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THE SILVER QUESTION.
"In the Far East generally the silver question has very nearly settled itself. The "market has become too demoralised and precarious for the exchange banks to be "able to trust any longer to silver as a regular means of remittance. Formerly "in their exchange transactions they had "three strings to their bow-in other
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
D. BARBOUR attributes the maintenance of the present rate, of exchange on India to exceptional circumstances, considers that before many years a disastrous collapse is inevitable, and strongly urges an inter- national bimetallic agreement in preference to continuing the present situation. Sir D. BARBOUR was Financial Secretary to the Government of India at the time the Mints
were closed, and he was then, as now, a "words, three methods of moving their bimetallist but in his speech in proposing the "funds from one place to another-India Bill he said--and his words are applicable to "Council bills, commercial bills, and silver. China and Hongkong at the present time:- "Now that silver has become dangerous to
"It is not the business of practical statesman- "touch they are reduced to two alternatives-
Council bills and commercial paper. Ex-"might have been in the past, but rather to ship to waste time in vain regrets for what change bankers are pretty well cured of "accept the inevitable, and to devote atten- "the silver fever, and if they saw a chance
"tion to making the most of the present and "for an effective gold standard in the Far
"the future." The efforts now being made half-heartedly by the United States and France to restore bimetallism will, we be- lieve, fail, as previous efforts have failed, and the failure will be followed by a further heavy decline in the value of
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"East they would, I believe, come round to the metal they have hitherto tabooed. "Greater variety of exchange media they must have to carry or their business com- 'fortably as well as successfully. That “consideration will turn the scale with "many of them, and already there is a considerable cooling of bimetallic fervour in Shanghai and Hongkong. Con- "Bul JAMIESON, the latest apostle of the Bimetallic League, will have to make many converts at home to counterbalance the backsliding there has been in his own "consular district." The above is an ex- tract from an article by Mr. W. R. LAWSON, entitled " Sinking Silver," in the current number of the Contemporary Review. Whut authority Mr. LAWSON possesses for saying that exchange bankers, they saw a chance for an effective gold standard in the Far East, would come round to the metal they have hitherto tabooed, we do not know, but we suspect he is not far off the mark. The present, however, would perhaps not be a favourable time to obtain an unprejudiced opinion on the question from local bankers, for, if report speaks truly, they have during the last few months been making prodigious profits out of the fluctuations of the silver market, aud, whatever may have been the effect on trade in general of the heavy decline in exchange, the banks have come out of the business with results that will materially assist towards a favourable report on their half year's working. But, while taking advantage of accidental disturbances, it is to the permanent interest of the banks that steadiness should prevail in the business of exchange, that being conducive to prosperity in business generally, and, fail- ing a bimetallic agreement, we believe they would, as Mr. LAWSON says, welcome, an effective gold standard for the Far East.
we
The prospect of a bimetallic agreement being arrived at must at present be keenly exercising the minds of all connected with trade in the Far East. For our own part we do not think the prospect a favourable one, and, at the risk of being included amongst the backsliders, we must frankly express the opinion that the best thing Hongkong and China could do would be to go on a gold basis while there yet remains any exchange value in the fast deprecia- ting dollar. The bimetallic cause regard as defeated, and the best thing its supporters can do is to beat a retreat with as little loss as possible. According to Reuter's telegram, however, the United States Bimetal- lic Commissioners have arrived in London and intend to request the British Government to give a final and immediate reply to their proposals. On behalf of Great Britain it has been decided to answer No, and if Yes is answered on behalf of India, the Times urges, we shall be in a net of contradictory propositions, the keys of both the Indian and british mints being in Downing Street. Sir
silver.
Mr. LAWSON, in his article in the Con- temporary, after referring to the loans contracted by China says:-"With a few inore foreign-built railways, cotton "mills, and other specimens of foreign enterprise, China will soon be having a "heavy tribute to pay to Europe-a gold "tribute to be paid in silver, with ever
increasing strain both on her exchanges and on the silver market." Elsewhere he
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[October 13, 1897.
RUSSIAN DESIGNS IN ASIA.
