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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
BRITISH SHIPOWNERS GOING OUT| individual British shipowner who sells his
OF BUSINESS.
(Daily Press, 6th January.) British abipowners going out of business! large and valuable overrea carrying trade for sale on easy terms to foreigners, in lots
business to foreigners when he finds it to his interest to do so. The public mmy well ask, however, whether there must not be something wrong with a system which fos ters such transfers. Is it our shipping laws that are at fault or the law of conspiracy as
[January 18, 1900,
"an eventuality." Events appear to be hastening towards the realisation of Lord ROBERTS's forecast about the common boundary line. However convenient policy of buffer states may be, it is in ita na- ture a temporary arrangement, when the buffer state remains uncivilized, for the
to suit purchasers!! Is this quite as it applied to such combinations as the Ship-evitable result of the contact of civility, 4.
温瀑
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ought to be? In the last annual Consular report (1898) from Bangkok Mr. CARLISLE says:"By far the most interesting though not the most pleasant event of recent years to British shipping at this port has occurred during the present year 1899, "and although, therefore, not strictly with "in the limits of this summary, it must per "force be referred to here. Messra, ALFRED HOLT AND CO., of Liverpool, have sold their East Indian Ocean Steamship Line, "numbering eleven steamers, and including "all those ruuning between Singapore and Bangkok, and Singapore and Boneo, to "n Germau syndicate, said to be composed "of the North German Lloyd Steamship Company, Messrs. BEHN MEYER, of Singa- pore, and Messrs. WINDSOR AND Co., of "BANGKOK, though the exact composition of "it has not been published authoritatively. "This will make a reduction of nearly 33 per cent. in the British shipping at this "port, and the figures for British and will ceteris "German shipping entered
paribus. stand at 266 and 161 respec
instead tively
of 396 and 31 at present. British residents at both "ports are naturally somewhat taken "aback by this sweeping change, and feel "rather disappointed that the only regular "line between Siam and Bingapore should "no longer be under the British flag." The Scottish Oriental line, running between Hongkong and Bangkok, has now gone the way of the Singapore and Bangkok steamers and the respective positions of British and
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thousand
with barbarism is that the barbaric state must come under the control of one or other
of its civilized neighbours or be divided between them.
The remarks we have quoted above are from the preface of Lord Roberts's On pages 513 and 514 there are book. some further remarks on the same sub-
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ping Conference? Is it right that capital ists who for the time being happen to control important national interests should be allowed to sacrifice them in order to put a profit of a few pounds into their own pockets? No one can deny that our shipping trade is a great national interest. It we allow ourselves to be bought out of it and the British flag ject, in which the distinguished author disappears from the seas, what permanent dwells on the necessity of making pre- recompense could the nation find in the im-parations in view of the change and Political econ- | says we could not unconcernedly look on mediate profit realised?
that there must be "while a Great Power was, step by step, omy may tell us
"creeping closer to our possessions.” In no interference with free trade, and that
must be allowed to sell a footnote he quotes, with dissent, the opin- shipowners their business if they find it to their ion expressed by Mr. JOHN BRIGHT that if personal interest to do so, but political the only barrier between Russia in Asia and economy gives us only the result of past ex- Britain'in Asia were a mountain ridge, or a perience and supplies no exact principles stream, or a fence, there would be no diffi- upon which new conditions can be dealt with.culty in preserving peace between Russin This buying out of Britishers from the and the United Kingdom. Lord Roberts shipping trade in which they have hitherto is of opinion that the barrier will be been pre-eminent is an entirely new condition reduced to a common boundary line, but he apparently does not think that there and calls for ernest consideration with a view to preventing ita further spread. The will be no difficulty in preserving peace.
between the two Powers. He at all events wells on the necessity of being prepared to defend the boundary line, and in that he will be supported by the great bulk of his countrymen. It may be doubted, however, common boundary line would whether a be fraught with more danger to peace than a treacherous and uncivilized buffer state However that may be, continually promoting friction on the one
transfers of British lines of steamers to a
foreign dag that have already taken place in the Far East constitute a much more serious to the though less sensational reverse British untion than the recent military checks in South Africa that have so thrilled | the nation. They mean that we are being whipped in trade and have been perum- Bently ousted from positions we formerly held unchallenged.
