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WEEKLY PRESS AND
THE HONGKONG -
an attack upon Lord SALISBURY's policy, inasmuch as he thinks "we are at present "Proceeding upon fundamentally wrong lines," but it is an attack from a direction diametrically opposite to the Jingo position. Instead of indulging in good hearty denuncia tion of Lord SALISBURY fo. not going to war with Russia the author gives a dispassionate statement of what he considers our policy should be. "It is," he says, "a degrading exemplary punishment, for the con-and disheartening process this, of backing
department is in its present state of disorganisation in its higher branches it seems to savour rather of the irony of justice that the humble subordiunter should be so severly dealt with for acts of carelessness or laziness. No furacious intent was proved against the postmen sentenced to six months' imprisonment; they had simply detained letters that they were too lazy to deliver. The offence no doubt calls for
sequences of the non-delivery of cor- respondence may be most serious; negligence on the part of a postman may be almost as criminal as it is on the part of an engine driver, whom a momentary dereliction of duty may subject to a con- viction for manslaughter. Still, the ques- tion presents itself, if CHENG TEANG and Li Ho deserved six months' imprisonment what would be the appropriate penalties for other officers of the department?
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JINGOISM AND THE CHINESE QUESTION.
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to carry
November 5, 1898.
coun
Not in sharing in the partition of China when such a course is forced upon us by com- petition-the driving force of the progress of supporting and encouraging China to oppose the world-lies the immorality, but rather in that progress.
take a step in the general progress of the world; to substitute order for chaos; and to give mil- lions of human beings advantages which at pre- Aul feric this thos) who have travelled in sent they do not possess. Asia and Africa, and seen with their own eyes the almost incredible advance made in the tries which have been administered or controlled by European nations, and who compare the conditions existing there with the corruption, the oppression, the lawlessness of such States as most readily admit that the immorality lies not China, Turkey, Persia, and Afghanistan, will up uncontrolled semi-civilised peoples in controlling sach States, but in persistently against our European rivals; and I, for bolstering them up as an impediment to pro- one, should find but little exhilaration in
gress. More especially do I think that any one leading a troop of Chinamen against my who has been able to see the prosperity of the "rival but very good friend Colonel Chinese under a just and liberal government "GROMBTCHEVSKY in order to assist in pre- in the British settlements of Penang, Singa 'serving Peking to the Chinese." What pore, and. Hongkong, and to compare the has to be preserved by our efforts he would realise what China might be with these same actual there with the possible in China-to preserve for British, not for Chinese rule. Chinamen under an enlightened Government, We give below the concluding portion of which would preserve order, and foster private Captain YOUNGHUSBAND's article:-
enterprise in the development of trade, the We should secure our interests, not by sup-construction of railways, and the opening porting as a friend one who has invariably given of mines-I think that any one who bas seen more to those she fears than to those who prof- all this will allow that the injustice lies not in fer friendship; but, by showing her that if she assuming control over the Chinese, but in sup- (Daily Press, 2nd November).
is unable to stand, to take her place among the porting them to resist those who would attempt The weight that should be attached to the civilised nations of the earth, if she refuses to to so rule them.. Jingo attacks on Lord SALISBURY'S policy treat those nations as they have learnt by ex- in China may be gauged from the opening perience to treat each other, and if she is unable sentence of a leading article in the N. C.
