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THE HONGKONG NOTE ISSUE,
As will be seen by the minutes of the Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce published in another column a short and ready way out of the Bank note difficulty is offered by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. Mr. Jackson ex- plained to the Committee that the Hong- kong and Shanghai Bank had had some correspondence on the subject both with the local Government and with the Secretary of State. Complaints having been made of an excessive note issue over the legalised amount during the early months of the year, the Bank replied to the effect that this excess of issue was necessitated by circumstances, and by a great inconvenience and loss to the trade the issue was reduce !
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
of the scheme proposed by the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. Will the Treasury authorities sanction it? [Information has since been received that the proposal of the Hongkong and Shang- hai Bank has been sanctioned by the Secretary of State.]
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THE FORTIFICATION OF
HONGKONG.
17
21
[July 23, 1988. in point, as it was a case of manslaughter and not of murder, to the CAREW case, and
to a recent case in which an American was
convicted of murder in Japan but not executed, and our contemporary asks how it is that the sentence is commuted in some cases while in others the utmost rigour of the law is applied. Also, continues our contemporary,
it "should be mentioned that in 1864 four European Portuguese, a Macaoese, and a Spaniard were arbitrarily condemned and "executed by order of Judge BALL, having
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45
been unjustly accused of the crime of piracy, one of the witnesses against them, "after having perjured himself before the "court, committing suicide, it is supposed "out of remorse. After that the English "Government determined that all persons "accused of murder should be defended and
64
the man
In an article headed Hongkong as a "Naval Base Record commences by saying "Lord SALIS- the Naval and Military
BURY is to be congratulated upon his Britain of certain territories round Hong- "success in securing a lease to Great
that important place practically impreg kong which, when fortified, will make
taken for granted by our contemporary "nable by land and sea." It seems to be that fortifications on an extensive scale are
be tried by a special jury." Whatever to be established on the new territory cases mentioned by our contemporary or of may be said of the merits of the various The Times on the other hand says: -"The the reasons for the commutation of the sen-
strategic considerations which alone can
tence in those cases in which the clemency of "make us really safe in Hongkong as in the Crown was exercised there was cer- "all the rest of our transmarine possessions tainly no reason whatever for commuta. the first instance of a naval and not of well understand the feeling of distress are, it is hardly necessary to repeat, in tion in the case of OZORIO.
We can a military character. No greater mistake entertained by the Portuguese community "could be committed in present circum-
at seeing one of their number subjected to stances than to
waste large sums of the last penalty of the law, but now that money in attempts to convert Hongkong the case is over they would be well advised "into an Asiatic Kronstadt or Sevastopol. to let the discussion of it drop. They can- Huge fortifications such as those that not contend that an exception ought to have form the defences of the ports named may been made in favour of OZORIO on account be desirable and even indispensable to of his nationality, and the contention that "Powers which cannot expect to secure
was insane rests only on the "their shores by holding the seas. But a assumption that violent crime is in itself "vast expenditure on earthworks and guns an evidence of insanity, an argument that if "would be worse than useless for the nation
once admitted might be applied to every "which relies for the existence of her Em-
case of murder. One thing the discussion 'pire on the complete supremacy of her shows, and that is the danger of granting "Heets. Such an expenditure would not commutations without adequate cause and only tend to divert to land defences money thereby creating precedents which might “which might be employed to far better lend colour to the suggestion that the
purpose in perfecting our Navy, but it law is not administered equally. "would also tend to foster in the popular presume, however, our Portuguese friends "mind a theory of Imperial defence which do not imagine that the result would have Navy League, we believe, corresponds gen- murderer been "is radically false." The opinion of the been different in the present case had the erally with that of The Times, the idea certain passages in the articles that have ap- an Englishman, though being, not that heavy and expensive peared on the subject seem to convey a faint fortifications should be set up, but that suspicion of that kind. If so they may be the boundary line and passes should be reminded that in the year 1859 two Eng- held by a chain of blockhouses garris-lishmen were hanged at Hongkong for the oned by the military or a military police. murder of a China boy on board a ship. It This, it is deemed, would be sufficient is recorded that "upwards of two thousand to prevent the heights commanding the "persons were present, principally Chinese, harbour of Hongkong being taken by sur- "who were much gratified that such strict
The question « prise by an invading force.
