The-Hong-Kong-Weekly-Press-1900-12-15 — Page 3

December 15, 1900.]

this fact is to be allowed to save the lives of such criminals as Prince TUAN, TUNG FUHSIANG, KANG-YI, YU HSIEN (if he is not yet dead), and others of the gang, would | be monstrous. The Allies have already taken in hand personally to execute the minor officials connected with the massacres at Paotingfu and its neighbourhood, the last to be sentenced being the Taotai and Boxer leader TAU, who was to be be headed at Tientsin. Are the Powers who claim now to be the representatives of justice to be satisfied with the put- ting to death of the subordinates, while the Princes, Generals, and Governors, who directed the massacres and outrages, are suffered to retire into private life? We trust not, for what hope can there be of a better China, if those who have brought the great Empire down to the depths are to go on living, examples in the future of how it is possible to do the greatest wrong and yet escape the penalty? In past Chinese history it has always been the case that the great criminals have escaped, a few of their wretched instruments suffering in their stead. We have hoped against hope that this time at last a juster and better way of dealing with the offenders has been chosen, a way, moreover, which the best men of China themselves approve.

We do not know definitely yet whether this hope has been in vain, but the latest information gives no

re-assurance to us.

with

their

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THE GOVERNMENT AND BRITISH INTERESTS IN NORTH CHINA.

:

(Daily Press, 12th December.) Viscount CRANBORNE, Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, has stated in the House of Commons that the present dis position of the Shanhaikwan Railway is only temporary and that the matter has the attention of the British Government. There is a certain amount of satisfaction to be' derived from the latter announcement, as there seemed previously reason for fearing that the matter had altogether escaped our Government's notice. Nothing is known definitely of any protest made against Russian action beyond those, mentioned by our Newchwang correspondent in his letter of the 16th ult., which the Resident En- gineer of the railway and H. B. M. Consul at Nowchwang offered when the Russians occupied without previous notice of intention the terminus of the Shanhaikwan line at Yingkow on the 6th October. Not only did they occupy the terminus, but they converted to their use the railway material, explaining after so doing that this was necessitated by the exigencies of war, but that the material would be accounted for at the final settle- ment. As a result the greater part of the line between Shanhaikwan and Newchwang was in the hands of the Russians, while the

CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. demanding the strictest attention. The United States understand that the state of guerilla war which has been exhausting the Filipinos must, in the interest of the Islands as well as for the honour of the States themselves, be ended. And the British Empire at large is equally aware that the time has come to finish for good, in the interests of the Boers themselves equally with those of the Empire at large, the desultory and meaningless but destructive process of individual marauding being car- ried on by a few scattered bands of malcon- tents. However much the individual Englishman or Americau may admire the pluck and obstinacy with which men like De Wet or Aguinaldo have hitherto upheld a lost cause, there is a time when the con- tinuance of such an attitude becomes a public crime, and the result of the recent elections in both countries has been to in- dicate that in the opinion of both nations that time has fully arrived. By this it is by no means implied that any desire for a vulgar vengeance is in the air, or that any personal animosity against the Boers as a people or 28

individuals exists; or on the other hand that any section of the American people desires to withhold from the Filipinos the influence in the affairs of the Islands to which they are entitled. In the pluck and persistence

which the Boers have contested | section

the supremacy in South Africa British Empire at large is prepared to recognise those qualities, which rightly directed go far towards the making of good citizens; and it is one of the finest traits in (Daily Press, 11th December.)

Lord ROBERTS's character that, skilled sol- It is apparently not likely that much will dier as he is, it is as an administrator that be done in China during the winter season.