A recent statement of the well known
Russian journal, the Novoe Fremya, may afford some food for cogitation at Peking. It is to the effect that the constructors of the Russo-Manchuria Railway, which crosses Manchurin, intend not only to lay the rail- road, organise a steamship service on the Sungari and its tributaries, and dredge that river, but also to found "au entire Russian city of 50,000 inhabitants, with an Ortho- "dox church, at the point where the trunk "line is to cross the Sungari." This point has not yet, the Novoe adds, been decided upon, as there are two routes which offer ad- vantages for the future line, and it has not been settled which of them is the best. The fact, however, that a great city, to be a centre of Muscovite influence, and to contain a large Russian population, is to be formed at an important strategic point on one of the chief rivers of Manchpria, is a significant
It would seem as if the Russians no longer proof of Russian intentions in that region. cared to conceal their intentions in Man- churia. Their contempt for China since the China-Japan war is naturally profound. The idea that China was a Power to be taken seriously has been completely dissipated. Henceforth, it is clear, China can only be regarded as formidable, when sup- ported by several of the Treaty Powers against one of their number. For some few years a prétence of treating with the Peking Government may be kept says:-"China appears to be on the high-up, but that will not long survive the com- way to become another rag money elysium pletion of the Trans-Siberian Railway. like the Argentine Republic. Chinamen When Russia is able to throw a couple 'are too cute to sit still and sink with a
of army corps into Manchuria in a few falling market. They will not go on buy- weeks she will either not make much ing silver to oblige the American mine- show of consulting Peking in the matter,
Not Owners or European bimetallists.
or will only do so in order to procure only are they drawing in their purchases, edicts signed by the Vermilion Pencil in "but they are turning round as sellers of order to sanction formally what she has "silver. Recently it could have been bought already decided. When the Chinese Go- a shade cheaper in Shanghai than in Lon-vernment invoked the aid of her great "don, and the Japanese are greatly afraid "of having large amounts of Chinese "silver dumped on them. The Chinese sur plus will either go to Japan or to the "Straits Settlements to be redistributed to Borneo, Siam, and other countries not yet "saturated." We fail to see why Japan should be afraid of China dumping silver on her, after she has redeemed her silver yen. There is, in fact, a good deal in Mr. LAWSON's article, including some fine spun theories about a standard without a substan- tial metallic basis, that cannot command ac- ceptance, but there is also a good deal that should prove suggestive. With China "a rag
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money elysium" what would be the posi tion of Hongkong? And who can say that the danger is not a real one? With her large gold indebtedness and silver steadily declining she will soon find herself in the position that India was in before the closing of the Mints, and she will not have the same means of saving herself. If by a bimetallic agreement amongst the leading nations the decline of silver could be arrested, even at the low point at which the metal at present stands, a great feeling of relief would be experienced in the Far East, but we fear the prospect of any such agreement being arrived at is remote. ing bimetallism, China's only hope of financial salvation lies in the adoption of the gold standard.
Fail-
It is notified that the hours for blasting are, in the case of the new road to be constructed from Planation Road to Magazine Gap, for such distance as it lies above and in vicinity of the Peak Tramway, to be between 10.40 and 10.50 a.m. and 2.40 and 2.50 p.m.
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northern neighbour against the designs of Japan, they hardly realised to what the step might lead. For the Manchu Dynasty there is apparently no chance except as the very submissive vassal of the CZAR, unless-and this has never, we imagine, been thought of the far-reaching ambition and greed of the Muscovite should compel a move by another coalition in Eastern Asia.
According to the Vienna correspondent of The Times, it is rumoured that the late Prince LOBANOFF, Russian Chancellor, left papers in which he urged that,
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Russia had completed her railway in Asia, she should strike a decisive blow at India, which if successful would be the prelude of the disintegration of the British Empire." If this is indeed the spirit o Muscovite policy, then Great Britain will have to meet it with statecraft as well as with the material resources of the Em- pire.
China is menaced by the same grasping foe. Unfortuntely China can- not be depended upon as an ally. There is no health in ber. She is rotten to the core, a festering mass of corruption. Devoid alike of the sentiment of honour or regard for truth and uprightness, she could not, under her present system of Govern- ment, be relied upon in any emergency. Her statesmen are without patriotism, and would sell themselves to the highest bidder regardless of the interests of their country. An alliance with such a Government could not be regarded with any sense of satisfac- tion. Is it, however, quite hopeless to look for a change? Will not the undisguised preparations of the Russians in the North convince the Emperor Kwang Su and his
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