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THE PARTITIONING OF CHINA.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
uncivilized but that she is wholly past reformation. She is so vast as to be unmanageable, and the only way to deal with her at all is to negotiate with the provincial authorities direct. The latter are certainly no better than the Tsung-li Yamen either in regard to intelligence or good faith, but they are at any rate more
[December 2, 1897.
TAXATION OF FOREIGN GOODS IN CHINA.
The report to which REUTER gives cur- rency in his message dated the 28th Novem- ber, to the effect that "Russia has acquiesced "in the German occupation of Kiaochau, "provided she has a free hand in Korea would seem to iudicate, if true, that the partition of the Celestial Empire has actually commenced. If this comes to pass the Manchu Government of China will grievance will go to settle it with the Viceroy and spirit has been adopted by the British
only have themselves to their blame. After
first lesson, given by Great Britain in 1841-2, they had plenty of time and numer- ous opportunities of learning wisdom in their treatment of Foreign Powers, but they profited so little by them that in 1859-60 it became necessary to repeat the lesson, France
accessible. In future, a Power which has a
of the province in which it originated, and continued contumacy or treachery may,
and probably will, lead to the occupation and administration of various territories for the benefit of the injured state. This must end in a break up of the Chinese Em- pire, and the day is, perhaps, not so very distant when the eighteen provinces and the
In a second letter by the Shanghai cor- the ques- respondent of the Times tion of the internal taxation of foreign goods is ably dealt with and a strict compliance with the terms of the treaty demanded. Unfortunately a reading of the treaty at variance alike with its letter
Government, and the recovery of the ground so injudiciously surrendered will not be an easy task. The treaty says that goods having paid import duty and transit dues shall be free from all further charges whatsoever, thirty years ago, that when once the goods but the British Government says, or did say
on this occasion taking part in the hostilities. various tributary states will be partitioner/ have passed out of the hands of the foreign
up much as barbarous Africa has recently
been divided off and re-coloured on the
map.
Again the rulers of China, though humiliated, soon forgot the chastisement then received and grew arrogant because England and the other Treaty Powers treated them first with
Mcantine Russia has practically though indulgence to enable them to recover from
not avowedly commenced the work by her its effects, and subsequently with undue for-
virtual occupation of Manchuria. In 1860 bearance for various reasons not very credit-
she acquired a large section of this country able to Western diplomacy. China mean- without a blow, the Chinese Government time acquired a small Navy and was
being then prostrate after the successes of supposed to possess an army and large the allied (Anglo-French) Forces. The armaments. Ouce more presuming upon a diplomatic victory over Russia, in getting great Slav Empire now requires a shoreward terminus for its Trans-Siberian Railway, that Power to retrocede Kashgaria, and a
and has found the most suitable one by car- drawn game with France, whose rulers were afraid to adopt any but half measures inrying the line across Manchuria to the sea. their quarrel with China in 1884-5, the To protect the railway a guard of Cossacks Peking Government waxed insolent and will be needed, remembering Chinese defiant, and when Japan showed a deter treachery and the tendency to destroy works of Western origin. That guard will re- mination to coerce Korea to carry out
main, and the railway will continue the the conditions
of the Treaty, they drifted into war with the island Eur property of Russin, who will eventually annex Manchuria. Probably by that time pire, although, thanks to the corruption there will be no Ta-tsing Dynasty to protest of their officials, they were wholly un- prepared for it. The Japanese meantime, against this appropriation of their patrimony. Germany has effected her first foot-hold in instead of wasting their substance
Shantung, and in a port which rumour once was done by LI HUNG-CHANG and his un-
gave as a contemplated Muscovite acquisi- scrupulous gang, had utilised their resources
tion. But Russia now, it would seem, has and improved their opportunities to acquire other views. The Korean pie is nearly ready a navy and to organise a disciplined army, for the oven, and so long as Russia is not with which they were able to give so good an account of the Chinese forces to bring as the disturbed in the preparation of this dish she Peking Government to their knees. It is what about France, her puissant ally?
