The-Hong-Kong-Weekly-Press-1897-10-21 — Page 4

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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND

who comes out fresh from home to eater n mercantile office in Hongkong or Shanghai finds opportunities of recreation on every hand and he naturally devotes his spare time to enjoyment; he finds that others do not trouble themselves about learn- ing the language and why should he? Probably the iden never occurs to him in the earlier years of his residence, and if it does it is only to be speedily dismissed. By the time a man has been ten years in China he probably begins to think that a knowledge of Chinese might be an advantage to him, but it is too late to commence then, the responsibility of the position to which he has then attained and the daily calls of his busi- ness leaving him neither time nor opportunity to enter on such an arduous undertaking as the study of Chinese; and by that time, too, the effects of the climate may be beginning to tell on his stock of energy. When the same man has attained the position of head of a firm, while recognising in a general way that it would be a good thing if young men entering on a business career in China were required to study the Chinese language, it will probably not appear to him that any direct gain would accrue to himself if he made sacrifices in order that his own juniors might do so; no one paid him to learn Chi- nese when he was young, and why should be pay others? Thus things are allowed to drift, and all the time the Chinese are being educated to take the place of the foreigner. Looked at from our own racial point of view it would not be bad policy, we think, if the Englishmau were educated to take the place of the Chinaman in the higher branches our local trade. Let the Chinaman be taught English, by all means, but also let the Englishman who is intended for a commercial career in China be taught Chinese.

RETURN COMMISSIONS.

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[October 21, 1897. sence of direct evidence that the money in these "commissions" that salaries can be question had not been paid away in that brought up to the standard of a living wage. manner. The Court was not called upon to It cannot be said that these excuses take say whether it was the more probable that away from the moral turpitude of such acts, the accused had put the money into his own but they at least form good ground for the pocket or given it to others as return com- whole question being taken into considera- missions in the way of business, and seeing tion by the owners on one side and the or- that the prosecution failed to prove conclu-ganisations to which captains and officers sively that the accused took the money for belong on the other. himself he was entitled to an acquittal,

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The judge in announcing the decision of the Court made a few remarks which he CHINESÈ EXCLUSION IN AMERICA. described as purely extra-judicial. He said he "looked upon these return commissions-

Although the Chinese Exclusion Laws in paid to the employes of owners of ships as the United States have served to greatly being improper; he was not saying that restrict the influx of Chinese into the great they werei llegal, because he did not know Republic, they are not absolutely proof, any case had been decided to that effect. and many immigrants manage to sneak in It was decidedly dishonest on the part of through the interstices left by way of the ships' officers who took them, and dis- Canadian and Mexican frontiers and the "honourable on the part of anyone dealing corruption of officials. This fact has Intely "with ships to pay them. It was quite clear been pressed on the attention of the Govern "that their payment was recognised by ment at Washington, and Mr. Secretary "NICKEL & Co., and that it was underhand, GAGE and Attorney-General McKENNA dirty work which they did not wish to ap-have issued a joint circular to Collectors pear on their books.

He was sorry to and Customs officers and United States "hear that the custom was so prevalent in attorneys and marshals relative to the more "Kobe as it appeared to be." The system effectual enforcement of the Exclusion is, unfortunately, more or less prevalent Laws. The new instructions issued are to everywhere, but perhaps not more 90

try to prevent the supply of certificates of in the shipping business, in proportion American nationality alleged to have been to the opportunities afforded, than in other given to Chinese born in the United States, lines. Indeed, so firmly rooted is the system and it is set forth that the question of whether that if a man in a position to com- Chinese of Chinese parentage born in the mand a commission is too honest to take United States are citizens of the Republic is it the chances are that the money simply

now pending in the Supreme Court. The goes into somebody else's pocket. As the circular goes on to add :— "Until otherwise judge in the Kobe case said at conclusion of "ordered, all Chinese found in this country his judgment, "he might have a strong

"who suspicion that the accused, being employed in the dirty work of giving bribes, some "of the money might have stuck to his own hands, but on that suspicion he would "not convict him." In fact such a system as that described has a corrupting influence all round.

