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the surplus is needed for her own wants. The Praya wall, in part destroyed by the typhoon of July 29th last, still awaits re- pair, and the much needed dredging and harbour works are yet in nubibus. It is true that, after a long delay, the Lisbon Govern- ment were brought to approve a small outlay on this latter vitally important work, and they have at last grudgingly sanctioned an outlay of 823,400 for the com- mencement of the harbour improvement enterprise, and $15,625 for the loan and interest during the year. Nor is Timor the sole drain on the resources of Macao. Never a man-of-war or transport comes out here but it is docked and repaired at the expense of the unfortunate colony. The ships seem to be sent here to get repaired, and so soon as they have got their hulls and machinery in thorough working order, they are ordered back to Portugal to be replaced by others similarly in need of overhaul, all to be done at the cost of poor Macao.
niosa.
for wrong
mmitted
[October 22, 1896.
the buts
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND provided for by the new owners, and the purchase money could be applied by Portugal tribe or nation held to the purpose of strengthening and aug it is a barbarous measure for the settled menting the productive capacity of her rulers of a country to resort to for the remaining dependencies, the condition of the punishment of their own subjects: When the inhabitants of which would be greatly South Sea islanders murder a white man, a ameliorated. Among others, the colony of ship-of-war may be sent to bombard the Macao, immortalised by CAMOLNS, and town or village of the murderers but intimately associated with the history of annexation were decided on the burning foreign intercourse with China, would share would not constitute part of the programme. in the impulse given to their trade. Portugal As the time of the Kucheng massacre it might then find herself in a position to was urged that a British force should be replace the present picturesque but wholly sent to inflict reprisals in the way of "bom- useless forts at Macao by some batteries of bardment or burning, and the course sug- effective guns, and the small solitary gun-gested had a good deal to commend it; but boat by two or three serviceable cruisers or if the occurrence had taken place in sloops-of-war. In her present condition, British territory, say at one of the Macao flies the Lusitanian flag by the mere villages on the island of Hongkong, it sufferance of Peking. The Canton gunboat would hardly have been contended squadron with a few thousand braves that burning the whole village and could at any moment recover the colony for destroying the property of the innocent as the Son of Heaven. If it is worth retaining well as of the guilty was an appropriater surely it is worth making defensible, at least form of punishment. The English in Bur-: The Lisbon Government really ought to against the justly derided naval power of mah and the French in Tonkin have had show more consideration for their ancient China.
precisely the same difficulties to contend and now historic possession in China. Its
with that the Japanese, now find themselves harbour has silted up to such an extent THE CONDUCT OF THE JAPANESE confronted with in Formosa, but the burning. that no vessels except river steamers
IN FORMOSA.
of towns and villages has not been resorted of light draught and native craft
to, so far as we are aware. The operation can reach the anchorage. If the traffic
Our Auping correspondent, whose letter is in the nature of a reprisal, not å with the West Coast, all that is actually appeared in yesterday's issue, is indignant at punishment to be inflicted in a country left of Macao's ancient trade, is to be con-
the contradictions which have been given to that has been formally annexed, for tinued, the harbour must be properly the tales of Japanese atrocities in Mid-For-where a system of law prevails, even though dredged. A good many steamers used to
It is not unnatural that those who only nominally, the punishment of the call at Macao, hut they now have to lie so
were on or near the spot at the time, and innocent with the guilty cannot be justified. far outside the harbour that none care to go who gathered their information while the When the Spanish forces in the Philippines there. We do not pretend that under the events were transpiring, should regard with reconquer the province of Cavite, now held most favourable improvements Macao can
some contempt the hearsay evidence of by the rebels, it is not to be anticipated that win back much of the trade she has lost, those who arrived months afterwards, when they will burn the villages and towns, for but something might be done by making the atrocities had ceased or been greatly that would no doubt mean destroying the the harbour accessible, and it is to be hoped reduced. That there has been grave mis property of many persons who have had no that Governor HORTA E COSTA, who is him- management by the Japanese officials con- sympathy with the rebels and who, if they self an engineer, will be able to induce the cerned must be taken as proved to the hilt bave accepted their rule for the time being, Lisbon authorities to allow him to spend by the fact that the Japanese Government have done so only because they had no some of the colony's own revenue on the has had to visit some of these officials with
means of escaping it. It is true that in the improvement of the port. Macro is much | its severe displeasure. Some of the United States when an Indian tribe goes on too straitene at present, to be regarded as a Japanese papers also freely admit and the warpath punishment is inflicted on the on the lamentable occurrences. tribe, and sometimes by the burning of its revenue yielding possession, and if Portugal | comment cannot give her the substantial aid that she Under these circumstances the utmost the villages, but that is because the tribes are needs she might at least permit her own apologists for the perpetrators of the cruel-recognised as independent within certain revenues to be spent upon the development ties can hope to do is to extenuate, not to limits; the tribe, not the individual, is the of the colony. Her present bugbear Timor excuse, the misdeeds complained of.
