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April 11, 1895.1
CHINA'S CORRUPTION.
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would revolution
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lea that the coolies would fight shy of Government lodging houses and that if such establishments were set up they would be allowed to stand vacant like the Govern it may be possible ultimately to effect in the rent laundries. Whatever improvements lodging of coolies, however, the first, the most important, and, indeed, an indispensable step, Government and the Sanitary Board have a rigid system of registration. The been proceeding on right lines in this matter and we trust they will not deviate from the course on which they have entered. For the Government's conduct in the matter of the strike we have nothing but praise. Whe ther the strictures passed by His Excellency published letter from the Colonial Secre- on the mercantile community in the recently tary to the Chamber of Commerce were altogether deserved or not we are not now concerned to inquire. The Government has done its duty; whether the foreign firms have all done their individual duty in the same mine. matter may be left to themselves to deter-
This
(HINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. "backbone and without nerves; the injury | The Manchus are generally credited with "to one part is not felt at the other extre-being somewhat more honest than the Chi- mity. Each official has his own particular nese, but that is immaterial to the argument, "selfish aims and those of his family to ad- because the system of administration which “rance; he cares nothing for his country or prevails is essentially Chinese and not a its interests, His sole ambition is to ac foreign system introduced by the conquerors. quire wealth and retire from office an The squeezing under which the Chinese in "leave the responsibility of his deeds, mis- every province groan is practised not so government, and corruption upon his much by Manchu as by Chinese officials, successor. There is the entire absence of the latter being in an immense majority. any esprit de corps." Just so, and because The common people might be induced to the Chinese form the mass while the Man-join in a rebellion under an idea that a chus are few and wanting in perseverance change in the Government would lessen the the desire for reform will not go much bead of taxation, or yond the aspiration for a better state of of plunder
that opportunities things. As we have frequently contended, while t
present themselves there is practically no hope for the success or that when things settled down again Was in progress of reforms or ameliorative measures in China they might themselves he found in the unless introduced in obedience to pressure seat of the squeezer; but as for any idea of from without. Will that pressure be ap-fighting for an abstract principle of right, plied? We doubt it if a peace is hastily nothing could be much further removed from patched up through foreign intervention. the average Chinama's mind. But it is China has still something to learn; she has certain that the present system of corrup- not yet been humbled sufficiently to be will- tion cannot continue for ever. ing to sit at the feet of a Western Gamaliel KESWICK said at the annual meeting of the Mr. W. and learn how to order her affairs. Indeed China Association, unless China puts her it has yet to be demonstrated that, in her house in order she will be torn to picces, and | about cool e lodging houses, and without a No doubt we have all a good deal to learn present condition, she is teachable at all. it will become only a matter of time, unless system of registration it would be impossible The vanity and conceit that have slowly she assimilates modern ideas and makes crusted round her through the last four herself strong as a nation by progressive And it must be registration by, the keeper, ever to acquire the desired information. tbousand years cannot be brushed off with improvement, for her to be conquered as a first gentle application of the lash of India was conquered. That would be the about the matter and it would be impossible not the landlord, for the latter knows nothing adversity.
best possible thing that could happen to China; for if the country were administered of all the details of the by-laws.
to hold him responsible for the observance as India is administered what unlimited pos. appears so self-evident as hardly to admit At the annual dinner of the China As-velopment would be opened up to her. registered, then, and registered by the sibilities of commercial and industrial de-of discussion. Having got the coolie houses sociation Sir EDMUND HORNBY, in pro- But the international jealousies of the great keepers, the next step for the Government posing one of the toasts, said :—“ The hhimi-| Powers would prevent any
lating spectacle of a great nation liko | entering
one of them to take, concurrently with the enforcement Chipa falling beneath so comparatively of the country, though
the wholesale conquest of the sanitary by-laws, is to gather informa insignificant an antagonist as Japan was
one of them may take a slice of territory here and another nature of the agreements subsisting between tion as to the character of the houses and the the result of the bastard culture which a slice there, until China, in obedience to the keeper and the lodgers. This informa that nation boasted, and which crushed all the law of self-reservation, is compelled to tion will probably be collected more convent "that was original and noble in the life blood place the work of reforming her administra-cutly by the police and sanitary officers work-
of men; and, moreover, it entirely crushed tion in the hands of foreigners, as she has "all administrative ability in the nation, already placed the control of her foreign "and substituted for it a monstrous system Customs establishmeut..
