July 16, 1898.J
entirely unknown to navigation, several vessels having passed considerably closer to the shore. It is not an altogether unlikely surmise that this dangerous rock may have been thrust up by volcanic upheaval at the time of the disas
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
63
trous tidal wave which was experienced in the exactions and his nepotism had necessi- Russia, what can our high fficials do to the
locality some couple of years or so ago, and the necessity is suggested by what has occurred of a new survey of that part of the coast and its adjacent waters, and of having the new danger charted, so that mariners may be warned of the situation of this dangerous rock. It may be tha tit is not the only one which a search in that locality may discover.
OPPOSITION TO STEAM-LAUNCHES ON INLAND WATERWAYS.
With the permission given by the Imperial Government to Chinese-owned steam launches to ply for passengers in the inland waters of the empire, and the consequent loss of business to sailing passenger boats in the Yangtze towns, there is naturally a good deal of exasperation felt by the boat people against the screeching interlopers, whose crews are daily receiving threats of extermination for themselves and destruction for the steamers, etc., etc. The turbulent city of Yangchow has again gained that distinction by being the first to offer violence to the interlopers, a steam launch just underway for inland ports being on the 30th ult. intercepted at a bridge by a large mob of boatmen and rowdies. Be- fore much damage was done, however, either to crew or passengers, a military force appeared on the scene and by threatening to fire upon the mob dispersed it for the time, for we may be
sure this will not be the last riot on steam
launches in Yangchow by any means owing to its very large boating population, News also has been received by wire of the serious out- break at Tsingkiangpu, on the Grand Canal, in which a steam launch which had but just arrived from Chinkiang was badly smashed and the crew and passengers hurt. The mob then de. molished the newly-built jetty and ticket office, seriously hurting the inmates. Soldiers also stopped this riot, but they did not appear until the mob had wreaked their vengeance on their victims.-N. C. Daily News.
THE UNDERLYING CAUSES OF THE
FIRE AT KOBE.
Dowager is backed up by her
by her henchman Li | duct of the Russians amongst the Central Hun-chang. Now the name of Li is unfor Asian potentates, whose countries and king. tunately too well known in the south. Li doms are now ruled by the Russian Czar alone! Han-chang, the elder brother, had been To bring the argument even nearer home and Viceroy for many years at Wuchang; his apply that law to our own dealings with fated his removal, and he was sent 88 Russian refusal lately to a allow Chinese men. Viceroy to the outlying province of the south of-war to enter Port Arthur? Have we not in the hope that he would not be able to do always been made to believe by the treaty much mischief there. But Li Han-chang was with Russia that the Lord of the Soil there quite equal to the situation. Three years of is our own Emperor, and that, in consequence, office were enough to drive the people to des Chinese men-of-war and merchantmen may peration, and Li had to be finally retired as enter that harbour at any time? Now that too bad even for the remote Kwang provinces. Russia is ensconced snugly there, who is the The trouble brewed by the elder brother has "Lord of the Soil P" Is this alone not a sufi. been assiduously matured in a genial soil, and cient leason to our high officials, but that they for the last two years it has been known to all must try to make our bonds even tighter to having a knowledge of affairs that the two Russia by now borrowing money from so-called Kwangs were saturated with rebellion, and Belgians? What a fatality !” · were only waiting a lender and an opportunity to break out in open revolt.
It will be seen that this is a different position from that referred to yesterday as within the bounds of possibility in Central China. There the loyalty of the Viceroys is above suspicion, and though there may be apprehensions of falling off, be the north, the fear is that it may and that as in the time of the Sungs the seat of empire may have to be transferred to the south of the Yangtsze. The rebellion in Kwantung is apparently a rebellion pure and simple to free the province from a dominion which has become distasteful. The Kwang to the T'sings. To the present day a Cantonese provinces have never quite willingly submitted
is not as a Chinaman elsewhere, a Han or T'sing man. He is still in his own speech a Tongyan, a man of the Tang dynasty when China was a powerful state ruled by a native dynasty and with no fear of her northern neighbours. At no period has the feeling of unrest been absent, and it has been only by skilfully working on the mutual antipathies and local jealousies of the various factions, that the government has suc- ceeded in holding its own amidst these turbulent populations. Now that the idea is disseminated widely that the dynasty, dominated by a woman, is under the influence of a foreign Power, and that Power the Oros, the feeling of unrest is strengthened, and a sentiment almost akin to patriotism has been aroused. The situation not only in Kwantung but through the empire at large is one of danger. In setting aside the Emperor and essaying to rule in her own name, and with a Minister so thoroughly distrusted as Li Hung-chang, the Empress Dowager is skat- ing on thin ice, and the whole surface may any time break up.-Shanghai Daily Press.
