THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
associations themselves urging | should give it to him fully, and then having
done so make him completely responsible.
ry inspection in their ing that the overcrowded workshops may be inspected and oder the control of the Health Every trade and calling are crying their lives may be made safer hope happier than in our bitter past, and here light is breaking through the dark- and improvement is coming.
compare then a progressive English city our unfortunate plague stricken mass of Chinamen is absurd and fatally in- to the real well being of this colony.
well-to-do English community like song should consent to allow a single to lave and toil as their Health Official handed at the task which Dr. Clark has summer endeavoured to carry out is a sin humanity, and is inexcusable at the day.
do not suppose that the people of this city class themselves with the petty minded rlaw-guardians of a wretched obsolete mbled whom at times grind the faces of English poor and construe in the cruelest vary Act of Parliament passed by the on to beqeft the pauper class of our wealthy land Hongkong at any rate talks other
It has its Navy League, the China Asso- the Chamber of Commerce. It makes fine on the Imperial idea and the splendour Empire and forwards unceasing repre tons to the various Governing bodies of
Yet here in its own city it seems its municipal matters like some fifth rotten borough which grinds down its overworks them, refuses them leave, sets one doctor with a terribly weak and cient staff of a dozen inspectors to attempt to deal with a severe plague outbreak which has killed up to date 1,200 of our Chinese fellow townamen. Could anything be more unjust, or anything more unfair or more unworthy of all that English civilization is said in speeches to
*
There is a Parliament in England struggling to do justice and to advance the well being and the good of the whole Empire. This Parlia- ment is quite easily acted upon and I feel sure 1a itu members knew the disgraceful facts of the condition of this plague stric-en city it would in one sitting sweep away any ob- structions that barr the road to progress nd improvement. Mr. Chamberlain may or not be a potent influence in the Ministry, but, powerful though he be, he is werless if knowing all the facts he backe up and maintains the hopeless conditions of his Chinese fellow-citizens in this distant Colony which he seems to control as an absolute king. But were be ten times as powerful a true statement of the conditions of the Chinese here with their shameful overcrowding, their terri- renting, their degrading and publicly immorality, their want of latrine lation causing great physical suffer- want of baths and open spaces for of the people, Parliament would from his seat, and would be right in
if he be the real obstructive, and as ne is continually brought up as being re- ble we must throw the blame on him.
But the people of the colony are able if they air it to urge forward reform. I have not word from the China Association as to the rettable sickness of the place. The Navy wish to man the Navy, but overlook as Value 1,200 dead Chinamen lying literal their door in a great Naval depot. The
I hope this matter will be now fully dealt with. The more it is discussed the better, but every citizen of the place has on a share in the heavy responsibility if he allow another year to come upon us with a recurrence of the terrible inefficiency and paucity of staff of this past year 1840, one of the most painful records of failure and want of intelligent grasp I have ever heard or read of in recent years in any part | of the world.
OVERWORK AND OVERSTRAIN. Hongkong. 1st August, 1899.
A MAP WANTED.
Hongkong, 1st August, 1899.
RESIDENT.
THE CHINESE CUSTOMS
AT TSINTAU.
August 5, 1890.
from the Chinese province of Shantung subject to export duty is the affair of the Chinese Government, but if payment has to be made, that the exporter should be able to arrange the matter himself in the commercial town in which he dwells is to the interest and not to the prejudice of the merchants of Tsintau. The case is exactly the same with importa des- tined for the interior of China, which can clear the Customs in Taintan. Here also the advant- age is on the side of the merchant. The German administratión... ́
■' has no interest either in the collection or application of the Customs revenue that appertains solely to the Chinese Govern- ment. Then there comes the question of the control of the trade in opium, arme, and am. munition. These articles in German territory are either subject to duty or to certain res trictions. To establish a German Custom-
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY PRESS,
SIB,-At a time when it is so essential for a proper understanding of the question of the house for the control of opium, arms, ste,, a extension of British authority over a further costly and complicated machinery would be portion of the mainland opposite to us it seems necessary, whereas the Chinese Customs al how Hongkong is placed as regards the adjoin-ment was not thoughtless in the matter a great pity that no good map or chart showing ready has this machinery, and to avail of it promises many advantages, but that the Gov ing Chinese districts, or the physical features of those districts, is available for the public. to take the control into its own hands should appears from its having reserved the right Burely after holding this colony for sixty years it think fit. The article then goes on to refer it is too bad to find that no chart showing cor- rectly the waters adjacent to the colony and to the value of trade statistics, the collection of the heights of the hills is obtainable for love or
which is provisionally undertaken by the Chinese Customs. The ship has to supply a copy of her money. Why this neglect to provide for so necessary a want?