entity recognised by the Government, and might be converted into a valuable colony point is made of the use of the word "atro- when things go wrong it is the tribe that if planting perations there could be en- cities," which, it must be confessed, is some-
has to bear the punishment. The Japanese couraged and promoted. Dutch Timor is what vague in its meaning; it is usually do not profess to govern Formosa on the self-supporting, and Dilly possesses, we be associated with the outraging of women, tribal system and the burning of villages lieve, an equally favourable soil and climate the wanton murder of helpless victims, which must have contained innocent in- for the raising of tropical produce, such as
and the infliction of nameless and un- dividuals entitled to the protection of sugar, hemp, rice, tea, and coffee. We know natural cruelties; but it may also be Japanese law must therefore be considered that as a matter of fact coffee of a most given
extended meaning and wholly unjustifiable. excellent flavour and quality is raised in be held to cover unnecessary cruelty Timor Dilly, but only in very limited of any description. The apologists of
PROSPECTS OF THE COTTON quantities. As the deniand for good coffee the officials maintain, as we understand,
INDUSTRY AT SHANGHAI. is always brisk, why should not this product that of the outraging of women there was
Mr. HALL, the British Consul at Yoko be largely grown in Timor and exported? none, or no more than usually attends the No doubt capital is badly wanted in the march of a body of soldiery through a con- hama, in his report for 1895 remarks that colony, and probably this is one of the rea-quered country. As to murder, there is of the event of the year which is likely to have most influence on the future of trade was sons for the bankrupt condition of Timor. course rom for dispute in each case as to
the insertion of what are known as the If this be the case, and private enterprise whether the person who lost his life was in Portugal is unable to develop the colony, killed while resisting lawful authority, commercial clauses in the treaty of peace then the Lisbon' Government would act Without attempting to discriminate between concluded with China at Shimonoseki, He prudently in selling Mozambique to Natal the two sides on these points we pass on to briefly enumerates the privileges secured by Us that or Cape Colony, either of which, assisted by a matter which admits of no dispute except clause VI. of that treaty, reminds the Home Government, would be only too
these privileges, by virtue of the most on a question of number. Villages were glad to acquire possession of that territory. burnt and their inhabitants, rendered home-favoured nation clause in the several treaties, At present the Portuguese colonial posses-less, had to seek refuge in the hills. The are won for all the other foreign Powers as sions in the Far East are stagnant, if not
well as for Japan, and gas on to say: "The British and other reign merchants steadily decaying, and lately they have had
"in China were not slow to avail themselves to grapple with rebellion both in Portuguese
"of the newly acquired right of manufac India and in Timor. It would be much wiser
turing. Within four months from the to consolidate these possessions and endeavour
publication of the treaty four com to improve those susceptible of improvement
for working cotton, mills were started, in than to cling desperately to all, unable to
Shanghai, two for the same pur help yet afraid to part with any. If Mozam- bique passed into British hands the Portu-
"by Japanese capitalists of Osaka, Puchon guese residing there would of course be
县
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a more
A
number of villages thus dealt with has been stated as over seventy, which is one of the statements that have been characterised as exaggerations, the exact number, it is said, being only thirty-four. But whether the number was large or small, was the burning justifiable in any case?
We contend not.
The destruction of towns or villages is a common mode of inflicting punishment on a tribe or nation in the way of reprisal
"
curious, result of this clause in the treaty
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