July 2, 1898.]
impression upon. anybody to see at the various bars our Blue-Jackets drinking together in the greatest of harmony and good fellowship with the British soldiers. In the drinking question England and Germany have till now always agreed.
The British flag was hoisted in 1841 near a few miserable huts belonging to some Chinese fishermen who were then the only inhabitants of the island, and to-day Hongkong is a, splen- did town of 250,000 inhabitants; it forms the depot for the whole Far Eastern trade, and enormous jetties, docks, and engineering shops, granite quays, miles in length, have been built. Trade follows the flag, and not vice versa. No European had ever lived in the island until Midshipman Dowell, now an Admiral in the British fleet, had hoisted the Union Jack in January, 1841, and by doing so announced to the world the British supremacy and prestige in the Far East.
To-day Germany is in a similar position. All competent judges bere agree in the opinion that the Bay of Kiaochan is Я valuable acquisition in regard to its posi- tion on the sea coast, as well as to the facilities which it will afford for harbour ac- commodation and communication with the hinterland. In the completion of the trans- Siberian railway the importance of our new possession may rise beyond all expectations, aud it now lies with us to found a northern Hong kong May success be with us, and may our German capitalists have sufficient energy, may they be far sighted and courageously determined enough to do what the British have done, and what I now see before me in Hong- kong. Here, too, disappointments were met with at the beginning, and the golden harvest was not reaped during the very first years.
History is the best teacher in everything, it is the most powerful source of our know ledge in politics and warfare, and let it be thus in matters colonial.
From a handbook of British Colonial history, all those who want to reap the fruit when the seed is hardly sown could learn much, and a stroll through the cemeteries of Hongkong, where dozens of memorial stones have been set by their comrades and superiors to the British Officer, the soldier and sailor, would further teach them that out here amongst the millions of foreign races no greatness can be attained through gold alone, but that human life too must be staked. Losses of this kind are quite as unavoidable as those occurring daily in the course of trade, and above all of navigation; yet nobody would ever pretend that both trade and navigation should be abandoned because of the annual loss of life and property.
We, too, undoubtedly possess the per- severance, the courage, the energy the go- aheadness and the wandering instinct which from the time of the Vikings has rend- ered the German races so powerful: the qualities. so characteristic of our British cousins are also given to us. The hundreds and thousands of Germans that live in any and every part of the globe prove it. But to-day these qualities are no longer sufficient; every resource, every faculty of the nation must be united, must be brought into play and must be strained to its utmost, and only then shall we be able to occupy abroad the position which we deserve.
It is time, indeed, to come forward and assert ourselves as a nation, and to alter our obsolete landsman's ideas and to follow in the footsteps of other European nations who have founded extensive colonies, and may we thus attain greatness amongst them.
The British, the French, the Russians are no better than we are, and yet look what they are abroad compared with as iu national power and unity,
May the next half century see Germany rise to the same important position in the world as to-day she occupies on the continent of Europe.
At the German Consulate, Tientsin, a few days ago Mr. Max Singewald was sentenced in accordance with German law to nine months' imprisonment for unjustifiable debt. Some little sympathy, the Peking and Tientsin Times says, is felt for Mr. Singewald in consequence of very trying circumstances through which he passed last year. The unfortunate man will be removed to Germany immediately.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
THE CHINESE LAND LAWS AND THE OWNERSHIP OF ACCRETIONS,
We give below two articles from Shanghai newspapers upon a caso recently heard in the British Court there bearing upon the important question of the right of ownership to riparian accretions. The first article is from the N. C. Daily News and the second from the Shanghai Daily Press. Mr. Kingsmill. one of the parties to the case, is the editor the last named
paper.
[N. C. Daily News.} The case of Sung Hoong-hai and others v. T. W. Kingsmill, tried before sir Nicholas Han nen on Wednesday last, was a very much more important one than would appear from a casual parusal of the report of it. The nominal de- fendant, Mr. T. W. Kingsmill, was only the representative of the interesting institution known as the Shengko Office, and it was that which was really defeated on Wednesday. We trust it always will be defeated, and that every Consulate in Shanghai will do its utmost to crush it, and to discourage any of its nationals from surveying for it as Mr. Kingsmill has done.
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15
possession of any land; that (answer, §7)* on learning that the plaintiffs declined to vield up peaceable possession of the land referred to (he) gave instructions that he was not desirous of proceeding further. He is willing with or without an injunction to withdraw all claims of. any sort to the property in question and has applied to H.B.M.'s Consulate for a return of the documents of sale lodged by him endorsed to that effect."
that all the Consulates will see to it that the Shengko Office, illegal and oppressive as it is, gets no assistance in its nefarious work from them by putting forward any of their nationals.
