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June 17, 1897:1
MOUNTAIN BATTERIES.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. for this work, and it parades with them pick of Mr. KENNEDY's stable from which to four times each year. Fancy having the choose mounts for the guns, and fancy the sigh of relief when our wearied Volunteers find themselves relieved from the pulley- hauley work they now perform! Such experiments should begin quietly, and only with a single gun, and by following closely on the Indian system. be Chinese mafoos, dressed in a simple The drivers would dress and practised at frequent intervals in their work. As the guns are dismounted when in action and the ponies are taken some distance to the rear no great trouble should exist in getting animals that will stand the noise of the discharges. Hongkong. Volunteering is to-day a small affair, and we may well say that it is handicapped if be used to drag guns, while at the same in a trying tropical climate hands have to time on every Indian frontier post there are
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to bear the cost of the latter, surely it would the correspondence with Hongkong, quite pay her also to bear the cost in respect of irrespective of the recovery of any local con- tribution. Certainly, as Lord KIMBERLEY pointed out in 1882, "it may fairly be said "that the mercantile community of the "United Kingdom who supply the capital for "and control the operations of the com- merce of these colonies have a greater "interest in the correspondence than their "colonial correspondents and should bear
more than half the expense."-
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It may be at once granted that there is not in the English army any unit which gives to the looker-on a more thorough feel ing of satisfaction than that of a mountain battery. We have at present in the army three types of mountain batteries, viz., purely European batteries, where the gunners and drivers are all Europeans; mixed batteries, where the gunners are Europeans and the drivers natives; and, finally, purely native mountain batteries, where the whole personnel except the officers are natives of India. In each case the mountain guns are carried on saddles of special construction placed on mules of a strong build. In some batteries screw guns are used, in which the gun is divided near into two pieces, carried on the centre separate mules, and the pieces screwed together before bringing the guns into aetion. The ammunition is carried in perfectly equipped mountain batteries which trade. According to Reuter, who calls it
simply need to be copied-" only this and nothing more."
HONGKONG'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE POSTAL SÜBSIDY.
THE BURMAH CONVENTION AND THE HONGKONG FRONTIER.
The Burmah Convention, the ratifications of which were exchanged on the 5th instant, and of whose provisions Reuter has given us a brief outline, is the instrument under which the West River has been opened to
The
leather ammunition cases, and these also are placed on mule back and carried with
a protocol, the agreement cedes to Great Britain the State of Kokang, provides for the the guns even over many of the higher passes of the Himalayas. Indeed, it may
opening of new trade routes, allows British well be said that a mountain battery can
subjects and their protegés to settle in Szumao and Momein or Shunning-fu for the go anywhere and do anything. No peak
establishment of trade, and grants Great seems too rugged and no declivity too steep The Committee of the Chamber of Com Britain a perpetual lease of a large tract for the sure-footed animals, and the splendid merce have made a strong protest against south of Namian to be under the adminis- men that form the personnel of these bat- the proposed increase of this colony's con- tration and control of Great Britain. teries are quite unmatched in any other tribution to the mail subsidy, and have West River is one of the new trade routes branch of the military service. Such bat- supported it by sound argument. When referred to. When at the time of the con- teries on the line of march always beat the the question was last discussed Lord KIM-clusion of the Convention it was announced infantry in point of speel, and when, BERLEY, then Secretary of State for the in general terms that there was to be some during the course of a long and weary colonies, fought Hongkong's battle against cession of territory a vague expectation was day over the Afghan hills the troops are the Treasury Authorities with good effect, entertained that possibly the rectification of dead beat and exhausted, nothing can be securing the reduction of the demand from this colony's frontiers might be included in so inspiring as to see the mountain bat £16,000 to £6,000, and we must look to it. It has been understood for some time teries come swinging and jingling along, as Mr. CHAMBERLAIN to give us equally past, however, that that was not the fresh as paint after many a weary mile. In valuable assistance on the present occasion
case, and that the unceasing wars that are carried on round and arrange that the contribution shall West River
the opening of the constituted the sum and our North-Western Indian Frontier the remain at its present figure, already too substance of the advantages gained for mountain batteries are ever on the move,high. It is for Imperial interests, not for Hongkong. Whilst fully appreciating the and ten years in such a service will enable the local interests of this colony, that value of that concession it is to be re an officer to see more of war than a life-time the mail subsidy is granted, and
wegretted that the opportunity of securing in any other branch of the service.
