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THỦ TONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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[May 13, 1899.
“Britain to accentuate her position in her by the different branches and inʼividual
"sphere. People in this country had be- members, and give expression to the avers
come accustomed to the idea that Great age opinion of the whole body. More than
“Britain had a lien on the Yangtsze region; ordinary interest attaches, therefore, to what
"but what were we going to do with it? they have to say, especially when speaking
"Was this Association prepared to advo-" in their official capacity at the annual meeting. It is significant, then, when "cate, was the nation prepared to support we find both these gentlemen accepting the "the Government in, accentuating our posi- principle of spheres of influence, and Mr.❝tion to the extent of placing British KESWICK further recognising that spheres "officials alongside the Viceroys of Nan- of influence are not necessarily incompatible king, Wuchang, and Chungking, and with the principle represented by that helping them to do for the great provinces "of Central China what we had done for much abused and misused term "the open
door." No popular Shiboleth has ever Egypt "That appears to be about what been associated with more nonsensical talk the Government and the nation are prepar- ble policy it is then helping China to keep the door closed, as some of our local patriots would have had us do for fear that Russia might in her sphere secure some little ad- vantage over ourselves.
the other day Port Arthur was a closed port; now various mercantile firms are established there, the place is frequented by merchant steamers, and we are told that "the door has been shut, absolutely shut." So much for the open door and the closed door.
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As showing how far the recognition of the principle of spheres of influence has pro- gressed we propose to give another extract from an erstwhile opponent of that prin- ciple. Referring to the stronger assertion of Germany's influence in. Shantung the "Granted London and China Express says: "that our rights under the Treaty of "Tientsin are not infringed, there is no
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reason why we should not h il Germany's "action with every sign of approval, which "will tend to bring another slice of Chinese
Powers. A country where the ling chih is retained among the list of punishments, where torture is relied upon to extract evi. dence in the Courts, where men are liable to be hunted down by avaricious mandarins in order to deprive them of their hoards, where justice is sold to the highest bidder, and where foreign treaties are regarded as covenants made only to be broken-it was hardly likely that the Government of the CZAR would feel any call to invite such a country to a Conference wherent, in any event, it could find little in common with those Powers who profess to see in the pre posals of the Emperor NICHOLAS some basis of agreement whereby they can at least avoid | than..." the open door.” For instance, until | ing themselves for and a much more sensi- continuance in the present exhaustive com petition for pre-eminence in military pre- paredness for the fray, otherwise the first hand in the game of bluff which now goes on in the Foreign ffices of European States. The Chinese Government, curiously enough, appear to have felt somewhat slighted by being left out of the Conference, and Li HUNG-CHANG approached the Netherlands Minister on the subject, asking why China had not been invited to participate. Mon- Bieur KNOBEL was no doubt rather taken aback by this direct attack, and wired to his Government on the subject. The result was that His Excellency promptly received instructions to ask the Chinese Government to send a representative. China is there- fore to have a voice in the Conference and will save her face-the end she doubt- less had in view-though it is pretty cer- tain that her representative will be merely a lay figure in the discussions. The in- terests of China are of course entirely those of peace, but her views one way or another are of no earthly interest to any one, seeing that she is not a force to be reckoned with in politics. Until Japan pricked the bubble" of her supposed strength, she certainly was regarded as a possible factor in Asiatic questions, but now she is looked on with thinly veiled contempt. Nevertheless, flabby and rotten as China undoubtedly is, she may still, by her very weakness, prove a disturbing element in the Far East. TheThat, we take it, is the solution toward tendency of her Government is to grow more and more reactionary, and it is quite possible that, by her barefaced attempts to evade the provisions of the Treaties or by her o
officials conniving at outrages on foreigners, she may at any moment invite attack in order to secure atonement for wrong inflicted: There will always be danger when any foreign force invades China; for such force would almost inevitably cause some conflict of interests or inter férence with trade, and thereby provoke trouble. China is therefore, though too senile to excite apprehension, capable of causing grave mischief, and though the inclinations of her Government may be in favour of peace the actions of her officials are liable at all times to contribute to mis understandings and bickerings.
