}
April 1, 1896.]
would be little time to make the neces- sary roads to facilitate the movement of our troops and enable a small force to keep watch both on Mirs Bay and Deep Bay. From every point of view, therefore. prompt action is desirable, and the local Branch of the China Association will no doubt do its best to win Sir CLAUDE MACDONALD over to this way of thinking during his approaching passage through this colony on his way to take up his new appointment as British Minister at Peking.
THE DEFENCES OF THE COLONY
AND ROAD-MAKING.
It is now generally recognised that the defences of Hongkong have become inade quate, having regard to the strength of the fleets of other nations recently maintained in these waters and the facility with which a large body of troops might be lan led on the south side of the island. When the last outery was made on the same subject, some ten or twelve years ago, attention was given to the representations made and the defences were increased, but this was followed by a doubling of the military contribution. That was rather calculated to damp the zeal of the colonists in the good cause, for if an agitation for placing the colony in an effi- cient state of defence were to be held as equivalent to an agitation for doubling the military contribution it would not be likely to find favour with the taxpayers. Ulti mately the United Kingdom is responsible for the safety of the colony, or, if the island should temporarily fall into an enemy's hands, for securing the inderunification of the inl.abitants when the final settlement comes to be made; and under the old arrangement it might be urged that if the home Govern- ment was so blind as to neglect the defences that was their affair, not ours, if we were to be mulcted in huge sums for opening their eyes. Now, however, a modus vivendi has been arrived at which, if not altogether satisfactory in principle and still wanting some adjustment as a matter of account, nevertheless practically does away with the conflict of interests. The colony has to pay to the home Government seventeen and a half per cent, of its revenue whatever hap- pens and it is now at liberty to agitate for an efficient defensive service without any fear that the agitation will lead to A11 increase in the military contribution.
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
home a League has been formed, the well known Navy League, with the object of keeping the nation alive to the importance of maintaining its naval supremacy. It seems to us that in Hongkong there exists even greater necessity for the formation of a Colonial Defence League to keep pro- minently in view of the Government our local requirements; unless, indeed, the work may be safely left to the China Association, which has already actively interested itself in the question of securing an extension of the colony's boundaries.
But, over and above the means of defence for which we must look to the army and navy, there is one matter in which the colony can help itself, contributing at the same time to the increased efficiency of the garrison and to internal development. We refer to the improvement of the existing means of communication by the opening up of new roads and the introduction of tramways. Suppose, for instance, that an attack in the neighbourhood of Telegraph Bay were signalled and after the bulk of the garrison had been assembled there it was discovered that it was only a feint and that the real attack was being made at the eastern end, a tramway would be of invaluable assistance in facilitating the movement of troops. The tramway question, however, must be left in abeyance until the completion of the Praya Reclamation, when we will have good roads permitting of the construction of a tramway from Kennedytown to Quarry Bay, to be extended ultimately, it is to be hoped, to the south side of the island. In the meantime the question of hill roads ought to receive attention. It is important that Victoria Gap, Magazine Gap, Wanchai Gap, and Wongneichong Gap should be in easy con- munication so that in the event of an attack by land the defending force might be able to move freely from one to the other as occasion might require. From Victoria Gap to Wanchai Gap there is already a service able road, but on the south side of the hill and open to the fire of the enemy's ships. From a military point of view a road on the north side, out of range from the south, would possess great advantages and it would, moreover, be valuable for municipal reasons, opening up as it would new building sites and bringing the existing houses at Magazine Gap into communication with the Peak tram. We know the profit that resulted to the colony from Mr. PRICE's activity in making hill roads and similar results might he expected if the activity were renewed under the pre- sent administration of the Public Works Department.
