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38
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[January 17, 1805.
A
THE UNOFFICIAL ELEMENT IN THE exceedingly. Let the unofficial represen-evidently most fully appreciates the extent tatives in Hongkong be as directly re- of the hold corruption has gained on the sponsible to the ratepayers as the members entire official class, for it emphatically of the Municipal Council are in Shang-declares that reform can only come from hai and it would be found they would without. That is our conviction. No single work with the same zeal for the good of the high official or even a set of officials, nor What we really want in even a reforming Emperor, can unaided community.
19 a Municipal Council, cleanse the Augean stable of Chinese cor- Hongkong with which the Sanitary Board would ruption. Some temporary improvement naturally be amalgamated. Such a Council, might possibly be effected by a vigorous entirely free from the official element in its Imperial Edict pushed by zealous reformers membership, would be able to conduct the into practice, but it would soon be followed local affairs of the colony in an entirely by a relapse, and it is quite possible the satisfactory manner, and we would no latter state of the mandarinate would be longer have occasion to regard with envy worse than the first and end in final dis- the condition of the Model Settlement. The ruption and anarchy. Nothing would work Legislative Council, which would still be re- so potently for the well-being of the Chinese quired for the making of laws outside ordinary people as the overthrow of the present un- municipal regulations, should also be re-wieldy Empire and its division into three or formed in the sense of making it a more four kingdoms, under the tutelage, possibly representative body. It might be suggested under the administration, of soine of the We fear this is a mere also that it would be well if the Governor Western Powers could have the benefit of unofficial advice in dream at present, though it must come to the Executive Council, were it not for the that or something like it in the end, for fact that we have in the colony no me suit- mutual jealousies will probably prevent any able for such a position who are not directly combined action on the part of the leading engaged in business, and being engaged in Treaty Powers.
At the moment the prospects of any business they would always be liable to a suspicion of using the information and the overthrow of the existing Government at influence the position gave them for their Peking seem to sanguine minds more remote personal benefit and to the detriment of trade than was the case before the fall of Port 64 seem because we are rivals. Under the peculiar circumstances of Arthur. We say the colony it is better that whatever advice not inclined to believe that there is really the unofficials have to offer to the Governor any alteration in the position. Many per
are of opinion that the Chinese Go- should be offered in public. A departure was subs made from that rule in the recent secret meet-vernment desire peace and that the Japanese ings of the Legislative Council, and the re- Government are at unwilling to make sult has been such as we should think is not terms; and great expectations are based likely to encourage any repetition of the on the forthcoming negotiations at Tokyo. We warn our readers not to be too sanguine experiment.
as to the result of the Embassy about to be despatched to Japan. In the first place it is by no means certain that the Peking Go- vernment are really anxious to make peace. It is far more likely that they only desire In the last issue of Truth, Mr. HENRY LA-time in which they hope Japanese efforts BOUCHERE, referring to the Chino-Japanese may relax in their activity. The Chinese war, sys" My own sympathies are conceit is limitless, and the mandarins fully entirely with the Japanese, and so, I think, believe that given time to make good their are those of most Englishmen. The losses, they would soon be in as good a « Chinese Empire is rotten to the core. Its position as the Japanese and better able to "Government is detestable. Its huge pro- sustain the cost of lengthened hostilities. “vinces hang loosely together. All commerce The Japanese Government understand the “is impeded by internal transit duties being character of their opponents, and distrust "levied every few miles. Nothing, in the them profoundly. They could not, as a "interests of the world and of the Chinese matter of course, refuse to discuss any offer themselves, would be more desirable than for a settlement laid before them by duly "that there should be a revolution. which appointed and suitable representatives of "would send the Celestial Emperor and his the Chinese Government, but they will not, crew of insolent and corrupt mandarins we imagine, for one moment relax their packing. Japan will naturally exact a war efforts for the successful prosecution of the "indemnity, and, as did Germany in the war. The fact that a Third Army Corps "Franco-German War, secure to herself some is about to embark at Hiroshima for guarantees of future peace. She should, some destination in China is suficient moreover, insist that China be thrown open proof that the Japanese are far from to all nations, and that foreign goods, once convinced of the probability of Any baving paid dues at the port of entry, early cessation of hostilities.
