The-Hong-Kong-Weekly-Press-1895-10-10 — Page 14

274

THE DENATIONALISED SETTLE- MENTS AT SHANGHAI.

connections are

THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND

[October 10, 1895

the Chinese are endowed. Nothing can be ex- pected from him but treacherous kicks. He is only quiet and affable, until you get near enough for the purpose. It would be well that in settling vexed questions with China the foreign governments should bear in mind his known character and his long life record as an oppo- nent of everything but the old Confucian haughtiness and the old Confucian muddle. It was Wéng who carefully instructed the Secre- taries of the Chinese Legation in London and. Washington what to say in regard to the horrible Kucheng massacro. All the regret he feels for the occurrence will not be much, and all the justice he will administer to foreigners is that of the wolf toward the lamb. good can come to China while he controls her fate.-Peking and Tientsin Times.

No

GERMANY AND THE LOOTING OF THE MISSION NEAR SWATOW.

THE

KORMORAN. PROCEEDS WITH ALL

SPEED TO SWATOW.

made ready for the gruesome scene as early as

great that both Li and Sheng could not pre- Tuesday morning. But at two o'clock yesterday sume the monopoly. Their first idea was to afternoon the local troops began to assemble at levy blackmail, all subsequent mills were to pay the Shanghai magistrate's yamen, and half-an- their quota to Li and Sheng, but foreigners hour afterwards the condemned were brought into and Japanese got mixed up, and showed the the grand Hall of Justice, where Mr. Huang and absurdity of the idea. Meanwhile foreigners the district magistrate of Singyanghsien were started, silk filatures, and this had taken root seated. After a few questions to the prisoners as before Li and Sheng got their hand in, to whether they were satisfied that their sentence and after all this the Japanese war broke was a just one, the signal was given to bind the out, and the mandarins saw the game was up prisoners, and by three o'clock, in the presence and that it was necessary to yield. When the of the troops and the two magistrates, amid war finished this idea was still further streng- a volley of guns from the former, the whole thened by the desire to keep the Japanese out of the eleven robbers lay headless on the of a practical monopoly, so, all of a sudden, the execution ground. The heads were then pre authorities, who had sought to check or monopo- sented by the executioners-there being three of lise manufactures, came to see the advisability of them to the magistrates for identification and encouraging them, and Shanghai offered the then packed in old kerosine boxes for transport readiest and best-situated site. So capital, both to Singyanghsien-the scene of their exploits.native and foreign has been attracted, and this This is the largest execution that has taken has reacted on the arts of luxury, and to the place here since the Taiping rebellion forty native mind, Shanghai is rapidly becoming the 7 years ago. Some naval officers and seamen saw

Paris of their Europe. Meanwhile, under a the executions as well as some 10,000 natives.— temporary strain, Shanghai has not been able N. C. Daily News.

to keep abreast of the movement. The Settlements have been rapidly growing in population beyond the means of ordinary accom- Writing on the 24th September the Singapore modation; they have overflowed into adjacent Free Press says:The Hongkong papers to hand districts, as at Sinza, where means of communi- this morning, up to the 18th inst, contain cation were to be found. But the greater part no particular references to any incident The weakness of the Government at Peking of the recently extended Settlement of Hongkew at Swatow such as that looting, presum is having a curious and altogether unexpected has been inaccessible for want of roads, and ably of German property, mission stations or result in the continual growth of Shanghai, the English Settlement is practically filled up. mercantile houses, reported in to-day's tole- which, in many respects, is becoming the The matured result of an earth famine has gram. Whatever has happened it has been centre of attraction of the Empire and is supervened, and lots, which a few months ago serious enough to have caused excitement in tending to be its capital, in arts, manufac- could hardly find buyers, have been sold and Germany, and that to such a pitch as to rouse tures, and luxurious ease. When, at the be- resold at continually increasing rates. To give the German press to clamour for the instant ginning of the war with Japan, a number of a few instances, a large lot of some 200 mow (33 despatch of cruisers to Swatow. We further officials of the higher ranks, smelling danger acres) was offered some five months ago at Tls, know that this clamour in the press has taken from afar, sent their families to enjoy foreign 40,000 without finding a buyer; it has within effect, for it is ascertained that the German protection in and about the Settlements, the the last six weeks changed ownership at cruiser Kormoran, which was to have gone up in movement, even by those engaged in it, was

