May 20, 1899.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
it was proposed some years ago to establish tickets and see if they corresponded with about 600 will land at Taipohn. Others will a Spirit Farm the|roject was strongly the number and identity of the servants. In occupy Kowloon City, acouple of armed robberies condemned by the Chamber of Commerce, England, where education is compulsory, other evening having made it evident that which took place in the neighbourhood the body was able to adduce arguments school attendance officers have to be em the Chinese authorities there cannot ficiently.cogent to induce the Government | ployed whose business it is to ascertain with any lawless characters who may find
to withdraw the Bill it had introduced into the Legislative Council. Light or tonnage dues are not to be thought of, as the prosperity of the colony is indissolubly bound up with the freedom of the port. There is, however, one means of raising re- venue from shipping that we have heard suggested which might possibly carry with it the recommendation of establishing equity between the various shipping firms in a matter in which they are now subjected to unequal treatment. We refer to the allocation of berths and buoys. The payment now made for a buoy is a merely nominal sum, and no distinction is made between the different berths, some of which are worth many times as much as others. The suggestion is that the berths should be put up to tender, under which system the firms that now hold the best berths by courtesy or prescriptive right would either have to pay the full market value for the advantages they enjoy or give place to others who were willing to We give publicity to the suggestion for what it may be worth.
do. 8o.
;
SERVANTS REGISTRATION.
(Daily Press, 13th May).
what children there are in each house and whether they are sent to school. So in Hongkong, for the enforcement of a ser vants registration system, we would have to have registration officers whose duty it
would be to ascertain what servants were
consideration that he would thereby forfeit his registration ticket.
AFFAIRS IN THE NEW TERRITORY.
SHAMCHUN AND KOWLOON CITY OCCUPIED.
employed and whether they were registered otherwise the law would very soon become a dead letter, as it did before in Hongkong and as more lately it has become in Ceylon. Would the community welcome domiciliary visits of that character? Some perhaps, would not object; others might find in the inquisitorial procedure a fruitful cause of irritation. The late Bishop MAGEE, speak ing on the drink prohibition question, said he would rather see England free than sober, and in Hongkong there are no doubt many who, on the same principle, would prefer to manage their domestic affairs themselves and take the chauce of peculations on the part of their servants rather than be tied up with red tape. Assuming, however, regis- tration to be decided upon and strictly en- forced, would it accomplish the object in view? We doubt it. Registration would constitute no bar to a servant's leaving the colony, and when a thief saw his chance of getting away to Canton with his master's In connection with the servants registra-property he would not be deterred by the tion question and the letter from Mr. WILCOX which appears in another column, it must be admitted that one case in the Colombo Police Court would not in itself prove that the law in Ceylon had broken down, but when we find the Magistrate who tried the case expressing on opinion to that effect some weight must be granted to what he suys. The case referred to in the article in yesterday's issue occurred towards the end of the year 1897. We regret that we have not the full report by us, but from a refer- ence made to it in our issue of the 4th January, 1898, we find that the presiding Magistrate made the voluntary admission that he had himself three unregistered ser- vauts and said he believed everybody in Court had unregistered servants; he there- fore imposed merely a nominal penalty. We should suppose that the Magistrate, by virtue of his position, would be a good author- ity on the question of whether the law was really operative or not. The fact, however, that the law has broken down in Ceylon, as it did in Hongkong, does not of itself prove that it is wrong in principle. The question divides itself into two, first, is registration desirable, and, if desirable, how can it be enforced? If we accept Mr. WILCOX's opinion that so few person's would voluntarily register their servants that it is idle to discuss the voluntary system, it follows that registration is desired only by a minority, and the majority might not unnaturally object to being coerced into compliance with the views of the minority. Assuming, however, that registration is desirable and that it is decided to pass a law making it compulsory, we come to the most practical part of the question, how can the law be applied? Merely placing an Ordin- ance on the statute book would be of little use unless steps were taken to enforce com-
pliance with it. For this purpose it would be necessary to find out who failed to comply with the law and to prosecute them. This as it seems to
us, could only be done by appoint- ing an officer
1
their way there. It appears that at about one o'clock on Saturday morning, ten men entered a house at village named Trenng Lau Shu, about three miles to the eastward Kowloon city, and stole money, and clothing to the value of $500. One of the robbers; was armed with a revolver, and the others were armed with swords. They burst open the door of the house, occupied by a farmer, and having secured the farmer and bis family ransacked the place, and afterwards decamped with $107 in money, clothing to the value of about $400, and two receipts for land. On Sunday six men, the leader armed with a revolver and the others with Japanese swords, tied up the keeper of a temple inside Kowloon city and stole $22 in money. The keeper, was tied hands and feet, and his queue was also tied up. One man has been arrested in connection with the outrage.