'justice was dealt out and that the murder have much to say for a good many years to is one upon which experts will no doubt
"of a Chinaman had been visited with so
severe a punishment.” come, but in the meantime local opinion, we funds available for fortification may be think, will incline to the view that any
the south shore of the island secure against much more profitably spent upon making attack than upon forts and batteries in Mirs Bay and Deep Bay. In any case, however, a large addition to the garrison is called for, and the sooner it is supplied the better.
by the 30th June and brought within the prescribed limits. The inconvenience and loss to which Mr. JACKSON refers are only too well known to our readers-not to merchants and financiers alone, but to the community at large-who have been serious- ly bampered by the contraction in the volume of the circulating medium. The Bank has pointed out to the Government that the prescribed limits are quite in- adequate to the requirements of the trade and has made the proposal that for any excess of limit in its issue of notes is prepared to lodge silver, dollar · for dollar, in the custody of the Colonial Treasurer. Mr. JACKSON adds that the Bank was in hopes that the Govern- ment would listen favourably to this proposal. In that hope the community will cordially join. The scheme proposed has all the advantages of a Government note issue without any cost to the public or trouble to the Government. It is difficult to imagine what objection can possibly be brought against it, but the extraordinary course pursued by the Imperial Treasury in years past with reference to the subsidiary coinage question shows how little the officials of that department are acquainted with local conditions and how expert they are in raising imaginary objections to measures urgently called for in the public interest. The Bank would of course derive a profit from the transaction, as it would thereby be enabled to make use of the stocks of silver new lying idle in its vaults and of any further deposits it may receive, which at present it is unable fully to do, because the borrowing public wants notes, not silver, and the Bank is at present unable to give them notes. The scarcity of money from which the trade of the colony is now suffer. ing is to a large extent an artificial scar- city; there are considerable stocks of silver, but those stocks cannot be made use of unless notes are allowed to be issued against them, silver itself being too cumbersome a currency to be carried about in large quanti- ties. As was pointed out by Mr. R. M. GRAY at the meeting of the Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, the Chinese traders are discarding their ancient method of making their financial dealings in chopped dollars by weight in favour of the more convenient system of interchanging money by means of Bank notes, in which they have gained complete confidence and which are so much more easily handled. This applies not only to the colony itself, but also to the neighbouring districts of the Chinese Em- pire. On the other hand the expanding trade of the colony calls for an increase in the volume of the circulating medium, the present issue of bank notes being quite Inadequate. The present position is one which urgently calls for a remedy, and that remedy would be supplied by the adoption
着装
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PORTUGUESE OPINION ON THE
EXECUTION ÖF OZORIO.
The Portuguese community, both of Hongkong and Macao, appear to feel much aggrieved that the sentence on OZORIO was not commuted. The Echo Macaense mentions that twenty-five years ago a Portuguese who committed a murder in cold blood at Bombay had his sentence com- muted by the intercession of the King of Portugal. Reference is also made to the Logan case at Canton-which hardly seems
OCEAN PENNY POSTAGE.
We
Great Britain, Canada, Newfoundland, The adoption of penny postage between the Cape, Natal, and any of the Crown Co- lonies that choose to join is a victory for Mr, HENNIKER HEATON, who has agitated the matter for many years past, and it is also n step that may not be without its influence on the cause of Imperial federation, The Aus- tralian colonies are not included in the scheme, however, which is a notable though not unexpected omission, those colonies having already expressed their disin- clination to make the financial sacrifice the scheme involves. For the same reason Hongkong is not likely to benefit. At one time the rate of postage on letters for countries of the Postal Union was reduced to seven cents, but with the fall in exchange it was deemed necessary, in order to avoid a loss on the working of the Post
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