he desires to be handed down to posterity. It would probably be found possible to keep In the same way the British Government an army in the field during the inteuse cold has been slower than the British people to of a northern Chinese winter, but the pro- recognise that what was needed in China cess would entail so much suffering on the

was not revenge, but such adequate punish. troops, and so much expenditure for the ment for the individuals concerned in the most necessary equipment, that unless in recent outrages as would prevent a recur. the case of the most extreme danger the

rence. With the Chinese people themselves result would hardly justify the under-

we have no ground of hostility. But public taking. With returning confidence, the opinion in China is not so far organised that American President has announced that the punishment of her mischief-makers can the policy of the United States will remain safely be left to unassisted public opinion, as before. What this very enigmati- and so the represcutatives of her dangerous cal announcement may mean, time only political agitators, having arisen amongst a can show; as up to the present Mr. Mc-section of the ruling classes accidentally in Allied forces in China, the arrangement is KINLEY'S policy has been a matter of jerks power at the moment, have been able to reasonable as long as danger exists, but the and starts, as the wave of popular opinion bring disgrace on their country. Had the question may be asked, Why was not this seemed in the eyes of the wire-pullers from public opinion of China as a nation been in expedient adopted at the beginning, so as to day to day to dictate. Now, however, that favour of the atrocities committed by the avoid the irritation which has been caused the services of these uncommissioned minis- intrusive Empress Dowager, that truculent by Russia's independent and provocative ters can be dispensed with for four years, individual would not have had to flee as a

action? We can hardly suppose, on the other for ever, we may expect some plainer deve failed in her distress to have rallied the Germans will take the place of the Russians lopment of the intentions of the White nation to her side. As a matter of fact,

as sole guardians of the line from Taku up to the port of Newchwang. Count vos House than before. By a very curious con-China and the Chinese have declared a ainst catenation of affairs, Lord SALISBURY finds her, and did they but feel that in the pro-mander-in-Chief of the Allies and operations WALDERSEE is in North China as the Com- himself in an almost identical position; and fessed desire of the foreign Powers to punish there are conducted by him as such. he gave an equally enigmatic statement of the guilty there was concealed no unworthy the intentions of the British Government hankering after merely personal aggrandisc- at the usual Lord Mayor's Dinner speech, ment, the Dowager and her crew would, from following this up by a statement sing the beginning, have been handed over to the ularly devoid of information at the open- Powers,

or have experienced from their ing of Parliament last week. So far as offended fellow-countrymen the punishment, supported by British residents in China who

BRITAIN, THE STATES, AND

CHINA.

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westward of Shanhaikwan was already occupied by them. We were in. formed in October that as a result of pro- the Russians would restore the tests line to its owners, but this news was afterwards contradicted and it was stated that it would be under German control. ́ In ́ the state of ignorance in which we are kept by the authorities up north (for the censor- ship seems undoubtedly to be strongly at work) we do not know how the line north of Shanhaikwan, financed by British capital and built as far as it goes by British engineers, is at present managed. It is stated that the westward section, that is of Ray the line from Shanhaikwan down to Taku, is to be handed over to Germany on the 15th instant. What exactly is meant If, on the by "Germany" is uncertain. one hand, the statement indicates that the railway will be under the control of Count VON WALDERSEE, as Generalissimo of the

and as far as Mr. McKINLEY is concerned | fugitive from Peking, nor would she have | hand, that it is actually meant that the

which for their offence against the Empire, no less than their crimes against the world, they have deserved.

we can discover anything in his an nouncements it is that when things are finished they will be finished, and no one need be disturbed. Like Mr. McKinley, the British Government has had a renewal of its lease, and, while it is putting its house in order, has instructed the door-porter to reply to all visitors in the orthodox fashion "Not at home." In another respect the two governments are in a perfectly similar posi- tion, and this has had a marked influence on the attitude taken up in China. Both nations feel that their colonial wars are at the moment in a transitional state' against eighteen.

team

A football match under Rugby rules was played at Vincennes last month between ♣ representing the Racing Club de France and a London fifteen representing the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank and the Westminister Bank. Fully 6,000 spectators were present. The Englishmen were seven points to the good at half-time, but they failed to stay, and were beaten by twenty-five points

Lord CBANBORNE also, in his reply to Mr. WALTON, denied generally that British in- terests had been neglected at Newchwang. In this statement he is not likely to be

have any knowledge of recent events Į at Newchwang. Not only from our own correu- pondent, but also from every other source from which news of that neighbourhood has come, complaints are strong of the inaction, the position apathy, of the British Admiral at the time when action would have done much. As it was, the rush för Shanhai- kwan, ending in the remarkable occupation of the place by a handful of men from H.M.S. Pigmy, was practically forced on the British by previous supineness ; it appeared to be the only means of preventing the Russians from absolutely dominating every