266
THE WEST RIVER.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
The reply of Sir CLAUDE MACDONALD to the letter addressed to him. by the Chamber of Commerce asking for information as to the progress of negotiations re the opening of the West River may have been intended to have been reassuring, but we have falled to draw much encouragement from it. The negotiations between the Foreign Office and the Chinese Minister to England had com- menced before Sir CLAUDE MACDONALD left London in February, and His Excellency is able to assure us in September that they are still in progress. Even this does not greatly raise our spirits. The Chinese Minister in London had, on one plea or other, chiefly that of sickness, managed to defer consideration of the demand for many months, after the Chinese Government were understood to have conceded the prin- ciple. The negotiations were, the British Minister told us, in the able and vigorous hands of Mr. CURZON, the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Mr. CURZON, who has travelled and who has gained some insight into the character of Orientals, was not, we may be sure, too ready to accept all
the artifices of the Chinese Minister in favour of delay, but he has evidently found the task of pushing on the question a diffi- cult one. With the aid of some large maps it ought not to have proved either a very pro- longed or complicated task. What the British Government, we take it, wanted to have laid down was the distance up the various waterways that China was agreeable to open to foreign steam navigation, and what ports were to be added to those now open. The details were not completely provided for then, but the British Government have no doubt learned for themselves, from an expert in the business, "how not to do it." We have no means of guessing whether this question is standing alone, or whether it is part of a number which have arisen lately, involving the two governments in a rather wearisome discussion extending over a wide field. But we are inclined to believe that
other demand has been bracketed with this, and the Chinese therefore have no valid excuse for deferring it to the Greek Kalends or some equally remote date.
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64
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October 8, 1896
hoped in his efforts to secure British sanction at Hongkong and for the principle of raising the tariff on im- transhipment to Nanning there ports, and he may counsel the Tsung-li little inducement to send them by Yamen to delay opening the West River to Tonkin; but assuming that the Tonkin trade as a means of inducing the British really possesses all the natural ad Government to look more favourably on his claimed for it, the French, if they demand. But should this prove to be the case their traditional policy, would regard His Excellency will only find that he has us folly to let non French goods enjoy raised a barrier against the attainment of those advantages without paying heavil his wish rather than retained a means of for them and submitting to stringent bargaining, for the British public would be regulations. Hence if the Chinese allow out of patience with the mingled duplicity trade to be carried on by the West and depravity of the mandarins, who are River upon reasonable terms that route always ready to join in any scheme which will command the bulk of the traffic for promises to wipe the eye of the foreigner. Kwangsi and south-eastern Yunnan. The Of course we may prove quite mistaken late PAUL BERT, when Governor-General of in these surmises, but we confess to doubt Indo-China, recognised the political and where we should feel confidence. We have commercial advantages to be secured by no desire to in any way undervalue Sir Tonkin by according the greatest free- CLAUDE MACDONALD, or to disparage his dom and encouragement to the transit trade. labour. All we wish is to prevent too san- but his views have since been departed guinea view being taken concerning a from and of late the tendency to throw question which has for some years past excited obstacles in its way has been so great ng to and still continues to excite a great deal of draw forth a most emphatic protest from general interest in the colony.
the Hanoi Chamber of Commerces
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RIVAL TRADE ROUTES OF SOUTH
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CHINA.
THE REBELLION IN THE PHILIPPINES.