do not see any good reason why also a shifting back of the Kowloon boun- We may at once say that for the moun- Hongkong should be called upon to pay any dany line was not taken advantage of, for tain campaigns round the Indian frontier thing at all towards it. It would be hope- an equally favourable opportunity is not the antediluvian hand-rope draught as used less, however, to expect any remission of likely to occur for a long time to come. By by the Hongkong Volunteer Corps would the burden we have hitherto patiently her wrongful cession to France of Kiang- be absolutely useless. It breaks down the borne; but to increase that burden would hung China gave Great Britain a good men, and exhausted gunners wearied by be a gross injustice. The claim of the claim for compensation. That claim has mere coolie work can never be accurate Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's been insisted upon and assented to, the State layers of guns. The whole of the equip Treasury is that the three colonies of of Kokang having been ceded by China as ment and working-mule management of the Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, and Hong-well as other territorial advantages on the mountain batteries, is clearly defined in kong should each bear half the loss result- Burmah frontier; but a claim for the small special regulations easily mastered and of ing from the mail service on the sections in strip of territory required by this colony for wondrous simplicity. Mules themselves are which they are respectively interested, the the strategical adjustment of the Kowloon not essential, for the Afghan mountain artil- calculation being made on a mileage basis frontier might also very well have been lery that did such damage to us when and the amount of each colony's correspond- included in the demand, and it is much to AYOUB KHAN attacked BURROWS at Mai-ence. If the principle laid down be be regretted that this was not done. wand were not provided with mules but car-accepted the settlement of the exact figures ried the guns on stout zaboos, that is, the is a mere matter of account. It is the thick-set cob-like ponies of the Afghan land. Ponies equally valuable for this work could be found no doubt in Northern China, and it would be an interesting experiment to see a section of two guns of "Carrington's Own" so equipped. For service over Hongkong hills and Kowloon mountains a mule or pony battery would be a splendid unit, and it would be an honour and a physical test of no mean standard to be able to serve in such an organisation, for the strength required to lift the guns into their special resting place on the gun saddle is considerable, and if ever such a battery is raised in Hongkong only the most physically fit of our Volunteers could be
admitted to it.
In England when a Volunteer Corps fetermines to organise a position battery of rtillery equipped with horses it receives a pecial grant of £100 per annum to hire horses
principle itself that is objected to.. France and Germany as well as Great Britain maintain mail services to the Far East, but the former makes no attempt to exact con- tributions to the subsidy from her colonies en route, and Germany has no colonies from which contributions could be exacted. Great Britain also conducts the service to places from which no contribution can be exacted and in those cases she is content to bear the cost herself. The reason the demand for a contribution is made upon the Crown Colonies is that the Treasury chests of those possessions are so extremely handy for the Chanceller of the Exchequer to make drafts upon. It appears that the number of letters chargeable to Hongkong on last year's basis is 1,066,607, whereas the number chargeable to" certain places in respect of which the "cost is borne by the United Kingdom" is 2,224,633. If it pays the United Kingdom
ANTIPATHY TO FOREIGNERS IN CHINESE ENTERPRISES.
One of the strongest feelings animating the Chinese official in his opposition to all. :- change or improvement suggested by West- erns is the fear that consumes him that the foreigner may by any chance make some- thing out of it. The main objection to rail. ways during the past twenty years has been, not so much the changes they may cause— though that was one great objection to them as the haunting dread that the fan- kwei might insist upon making them and so secure a profit and acquire an interest in Chinese territory. It is for this reason mainly that the work of railway construction has been so repeatedly deferred, money was not forthcoming, for the people will not advance capital for the officials to handle, and foreign loans could not be obtained without proper security.
Indeed
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