Tls. 80,000. Property in the Louza district. a leisurely way to Hongkong in ordinary course supposed to be merely temporary, and all looked purchased a year ago at Tls. 450 per mow, has was suddenly directed by the Admiral at Hako. forward to an early exodus as soon as peace was recently been resold at Tls.-1,500. These are date, by telegram, to proceed at once with all declared. There has been peace now for nearly not isolated instances. They all point in one speed to Swatow. Any thing the ship would half a year, but the tendency has distinctly direction. First, as to the urgent neces have needed to take in here in the way of stores, increased instead of diminished, and private sity of opening up by new roads the already &c., was not to be waited for, but would be sent residences for natives of high official rank or acquired Settlements; and second, the neces- on to her at Swatow from Hongkong. In increasing rapidly, while sity, if Shanghai is to continue a well-pursuance of these urgent orders the Kormoran continually more money is being spent on governed and administered city, of in- left Singapore yesterday for Swatow at 1 pm. their individual erection and decoration, whe creasing the area of the districts under The German Admiral and his squadron, or ther they take the old style of the Chinese Municipal control. The districts into which the greater part of it, is doubtless already house, pure and simple with its unpierced outer the recent growth has precipitated a grow- well on his way to that port. What we shall walls and internal courts, or the modified style ing population owe that result to their soon have a chance of seeing is the direct which has lately been coming into fashion, where being rendered accessible by roads made by the ness of German methods applied to the case external windows are as marked an institution Municipality outside the limits. They were of exacting redress for such a serious display of almost as in the dwellings of Europeans them- required, for the purposes of access to the Chinese violence and hostility as, to judge from selves. There are, of course, many reasons for districts around, to provide some means of the telegraphed effect of the report and the action all this The gloomy social life of the Chinese healthy exercise. They are rapidly losing their we know to have been taken in consequence, has always been found burdensome by a large character, and need to be extended. They have, must have occurred at Swatow against German section of the community. It was not national however, afforded the means of building native subjects, their premises, and their property. One but was distinctly imported, and owed its-lator suburbs. But off the main roads those suburbs thing is pretty certain; namely, that there will development to the example of Mohammedanism are rapidly becoming nests of filth and dis- be no palavering with Chinese officials and no There has always been a school amongst the order. Recently the right of the German creation of an opera bouffe enquiry. We should Chinese who held that it was not necessary, and Government to claim concessions has been re- say that the procedure would be the practical was not imposed by their classical authorities. cognised, and negotiations have been going on, occupation of the port and the arrest of as many The superstitious of the natives have always but there are still dangers ahead for want of of the Chinese officials as could by any possibi had a belief in Fengshui again, but there concerted action. In Shanghai, the denationalility be saddled with the least jot of responsibi- always has been a powerful factor in the popula-sation of English and American concessions has lity either in conniving at the outrage or in tion who were ready to resent every undue worked with the best results. It is to be boped conniving at the non-prevention of the outrage. ascendency of the superstition. Now it so hap- that this denationalisation will still be con If, as we should not at all be surprised to pened that in the obscure early growth of the tinued. An experiment which has now after see, strong action is entirely justified, it will Settlements neither of these things were fifty years of trial proved a success for all prove to have been easier for China to pro thought of. It was a veritable cave of Adullam, interests concerned is worthy of further ex- voke the German squadron into visiting and herein took shelter refugees from re-

tension. Mercury.

Swatow than to get them to leave. bels and from Imperialists alike, all too glad to

this the Chinese Government may be quite sure get a shelter for their heads to make many

that although it has made itself answerable to inquiries as to its adaptibility of Fengshui or

Britain in a course of many years for many out other ends. So, fortunately, from the very

rages perpetrated on British subjects, it will beginning the Settlements eschewed these It was announced some time back that Wong find that it will look in vain, in other directions, Chinese drawbacks which would have. effec- Tung-ho and Li-Hang-tsao, two of the most for the lenience, often undeserved that it has tually provented their growth, and strangled-determined opponents of progress and the most received at our hands. We should not be in them in the cradle But of late years uncompromising members of the anti-foreign the least surprised to discover that in the another element has come in. It was for long party, had been appointed to the Tsungli Swatow incident, of whose details we are yet in apparent that sooner or later the favourable Yamen. Weng, whose influence over the ignorance, Germany has just had put into her position of Shanghai would be taken advantage young Emperor is paramount and apparently China that she has long been on the look out hands that very opportunity of intervening in of to introduce manufactures by steam-power. absolute, is now at the head of the Yamen,

We shall soon see. Chinese mandarins, from selfish motives first, did having nudged Prince Kung into the back- their utmost to suppress the rising desire, and ground. He is now virtually the Premier of finding that impracticable determined to make China and her destinies are in his hands. It is manufactures a monopoly in their own hands. reported that the foreign Ministers who have Such were the lines on which the first to communicate with him find him stubborn cotton mill was started, under the auspices of and impracticable to the last degree, and nothing two of the most venal mandarins of the Empire is to be looked for from him but haughty scorn -Li and Shoug. But exchange dropped and and blind obstruction. There is small chance that it became evident that the different processes smooth-speeched diplomats will accomplish any connected with the manufacture of cotton thing against such a man. He is the embodiment could be carried on st t an enormous profit-80 of that peculiar mulishness of nature with which

i

WENG TUNG-HO.

for.

Yokohama's cricket week promises to be a great success. The Shanghai team are expected to arrive there on Sunday, the 13th, probably in the company of the Kobe eleven, who will join them at Kobe. On Monday and Tuesday, the 14th and 15th, Shanghai will meet Yoko- hama, and on the two following days will play against Kobe, the week concluding with the annual match between Kobe and Yokohama.