358
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
resources, with extremely light taxes, with an emblent navy and a powerful army, with three thousand miles of railway, with a mercantile marine of four hundred thousand tons, and with thirteen thousand miles of telegraphs.-think of such a country having only forty million pounds sterling of national debt. If Japanese statesmen are wise they will go right ahead, remembering that money spent on productive enterprises is not an addition to the country's debt but an investment tending to increase its wealth Japan Mail.
THE OWNERSHIP OF THE FORMOSA CABLE.
The Osaka Mainichi learns that negotiations are now in progress between the Japanese and Chinese Governments, concerning the question of the ownership of the submarine cable between Formosa and Foochow. Since the acquisition of Formosa, Japan has at her own cost repaired the cable when damaged, but at the present moment repairs on a large scale are necessary, and these will not be undertaken until the right of ownership is settled. The paper.thinks that the negotiations will be brought to a satisfactory conclusion before the end of this month.
THE AMERICAN PACIFIC CABLE.
A good deal of attention is attracted by the enterprise of certain American capitalists who project the laying of a submarine cable from the United States to the Philippines. Their representative, Mr. Scrimser, is now in Japan, and has succeeded in enlisting a good deal of sympathy with his plan. Of course the Great Northern Company's contract is an obstacle, since it secures to the Company a monopoly of cable communication with the islands lying adjacent to the Pacific coast of America, among which the Philippines are explicitly enumerated. But the difficulty could be got over by making the cable terminate at the Carolines. The Jiji Shimpo and the Mainichi both contend that the Japanese Government should give to the new enterprise the support its projectors solicit- namely, a guarantee of a certain amount of business yearly, and in return should stipulate for the carrying of the cable via the Goto Islands. Japan Mail.
JAPAN AS A MANUFACTURING COUNTRY.
In a speech delivered a few days ago by the former Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, Mr. Kaneko Kentaro, to the members of the Oriental Association (Tohokyokai), he insisted strongly on the expediency of adopting every possible means to promote industrial enterprise in this country. The history of the world shows, he said, that nations fall into three categories. with respect to wealth. The poorest are those. which like India, and Australia, export chiefly farm produce and raw materials. Next in the scale come countries which, like Germany, France, and America, work up their own products and export them in the manufactured state. And
[October 09
tion of prices that has taken place, since the war, in the market for raw materials and for labour; there is also the depressing effect pro- duced by the bursting of a number of bubble companies the outcome of conditions always arising after a victorious struggle with a for- eign country-and in this category must also be placed the high rate of interest that has ruled, These are incidental factors of disturbance. Then follows the fundamentally disabling factor that the Japanese have been for centuries accustomed to carrying on all industries on a petty scale, as domestic industries in short, and that they have not yet developed the faculty for organizing their work so as to be able to meet a large demand and to turn out great quantities of goods uniform in quality and character. In the third place, there is the fact that almost all the country's available capital has been fixed and none remains foating. In the fourth, the difficulty presents itself that the goods manufactured depend upon their technical, artistic, or experimental features rather than upon their economical usefulness. Finally, The Tagalos say they will teach the Caga- the people are not familiar with the condi-yanes to despise Spanish priests, the Bishop, tions existing abroad, and are therefore friars, and all things ecclesiastic, Notices have unable to adapt their work to foreign tastes been posted in all the towns proclaiming free- and requirements. Such a state of affairs dom of belief, civil burial and marriage, and suggests considerable uneasiness on the verge prohibiting the taking of the sacrament, r of the era of mixed residence. What is to be ligious processions, and church observances. the route leading to renewed vigour of develop. The parish books have been taken by the . Kätl. ment? Is it to be cheap foreign capital in punan. Most places are without priests. Japanese hands alone? Or is it to be foreign. capital with recourse to the co-operation of for eign expert knowledge and experience? Or is it to be foreign capital in foreign hands solely, the Japanese furnishing labour only? Mr. Kaneko dismisses the third plan with contempt and pins his faith on the second-Japan Mail.
Bishop was slapped in the jooted to the greates even of his clerical subjected to incredible illtreatment. beaten with sticks, kicked, hung and placed in the sun for several hou during the time of greatest heat The natives were forbidden to render the Fathers any assistance or to salute them. Hungry naked, the Indians and Chinese furtively supe plied them with food and clothing. It reported that two friars were savagely murt One sixty years of age was placed unde horse's saddle and jumped upon until blood poured from his month and nose. The other was obliged to put on a native rain coat, and was carried in triumph for two hundred yards and then ondgelled to destr amidst savage cries. The nuns of the girls' school were stripped of their habita and treated infamously, their cells profaned and they themselves compelled to assist in fane functions,
THE PARIS CONFERENCE,
PROGRESS OF NEGOTIATIONS.
