapid incursion of the brigands from the mountains. The only mission at Pingho is a small Roman Catholic one. His Majesty's consul at Wuchow reports that at the end of February the district within 2 or 3 miles of the consulate was terrorised by a hand of about seventy robbers, who committed various atrocities. At the end of February two steamers the " Nanning and "Sainam "--received letters threatening them with piracy unless they paid 2,000 taels to one Tang Tai Kow at the Kai Shou trade barrier below Wuchow, and for several trips the vessels were escorted for portions of their journey by Chinese gun-boats or torpedo-boats. The * Sainam was the vessel pirated in 1906.

Provincial Assemblies.

The quarterly reports mostly pay little attention to the doings of the provincial assemblies, which cannot be said to represent any but the official and wealthy classes, and in proportion as their resolutions were calculated to stimulate the political energies of the provinces, their tendency was to run counter to the control of the Central Government, and exceed their own competence. For instance, in Nanking, of forty- six resolutions submitted to the Viceroy only five had been given effect to, the others being either remitted for further consideration or shelved. Resolutions in favour of a national coinage, reform of the Education Office, and amended regulations governing the transfer of property were ruled to be outside the assembly's province. Among the matters submitted by the Governor of Soochow for the consideration of the assembly, a proposal respecting the li-kin system may be of interest. His Excellency suggested that the dues should henceforth be calculated in silver and reduced by 20 per cent. After rejecting the governor's suggestion on the ground that such a change would really increase rather than decrease the burdens of the merchants and people, the assembly proceeded to urge that the present system of taxation absolutely prohibited any development of the trade of the province, and that nothing short of the abolition of the li-kin offices would suffice. They proposed to replace it by a system of trade taxes which, it was recognised, could not be introduced until exhaustive enquiries had been made to settle its amount and apportionment among the different trades. It was

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mentioned in the assembly's report that over 3,000,000 taels was annually raised by li-kin in the Kiangsu province.

With regard to self-government societies, His Majesty's consul-general at Canton reported that, while many meetings have been held to discuss the general topics of The agenda of the day, the tone of the speakers was more moderate than last year. the meetings have, however, comprised cases still the subject of correspondence The officials have recently between foreign consuls and the Chinese authorities. taken to publishing in the papers copies of correspondence with various consuls on topics of interest, and these have frequently been read out and commented upon at the meetings, answers being suggested by those present and duly forwarded to the officials by the self-government society. Any Chinese who had been or fancied himself injured in some way by a foreigner, should he be unable to obtain redress at the consulate, had only to petition the society, which at once took up his case regardless of its merits, and compelled the authorities to address the consul on the subject. Mr. Jamieson pointed out that no official had as yet shown himself strong enough to disregard the mandate of the self-government society, and to enjoin upon its members In fact, a sort of the necessity of not interfering in what was no concern of theirs. mob rule seemed to prevail at Canton. At Newchwang, however, things have taken a different course. No meetings of the local Government association have been held for some months, and the fact that the officials only required its advice and assistance in raising new taxes has considerably damped the ardour of its members.

Anti-foreign Placards and National Debt Movement.

At

The clamour over alleged designs to divide China among the foreign Powers which raged for a while in the native press at Shanghai and Hankow, and then suddenly ceased, extended early in the year to Honan, Shansi, and Szechuan, Chungking "partition of the Melon" handbills were distributed for a short time in January, but here, as also at Wuhu, prompt and efficient measures were taken by the authorities to put a stop to the dissemination of anti-foreign bills and dangerous rumours, and no actual agitation ensued. But His Majesty's consul at the latter port stated that these rumours had undoubtedly revived the prejudice against foreigners in the minds of the people of Anhui, and correspondents in the interior remarked on the changed demeanour of the country people and the revival of the use of opprobrious epithets as applied to foreigners. In this connection, His Majesty's consul-general at Hankow observes that the comparative precision with which the clamour was started and dropped suggests that it was organised from one source, and that official control of the local press is still effective if the officials so desire, a conclusion that When it is imparts weight to the articles on foreign relations with which it teems. remembered that the provincial councils consist almost entirely of men of the official class, Mr. Fraser is inclined to doubt whether the movements for an immediate Parliament, for railway construction, and rights recovery, do not really cover intrigues between parties struggling for place and power.

The threatened partition of the Empire was used in Anhui Government schools with the tacit approval of local officials as the main argument in collecting subscriptions for the National Debt Redemption Fund. The movement reached Chungking in the early part of the year, and the scheme was discussed by the chamber of commerce and the gentry and also in the schools. The idea appears to have been received with some favour among the better class of people in Chungking, and a telegram to this effect was dispatched to Peking. No practical steps have, however, been taken for raising subscriptions, and it was decided to wait until a detailed scheme showing the total indebtedness to foreign Powers was formally issued by the promoters in the north.

Railways.

The agitation for the construction of Chinese railways with Chinese money has been actively championed during the quarter by the native press in the Yang-tsze ports. While His Majesty's consul-general at Hankow reported that it seemed impossible for the provincial Government to carry on without aid from Peking or raising a loan, the railway authorities boasted of having got several million dollars paid in and clamoured for more--the real payments were said to be over one million, but may not all have been genuine permanent subscriptions--holding meetings and lionising the triumphant delegates returned from the capital. The Hankow press boasted of the victory of the Hupei people in that their delegates had prevailed upon

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