cares little what happens in Shantung. But true that the Japanese were robbed of some doubt the Republic also has its little game of the fruits of their victory by the action of
to play. Yunnan and Szechuen are regarded certain of the Western Powers at the close
by France as her special preserves, and if she is not obstructed in her efforts to open Up Western China to trade she will not bother her head about what goes on so much nearer to the Great Bear's grand Park. The consent of Great Britain may or may not have been asked, but as the action of Ger- many has the approval of the Times, it will probably be acquiesced in by Lord Salis- BURY, who will certainly not be disposed to move on behalf of a broken reed like China. The publication at this time of LI HUNG- CHANG's proposal for the reform of the army and navy of China, in which he calmly sug- gests the selection of Mirs Bay as one of three fortified naval stations, will also pro- ment of the absolute necessity for acquiring the Kowloon hinterland for the protection of this colony. It is not impossible that the present juncture may be regarded as a favourable one for settling this matter finally.
of the war, but they at any rate demon- strated their immeasurable superiority to the the boastful braggarts who were responsible for this huge disaster to China. They also unconsciously performed a signal service to civilisation by pricking the great Chinese bubble, by tearing away the Dragon's scales which concealed the carcase of the silly sheep
so much more emblematic of China,
It might have been supposed that even
the fatuous rulers of China would have conned this last and direful lesson. But the Chinese mandarins are clearly incapable
of taking any lesson to heart. Their ar- mour of conceit is absolutely invulnerable; they are proof againt all warnings and all
20
importer they must take their chance in common with native goods and bear what- ever impositions the rapacity or the neces sities of Chinese administration may inflict. As all goods must necessarily pass into the hands of the native retail dealer before they reach the hands of the consumer it follows from this extraordinary reading of the treaty that they are all liable to unlimited taxation. The Times, in an article upon its cor- carefully considers the ways of the British respondent's letters, says:
Government the existence of the British Empire must always be a very surprising 'phenomenon "a reflection with *which we in Hongkong can very cordially agree and that the letters under notice "give a 'succinct but vivid account of the history of
"
W
To him who
British trade with China which represents "with substantial accuracy the history of "British empire-building as a whole. That "trade is a monument of individual initia-
tive and enterprise on the one hand, and of official incapacity to assist and profit by these things on the other." The great Loudon organ recognises that in Sir CLAUDE MACDONALD we have a British Minister
.
who understands how to deal with the
Chinese, and after remarking that the whole question of taxation has been enveloped in clouds of diplomatic verbiage and confused dialectic, the article proceeds: -"These back to the letter and spirit of the stipula- must be brushed aside. We have to go
tion under which taxation of English goods is an agreed percentage at the port "of entry and nothing more.' It is admitted that some case for a revision of the tariff' uay be made out, but "the rates, revised "or not, must not any longer be subject
<
to increase at the good pleasure of every corrupt official though whose district the gools have to pass." We are afraid, how- ever, that the question is not a matter of Such plain sailing as the Times would re- present. If two litigants went into a court of law with an agreement and a clear de- claration of the interpretation they mutu ally placed upon the agreement the one who sought to set aside that declaration of inter- interpretation, even though it were prima facie a more rational interpretation, would
teaching. They invariably mistake forbear-bably have convinced the British Govern-pretation and adopt another and different
ance for weakness, consideration for pus- illanimity, and they still cherish the illusion that they can play off one Power against the others in their dealings with Western States. They ignore the fact that their helplessness has been so thoroughly exposed to the world that it has become most risky and hazardous for them to attempt to try their old tactics with an exasperated and long enduring Foreign Minister. Nothing indeed could be so dangerous for China as to attempt to play fast and loose with a power like Germany. The recent impracti- cability of the Peking Government has already gone far to induce a belief among European States that China is not only
On the 25th November, at the Shanghai Club, in the presence of a large gathering of prominent cross-country riders, Mr. F. J. Maitland was presented with a handsome silver bowl as a recognition of ten years' Mastership of the Shanghai Paper Hunt Club. Mr. F. Ayscough, the new Master, made the presenta- tion in particularly graceful terms, and the acceptation of it was marked by a sincerity which few such occasions evoke, Mr. Maitland's response being a genuinely affecting one.-N. C. Daily News.
lose his case.
In the proclamations issued early this
passes in Kwangtung and Kwangsi the year recognising the validity of transit claim to levy terminal taxation, so long as foreign goods were not differentiated against, was distinctly formulated. Against this the China Association protested in a letter to the Foreign Office dated 28th April, 1897, in which it was pointed out admission of the right of that the
the Chinese
to lexy terminal taxation really permits them to collect, under the naine of "destination dues," an amount calculated to reimburse them for the levies
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