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are unable to produce labourers "certificates of registration or evidence of

their status as bona fide merchants or "labourers in transit to other countries "should be arrested by Chinese Immigrant Inspectors and delivered to the proper legal authorities for the determination of "their right to remain in the country." There A case has recently been tried at Kobe In connection with the case above referred is no mistaking the fact that public opinion which possesses considerable interest, as to we would commend to the attention of all in the United States still sets unalterably turning on the question of return com- int erested in the question the following against free admission of Orientals, and missions or squeezes.

Before Mr. J. C. remarks from the Kobe Chronicle:-It is especially of Chinese, into the country. The HALL sitting as Judge, and Messrs. G. J. extremely difficult, however, to devise a Chinese labourer is still the béte noir of the MELHUISH and E. W. NEOL sitting as remedy. Compradores, coal merchants, working classes, and the hostility of the assessors, F. R. A. DA SILVA was arraigned stevedores, pilots and others who have latter to all the yellow races knows no in the British Conşular Court on an indict- to submit to this system of extortion, or diminution. Nor is it likely to de- ment charging him on three separate counts become willing or unwilling instruments in creasc as times grow harder in the with embezzling from his employers, Messrs. these frauds upon steamship owners, are manufacturing centres and the number of C. NICKEL. & Co., the sums of $5.10, $5.60, quite helpless in the matter. They have unemployed becomes yearly a more consider- and $20.70 respectively within the last six either to pay the commissions or go out of able factor in the economy of State govern- calendar months. The prosecuting firm are business. The agents of the steamers are ment. In Canada there is a greater scar- stevedores and landing agents, and supply likewise in a more or less helpless position. [city of labour, a need of population for the water to vessels. The accused was in They are aware that these "squeezes" go development of the vast areas over which charge of their water boat and it was his on, but they also know that any action taken the five millions of inhabitants are sparsely duty sometimes to receive the money paid by by them would be fruitless of result, whilst scattered. But an outery has already been ships or their agents for water. The charge they would incur the enmity of those against raised for legislation to restrict the influx against him was that he had received from whom reports were made which might of the Celestial, and before many years have the agents of one line of steamers three in the long run do them much injury with passed he will be as little welcome in the separate amounts and had accounted to the the owners. The agents, indeed, take up the Dominion as in the Republic. In Austra- firm for lesser amounts. The defence was position that the steamship owners are them-lia the colonial governments have already that the difference had been paid away selves primarily to blame. The owners, as return commissions to people aboard they say, make a point of getting their cap- the ships to which the water was supplied. tains and officers in the cheapest market, The defence called no evidence, but it without considering the question of charac- appeared from the evidence for the pro- ter, and they pay low salaries for positions secution that the system of return commis- of great trust and responsibility, with the sions was recognised by the firm, and, this consequence that every opportunity is seized being so, the Court acquitted the accused, to make an illicit profit. Nor are the cap one of the assessors dissenting. It would tains on their side destitute of excuse. They be unfair to accept the acquittal of the point out that their positions are of a most accused as implying the conviction of precarious character, as they are always the men alleged to bave received liable to be dismissed for accidents occurring the return commissions, as these were through no fault of their own, and they not present to speak for themselves; but further allege that the owners are perfectly in view of the existence of a system of well aware of the practices which prevail, return commissions recognised by the firm that salaries are fixed at a low rate on the the Court was justified in finding the charge understanding that something extra can against the accused not, proven, in the ab- I be made, and that it is only by means of

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solved the problem by the imposition of a very heavy poll-tax, which suffices to keep out the destitute coolie who was formerly shipped by the thousand by coolie brokers, and restricts arrivals from China to а mere handful of such Ng are engaged in trade, or who visit the coun- try for purposes of pleasure or the pur- suit of information. It is more difficult in the United States to keep out the sons of Han, from the causes named above, but we imagine the Chinese population there must nevertheless have materially decreased dur- ing the past decade. The Chinese surplus population is finding other outlets, in the Malay peninsula and Borneo, but the field there is scarcely as tempting as that afforded by California and other Pacific States.