IN ASIA.
side or the other. the permanent preservation of such a buffer state is contrary to lestiny, and the inevit-
carry
on
German shipping estered at Bangkok will THE ANGLo-russian bouNDARY able propinquity of the two great Euro- be completely reversed, German shipping standing at the head with British a very Consider what this means. bad second. Politically the influence of Great Britain in Siam will be proportionately diminished and that of Germany increased, with_a_cor- responding loss of prestige to Great Britain. Commercially it menus not only that the immediate profit of the steamers will
be
diverted from British to foreign socounts, but that a large number of British employés will, after a brief interval, be re- placed by foreigners, the stores will be ob- tained from German instead of British sources, and when new steamers are required for the line their construction will afford employ. ment to foreign instead of to British arti ZAD8. And what has already happened to à couple of British shipping concerns is not unlikely to happen to others. Under the insidious influence of the Shipping Confer- ence foreign competition is fostered until it is in a position to buy up the British branch lines; and if British concerns are willing to to be bought out it will pay our foreign competitors, both politically and mercially, to pay the price asked. the process goes ou
may see the main lines also transferred, and in the course of years, when the shipping en- tering the port of Hongkong has increased perhaps tenfold, the British red ensign may be as rare a sight in our harbour as it is at Sandaken, which is now entirely de pendent on German shipping for its com munications.
Wo
com-
If
No one expects to find patriotism in trade. As has been well said, trade follows the price list rather than the flag; and pounds, shillings and⠀⠀ence being the only con- sideration recognised, no one can blame any
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penn Powers in Asia will some time or That they othen have to be faced. (Daily Press, 12th January.)
their
civilizing work Reuter's recent telegram stating that in may view of the situation in Afghanistan, Russia side by side in peace and harmony must has experimentally sent troops from Tiflis, be the sincere wish of everyone, but via Baku and Krasnovodst, by tail to the danger of an explosion occurring Kushka, thereby proving the possibility of during the time that the absorption of the the vanguard of an army corps reaching intervening territory is in progress is too Kushka from the Caucasus in eight days. patent to be ignored. It is true that Kua recalls the references in Lord ROBERTS'ssia has given assurances that she considers Forty-one years in Indin' to the question Afghanistan entirely beyond the sphere of of Anglo-Russinn relations on the Indian her influence, but such assurances are not "I impute no blame to the uufrequently falsified in the result, :nd the frontier.
for statement that Russin is now executing car- Russians," says the gallant General, “their advance towards India. The force tain military movements “in view of recent "reports of the alarming situation in Af- "of circumstances—the inevitable result
ghanistan" is an indication that she no of the contact of civilization with bar barian-impelled them to cross the J-longer considers herself bound by that par- xartes and extend their territories to the “Khauates of Turkestan and the banks of “the Oxus, just as the same uncontrollable “force carried us across the Sutlej and ex- "tended our territories to the valley of the
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ticular assurance. Tu regulation of Anglo- Russian relations in respect of Afghanistan. will call for the exercise of able stateman- ship if a conflict is to be avoided.
The steamer Eastera, from Australia, on the voyage from Hongkong to Shanghai, resoued four fishermen who were observed standing on the bottom of their up-turned oraft in the Bonham Strait. A fresh breese : was blowing at the time with a nasty sos, and the men when picked up by the chief officer were in an exhausted condition. They stated that one of their number was drowned,
Indus. The object I have at heart is to "make my fellow subjects recognize that "dnder these altered conditions, Grent “Britain now occupies in Asia the position of a Continental Power, and that her in- terests in that part of the globe must be protected by "Continental menus of de- fence.
Thinking natives tho
Early on the morning of the 26th December 'roughly understand the situation; they "believe that the time must come when the fire broke out on the steamer Teresa, lying in “ territories of Great Britain and Russia in the Singapore Roads. It is conjectured that at “that part of sia will be separated only by lamp by some means overturned in one of the crew, together with a number of sailors from "a common boundary line, and they would afterbolds, and set fire to some articles. Th "consider that we were wauting in the most the United States transport, who saw smoke “essential attributes of rulers if we did not | i-suing from the vessel and went to render nesid.. sake alt possible precautions and make tance, quickly subdued the flames. The damage "every possible preparation to meet such ' was not very great,
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