Tokyo, 10th October,
A Paris telegram under date of the 2nd inst., received in Tokyo (presumably by the Govern ment) was in the following sense :~-~
All the terms of peace except those relating to the Philippines appear to have been settled without difficulty. The American members of the Conference are now waiting for the arrival of General Merritt before actually deciding the terms as regards the Philippines to be placed before the Conference. The opinion of the American' members is divided, some holding that the retention of the whole of the Philippine group by the United States will be prejudicial to American principles and others that should the Philippines be returned to Spain, the result will be continual trouble in the Far East.
The French press opposes the retention of the Philippines by America.--Kobe Chronicle,
ALLEGED ATROCITIES OF THE PHILIPPINE `· INSURGINTS,
i
* pro
The telegram then goes on to refer to the condition of the Spanish prisoners held by the insurgents elsewhere, representing it as de- plorable.
La Independencia indignantly contradicts the reports as to the ill-treatment of Spanish prisoners by the Insurgents at Aparri. The prisoners are stated to be well fed and well, lodged, and letters are said to have been re- ceived from the prisoners themselves in which they say that apart from their painful political situation they have nothing to complain of.
AFFAIRS IN SOUTH LUZON: AND CEBU,
Captain Roope, late of the Pechili, who has just arrived in Shanghai from Southern Luzon, has kindly accorded a representative of thes. Mercury with an interview on affairs in that c part of the Philippine archipelago.
The genial skipper has been for some time past trading in the southern provinces of Luzon, and on September 22nd he visited Cataguanes, an island of considerable importance in the hemp trade. The Governor of the island was unaware that peace had been proclaimed; ini. fact, he had had no communication from the Central Government of the Philippines since April last. After the Pechili had taken in her. cargo and was actually weighing her anchor to proceed to Cebu a boat was observed, comu. ing from the shore conveying one of the principal i shippers who was frantically waving his hands”. for the steamer, to stop He was soon alongsiden. and told the captain that very serious news had i
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at the head of all stand countries which, like operating in the north of Luzon: Our Manila,en received from the Governor of Albay to
England, import raw materials from abroad and manufacture them. Japan has a fair prospect of attaining the second rank. She is beginning to produce at home fabrics hitherio imported, and to export in manufactured form materials hitherto exported raw. But a perid of stagnation has overtaken her. It is well illustrated by the figures relating to the export of silk
Year 1892
1893
-1894
18857
Total production
of silk-in catties. 6,850,000 7,700,000
8,180,0 0 10,000,000
18969,000,000
Total export of silk in calties
5,400,000
3,700,000
5,480,000
5,810,000
3,919,900
A similar falling off is recorded in the case of textile fabrics, rugs, porcelain, and so forth, while, on the other hand, the imports from abroad have steadily increased in bulk. Mr. Kancko repudiates any adherence to the old fashioned doctrines of Adam Smith. He is not at all perturbed about "
at "the balance of trade.” But statistics have a lesson to tell, and wise people will not hesitate to learn it. Of course the causes of the present" set back” are no
are not far to seek. There is, first, the great apprecia
We have had placed at our disposal a copy of a telegram in Spanish, apparently intended for the Madrid press, in which allegations of cruelty are made against the Philippine troops recently
correspondent mentioned in his letter of the 15th October that Leyba, who is well known in Hongkong, had been sent by Aguinaldo in charge of an expedition to attack the cities in the extreme north of Luzon, that he had brought the district completely under the control of the insurgents, and that in his re. port he mentioned the capture of 124 friars and lay brothers, many Spanish soldiers with their arms and property, and silver and valu ables to the amount of $800,000. It is in those operations that the atrocities are alleged to have been committed, but the allegations of course come from the Spanish side and are probably exaggerated. The telegram translated reads as follows:
The news received of the Tagalo invasion of the towns of Cagayan is horrible. Aparri and other places, in the absence of Spanish troops and relying upon the promise of the insurgent chiefs that the lives and property of persons of all classes would be respected, surrendered, and received them with music and the pealing of bells, They proved, perfidións, however, stealing the money of the Spanish civil officials and military officers and the more loyal natives, and sacked the convents and churches. The
of
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effect that the whole of the southern ports Luzon were in insurrection, and the rebola. were on the way to take the towns. Woulds the captain go to Legaspi and rescue the wo men and children from being massacred P. Ago. a gallant sailor, Captain Roope at once con. sented specially when Legaspi was only fifty: miles away, where he reached the same day and found the Spaniards, there in a most panic- stricken state, the local garrison which consisted of native carabineros having all deserted and gone to meet the insurgents which were within two hours march of the town So frightened” were they, that men, women, and children-in- cluding the Governor and the officiala” came on board without any baggage whatever, havings left behind all their wordly goods to the tender ⠀⠀ mercies of the rebels. In fact it was a regularis stampede out of Legaspi. It appears that pre- vious to the arrival of the Pechili another steamer had left Legaspi full of refugees con-- sisting mostly of friars from the interior who had a rough time in escaping from the rebels. On leaving Legaspi with her human freight, the Pechili sighted a steamer which had called at Tabaca and Sorsogon to pick up all the Spaniards there, Captain Roope ara rived at Cebu on Sept. 23, and was the first to
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