THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT AND THE MERCHANT
IN CHINA.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[October 18, 1900.
Office. Shis
which strous
(Daily Press, 8th October.) If British Governments and English mer. chants and capitalists have determined to withdraw from China, as a field altogether used up and unprofitable, it is instructive to discover that our great commercial rivals are quite prepared to set off in search of the wealth to be acquired there by patient application to business. No one whom the interests of their subjects abroad. that he will not, as the unfortunate in-
State
well-founded complaints; everywhere he line trodden by our own found himself placed at disadvantage However the German Emp compared with his more favoured rival, till Minister may have been deceiv at last, tired of a useless and unprofitable reactionary clique at Peking, the German contest, he was fain to accept the position Government has at least. and retire from a hopeless struggle, where knows its own mind, and is not his greatest enemy was his own government.a adopt the paltry and vacillating The lesson was not thrown away on the has been fraught with such competing Powers; while England placed results to British enterprise in China. her foreign policy in the hands of her fee Even more than this, every German subject blest sons, other Powers, more astute, were knows that his Government will support carefully sending their ablest to look after him in his undertakings, and has confidence interest or duty made acquainted with England, which had been the first to per- dividuals who advanced money to the New- the position of affairs in China during the ceive the benefits to be derived from her chwang Railway on the strength of the pro- last five years can have failed to observe postal subsidies in opening up new markets mises of Lord Salisbury's Government, be the steady decline of British trade and for her goods, began to potter over the ex- at the last moment left to recover his money British influence, as compared with that of pense of maintaining the lines already as best he can. These are some of the Germany, and it behoves everyone who has started; and, instead of keeping pace with reasons, and indeed the principle ones, why the interests of his country at heart to ex- the expansion of trade, stood by while the the British financier hesitates to invest his amine closely into the causes of this decline. others took possession of the main lines of money in enterprises out of which if success- The fact is not to be doubted that we are communication. In China at the present ful others will come in to reap the benefit, merely, as a nation, living on the prestige of day, while the main postal line carried on and not the unworthy and untruthful former days, and that the power of initiative by the P. and O. Company remains in the one thrown his teeth by the pre- has entirely deserted the British commu- same position as thirty years ago, we find sent Parliamentary Secretary nities amongst which our lot has been cast. the French, German and Austrian lines for Foreign Affairs, who did not hesitate to Changes like this do not come without notice, subsidising steamers of the latest and most make the astounding statement in the nor are they the result of sudden impulses; elaborate construction and almost monopol- House of Commons that the Chinese Go- for years the process has being going on, ising the traffic which but a few years agovernment had good cause for complaint, that slowly and silently at first; and it has been we held under, our entire control, If we of the British syndicates who had, through reserved for our own times to witness the turn to the Pacific we find a similar instance the good offices of the British Government, regression acquire a velocity which has made of neglect. We grudgingly afford a small procured concessions in China, not one had it become the common property of the subsidy to one line, running at long intervals even commenced the works conceded. When, nations. It is not as if the degeneration to the port of Vancouver, while ships, still, leaving the miserable r record of failure were confined to any one article, or any line it is true, for the most part under British brought about by the fatuous apathy of of business; for, on the contrary, it is.com-colours, are opening up the great Ocean from British governments we turn to Germany, mon to all. Once upon a time nine-tenths end to end. Even our latest rival, little very different position of affairs is seen. of the exports from China went to British | Japan, finds it to her interest to run her We find German houses and German finan- ports. We were then the great purveyors steamers between British colonies, while we, eiers freely advancing money on the for the continent of Europe, and it needs complacently chuckling at the thought that strength of promises given by their Govern- little experience of the mercantile ports to after all the ships are being built at British ment; but we also find this important dif discover how few articles are now ruled by dockyards, are content to see the profit and ference, that the German Government has the British demand. Twenty years ago the prestige passing out of our hands. In the learned the necessity of protecting its sub share taken by the other Powers in the matter of marine telegraphs we had till the jects, and every German knows that it will supplying of the markets of China was other day a practical monopoly, but he protect him to the uttermost in all his just insignificant. Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds would be a rash man who would dare to claims, and not leave him in the last moment or London had then the command of the affirm that it will be long there. A little to find all his contracts so much waste-paper. It is this, and this only, which has led to
would we see a revival our methods must be radically altered. We have spoken above of the very differ- ent position occupied with respect to their respective governments by the P. and O. and North German Lloyd steamers, and we may notice the difference in the methods each is able to adopt. Gradually but surely the German Company has been swallowing up the British lines. We may see an example
|
entire of the import trade. As time went incident which took place the other day the downfall of British trade and British in-
any
-
The fluence in the Far East, and a
on our continental neighbours introduced shows how little our own Government com- little by little their wares; they were cheap prehends or cares for the situation. and nasty, but they "took," and having in Canadian Government offered to bear a troduced the thin edge of the wedge they third of the expense of an entirely British were not long in driving it home. Then our cable across the Pacific from Vancouver to ships took to carrying goods to continental Australia, and after a long series of negotia- ports, and our neighbours, bethinking them- tions succeeded in gaining the consent selves that what we could do they might do of the British Government to bear an likewise, took in a tentative way to carrying equal share of the national burden. The the goods themselves. All this while our consent was hailed with delight in China, Government and our merchants looked where residents saw in the new project an complacently on, firmly convinced that our earnest of escape from the unbearable bur- | in the purchase of the British steamers carry prestige would enable us to smile down at den of taxation to which we have been sub-ing on the coasting trade in the China Sea, time these petty attacks on our pre-jected under the existing system, and fondly where first the Blue Funnel steamers, and eminence; and doubtless it might had hoped that when once the feasibility of afterwards the Scottish Oriental, were absor-
either, or both, been awake to the impor- cheaper and more direct communication was tance of the issues at stake. Unfortunately policy of dilettantism attacked both. Class legislation and political faddism usurped the functions of Government, and in our wild-goose chase after an ideal home paradise, we forgot that we were rapidly losing not merely the sympathies, but also the respect of our neighbours. A paltry and nerveless foreign policy was not long in convincing the other Powers that we were tired
ed of greatness, and that the time had arrived for attacking us in our weakest point our prestige. Under a different system of government the private British subject had found his rights respected, and
enterprise encouraged, but now one administration vied with another in casting reflections on British enterprise, and the individual deprived of countenan
at every step One by one night promises
rere
nored, and no notice taken of his
bed. The same policy is, we learn on good proved, we should in the long run come in authority, being put in practise with regard for some share of relief from the intolerable to the Ocean line. It is now no secret that rates under which for many years we have negotiations have been entered into for the laboured. The Government, however, has purchase of the magnificent fleet of the En- taken care to show us that in this reason-glish Company, and large and tempting able hope we were reckoning without our offer has been made to the host. Under one pretence or other, in spite of the direct engagement given, our Govern- | ment has been adopting every subterfuge possible to escape from its promise to the Canadian Government; and as if to make matters worse it has professedly done this in the interest of the present cable com- panies.
This, we are aware, may be looked upon as *100 proprietors. a private affair, with which we as journalists have nothing to do. But in view of the very different lights in which the two go ments concerned view their relations towards their own nationals, it becom public policy; selves, · Would a step national interests he two companies
While the policy, or want of policy, of the British Government has been such, it is curious to observe the contrast afforded by the other European Powers, and especially fostering Germany, in advancır the private interests
their na
this respect the gy and more intimate knowledre Affairs at Peking is ntrast with the vacillating and uncertain
curren
to make
WO DAY
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