of deceit, jobbery, and corruption. It was "not many years ago that an eminent officer "in the Army expressed the opinion that it
is called the tenant in this Ordinauce was possible the Chinese might overrun the
stunply a head coolio. The other coolies, world with their philosophy, their civilisa-
say, are getting 10 or 20 cents; he is get- tion, and their culture. And now it was a column M. E. ROBINSON suggests that
In his letter published in another ting 20 or 40 cents a day. Is that the sort question-an infinitely more serious ques- tion-whether China would continue to of concierges, or house-porters, state paid, Mr. DENNYS, we suspect, was speaking rather the Government should establish a corps
of man to go to the Sanitary Board as to "the house and make a report about it?"... "exist even as a nation." In speaking of and that if necessary one should be put in from impression than from definite knowledge: the deceit, jobbery, and corruption of each coolie house to look after the cleaning Our own impression is that the keeper is as China Sir EDMUND hit the nail on the and the drains, and the open windows, and a rule a very different sort of man from head. And the most discouraging feature the register of inmates, and the other hun that represented by the above remarks. in the situation is that there is no reform dred and one things that may be required may perhaps be correctly described as a head party in the country. True a pending re- volution in favour of reform has been spoken alternative to registration, the objection to
to be done. This suggestion is made as an coolie, but his position and income are such of, but that is merely a dream, a vain im- which gave rise to the now happily con-
as to place a considerable distance between agination, of a few Hongkong Chinese without cluded strike.
him and the ordinary coolie. There are, of appreciable power or inflaence in their own could be placed where their services are here as there are elsewhere. The beggars But before the concierges course, various grades of lodging houses country. It is not impossible that we may ere required the lodging houses would necessarily that we see about the streets have to pay long see internal strife break out in China, have to be registered, otherwise it would something for their lodging, so have the de though the absence hitherto of any serious sigu not be known which were lodging houses crepit coolies who can with difficulty earn of rebellion in presence of the crushing defeat and which were not, which brings us back enough to keep body and soul together. the country has sustained renders it less to the first position. probable than might have been thought a few ROBINSON'S
In fact what Mr. There are houses that cater for this class and months ago. But if rebellion does break only that there
proposal implies is not they are kept probably by men who make out its motive will not be a general desire to but that a policeman called by another name But on a plane above there are the ordinary should be registration only a slender pittance out of the business. establish purity in the administration. That should be permanently billeted in each lodg-coblie lodging houses, the keepers of which idea quite foreign to the Chinese ing house. What the coolies, and especially are really the employers of the coolies, letting mind. A Chinaman objects to be squeezed, the lodging house keepers, would think of a but has no objection to squeezing others, proposal of that kind may be easily imagined. stevedores and others, while in some cases the them out in gangs as may be required by and his highest ambition is to obtain au official position which will afford him oppor- ment should build and conduct lodging the men's earnings, supplying them with neces- It has been suggested also that the Govern. stevedores themselves are the keepers, taking tunities of doing so. There is perhaps a houses of its own. certain amount of latent patriotism in his idea on the surface.
That is rather a taking saries on the truck system, giving them very system which might under certain circunprovements have been effected in the com-selves a profit far in excess of the small We know what im- little in hard cash, and making for them- stances break out in an attempt to throw off mon lodging houses of England where the amounts mentioned by Mr. DENNYS. These the Manchu yoke and establish a native local authorities have done their duty in the men we believe to be a considerable power dynasty; but the dispossession of the matter, and if similar improvements could in the colony, having the great bulk of the present occupant of the Dragon Throne be effected in Hongkong it would give cause | labouring class absolutely under their thumb. would not mean national regeneration'for great satisfaction. But we have an Whether they were altogether responsible for
is ap
ม
NEVEGISTRATION OF COMMON LODGING HOUSES.
ing quietly and unobtrusively than by any formally appointed committee of inquiry. At the conference at Government House on Saturday Mr. DENNYS said: The person
-
He
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