February 24, 1900]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE
REPORT.
THE news wired by our Shanghai corres- (Daily Press, 19th February.)
British officers and the wounding of a third, pondent, announcing the murder of
་ trade between England, for instance, and | THEMURDER OF BRITISH OFFICERS China by the new route will have no such
ON THE YUNNAN BORDER. advantage, and will consist of entirely a port to port traffic. But there is more to be said. American cottons from New Eng land mills are becoming in China a for midable rival to English goods. Even at present in the United States there is a ten- dency to remove the manufacturing centres to the south, and Georgia and Alabama are beginning to take part in the industry. For long American cotton was shipped to Eng land, transtormed in Lancashire into cloth,
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serious and dastardly outrage of its kindl ou the Burma-Chinese border, is the most since the murder of MARGARY, under some what similar circumstances. Although the Chinese officials cannot be gnid to be deli-
Messrs. KIDDLE and SUTHERLAND were
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The Consul LITTON referred to is no doubt Mr. G. T, L. LITTON, of H.M.'8 Con sular Service în China, stationed most likely at Teng yue in Yunuan, which place is also known as Momen. He is a very promising able report of a Journey into North Sze- official, and recently compiled a very valu
chuen.
are wanting but there can be no doubt that Our correspondent mentions that details when those details arrive they will disclose the full complicity of the Chinese officials and of the Chinese Government. The com-
the other members of the commission. Truly China is doing everything in her power to fantry, but presumably that escort was with
crisis in China, Great Britain is China's best hasten her own destruction. At the present
alienate British sympathy and help. friend, but she is doing her utmost to
and shipped to China by the Suez Canal. {berately guilty of the murder of the officers, mission had a military escort composed of Practically there was little inconvenience in. Yet they cannot be disassociated from it. Gurkhars and a few English mounted in- the process. It was almost as easy to carry members of the Burma Boundary Commis- cotton to Liverpool as to Boston, and Liversion, and for some time have been actively pool was more favourably situated for ship- ping through the Canal. Columbus or Mout officials in the districts thought fit to allow engaged in surveying when the Chinese gomery will however be very differently situated with regard to China on the opening of the Nicaragua route. Not only will the cotton be grown on the spot but the voyage will be nearly 5,000 miles shorter, and these are factors which must telling the long run. So also iron and steel can be us
readily shipped from the great produc ing districts of Ohio and West Virginis as at present from New York, and here again the saving of the long passage from England must, in the long run, tell in favour of America. Altogether the present balance will be seriously affected, and our English manufacturers will find themselves placed in a less advantageous position than hither to, other collateral changes will accrue from the new route, many of which will doubtless be in favour of British trade. San Francisco brought into closer connection with the South-eastern States will doubtless find her position as a shipping port consider ably improved, but these are benefits to America which we can accept with com- placency. The ports of British Columbia will also be directly benefitted, and doubt- less the body of British trade in the Pacific, especially with Australasia, will increase in an enormous degree. On the whole while our proportionate share is seriously men aced, the actual body will continue to grow. But energy and judgment will be largely needed should we wish to retain our position as the foremost tradling nation in the Far East.
MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S DISPATCH.
of Burma and Yunnan. From the very them to do so the territory on the borders
commencement the Chinese officials have
personally placed every impediment in the and what is far worse they have deliberately way of these officers and their associates, encouraged the tribesmen to molest and im known that the Chinese officials, as in the pede the commissioners. It is also well case of Captain DEASY, have been secretly instructed in their work of obstruction with orders from their government at Peking. A correspondent of the Rangoon Gazette, with the Burma Boundary Commission, writing on the 14th ult., refers to the trouble Mr. SUTHERLAND was then experiencing at in the country of the Was, and the corres- the hands of General Liu. They were then pondent wrote:-
E
their attitude may have been when the Chinese 'As, then, to these Was about here, whatever first made enquiry about it, they are now evidently bent on resisting entrance into their country. The Was that fringe the Chinese Shan State of Meng Ting; those of Pang Hung' just con- celed to China, and those of Pang Hkawn, in our territory, have all given signs that they do not wish to be visited by any boundary com- ly murdered some inhabitants of Panthay set- missions. We hear that Was have treacherous- tlement of Paug Lung (this is in our territory, what are TA going do about it?) They have threatened to attack and
our camps here to annihilate the Reserve Escort at Hopang. Ou the only occasion
ou which we bave offered to visit one of their vil lages, they punctasted the path with something. closely resembling full stops. So far we have progressed with only a shot or tow exchanged, and a few rocks rolled, but when we again come (Daily Press, 21st February.)