About 500 more troops will leave, early this morning, and a naval force of some 500 men is also being got ready. It is believed the in- tention is to occupy Shamchan and the territory up to the range of hills beyond the boundary originally fixed.
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MORE TROOPS AND GUNBOATS: DISPATCHED.
THE VOLUNTEERS CALLED OUT.
KOWLOON CITY TAKEN
• POSSESSION OF.
17th May.
In alluding to the recent disturbances in the new territory the Right Hon. Joseph Chamber- lian, Secretary of State for the Colonies, said the other day it was doubtful whether the attitude of the Chinese "did not necessitate a careful re-consideration of our position." This was a somewhat vagne expression to give utterance to, and there was much speculation at the time as The colony has been in a fever of excitement to what would be the outcome. We are be during the past week owing to the despatch of ginning to see the result now-probably sooner & military expedition, the object of which was than we otherwise should have done in conses undeclared. The greatest reticence was ob-quence of our new frontier being threatened by served at head-quarters until that object had the rebels who have taken up arms against the been successfully accomplished, when the reason Chinese Government in the province of Kwang for the withholding of information was ex- tung. Our position has been re-consider- ed, and as the result of that reconsideration plained. Shamchun and Kowloon City are now British and the bad faith of the Chinese authorities in connection with the taking over of the New Territory has been punished. We reproduce the reports from our daily issues in order that readers may be able to follow the developments of the week:--
16th May.
Apparently things are not settling down so quickly in the new territory as it was anticipated they would do. Yesterday various rumours of more or less alarming character were afloat. It was said that in consequence of the natives in the neighbourhood of Pat-heung having began to look threatening 400 troops had been ordered to the mainland and that a couple of gunboats had left with sealed orders. When questioned the authorities were most reticent, pooh-poohing, however, the rumours which were afloat. It was evident, all the same, during the day that there was some ground for the reports that things were not so satisfactory as they might be on the mainland, for yesterday after noon Colonel The O'Gorman left for Taipohn with some troops and the Volunteers were or dered to hold themselves in readiness. A con- cert which it had been intended to give in con- nection with the Welsh Fusiliers has been abandoned, as has also one announced to take place in the Volunteer Headquarters on Thurs day night. Leave has been stopped in the garrison.
LATIE.
As yesterday wore on it was more and more appareat that there was something in the wind. At the Commissariat Depot there was much bastling, steam launches orowding the pier and being rapidly laden with stores and ammani-
house where visit periodically every | tion.
servants are employed, whose
A mixed military force numbering close on a duty it would be to inspect the registration thousand men altogether went out. Of these
it has evidently been decided to extend the frontier so as to include the prosperous market town of Shamchun, and also to place Kow loon City under British jurisdiction. Those who knew the country strongly advocated the inclusion of Shamchun, whilst the provision in the convention allowing Kowloon City to re- main under Chinese jurisdiction was generally looked upon in the colony as an act of imbeci lity, and therefore the new attitude of the Powers that be at home will give general satis. faction.
The great activity which has prevailed in military circles during the last few days is no doubt due to orders received from home. The old policy of entering into interminable negó tiations with the Chinese Government has fortunately,
apparently been abandoned, for it would appear that having decided to have Shamohan and Kowloon City the home Government at once gave orders för these places to be occupied. Hence the activity among the troops. The rebels are reported to be in possession of Shamehun, and troops landed at Deep Bay were to march to clear them out. Then yesterday two more gunboats-the Fame and the Firebrand
left the harbour. Their destination was Tai- cham Bay, on which Sanon City (marked Hsing-Ngan on the map) is situated, and that place was also to be occupied
The principal event of yesterday, however, and an event which caused much commotion in the colony, was the calling out of the Volunteers: to take part in the occupying of Kowloon City. It was about eleven o'clock in the. morning when the Volunteers got word to
assemble at Headquarters at one o'clock. with alacrity, The order was obeyed considerably over a hundred putting in
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