out the treaty engagements into which she has entered; then she must take the conse- Daily News, in which we are told that "anyone quences which inevitably befall every unfit who enjoys a gool hearty denunciation of creature and nation on the earth, and which "Lord SALISBURY's policy, or want of policy, would equally come upon us under similar "in China" should read an article on " The conditions. In other words, if China is not fit "British Record in China" in the September to hold herself together, we must let her fall to issue of the Fortnightly Review, by Mr. pieces; and we and others must build upon ALEXIS KRAUSSE. When it is discovered and from the ruins a more sightly edifice. The that there is a public that enjoys "good hearty will mean, then, in the long run, the partition result of this rivalry of European nations "denunciations" of this or that we may be of China; will mean that certain provinces will sure that there will be plenty of writers to
come under Russian influence, others under supply the dmand, but we must confess to French, others under German, and others again some surprise at finding our esteemed Shang- uuder British control. Have we any need to hai contemporary allowing itself to be shrink from this idea with the hypocritical betrayed into pandering to such a depraved shudders to which we have accustomed ourselves? taste, It may be remarked in passing serving the integrity of China, abstain from Should we not rather give up our ideas of pre- that one of the charges brought against academical discussions in and out of Parlia- Lord SALISBURY in the "good hearty dement about the advantages of maintaining "nunciation aforesaid is that His Lord-it, and instead frankly recognise, not only ship speaks of the Yangtsze-Kiang River that the disintegration of China has been and Bay of Talien-wan. We daresay going on for the last century, but that there are many Europeans in China we ourselves have been taking a prominent itself who will not at the first glance see ourselves and of hundreds of thousands of and nseful part in it, to the benefit of anything wrong in the phraseology, but who Chinamen? Where now are China's former will not on that account be ready to confess tributaries Korea, Tonkin, Anuam, Slam, themselves incapable of taking an intelligent Burma Haza, Sikkim, Nepau? To whom now view of the Chinese question. The "good do Hongkong, Mirs Bay, Weihaiwei, Kiacchan "hearty denunciation" of Lord SALISBURY'S Bay, Port Arthur, Trans-Amur, Manchuria, policy in China was a political craze that the Panirs, and Formosa belong? Surely it is caught on for a time, but it h's been worked time for us to open our eyes and see what is to death; even the section of the public that going on directly under them! enjoys deuunciation for its own sake are getting weary of it, while the more im portant section that desires to arrive at a sound understanding on questions of national policy are beginning to re cognise that the British record in China has not in recent years been one to be ashamed of. Substantial advantages have been secured, and, notwithstanding Jingo jeremiads, British prestige in the Far East stands higher now than it has done for years.
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we
Deprecating "good hearty denunciations' as a profitless form of enjoyment would recommend to those who desire to examine the Chinese question on its merits a perusal of an article by Captain YOUNGHUSBAND in the October number of the Contemporary Review. The value of the article lies in its latter portion, which deals with matters ou their practical side, the earlier portion being devoted to a rather jejune philosophical disquisition on the over flow of the European races and the cause of their pressure upon China. Captain -YOUNGHUSBAND's article may be considered
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We should, no doubt, like to see China strong enough to preserve her integrity, and so be able to continue to us the privileges we at present enjoy, and which we are not so likely to continue to enjoy, with China under Russian and French domination. But to undertake the task of preserving her in- tegrity for her-not from any special love of her; not from any chivalrous feeling of the strong; but simply from the calculated self- protecting the weak against the oppression of interest to make of her a buffer against a civilised rival, is surely as immoral as it is un-
wise.
To many, however, the so-called "grab" for China is looked upon with disgust and con- tempt. To these the encouraging and propping up of effete old China seems a far nobler task. paars a political burglary. But if this is so, not To such as these the partitioning of China ap- only political burglary, but political murder has been the order of history and the means of progress.
To take a country and exploit it at the ex- pense of its inhabitants, as the Spaniards did the States of South America, may justly be called political burglary. To control a country us European nations have now learnt to control Asiatic States, as the Russians rule Turkestan, as we rule India and the French Tonkin, is to
To effectually control backward people, to treat them with justice, and to develop the natural resources of the country with the aid of Western scientific methods, is to confer benefit on all-on the original inhabitants, on ourselves, and on mankind in general. Should recognise the direction in which the finger of we not rather, then, in the coming century;
destiny manifestly points; give up old ideas that we must necessarily keep still; take heart from what we have done in India, in spite of a century of efforts to avoid assuming the task of government; and not flinch from stepping strength within us and find the pressure of forward farther east when we feel the requisite events urging us on
SUCCESS OF LORD CHARLES · BERLSFORD'S MISSION.
་
AN ENGLISH DRILLED FORCE.
[SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE "DAILY PRESS."]
SHANGHAI, 30th October.. The Tsungli Yamen has granted Lord Charles Beresford two thousand men to be drilled by English officers.
SUPREME COURT
1st Novenber:
IN SUMMARY JURISDICTION,
BEFORE MR. JUSTICE WISE (Puisne JUDGE).
CLAIM FOR DAMAGES AGAINST A COMPRADORE.
Jose Candido dos Remedios sought to recover from Chan Shiu, compradore to Douglas Lap- raik and Co., $300 for damages sustained by him through the negligence of defendant's servant. Mr. Grist appeared for plaintiff and Mr. Dennys for defendant..
The plaintiff's case was that on the afternoon of 26th August the plaintiff was walking down D'Aguilar Street, when a ricksha in which was seated the defendant came down the street at a
knocked
کیده
furious pace, and the shafts of the ricksha struck him in the right side. Plaintiff was ground, and thereby sustained on to personal injuries severe injuries in addition to his left hip and ankle. In consequence of the injuries plaintiff had been unable to attend to his business for a period of four day's and had been compelled to consult and be attended to by a medical man.
In his answer, defendant said he was driving
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