in contact with these hill folk lower down the The communication from the Right Hon. froutier, it remains to be seen if the irksome JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN, Secretary of State orders we are under, on no account to fight, cai, for the Colonies, relative to the sa gries of be carried out to the letter. The map of the various officers of the Hongkong Govern-frontier has to be made if its demarcation is to ment service can hardly be regarded as
Le effective; the Was will certainly oppose the entirely satisfactory, When the matter
entrance of surveyors to any part of their was put before the home authorities stress
country; Chinese escorts are of as much value was laid on the fact that, in consequence of the work of driving off interfering Was will as a counterfeit coin. It therefore appears that the enormous increase in house-rents and be with us. the cost of living which has taken place in be done always without something very like It is open to question if this ca... the colony in recent years, what was a fair
what the Chinese call “battle fighting." salary at one time is utterly inadequate for a man's requirements nowadays. Of course this argument holds good all round, em- bracing not only the heads of departments unssista -heads but also those occupying lower. positions. In fact the last-named are the people who have felt the pinch most, and consequently it does not surprise us to learn that they are considerably aggrieved by Mr. CHAMBERLAIN's de- claration that he can only sanction the revision of the pay of the chiefs and their assistants. "To him that hath shall be given" is a saying of Scripture which one would not reasonably expect to see exemplified by 80 pronounced a Democrat as Mr. CHAMBERLAIN,
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"The
Open-Door Policy" can scarcely meet these recent out rages in Shantung and Yunnan,
**Three conferences between the Commission- ers have been held in Man Hka, ou the 8th, 9th and 10th, the result of which is that the frontier has been agreed upon from the point year, up to a hill named. Meng Ling Shang. ou the Nam Ting river, where work ended last The length of this piece is not more than eight miles; not much, it may be said, at first glance for three weeks' work, but a great deal when is taken into consideration. On the 13th the the active inertness of our Chinese coadjutors Chinese party left Man Hka in the direction of Meng Ting, Mr. Beorr's party following the next day. Fifty Gurkhas and eight Mounted Infantry of the Reserve Escort are to accom pauy the Commission round the frontier, under Captain WHITEHEAD. The remainder of the Reserve Escort remains for the present at Hopang, whers it has an excellent camp in a good defensible position.”
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MURDER OF BRITIsh officeKS AT MENGKA.
A CONSUL WOUNDED.
[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.]
SHANGHAI, 18th February, 7.10 p.m. of the Burma Boundary Commission, were Messrs. Kiddle and Sutherland, members murdered at Mengka, 200 miles from Teng- yue, on the 10th inst.
Consul Litton was slightly wounded. Details are wanting.
GERMAN DEMONSTRVTION IN SHANTUNG,
force to Kiaochow from Tsintau, to stimulate The Germans have despatched an armed the troops of the Viceroy of Shantung to attack the bandits,
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Captain von Buttlar and Mr. Hildebrand (Railway Engineer) are going to Chinanfu to interview the Viceroy, and to secure guarantees against interference with the railway work.
THE CITY OF KOWLOON.
TO COME UNDER BRITISH JURISDICTION.
The following Order in Council was published in the Government Garette Extraordinary ou the 21st inst.
At the Court at Windsor, the 27th day of December, 1899. Present, the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty His Royal Highness the Duke of Counaught and Strathearne, Mr. Bal- four, Mr. Ritchie.
Whereas by a Convention dated the 9th day Imperial Majesty the Emperor of China, it was of June 1898, between Her Majesty and His provided that the limits of British territory in the regions adjacent to the Colony of Hong. kong should be enlarged under lease to Her Majesty in the manner described in the said Convention.
And whereas by an Order of Her Majesty in amongst other things, ordered that the terri- Council, dated the 20th of October, 1898, it was. tories within the limits and for the term describ. ed in the said Convention should be and the same were the elly declared to be part and parcel of tier Majesty's Colony of Hong- kong, in like manner and for all intents part of the said Colony, and it should be aud purposes as if they had originally formed competent for the by and with the advice and consent of the Governor of Hongkong, Legislative Council of the said Colony, to make of the said territories as part of the Colony. laws for the peace, order, and good government
in Council it was provided that, notwithstand- And whereas by Article 4 of the said Order ing anything in the said Order in Council con- said Order in Council stationed within the City tained, the Chinese officials at the date of the of Kowloon should continue to exercise juris diction therein except in so far as might be in consistent with the military requirements for the defence of Hongkong.
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