manifest, and within a week the importer has to furnish particulars as to classification, value, weight, numbers and in future, it is said, also the origin of the goods. There can be no
question of any molestation of the merchant under these circumstances. Apart from the furnishing of statistics the merchant in Tsintau has no greater obligations thrown upon him than he has in the vaunted A paragraph appears in the Ostasiatische free port of Hongkong. No words need be Lloyd of the 22nd July explaining that the wasted in dwelling upon the value of statistics; proceedings at the inauguration of the Chinese
the advantages attendent upon them so greatly Custom-house at Tsintau possessed no official
outweigh the small inconvenience of the com- significance. The Commissioner half-rn-hour pulsory declaration, that there is no unfairness, before the opening invited the Governor and a
in the common interest, in demanding the latter. few others officials and their wives to drink a The object the Government has had in view has glass of wine with him, and a few accepted the been the facilitating of the import and export invitation. It seems to have been thought business. If the expectations entertained are real. later that the impromptu was not of an alto-ised the provisional regulations will be made defi- gether happy description, and that in particular ait; if, on the other hand, modifications are shown to be necessary the right to make such modifică. the flag-hoisting might have been omitted. For
tions is reserved in the agreement, and it is not the rest, as our contemporary is informed, the
to be supposed for oue instant that the Govern, affair possessed no official character so far as Germany was concerned, as las since been re-
ment will disregard the interests of the mer- chants. Comment has been made on the fact presented by the Eng i-h. (The latter appears
that the German Government should have taken to be an allusion to the strictures of the N. C.
the important step of admitting the Chinese Daily News.)
Customs to Tsintau at the very moment that the British Government is removing them from Hongkong. In the first place we dispute, says our contemporary, that the circumstances of the two places are identical, the conditions under which the Chinese customs have hitherto worked from those under which they have been ad- in Hongkong being essentially different mitted to Tsintaa. Also the fact must not of the present customs situation there is not be ignored that at Hongkong the termination
is then given from an article that appeared in universally deemed desirable. A long extract
the Daily Press of the 20th June, in the course of which it was said “We would not like to see the Chinese Customs in control of the trade
In the same issue our contemporary has a long leading artiole in reply to one that appears in the N. C. Daily News and which was repro- duced in the Daily Press.
After a few introductory remarks recalling a previons article and representing that the ar- rangement with the Customs has not yet been in force long enough to allow க definite opinion upon its working to be formed, the article goes on to say that the fact that the arrangement is only provisional proves that the German Government has not acted blindly in the matter or with- out the determination to take all the circumstances into consideration. Nor were
the provisional regulations decided upon with out the wishes of the merchants being ascor tained; on the contrary, the matter was placed before the merchants and various alterations made to meet their views, as in the matter of the verification of original invoices. After some farther reference to the alleged unfriendly at-
by foreign vessels in Hongkong, but we have never been able to understand why obstructions should be placed in the way of the Customs collecting the just dues of the Chinese Govern ment on cargo carried by native craft to Chinese. ports since the collection has been placed in the hands of
ber of Commerce are keen on the | titude of the N. C. Daily News the article goes referohe Foreign Customs," and in which
River and Kowloon Extension, but so am sware not one word have they dead Chinamen that are found our streets and which constitute the charge against the administration of Surely it is possible for some of lutely independent hodies to address
impose any
was also made to the modus
vivendi proposed by the Chamber of Commerce and to its being to the interest of all parties that the frontier relations should be conducted on an amicable and honest, bašis. Our German contemporary also quotes a paragraph which
on to say that it is absolutely false to say that Tsintau is not a free port or to place it in the same category as a treaty port. The import of goods in the German territory, with the exception of opium, arms, and ammunition, is absolutely free. No one has any right to interfere with the landing of goods or to appeared in N. C. Daily News when the Lord Salisbury, direct and tell
tax upon them. Not until announcement was first made that the Customs were to be established at Tsintau în which the in unvarnial ed facts of the case the goods are sent from German territory opinion was expressed that the decision was
administration of sanitary into China are they called upon to pass very wise one, that the experience of the Ch
Mr. Chamberlain object | through the Customs and to pay the duty that the Chinese Customs collect on imports. It is the same with regard to exports: all goods originating in the German territory can be exported duty free That exports which do not originate in German territory but come
I unjust in the highest degres to expect any Health Officer, however energetic, single to cope with the special conditions of this arowded city. He needs ample help, and we
.:
nese Customs would be of advantage to the German authorities, and that the arrangement would facilitate the development of trade in the now territory. Since then, says the Ostasiatiches Lloyd, nothing has come to pass that calls for a reversal of the judgment then expressed.
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