A HANLIN ON RUSSIAN DIPLOMACY,
MESSRS. HELLYER AND CO.'S TEA-FIRING GODOWNS DESTROYED
Kobe, 5th July. Shortly after three o'clock this morning the alarms rang ont for a fire on the Settlement, and, as it proved, a very expensive one, Messrs. T. W. Hellyer & Co.'s three tea-firing godowns fitted with costly machinery being totally des- troyed. The Settlement Fire Brigade, under Captain Sim, and several Japanese Brigades service, for the flames threatened to spread over came upon the scene and rendered most effective
a very considerable area. This, happily, was averted. The fire originated in a manner un- known on the upper floor of one of the build- inge, and tea dust being of an inflammable nature, the flames soon spread, rapidly involving three buildings in which the machinery was fitted. By the well directed efforts of the firemen two godowns full of tea situated on either side of the burnt-out buildings were saved, as also considerable property at the rear of the ill-fated premises. The fire caused great consternation among those living or having property in close proximity to it, and the fire brigades have to be thanked for a greatly deal. The loss if fully covered by insurance.-Hiogo News.
WEIHAIWER
23rd June.
the harbour. She returned on the 17th inst.. The Victorious has joined the ships lying in
On that day several of the British officials came off the ships and, headed by a band and escorted by a few marines and bluejackets, they entered the city and had a conference with the Chinese officials re the incident of the stealing of the materials of the barracks. The headmen of the villages around had been summoned and they big- ged for pardon and signed a paper promising that nothing of the sort should again ocenr. I understand that a formal notice was read in the hearing of all those present, and translated sentence by sentence, to the effect that the English were here by arrangement with the Emperor, that they were now masters and intended to act up to that character.
DISCONTENT IN KWANGSI.
Ethnologically the people of Kwangsi and Kwangtung are very different from those of the rest of China, and the difference in race has been marked by a broad distinction in dialect, sufficient were it not for the amalgamating in- fluence of the written character, to constitute a distinct language. The inhabitants of the two
We (N. C. Daily News) are permitted to Kwangs are physically above the average, but translate the following letter which was re- beyond this they have at all times been restless ceived by a member of the local mandarinate of res traint and difficult to govern. Practically from a friend who was made a Hanlin last June so long as the people of a jurisdiction paid their at the Palace examinations:-"I was greatly taxes and conformed openly to the laws and surprised to learn that Sheng Hsuan-huai, as regulations, little or no enquiry was made into Director-General of the Lu-Han Railway, has their private life, and each community was
almost concluded negotiations with the Belgian practically left to do what it liked. This syndicate for a loan to build that Railway. immunity even extended to private wars, and When, may I ask, will those in power amongst neighbouring tribes and villages often carried
us learn wisdom P Has not China sufferedOne source of misunderstanding has been on prolonged hostilities, artillery even being enough already through the lamentable, nay. that up to date no publio announcement has pat ander requisition, and regular campaigns, criminal ignorance of her statesmen. at the been made that the place and district had been often lasting for months, or even years, being hands of Russian diplomacy? I have been passed over to the English. This is a serious carried on. The salvation of the government, reliably told by certain foreign officials here oversight on the part of some one and should be as a fact, mainly depended on these internal (Peking) that the Belgian syndicate is com- speedily attended to. The announcement must feuds, which prevented the people from coal-posed principally of Russian and French be clear and intelligible and be issued by the escing, so, though the mandarinate were capitalists and that it is Belgian only in proper Chinese authority-the Taotai or Go- generally disliked or more frequently despised, name. It therefore seems to me that our high vernor. If something of this sort is not done, no wide spread movement to free themselves officials intend to stand to the letter of their it will take months and years for the people to from the yoke of what they considered sub-contract with the Belgian syndicate that it is look upon the English as anything but inter- jection has been attempted since the days of Belgian and belongs to no other nationality, lopers and thieves. Even intelligent men in the Taiping Wang, the Celestial Emperor," should Russia or France step in by-and-by and Weihaiwei itself think and say: Ob, these the Kwangsi fanatic Hung Siao Ch'wan. attempt to control the syndicate so as to gain a English will only stay here for a short time. Though news travels slowly in China, in foothold in the Yangtze provinces and so on They intend to get the money for the build- the end it penetrates the mass, and the popu. northward in the direction of Peking-terri- | ings that are being pulled down, then they will lace of Kwangtung and Kwangsi know well that tory, I have been told, the English guaranteed up with their anchors and steam away not China is dominated by a woman. They know to the Tsungli Yamên would always remain to return." Such is the popular belief bere at more, that as has before happened, that woman
free from the pernicious grasp of Russian | present, absurd es it sounds to us. - But in time has sought to consolidate her own power by dis- authority. But when will our high Ministers they will probably learn that the English have graceful surrender to the northern frontagers, learn that nowadays there is no law of come to stay. and that the Oros are really the predominant
Right is Might," and that only "Might force in the Palace councils. Those amongst is Right holds the field of the diplomacy them who study the vernacular literature of the of the great Powers? Is it necessary day know besides that in all this the Empress to give you proofs? Witness then the con
46
On the 18th there was quite a demonstration on the mainland. From the ships in the bay some eight hundred blue-jackets were landed. They carried rifles with bayonets fixed and had
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.