78
THE MILITARY CONTRIBUTION,
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
on, for the colony's finances are not sup- posed to be run on the lines of a commercial Mr. CHAMBERLAIN has treated the repre- undertaking seeking to show a large balance sentations made to him with respect to the at the credit of profit and loss account. The military contribution with scant considera- contention that the 174 per cent. if levied at tion, and there appears now no hope what-all should be calculated on the gross colonial ever of our grievance securing redress. revenue strikes us as unassailable! The Had we had a Municipal Council admi- strong point in the colony's case is that a nistering a revenue raised by itself sharp line of distinction should be drawn there is no doubt that such revenue between colonial revenue and municipal re- would have been exempted from payment venue, and it is much to be regretted that of the 17 per cent. levied on the general the case has been weakened by the intro- revenue of the colony for military contri- duction of extraneous and irrelevant matter. bution; in fact it would never have occurred As to the exemption of municipal revenue, to any one to include it, any more than Mr. CHAMBERLAIN déclines to further in the cases of the Straits Settlements, discuss the point and refers us to his Ceylon, or Mauritius. But in Hong- despatch of the 26th October last. On kong unfortunately there is no distinc- turning to that despatch we find nothing in tion made between municipal and general the shape of genuine argument. We are revenue; both go into the same account and told that the area of the Straits Settlements are treated as colonial revenue, and the 17 is more than fifty times as great as per cent. having once been calculated on the that of Hongkong while the gross revenues gross sum the home Government declines are less than three times those of Hongkong, now to make any rebate or to interfere in and that therefore Hongkong ought to any way with the most inequitable arrange- pay on its municipal as well as its colonial ment arrived it. Had the matter been re- revenue although in the Straits municipal revenue is exempt, a contention in which we think the keenest intellect will fail to find a scintilla of reason or logic. In fact it is quite impossible to adduce any logical argument in favour of including municipal with colonial revenue in calculating the amount of the military mulct, and had the two. not been amalgamated owing to our unfortunate system of government no one would ever have thought of making the former liable for the military contribution.
presented, as it ought to have been, when the whole question was under the considera- tion of the inter-departmental committee at home it is possible some concession might have been secured for the colony, but the point was not officially brought forward then, and judgment having been delivered the Colonial Office now declines to move for a re-opening of the case or variation of the decision. To do so would involve a great deal of trouble, and we suspect that that is the main reason why the officials of the Colonial Office decline to do anything in our behalf. When the Bill is brought forward in the Legislative Council making the military contribution of 17! per cent. a permanent charge on the annual revenue the unofficial members will naturally vote against it, but the measure will be carried by the official majority, and there the matter will end, for nothing more can be done, A policy of resignation, if it might otherwise have been considered desirable, would now be out of place, because the unofficial members of Council in their memorandum, instead of confining themselves to urging the exemption of municipal revenue from the mulct, weighted their argument with a number of side issues which will not stand the test of examination. If they now resigned on the question their action would not produce any effect in England, for the home Government would naturally direct attention to the weak side of the case put forward, and the resignation would present itself to the im- partial home reader as unreasonable.
HE. the Governor in forwarding the memorandum to the Secretary of State has followed to a great extent the line adopted by the unofficial members, the major portion of his despatch being devoted to an argument in favour of the exemption in whole or in part of the postal revenue. The argument could carry conviction to no one; it is mere sophistry, a splitting of hairs, and altogether unbusiness-like and impracticable. As Mr. CHAMBERLAIN remarks, most of the arguments advanced by His Excellency on this point would apply equally to several other heads of revenue, e.g., harbour receipts, court receipts, and water re- ceipts, all of which might in one sense be regarded as reimbursements in aid of expenditure. The right hon. gentleman might have gone further and said that the arguments advanced would apply equally to revenue in general, and that if the 17 per cent were levied only on the revenue re- maining after the payment of all expendi- ture there would be nothing left to levy it
FOREIGN COMPETITION WITH
BRITISH TRADE IN CHINA.