The war "should circulate freely throughout the will proceed, and its incidents may march Empire. It is not often that we can more rapidly than the peace negotiations. but there is That indeed is our expectation. Another agree with Mr. LABOUCHERE,
An article in the V. C. Daily News dealing with Hongkong affairs, and more particu- larly the plague and the Insanitary Dval lings Bill, concludes as follows:- Tha "opposition will be brushed aside by a com- pact Government majority and the Bill will shortly pass into law. So far good. "But he would be a shallow observer who would say that therefore obstruction does not matter. A wider issue is being raised by the opposition than they themselves seem to be aware of in the spectacle of a Legislative Assembly where the Govern ment is found engaged in a struggle for the public weal against the public repre- sentatives themselves. We are forced, not "for the first time, to ask whether represen- "tative government in Hongkong has not been made a failure and a shẩm by the un- worthy tactics of men who seek their own "ends, thrusting better men out of their places, and robbing the word Honour able, as applied to political life, of half its significance. People are being led to seriously ask themselves if it would not be better to do away with it altogether, if the affairs of the colony would not be better administered under a strong Governor with Downing Street behind him as a court of appeal. And in the present state of affairs in Hongkong we think they would.” The conclusion is absurd. Any Governor who attempted to administer Hongkong without the benefit of unofficial advice would find the task extremely difficult and irksome, and the result to the community would be disastrous. A Governor comes here ignorant of all local conditions and by- the time he has made himself acquainted with the colony and its requirements his term of office has expired and he is succeeded by another. It may be said that he would: have his officials to look to for advice and assistance, but the officials are apt to regard all questions presented to them from a purely official point of view and to cons ter the colony as made for the officials rather than the officials for the colony. But even giving the officials credit for the most com- plete disinterestedness, what opportunities have they for making themselves acquainted with the real requirements of the place, more especially those relating to trade and com- merce? How the idea of doing away with the unofficial element in the Legislative Council could enter the head of any sane man we cannot imagine. It is true the recent action of the unofficials, more parti- eşti- cularly in connection with the mates and the Insanitary Dwellings Bill, was mysterious and regrettable, but a system is not to be condemned for single breakdown. And even in connection with the Insanitary Dwellings Bill, although the hon. members did not represent the wishes of the community in that matter, it may nevertheless be conceded that it was an advantage that the Bill should be subjected to hostile criticism, in order that it should be passed as free from flaw as it could be
made.
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THE POSITION OF THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT.
a good deal of common-sense in the above matter not taken into consideration is the remarks if rather roughly expressed, and contingency that the Ambassadors appointed they pretty fairly indicate the state of public may not prove acceptable to the Tokyo Go- opinion in England at the present moment. vernment. CHANG HING-HUAN, who was The weak point about the unofficial The Saturday Review, which represents the formerly Minister to the United States, is element in Hongkong is that it is not suffi- other extreme of political opinion, holds not a mandarin of the first rank, and may ciently representative. What measure of re- practically the same views as Truth on this not be regarded as sufficiently representative, presentation we have is better than none at question, and in an article on the situation while SHAO, Governor of Hunan, is hardly all, but it is altogether inadequate. Then the Far East, says that there is a prevalent likely to prove a persona grata in Japan, if, system of nomination results. not in re- belief that Japan, not satisfied with a scheme as we understand, he is the official who first presentation of all interests, but in the undue for the reform of Korea, is also desirons of offered rewards for Japanese heads, an act representation of special interests. Shang- so far civilising China as at least to open up which very rightly excited a storm of indig- hai is admirably governed under the repre- the country to foreign trade and residence. nation in Tokyo. Assuming, however, that sentative system and we should have thought The Review, while sympathising with the any difficulty as to the personnel of the Em- the Daily News would have been amongst idea, thinks that any reform in China to bassy will be waived, the negotiations are the last to hold up bureaucratic govern meet with real success will have to be drastic. certain to make tardy progress, and before ment as superior to the system under which The Government cannot be handled with any conclusion can be arrived the Model Settlement has. flourished so kid gloves. Our London contemporary improbable Peking will be in that is not
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