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Mr. KESWICK, at the meeting of the China Association on the 4th ultimo, re- cognised that the establishment of spheres of influence was an accomplished fact, and that the influence exercised in these spheres was likely to become in course of time more pronounced. Looking at it from a com' mercial point of view, he said, "probably "the best solution would be if we could by some international arrangement have the treaty tariff stipulations maintained by "all nations, ie., there should be a con- "vention by which all nations should agree "that throughtout any territories they ob- "tained, and throughout the whole length "and breadth of China, the Tientsin tariff | "should be the one recognised by all the "Powers. The tariff was a reasonable one, and if such an arrangement could be made he thought it would do away with good deal of the apprehension which was felt with regard to what might be "termed the closed door' instead of the open door.' He simply mentioned that as a solution which he thought would be a favourable one if it could be arrived at."
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er,
(1
a
before
territory under decent government, and will assuredly mean an increase of trade-- "the object Great Britain Has in view. "The more of China that is brought under "better administration, and the "communications
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are.
more
developed, the trade grow." more will the China That has been the view held by a strong minority of the foreign residents in China since the recent crisis set in; the majority, having partially recovered from its severe attack of Russophobia, is now coming round to the same way of thinking.
REGISTRATION OF SERVANTS.
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(Daily Press, 12th May.) Many fellow sufferers from the derelictions of native servants will sympathise with Mr. WILCOX in his suggestion that a com- pulsory system of registration should be introduced. Similar proposals have been frequently advanced before, but with the details of the proposed system less clearly worked out, and when details have been asked for they have usually not been forth- coming, or when forthcoming have been found impracticable. The loss and annoy- ance occasioned by the employment native servants are only too notorious, and if the Government could undertake to supply us with efficient and honest servants the community would be unfeignedly thank- ful. But is the Government capable of achieving such a task? We doubt it. If we were all compelled to get our servants through the Government it might possibly be found that the new system was attended with even greater disadvantages than the present system of free-contract. Servants would be less readily obtainable, wages would increase, and men who were waiting an opportunity to commit a theft on a large scale and bolt to Canton would not be de- terred by the fact that their names had been - inscribed in a book. As Mr. Wilcox says in his letter, “ where there is only a slender “* basis of moral responsibility o opportunity only too readily makes the thief and that axiom will remain true, registration or then; to the recognition of spheres of no registration. Experience of the regis influence, the question arose, hetration system in Hongkong and elsewhere said," whether it was not time for Great is not calculated to gain much-confidence
which the course of events has for some time past been tending, and by favouring that course the British Government has done much more to secure an open door for trade than it would have done by sup- porting the Chinese Goverument in its natural policy of exclusion. Mr. GUNDRY was not quite so direct as Mr. Keswick in his expression of opinion. He had to drop a tear of regret over the phantasm of the open door
frankly accepting spheres of influence, but this he did in the end. The Shanghai brauch of the Association, he said, "had proclaimed, "and the Hongkong branch had passed "resolutions, deprecating spheres of in- "fluence as opposed to the policy of the open door; but he feared events had been “travelling ahead of the steamer in which "those expressions of opinions came home." Local critics of the Hongkong Brauch's resolutions, published in January last, will smile at this polite but effective undercut. The Daily Press said at the time: "The "attempted definition of the open door "policy is not only unsuccessful, but-and course of British relations with "we say it with all respect to the gentlemen China as the Chrman and the Hon. ❝forming the Committee a complete Secretary of the China Association, Mr. W. "absurdity." Mr. GUNDRY says the same KESWICK, M.P., and Mr. R. S. GUNDRY. thing, only says it much more nicely. Nor They, with the Committee, are the does Mr. GUNDRY apppear to have any cognised medium of communication be faith in Lord CHARLES BERESFORD'S tween the Imperial Government and the proposed quadruple alliance. Driven, mercantile community interested in Chinese affairs; it is they who have to gather up the separate threads of opinion advanced
THE CHINA ASSOCIATION AND" SPHERES OF INFLUENCE.
(Daily Press, 11th May). Outside official circles probably no two men exercise 60 much individual influence upon the c
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