THE EXODUS OF CHINESE AND OVERCROWDING,
It is absolutely necessary that the south side of the island should be defended, for that is now our vulnerable point. With the existing batteries there would be little chance of any hostile fleet forcing either the eastern or western entrance to the harbour, but the whole of the south side of the island lies open to attack and the enemy's ships would be able to shell the various hill passes so as to render them un- The exodus of Chinese from the colony in tenable by the defending force. The way consequence of the plague and of the sanitary would then be open for the enemy's land measures taken to eradicate the disease forces to descend upon the town and to at- has caused a diminution in attendance tack the forts at Lyemun and Belchers from at the various schools of the colony, the rear.
We may suppose that it would and on Thursday the matter came before not be quite a walk over for the enemy and the Sanitary Board in that connection. that even with our existing means we would Incidentally the question of housing the be able to interpose various obstacles to poorer classes was introduced. The latter the carrying out of the above programme. point possesses the greater practical import Nevertheless the colony cannot consider itself ance, but it will be convenient first to notice secure until it has forts on the south side of the other. It is natural that the managers the island capable of engaging any hostile of schools. should view with regret the fleet which might be approaching with the diminution in the attendance, as this object of landing troops. On the Kowloon retards education and also interferes with On the other hand side the possession of the territory between the grauts earned. Mire Bay and Deep Bay is essential. These the Secretary of the Sanitary Board are matters of the utmost noment to the in his minute says that in most coun- colony and which ought to be agitated with tries school attendance diminishes when a all the force of which it is capable. At violent infectious disease is known to be
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prevalent, that under such conditions it is a wise step to close the schools, and that the parents of the children are if anything to be commended for removing their children to what they consider places of comparative safety. The advisability of closing schools is, however, a moot point. The question was considered during the epidemic of 1894 and it was then decided that the Govern- ment schools should be kept open as long as there was any attendance at all, the main argument in favour of that course being, we believe, that it was better for the childr.n to spend their days in the healthy atmos- phere of the schools than at their own homes or running wild in the streets; but it is clearly a wise step for those parents who can afford to do so to remove their children altogether beyond the reach of infection.
the
It is alleged, however, that the exodus of women and children from the colony is caused, not so much by fear of the plague as by the sanitary measures that are being enforced by
Government. There appears to be an impression amongst the native teachers that those measures are carried out with unnecessary harshness, and the European school managers, while not directly confirming the justice of that im- pression, ask in effect whether anything cau be done to modify the measures or the manner of their enforcement. The reply of the Secretary of the Sanitary Board and the Medical Officer of Health is that the measures being taken are essential and that they are being enforced with all possible consideration. As to the necessity of the measures there can be only one opinion. We have plague amongst us and every possible precaution must be taken to prevent its spread. We are forewarned and it would ` be criminal negligence if we were not also forearmed. The recollection of what the colony passed through in 1894 is still vivid with all of us. In that year the existence of the disease was not officially recognised until the month of May, although there is reason to believe that it had been in existence in the colony for a month or two previously and that had measures to prevent its spread been adopted earlier the epidemic might not have assumed such alarming proportions. What may happen in the present year we cannot tell; the disease may again get a grip on the colony notwithstanding all the pre- cautions taken; but it is a manifest duty to neglect no possible measure to prevent it. As to the complaints of unnecessary harshness- in carrying out the sanitary measures de- cided upon, we believe there is no substantial That the ground for the complaints. cleansing operations cause a great deal of inconvenience and in some cases loss and suffering there can be no doubt; but that
is
inevitable: Where illegal cubicles and cocklofts have to be torn down the domestic arrangements of the families oc- cupying the houses are interfered with and to poor persons the loss of the material composing the partitions, which they have counted amongst their assets, is a considera- tion. The actual suffering, however, is in- tensified by unnecessary alarm, and Mr. EDF's suggestion that a proclamation should be issued explaining matters to the people might be acted upon with advantage. All these things would work much more smoothly if there were a better understanding and more sympathy between the Government and the people, and with a larger measure of representation that would be secured.
The exodus of women and children of the Chinese population is not caused altogether by unreasonable dislike to the cleansing opera- tions, but also by the fact that the regulations as to air space and the removal of cocklofts,
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