Septem
1896.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
28
recognise the advisability | ever may be the real fact, the case is everything possible to encourage suggestive of the possibility of considerable and thus add to the revenue, they are friction in the future and will probably upon raising the taxes not only on im-secure for Sium some sympathy from im- orts but also on exports. As though the partial onlookers on account of the very ties now imposed were not already difficult position in which she is placed. fficiently high, the Authorities have just The Cambodians in Siam form a consider- eased their Customs tariff. A landing able section of the population and the racial of two per cent, is to be paid on all cargo distinctions between them and the Siamese is discharged and a consumption tax is imposed small; they engage in the same occupations in addition to the duties already in force. as the natives, follow the same manners and The duty on-hemp is raised fifty per cent, customs, live on the same plane with them, that on sugar one hundred per cent; copra, and are generally speaking as indistinguish which was free, is now to pay ten cents per able from the true Siamese as to a foreigner -100 kilogrammes, manufactured tobacco a Scotchman or Irishman would be from an 8310 instead of being free; and on raw Englishman. The principle of extraterri- tobacco there is an all round increase of one toriality is that the subjects of Christian hundred to one hundred and fifty per cent. nations should not be subject to the The result will be, no doubt, to stimulate pro- jurisdiction of the courts of non-Christian duction in Borneo, Malaya, and the Nether- nations, but with the extension of European lands Indies. The Spaniards seem bent on sway over large territories in Asia the killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. principle has become enlarged so In the Philippines they possess a magnificent to cover the natives of those territories olony which should yield a splendid revenue when they resort to any country with and be exceedingly prosperous; plenty which extraterritorial relations exist. Thus and content should reign where anarchy in Siam there is a considerable Indian and discontent prevail, and which may population over which the British court take years to repress and generations to exercises jurisdiction and a number of extinguish. The rudely armed and un-Chinese also claiming to be British subjects, disciplined bodies of rebels now in the field while France now steps in and claims ex- will no doubt soon be dispersed when the retraterritorial rights for all Cambodians and gular troops are brought against them, but they will not return to their allegiance; they will only wait for another opportunity to again try conclusions with their op- pressors, as they consider the priests and rulers. If the Spanish Government desire to restore order and create a lasting peace in the colony they should issue a Commis sion to inquire into the causes of the rising, and if they find the grievances alleged are well founded take the necessary steps to have them redressed..
i
EXTRATERRITORIALITY APPLIED TO ASIATICS IN STAM.
!
Annamites. The difficult position in which Sinm may at times find herself placed by this whittling away of her jurisdiction over her Asiatic population will readily be seen.
One of our Tonkin contemporaries, speak ing, in reference to Tonkin itself, of the inertia of the law and the indif ference of the Government, says: "All "that transpires proves once
.64
*
11
more and
to the fullest extent that French laws, made for a civilised people long ac- "customed to them, are not applicable to Oriental nations, for whom they are "too anodynous and respect too much "in the individual a dignity common amongst us but rare amongst them." If that be so in a country where the
THE OBSERVATORY.
*
251
Dr. DOBEROK, in his report on the Observatory for last year, says that all the typhoons which have occurred since the Observatory was started in 1884 have now been investigated, and the staff is at present busy with a revision of the law of storms on the basis of those investigations. This, he says, will probably be finished in a year, and the results can then be utilised for weather forecasts and storm warnings in 1897 and following years. Perhaps no Government department has been made the object of more adverse criticism and ridicule than the Observatory, but some change seems to have taken place during the last few years in public feeling with regard to Captain TILLETT, himself an authority meteorology and a representative of the mer- cantile marine, has recently written several letters to the press in which this change of feeling makes itself apparent. Criticism is no longer directed against the Observatory's storm warnings, but simply against the alleged defective method of communicating them. The desire to have the information in the possession of the Observatory com- indicates a recognition of the value of the municated more fully and more quickly
information, and to that extent may be taken as a testimonial to the efficiency of the service. A good deal of the work of the Observatory, however, consists in the compiling of information for future inves- tigation and examination, and of this the public hear and see little. In addition to the investigation of all the typhoons of ten years Dr. DOBERCK tells us that "The entry of observations made at sea in degree squares for the area between "9 deg. south and 45 deg. north latitude "and between the longitude of Singapore "and 180 deg. east of Greenwich for the "construction of trustworthy pilot charts has been continued, and 94,322 observa- "tions in all have now been entered."
