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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND.
Superintendent of Customs, tells the Commis-culty got out of them. Swarming over awn- sioner to stop the clearance of the steamers, and ings, boats, etc., and using threats of violence the latter has to obey. By this arbitrary act, when interfered with, even trying to come which no private steamer owner in a similar on the bridge with a stick to the captain.” position could get the Commissioner to do, Mr. We make one more extract from the captain's Bennertz's business is brought to a standstill, and | log. It is dated at Hankow, the 27th of his credit with the Chinese seriously injured; and August:-"Mr. Smith, sub-Commissioner at even if the Taotai has to pay damages hereafter Hankow, informed Commissioner in my pre- for this unfair blow, it will be very difficult to sence that it is not the first time that a make him pay a sum that will really reinstate troopship has arrived without a river pass or Mr. Bennertz in his previous position. In notice from Viceroy, and that, provided no Chinkiang the power of the Customs has been cargo was taken in, nothing was done in the abused in the same way. The Sin Fokien is way of detention or fining the ship." It is detained, and when Mr. Bennertz asks the obvious that under these circumstances, noth reason, the Commissoneř calmly, after much ing more than a nominal fine could have pressure, says that he cannot admit the right been in justice inflicted on the Sin Fokien, but of Mr. Bennertz to ask questions. The steamer that a pretext was wanted to get the ship was seized on the 29th of August, and it was not back into Chinese possession while she was still until the 10th of September that the captain under charter to Bennerts & Co. This is was informed that
the Sin Fokien, having evidently an abuse of the power vested in the passed this port and proceded up river in contra- Customs; and the whole affair must tend to vention of rule 3 of the Yangtze Regulations make foreigners very cautions in their dealings is hereby declared to be forfeited to the Chinese with the Chinese officials, who will use the most Government." Of course this is only a pretext arbitrary methods to protect themselves, while made use of to enable the Chinese authorities it is a long and wearisome business for the to get the vessel back into their hands; but it foreigner to get reparation for actual damage is not right that the power of the Customs suffered, and he has perhaps to endure conse- should be thus abused in a private quarrel. An quential damages for which he cannot compen- extract from a letter from the master of the Sinsation at all.-N. C. Daily News. Fokien will show what ground there is for re- garding the breach of Customs Regulations as a pretext. He writes on the 8th of Sep- tember:-"I have seen the Commissioner again, but can get nothing out of him in writing. He candidly tells me that my vessel is detained by order of the Taotai, and why he does not know (an irregular transport), and that the question of your not having complied with customary regulations as to advising Customs and authorities, that I was expected to pass up river with troops, may or may not crop up later Now we have it over Mr. Lay's signa- ture that the Sin Fokien was not confiscated until the 10th of September, and yet on the 3rd of September, as we have already stated, the Taotai's legal advisers wrote the following letter to Messrs. H. Bennertz & Co.:—
on.
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REFORMS IN KOREA.
MR. MCLEAVY BROWN AT WORK,
The Korean correspondent of the Nagasaki Express writes
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Reforms are progressing, not with large strides it is true, but to those acquainted with Korean matters this "slow and sure progress in the best possible augury of their permanence. The Customs Department is now on a sound basis. Formerly the Governors of the open ports had control of the revenues. Now they are in the hands of the chief Customs officers, so that the official who formerly paid the salary of the Commissioner of Customs and his staff now receives his own pay from them instead. Shanghai, 3rd Shanghai, 1896. Mr. McLeavy Brown, the Commissioner of "Messrs. H. Beunertz & Co.
Customs, has taken charge of the Finan- Dear Sirs,
cial Department, and no moneys can be "s.s. Sin Fokien.
drawn without his sanction. He has also "We hear from the Shanghai Taotai that coutrol over the Royal Mint, and has this ship which you chartered from the Kiang-effected a clearing up in that department. Be- nan Defence and Pay Department on the 16th sides this he has commenced to, look into the April last has been seized and confiscated by accounts and working of the Korean steamers. the Customs authorities at Chinkiang for a I am afraid that he will find them "white breach of their regulations.
elephants" indeed, as many Europeans, Japa- uese, and a few Koreans, will find to their cost. In accordance with Mr. Brown's wish a sort of military paymaster has been appointed, and it is hoped that the army will now get their pay more regularly and directly. Previously the money passed through the hands of the military officers, and a good deal of it found a way into their pockets. The latest innovation is the appointment of an adviser to the Police Depart ment.
**
Under these circumstances the Taotai in- structs us to apply to you for payment of the Tls. 100,000 agreed upon in the charter party as the value of the ship, and in the event of not receiving the sum to commence proceedings against you."
The Kianguan Defence and Pay Department evidently thought it would be "good business" to make use of the Customs at Chinkfang to get back the ship, and then claim Tls. 100,000 from Bennertz & Co. for her loss. This sum would wipe out all Bennertz & Co.'s claims, and leave the Department with the ships and with their "face" preserved.
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years' residence here. I could instance many other reforms now being carried out, but I think I have said sufficient convince readers of the real work of progress now moving steadily onward, in spite of Japan and of party intrigues.