would represe gauged more
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for the whole of China than by to for Shanghai alone. It is also ru leading to take the year 1882 fo poses of the comparison, seeing able "slump" took place in t of China in that year until three years later. Except be taken to Mr. JAMIESON's met ing the trade of Hongkong, which the home reader unacquainte actual circumstances to suppose actually all British trade. Hongkon British colony, but it is also an empor for the trade of all nations, and the mer fact that Continental and American goods are first landed here and afterwards shipped to China does not give us a right to them all in as British trade. In the Chi- nese Customs Returns this false presumption is guarded against by a footnote explaining that the imports from Hongkong come originally from Great Britain, America, Australia, India, the Straits, and other countries. It is, furthermore, a mistake to count the Indian and Colonial trade as British, for the purposes of the argument on which Mr. JAMIESON's remarks bear the Indian yarn trade, for instance, being a rival, not an auxiliary, of the Lancashire yarn trade. When we speak of British trade being driven out of the neutral markets of the world, the reference is to the trade of the British Isles, not to that of the British. colonies and dependencies.
Mr. JAMIESON - says we are in no more danger from German competition than were twenty years ago. Let us look, then, at the figures as they stood twenty years ago. In 1875 the imports into China from Great Britain were valued at Tls. Rather an optimistic view of the position 21,132,640, and those from the Continent of British trade in China is taken by Mr. of Europe at Tls. 766,207, the former JAMIESON, the Consul at Shanghai, in his being, therefore more than twenty seven report for 1895. He gives a table showing times as great as the latter. In 1895 the the value of the imports into Shanghai, and imports from Great Britain were valued at the origin of the goods imported, during the Tls. 33,960,060, and those from the Con- years 1882, 1893, 1894, and 1895. In 1882 tinent at Tls. 7,552,099, so that British the imports from Great Britain amounted to imports were in that year less than five Tls. 18,271,000 and in 1895 to Tls. 32,650,000. | times as great as those from the - Con- The total from Great Britain, Hongkong, tinent. Of the imports from Hongkong India, the Straits, and British America it is impossible to say what value British amounted to Tls. 43,799,000 in 1882 and to goods and Continental goods amounted to Tls. 78,409,000 in 1895, while the imports respectively, but we fear the proportion from all other countries amounted to Tls. would not work out more favourably 11,194,000 in 1882 and to Tls. 20,423,000 to the former than in the case of direct in 1895. These figures, Mr. JAMIESON says, imports. It may be urged that of afford little countenance to the idea that has the goods entered as British in 1875 been disseminated in various quarters, name- a portion was really. Continental, but was ly, that our trade is being driven out of the entered as British because the goods were neutral markets of the world by German and received via Great Britain, there being few other foreign competition. In 1882, the pro-facilities for direct shipments from the Con- portion of the total off-take of the Shanghai tinent to China at that time. What amount market supplied by Great Britain or her of correction the figures should be subjected to colonies was 79 per cent., in 1894 it was 76 on this account it is impossible to determine, per cent., and last year it was again 79 per but on the other hand may be urged with cent. From all I can hear," the Consul equal force that the enormous growth of the goes on to say, "there is not the faintest shipping trade between Continental ports and reason to suppose that in ordinary mer China which has taken place of late years is "cantile business we are in any more danger itself an indication of an equally remarkable "from German competition than we were increase in the exchange of commodit " twenty years ago. Competition there is, increase in the trade of other countr no doubt, and it is natural and inevitable not mean that England will very "it should be so, but it is mostly confined to put up her shutters, but it do "to the minor articles of trade, such, for that competition is all the time bec
instance, as needles, matches, dyes, lamp- fiercer, and that it is not correct ware, etc." This, it will be seen, agrees Mr. Consul JAMIESON does, that substantially with the recently published more danger from German com report of the Hongkong Committee ap- than we were twenty pointed to inquire into the displacement that as yet the compet of British goods, though the facts are rather "fined to the mir differently emphasised. On further ex-“for instance, amination, however, we do not find the lamp-ware statistics quite so gratifying as Mr. JAMIESON'S ing further and remarks and the figures selected by him one article
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