This is a splendid illustration of the way in which this illegal black-mailing Shêngko Office is worked. A piece of land belonging to some- body else is sold by the Shengko Office to a foreigner-Mr. Kingsmill says in his pleadings that he paid Tls. 20,000 for a number of these claims, and he seems to have got some of them allowed at the British Consulate. Mr. Kings- mill goes to survey the land, taking a parcel of boundary stones with him. The owners have the spirit to protest; and Mr. Kingsmill immediately withdraws and consents to a perpetual injunction, while his legal ad viser promises that the Shanghai magistrate will not take any proceedings civil or criminal against the real owners of the ground for any acts alleged to have been committed or arising out of this action. We have been told, The Chinese law as to accretious to proper that in other cases, Mr. Kingsmill has succeeded ties on the banks of waterways, as settled by in getting the real owners of ground who ob- the Emperor Kang Hsi, the Chinese Justinian,jected to the Shengko Office robbing them, is almost exactly the same as the rules of arrested and detained in the City without any Roman Law on the subject, and the one might warrant from his Consulate or without the have been copied from the other. As the knowledge of the police, but we cannot believe Chinese proverb puts it, "the calf belongs to that any foreigner would go as far as that. We the cow; that is, the accretion belongs to the hope that Mr. Kingsmill will now sever his owner of the property, and he can at any time connection with the Shêngko Office, after the obtain a title to it, by paying the moderate decision giving on Wednesday; and we hope customary price, having it measured, and pay. ing land tax on it. In and around Shanghai there are numberless properties to which land has accreted from the river and creeks; these accretions have never been measured and no tax has been paid on them. It occurred to some native genius that there was money to
The aphorism that "fools rush in where angels be made by starting શ Shengko Office fear to tread" was seldom better exemplified for the purpose of tracing these accretions and than in an article which appeared in yesterday's compelling the adjacent owner to add them to North China Daily News. It is not the func his title-deeds and pay land tax thereon. There tion of this paper to subserve merely private is still more money to be made, said a greater ends, and were it not that there were public genius, by tracing out these accretions, taking interests concerned, the private attack on Mr. them, and selling them to whoever will buy at Kingsmill would have been passed by unno the prices now ruling. The Viceroy at Nauticed. As a fact Sir Nicholas Hannen stated king was persuaded to authorise the establish- in his remarks that the plaintiffs in the action ment of a Shengko Office. It did not matter referred to were going into a very big thing, that the office itself could have no legal stand- and were seeking to set in motion a tremendous ing without direct Imperial sauction, as the steam hammer to crush a butterfly. As Mr. Provincial authorities have nothing to do with Kingsmill had from the beginning refused to the land in China, which is entirely a matter be associated with any forcible measures, and of Imperial interest, the land tax being the had on the first notice of the occupiers of foundation of the Emperor's revenue, and the their unwillingness to place him in posses- Emperor's representatives in matters affecting sion, quietly retired, there was nothing illo the land, his Shèngko officials in fact, being gical in his having by consent agreed to an the local hsiens, or magistrates, this be- injunction, and this, as was pointed out by ing 'the system all over China. We believe the judge, was the position at the com- that the Shanghai hsien did kick against mencement of the action. As to the allega the establishment the Shengko Office, as tion that the Shengko Office is "illegal" and being an interference with his duties, but he
'black-mailing' that is a matter in which thought it wiser to give in. This Shengko that office alone is concerned; with the parti Office, then, has been founded and has acted in cular case in point it had practically nothing to. contravention of the laws of the Empire, and do. In China as in England land below high through the greed of the native officials and
water mark or which has acereted from the ses the desire for compromise on the part of the or navigable rivers belongs to the Crown, and foreign officials, has been allowed to become a vehicle for oppression, extortion, and fraud.
it
[Shanghai Daily Press.]
may be added that in England the Crown is jealously tonacious of its prerogative. In the The Office got to work; in some cases it district of Shanghai in the delta of a river like persuaded the riparian owner to buy, his accre-
the Yangtsze accretions are numerous, tion, but in many cases the riparian owner, for and have always been treated as pub the Chinese landowner has a practical know-lic,
and with the understanding that | ledge of the land laws, threw the Shèngko un- in preference the owner whose land they derlings and their boundary stones into the near-bound shall have the first claim, unless the land est creek. When they did that, they as a rule be required for public uses. Although the land. heard no more about it. But such results were department in China is administered theore discouraging to the Shèngko Office, so they tically in a perfect manner it need not be said determined to hire a foreigner, whose name, that irregularities occasionally occur. As a with allusions to his Consul, etc., could be used rule the land books are kept up to date and the to overawe the native landowner. With foreign holdings are orderly entered. Some three to assistance, the Office got so bold that instead of four years ago cases of irregularities having limiting their claims to accretions on the banks come to the notice of the Viceroy Chang Chih- of waterways, they actually picked out pieces of tang he directed a survey of accreted lands, land away from any creek, and sent their re- and issued a proclamation to those concerned presentative and their underlings to put down that on application they could procnre titles to stones bearing foreign initials and claim the accretions abutting on their holdings. The laud as theirs. This was they what tried with lands were measured and no trouble seems Sung Hoong-hai and others. It will be noticed in to have been excited, the majority gladly Mr. Kingsmill's pleadings that (answer, §4) he accepting the offer and procuring titles for the was merely surveying the land and that his accreted land. In some cases the holders of survey was not made with the object of claiming adjacent lands did not desire the accretions
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