Mr. A. B. Stripling, a gentleman formerly well known in Shanghai, has been commissioned to visit the prisons, see the prisoners are pro- perly treated and not tortured, and that justice The Sin Fokien did go through Chinkiang is done them by the gaolers and their under- on her way up to Hankow without a river pass, liugs. This is a step that has long been needed. but the circumstances are such that justice Mr. Stripling, though somewhat advanced in would have been fully satisfied with a nominal years. is very active, a strict disciplinarian, fine. She had 700 disbanded troops on board, though of a kind disposition, and possesses a bound from Chefoo to Hankow, and every ship-knowledge of the country, the result of some nine master who has carried Chinese troops knows what they are. If not absolutely prostrate with sea-sickness, they are in a state of mutiny, because as a rule no provision whatever is made by their commanders for their comfort on board. As long ago as 1864 the steamer Sir Harry Parkes, carrying troops from Ningpo to Amoy, was set on fire by them, and it was with the greatest difficulty that the officers of the ship prevented their storming the bridge and taking control of the vessel; and such incidents are of constant occurrence. The behaviour of the troops on the Kowshing is a case in point. The Sin Fokien arrived off Chinkiang on her way up river at 1.10 a.m. on the 24th of August, and she could not safely have stopped there until the Custom-house opened at 10 to get a river pass. Already on her way down from Chefoo, as we learn from her log, the soldiers had been "very disorderly, trying to take galleys and saloon, and with diffl-the Court is to try him.
THE
CHARGE AGAINST ARMY OFFICERS IN FORMOSA.
Tokyo, 6th September. The charge against Lieut. Col. Masuda, who is to be court-martialled in Formosa, is not one of cowardice, as reported. It appears that in structions were issued by the Governor-General directing the army in Formosa to distinguish between rebels and peaceful people. On the occasion of the rising at Unrin, the Lieut. Colonel attacked the populace without any dis- crimination, and this is the charge upon which,
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September 24, 18982
A JAPANESE STEAMER
FOUNDERED.
OVER SIXTY LIVES LOST.
Kobe, 9th September. The steamer Toku-maru, owned by the Kyoritsu Steamship Company, and plying between Osaka and Kishú via Kobe, foundered off Temposan, Osaka, about 3 p.m. yesterday over 60 passengers being drowned. She was on her way from Kishu to Osaka and had on On account of board about 90 passengers. the wind, the captain deemed it advis able to anchor of Temposan, and while this was being attempted, the steamer was carried away by a rapid current and driven aground. She then presumably heeled over The O.S.K. steamer Minatogawa-maru, from Kishu, was unable to call at Osaka on account of the gale and had to come to Hyogo.
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According to the Kwansai Shogyo Nippo, only seven passengers were saved by the water police.-Kobe Chronicle.
AN INTERNATÍONAL DIFFICULTY AT BANGKOK.
In the Siamese Criminal Court at Bangkok on the 7th September a man named Kadir was charged with murder. The affair out of which the,charge arose did not take place at Bangkok, but at a place near the frontier. A good deal of discussion had previously taken place as to the nationality of the prisoner and as to whether he was subject to Siamese jurisdiction, it being claimed that he was a Cambodian. and therefore under French protection. It is stated that at the commencement of the trial he admitted he was under Siamese jurisdiction, but the trial had not proceeded long before M. De france, the French Minister, appeared, accom- panied by M. Hardouin, and M. Defrance, speaking in French, which was afterwards in- terpreted to the Court by M. Hardouin, said he had come to protest against the trial proceed ing as prisoner was ander French protection, and the Court had no jurisdiction. He had written several letters to the Siamese Foreign Minister, and he would hold the Gov- ernment responsible for anything which might arise out of the proceedings.
Turning to prisoner, M. Defrance then in structed him not to answer any questions, and, expressing their regret for having to disturb the Court, both gentlemen retired.”
The Court then adjourned for half-an-hour to consult as to what course to adopt, and on resuming the trial was continued, but on the following day it was adjourned sine die owing to the illness of the Attorney-General.
As some indication of the feeling in Tonkin the following by the Hanoi correspondent of the Siam Free Press is interesting
Hanoi, 15th August.
On dit here that the Governor-General has been consulted by the Government with regard to the number of men he could spare in view of the growing tension of the Siamese question. It is said that an army corps of 10,000 men, 3,000 European and 7,000 native troops, could be ready in eight days and thrown on any frontier of Indo-China in about the same time if necessary. This piece of information ought to afford the Siamese Ministers and their Councillor Rolin-Jacquemyns food for reflec tion. Eight days to transport an army corps of 10,000 men to Battambong elsewhere!
"The Moralist" of the Straits Times says The capital wanted for docking and engineering at Shanghai has been very much over-sub- scribed. No wonder! When Shanghai people see the gigantic profits and the assured stability of the dock enterprises at Singapore and at Hongkong, it is only natural that they also should make haste to share the shower of gold that falls upon the capitalist who investa in
docks." Yet there was a time when I jong Pagar Dooks might have been had at about sixty per cent. discount in place i hundred per cent. premium↑ $40,000 then would now have a market. $300,000; and huge dividends would also have been netted.
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