According to an article which we repro- duce to-day from the Manila Comercio, the rebellion in the Philippines has been caused, not by oppression, but by the granting of institutions too liberal for the state of advancement of the people. We are inclined to think that there may possibly be a good deal to be said in favour of that view, for it is only within very narrow limits that liberal institutions can with safety be granted to an Asiatic people governed by a white race. At the same time, our Manila con- temporary appears to have grasped but half While firmness is called for it is the case. also essential that strict justice should be preserved in the conduct of the administra- tion. In the Philippines, it would seeni, according to all accounts, that if there has been on the one hand the excess of liberalism that our contemporary alleges, there has been on the other a lack of even handed justice. No condition could be more favourable to the spread of discon- tent. While the natives have had political privileges of a sort given to them, the per- sonal oppression of officials and priests, who paid little respect to those privileges, has been galling. That, the religious orders should prove oppressive when they hav the power appears to be inevitable in the very nature of the case, for it has been so in all ages and all countries and Popes and Councils have deemed it necessary to place restraints upon them in regard to their members officiating as parish priests. It is only in the Philippines that they are now allowed to act in that capacity, and the reason for that exception is said to be that they are the power that really holds the country for Spain. It is true that the islands have been held with a very small garrison in proportion to the extent of the undoubtedly country, and the priests-have exercised a potent influence, but the present rebellion and previous attempts of a liko. kind show that they have not conquered affections of the people and that all, the elements of discontent continue to seethe under a veneer of orderly government.
In an article on the respective advantages offered by the West River route and the Tonkin route for trade with Yunnan and the two Kwang, the Independance Tonkinoise shows to its own satisfaction the superiority that it considers is already possessed by the latter and that will be possessed in a much greater degree when the railway from Langson to Lungchow is made and subse- quently extended to Nanning, and when the facilities afforded by the Red River are also supplemented by railway communication with Laokay. It then goes on to say, speaking more particularly with reference to Yunnan, that if these advantages are to be fully realised the Protectorate must suppress the "barriers created by the application of the 'tariff general and be as liberal as possible at "the commencement, waiving the formalities imposed by the regulations. Thus only can the merchants of Yunnan be induced "to use the Red River route for their transactions, but once they have become "accustomed to it they will not leave it. "The Customs taxes can then be applied "without fear, but until then let the Customs "show themselves generous and become the protector of commerce." Our contempor- ary does well to urge that the Customs should not obstruct trade at the beginning, but it is a shortsighted view to suppose that once the Chinese merchants have become accustomed to the route they will never leave it and that taxes can then be freely imposed. All experience is against that supposition. In China commercial routes are constantly shifting as additions or changes are made in lekin barriers, just as the channel of a river shifts with the formation or disappearance of sandbanks. When the Wast River is fully opened up to steam navigation, when the proposed communica- tions in Tonkin are completed, and when the Burmah Railway to the Kunlon Ferry is in working order, merchants will be determined in their selection of the route they will use by fiscal considerations more than by the physical advantages of the respective routes! A day or two more or less on the way is a matter of less serious conse- quence than the payment of heavy customs dues or compliance with vexatious regula- tions the accidental breach of which may lead to confiscation or. heavy fines. We cannot agree with our contemporary as to the advantages of the Lungchow railway route over the West River route, for if goods could be placed on board a steamer
It would seem, moreover, from the Brit- ish Minister's letter to the Chamber, that the question is "entering on a new stage. He says:All necessary information, charts, &c., respecting the river and the inland waterways of the Two Kwang provinces is now in this Legation, and I expect detailed instructions from home
to commence very shortly
negotia- "tions."
That is to say, after the subject has been threshed out in London during a period of nine months, it is to be trans- ferred to Peking to be settled between the British Minister there and the Tsung-li Yamen. We fear there will be further pro- longed delays. While confident that Sir CLAUDE MACDONALD will do his best to push the matter, he will have to meet a body whose great weapon is procrastina- tion, who have reduced the business of shelving unpleasant subjects to a fine art, and who are pretty certain to defer this question as long as possible in order to bracket it with the revision of the tariff. If the British Government stand firm and are resolved not to be fooled, it is possible, that the matter may still be settled, but it will rest entirely upon the support afforded by Lord SALIS- our Representative at Peking. Under the circumstances, therefore, it will not to be too sanguine as to the early realisation of this much desired concession. LI HUNG-CHANG was not so successful as he
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It was alleged in one of our Shanghai con temporaries the other day that the priests were the protectors of the people against the oppression of the officials. » Ever since the settlement of the islan feuds between the authorities, giving rise to very scandals, but the object been a great deal less the protection of the
have ecclesiastical
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