.t
SK
From all this labour the public ought in course of time to derive substantial benefit.
occurred in the Siamese criminal court at / administration is in the hands of Europeans In the meantime it may be noted that
The other day rather a dramatic scene Bangkok. A man was placed upon his trial on a charge of murder, but soon after the proceedings commenced the French Minister appeared with his interpreter and formally protested against the trial proceeding, on the ground that the accused was a French protégé and that the Siamese Court had therefore no jurisdiction. The Minister then for consideration, the trial was resumed. withdrew, and, after a short adjournment The evidence was not concluded, however, at the close of the day, and next morning, when it should have been continued, the Attorney General was sick, and the case was adjourned sine die, which means, we believe, that the whole proceedings have been abandoned. Reuter's Bangkok agent seems to have thought the matter of suffi- cient importance to telegraph to London, as we find in the Tonkin papers a Havas telegram stating that “ an English despatch "speaks of a difficulty which has arisen be tween the Siamese judicial authority at “Bangkok and the French Resident." A later telegram states that nothing was known by the French Government about the con- flict reported from Siam, from which it would appear that the incident was not considered of sufficient gravity by the French Minister to be reported to his Government by telegram.
"
*
The man accused in the case out of which the affair arises is claimed by the Siamese Government as a Siamese subject, hile the French claim him as a Cambodian And therefore as subject to French jurisdic tion under extraterritorial rights. What
the Hongkong Observatory is not the only one that has to sustain attacks upon its utility and reliability. The Meteorological Reporter at Simla recently made an unfortu- nate forecast of the monsoon, and a good deal of newspaper correspondence, in which the official concerned was not spoken of in com-
a "scanty" monsoon was promised, whereas almost continuous rain was experienced for plimentary, terms, followed. It seems that
nearly seventy days. The monsoon c
current was pronounced to be first “ feeble," and then" deficient ; "but the rainfall the end of August' was in Bombay thirty inches ahead of that of last year, which was by no means a bad year. Commenting on this the Rangoon Gazette says: Excuses
up to
how much more must it be the case where the laws have to be administered under the cumbrous system of extraterritoriality, which provides practically no machinery for the repression of crime! It is alleged that the accused in the case recently before the court at Bangkok was a notorious swash- buckler and that he openly boasted of his order to have greater, latitude in the pursuit intention to register as a French protégé in of his evil ways. However that may be, the course is one that would commend itself to a person who wished to put himself as far out of the reach of the law as possible, and if the foreign Powers afford facilities to that end Siam may presently find a large portion of her criminal population placed would have in maintaining order under outside her jurisdiction. The difficulty she those circumstances will readily be imagined. The foreign Powers could not surrender their jurisdiction over Astiatics who may be in a position legally to claim their protec-even approximately accurate and tion, but having regard to the difficulty in which Siam is placed it would be only reasonable that they should render her what assistance may be possible to facilitate the preservation of order and the administration of justice.
no
«of the official forecast, but what the "in abundance can be offered for this failure
"'plain man asks himself is, what is the practical use of a Department that can go So far astray? Its conclusions are not
"provincial Government, no agriculturist, no mariner would for a moment "dream of being guided by these forecasts. "It is true forecasting the weather is but a part of the work of the Department, but “it is a portion which should be frankly The Shensi correspondent of the N. C. Daily abandoned. The truth is, weather forecasts, News writes that Mr. C. Horobin, of the China "to be fairly correct, must be based upon Inland Mission, died suddenly in his cart, oninformation infinitely fuller than is possib the 12th of August, while on his way with his "in India at present and, perhaps, fuller He had been suffering from the intense heat.
"than ever will be possible in India. Daily Very great sympathy is felt for the widowed mother and young children. came to China in 1884.
wife and three children from Hsian to Kansu,
Mr. Horabin
据着
ible
readings of the barometer from the east “Coast of Africa, from Central Asia, from "the Indian Ocean; these are a few point:
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