528
MONOPOLIES AND THE INLAND NAVIGATION RULES.
(Daily Press, 28th December). Will China, or rather will the Chinese officials, ever learn? We fear not, and have little doubt but that after a perueal of the translation of a proclamation recently posted at Wuchow which we publish else
open
where our readers will be of the same opinion. Notwithstanding all previous ex- periences the love of grauting what, if not direct monopolies, ure intended to be used as such, seems to be ingrained in the Chinese nature. The highest power in the state has, after pressure on the part of the British Minister, declared the waters of China o to all steamers foreign and native. The Chinese officials have had the idea ex- plained to them over and over again, or, as Bir ROBERT HART put it, "there has been "much consultation and much passing and repassing of draft rules for consideration," and yet we find such a proclamation issued by the very officials who are the cause of the "much passing and repassing." Nay, even more! The very official whose name appears in the proclamation is the present head of
the lekin at Wuchow and is one of the men
appointed by the Governor at Kweilin to control and work the inland water steam traffic. One of his first acts is apparently to grant a monopoly of steam towage be tween Wuchow and Canton to the Shur On Company. We say apparently, as the pro- clamation does not state that there is to be any monopoly, but the one issued by the Company distinctly conveys that meaning, and it is to be supposed that they know what it is they have got, and doubtless paid for. From enquiries we have made the official in question is not anti-foreign, nor in a measure anti-progressive, so that it is rather a pity he has mixed himself up in anything of the sort. The idea originated, we believe, from Canton and bears Kweilin's sanction. Of course the thing is absurd and will not affect the course of trade much, but it is a sample of the sort of thing that goes on and will go on as long as we maintain the fiction that the Chinese Government should be dealt with as a reasonable and civilized concern. The absence of a definite policy on the part of our Government with regard to China is the chief cause why our Minister and Consuls are forced to go on gravely dis- cussing, writing, and re-writing despatches to members of a Government who have but one aim and object, and that is, to stave off the foreigner with ambiguous phrases.
on,
[December 30, 1899.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND | plainly told that force will be used. The shown himself uniformly indifferent to the latter part of this is no doubt more especially promotion of legitimate trade, but he has the work of the British Minister at Peking, sanctioned the introduction of obstacles to but our local officials need not be idle. Let its development. While professing readi- a Committee of representative men of the ness to hand over the New Territory to the Colony be appointed to enquire into the Hongkong Government early in the present working of the Native Custom Houses and year there is little doubt that he secretly let a report be compiled by them of the connived at the treacherous conduct of taxation which foreign goods are subjected the gentry of the adjoining district, to not only at the Kowloon and Lappa who did their utmost to aid and stations but at Cauton and beyond. Without foment a rebellion in the ceded domain, instructions the Commissioners at those and not altogether without success, the re- places will of course not furnish evidence,ault of their agitation among the ignorant but those instructions must be forthcoming, peasantry being the military investment of aud it will be one of Sir CLAUDE MAC the country, the occupation and annezation DONALD's duties to see that they are forth of Kowloon City, and the capture and oc- coming.
cupation for many months of Shamchun. This entailed a large expenditure, part of which, at any rate, will be refunded by the Chinese Government. It also cost the lives of a few of the misguided peasantry, and might have resulted in much more bloodshed had not prompt mensures been taken and the Hongkong Regiment shown themselves ubiquitous on the hillsides. The responsi bility for the fiasco in the taking over of the Territory and for the trouble incurred thereafter in dispersing the organised force assembled near Taipo rests entirely upon the Viceroy, who obviously acted in bad faith over the matter, with an evident desire to make the new acquisition as troublesome possible to the Colony. and costly as His inglorious administration has, how- ever, at last come to an abrupt aud sum- mary end: The Peking Authorities have at length tired of his incapacity and yielded presumably to the representations of the responsible for the frontier troubles at French Government, who no doubt hold shim Kwangchouwan. What the merits of that but we can easily understand that similar dispute may be we cannot pretend to say,' tactics were tried there to those resorted to by the Sunon notables and officials when stirring up trouble in the New Territory.
It is only in this way that the coming Tariff revision cau be met with the neces sary knowledge which will enable the Government of this Colony to express the views of the public in such a way that the Prime Minister may be. correctly informed as to their requirements. It is perhaps the more necessary from the fact that the Colony being part of the British Empire the resident merchants and officials are not intimately acquainted with the shifts and Many of the merchants, having resided in China, are, so to some extent, and all of them feel in their business relations with China the evil result of the corrupt Native Administra- tion, but they bave neither the time, nor inclination in their individual capacities to ferret out the rights and wrongs of such complicated thing as the lekin. That is a task which can only be accomplished by with the full authority of the Government. a Committee such as we suggest and armed The Government need no pretext for the than is given by the Hongkong Opium appointment of such a Commission other Convention, the sixth clause of which pro- vides amongst other things that the Go- vernor of Hongkong shall be free to send an officer to be present and assist at the investigation of causes of complaint against
wiles of the Lêkin Administration.
the Native Customs Houses; but were no
such Convention in existence the Govern meat would be amply justified in doing it and all conventions -the question of right on grounds which existed previous to any
against wrong.
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So far as the natives of the Two Kwang are concerned, we fear there is little reason to congratulate them on the choice of a successor to TAN. Te New Viceroy is a man of much greater ability, but he is a past master in the art of making a
pocket, as the Cantonese are only too well aware. Probably in getting rid of King LI HUNG-CHANG AND THE CANTON of King Stork. They have had some ex- Log they are only falling into the clutches
VICEROYALTY.
(Daily Press, 23rd December. The recall of His Excellency TAN, the pre- sent Viceroy of the Two Kwang, has been How long, we ask, is this state of things heard with satisfaction not only in Canton to be allowed to go on? It is not s if it but throughout the whole of the two pro- were a difficult matter to deal with. The vinces. As an administrator he has shown action our Government should take is quite great weakness and incapacity, untempered, plain to everyone. Take, for instance, the so far as we can glean, by any mild con- fekin swindle which i being organized at sideration for those he has misgoverned. Canton now as the result of KANG YI's visit. Crime of all kinds has largely increased The effect this is having on and must have during his tenure of office, and piracy and trade is most disastrous. No Chinese brigandage have become chronic in immense merchant is going to import goods with the districts which formerly were fairly free uncertainty of this lekin tariff hanging over from serious disorder. Under his feeble his head. Only the other day we pointed rule, too, the lower officials have waxed fat out the steps to be taken to stop this kind and saucy, and squeezes of all kinds have of thing, and we now repeat it. The I.M. multiplied, while there is only too good rea- Customs must be placed in charge of all son to believe that the banditti who terrorise vessels at Canton and the Kowloon and the deltas of the Pearl and West Rivers Lappa stations, etc. The Treaty Tariff and bave friends in the yainens by whose influ- po other must be levied on the goods carried ence and connivance they gain much valu- in them, and transit pas es granted. Our able information and remain out of reach of Minister, working in conjunction with justice, whose arm is thus shortened for HE the Governor, should represent the their benefit. If the natives have little necessity of this being done at once reason to regret the departure of TAN, to the Foreign and Colonial Office and neither have the foreigners residing in point out the necessary steps to have it carried out. Failing concession as the result of reasoning the Teungli Yamen should be
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the Treaty ports of the Kwang provinces and in Hongkong occasion to deplore his supercession. Not only has His Excellency
perience of the ways of the La family, und found them not a little burdensome. If Li HAN-CHANG's hand was heavy, it is to be feared they will find his brother's little finger yet more oppressive. Already, we hear, they are beginning to dread the arrival of the greater Lt, whose reputation has travelled easily ahead of him. Iu some respects, possibly, the veteran of Chihli will be an improvement on his predecessor as an administrator. He will not hamper trade for the mere sake of conniving"`nt squeezes by the lower officials, for he is farseeing enough to know that that pol·ey acts adversely on the revenue, but he will to add to his in other ways take care
It is also to be already bloated purse. feared that he may impose obstacles in the way of foreign navigation on the inland waterways, nud it may suit his plans to delay the construction of the railways sanctioned in South Chiua. Morever, he is unimated by no good will to Hong- kong, and will probably endeavour to arrest its expansion if there be any means by which he can effect this. His Excellency as shown himself of late years strongly inimical to Great Britain and most friendly disposed to Russin. It is also true that he los also, in past yeais, exhibited a marked
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