1
ཐཱ་uit"!! -
December 29, 1900.]
was dangerous. Possibly Parliament for- got that it was itself being carried round the sun at a speed many times greater, and that the question was not one of speed at all but merely of avoiding external inter- ruptions. The whole story is an indication of the evils of that grandmotherly rule which has settled like a blanket over the energies of the land.
NEWS AND THE CENSORSHIP.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
of unfounded rumours, most people will The affair of the fail, we think, to see.
case in point. Kalgan expedition is a Whatever was the actual case of Count YORK VON WARTEUBURG's death, whether he was killed in battle, was accidentally suffocated, or committed suicide, the au- thorities have by their attitude led to the most unfavourable version being accepted. Needless to say that general belief is yielded to a story which doubtless goes far beyond the facts. A press censorship is always difficult to carry out. An ineffective and partial one simply stultifies the censor.
come.
OVERCROWDING AND EXPANSION,
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515
likely to prove misleading and that, with the population moving freely about the city, the exposure to infection was scattered over the whole. No one can deny that overcrowding leads to insanitary conditions; and that there is an intimate connection between plague and dirt, as indeed there is between most other diseases and dirt, there seems no room for doubt. In Nullah Lape, one of the streets mentioned in Messrs. OSBORNE'S and MCKIE's report, five plague cases occurred this year; in another, Wing Fung Street, twelve.
An examination of Dr. CLARK'S report on this year's epidemic will reveal how many cases occurred in the immediate neighbourhood of the squalid and ill-venti- lated places visited by the Inspection Com- mittee on the 4th instant. Amid a great diversity of opinion on matters connected with bubonic plague, there is at least an agree ment of opinion that abundance of fresh air is one of the best preventives. It is always in the slums that that grip of the epidemic is so difficult to shake off, in whatever part of the world it takes hold. Now it is no doubt Utopian to imagine that we can eyer make our poor Chinese population live in really well-ventilated buildings. But we can in time secure a tolerable state of affairs. Not, however, within our present The population has outgrown that; area. by how much the approaching Census will show accurately. The remedy lies in ex- pansion; but in expanding we cannot drive the workmen to live at a greater distance from their work without giving them faci- lities for getting to and from it quickly. In other words, as the suburbs extend some means of transit from them to the centre of the city must accompany the extension. No other sanitary improvements can do more than tinker with the question. We trust that the Sanitary Board will not let this all-important subject rest. There is far more good work to be done here than in the discussion of some points which occupy much of the Board's time. Moreover, many of the minor sanitary evils arise directly from congestion, and it is only by solving the problem of expansion that they can really be cured.
(Daily Press, 25th December.) With the advent of Christmas the already scanty information about the progress of negotiations at Peking has become still scantier. As we learnt at the beginning of the week, the anouncement of an agreement between the Powers on the disputed points
(Daily Press, 22nd December.) has given satisfaction at home, causing a The state of affairs described by the Iu- rise of a half to one and a half point inspection Committee, consisting of Messrs. Chinese issues. It may be taken for granted, E, OSBORNE and J. McKIE, at the time of therefore, that the Allies have actually their visit to Wanchai on the 4th instant, arrived at unanimity in their demands on
was called by Major BROWN at Thurs China, and that a working compromise has day's meeting of the Sanitary Board been discovered which every nation among painful," and no one, we imagine, will them has consented to support. A Japanese quarrel with this use of the epithet. The native paper, the Chugai Shogyo, whose in- overcrowding of the City and the increase formation has been good during the present of rents have long been subjects of dis- crisis in China, reports on the authority of cussion in Hongkong, but the question, as its Shanghai correspondent that the Powers is only natural, has been chiefly regarded have approved on the twelve articles of the from the point of view of Europeans of proposals carried in the Ministers' conference small means. On them no doubt the in- at Peking and some of them bave already conveniences and hardships of the conditions ordered their Ministers to proceed with the now prevailing fall with especial force, and peace negotiations, but the authority allotted it is from them that complaints have mainly to them, it is added, is not very full, and in
The poorer Chinese, however, have every iustance they have been instructed not been less affected by the changes which to wait for advice from their home Govern-have come about. in the price of living, but ments. The Chugai Shogyo continues by with their national disregard for what stating that the powers are now appointing foreigners esteem comforts they have left their respective peace envoys, and that formal their state to be discovered by the Inspec- peace negotiations are expected to begin at tors. By this we do not mean that they the end of January next. A Shanghai have not asked, and obtained, rises in wages telegram to the Mainichi, dated the 17th on account of the dearness of food; but instant, is to the effect that the foreign they have allowed the squalor and conges- Ministers were then discussing the demands tion of their home surroundings to grow on China, consisting of a hundred clauses, worse aud worse. Messrs. OSBORNE and and that it was reported that military McKIE remark that the upward tendency operations will be begun against China if of rents continues, and until relief is she refuses to comply with the ultimatum, provided there is little hope of any real which will be forwarded as soon as the
or lasting improvement in the sanitary conference of the powers is concluded. condition of our slums. The instances Other Japanese papers, moreover, add the which they give of prevailing condi. report that LI HUNG-CHANG'S personal tions are indeed unpleasant to read. The
(Daily Press, 27th December.) followers have returned to Shanghai, "on conclusion at which they arrive, put in
The letter which our correspondent, writing account of the determined attitude of the their own words, is :-" The whole town east Powers, who threaten to continue the and west, go where you will, appears to be from Shanghai, sends us on affairs in the military operations in case China evinces more overcrowded every day, and high Newchwang neighbourhood, though it re- the least disposition to ask for an amend rents, congested streets, polluted drains ports outrages by Boxers and disbanded ment of the peace conditions."
filth and plague, point with unmistakabl, soldiers on the country people, and occasion- These reports from leading Japanese warning to the great need that exists foe | ally on foreigners, on the whole tells of a vernacular papers support one another, but more space, more room for expansion." This better condition of affairs than could have up to the present we have no confirmation, opinion will be endorsed— is already held-| been hoped for some weeks back. The work But of pacification has not, it seems, proceeded from non-Japanese sources, of the threat to by every sensible man in the Colony,
on the lines on which Russia commenced prosecute the war in default of a ready expansion takes time. Hongkong has been compliance, on the part of China, with the talking of expansion for a considerable demands of the Powers. There is no doubt period now, but we see no steps being The a sufficient reason for our lack of news in the taken to force the question forward. censorship exercised over European press Government alone can act in the matter, correspondents, whereas unless the Japanese but it rests with others to make this sub- reports are inventions there is not the ject of overcrowding what it ought to be, saine stoppage of news in Japan. It will be the subject of the day. During the years noted that the story of the proposed court- 1894, 1896, 1898–1900, we have had martial of the Times and Morning Post | to combat epidemics of plague which correspondents for transmitting a false carried off an average of between one telegram regarding the death of Count and two thousand persons per annum. YORK." reaches us also by way of Japan. may be remembered that a little over We have no means of gauging the accuracy a year ago the question came up at of the news from Japan, thanks to official | the Legislative Council whether over- suppression. Whether this action of the crowding had much to do with plague mor- military authorities is altogether wise now. tality, and it then appeared from statistics is a matter for doubt. During the progress that the most overcrowded districts were of the war, there was justification for keep not those in which the plague deaths reached We remarked then ing the details back." But what is the ad- the highest average. vantage of system which fails to maintain a that for the purposes of the enquiry com- general secrecy while fostering the spread parisons between the different districts were'
44
It
MANCHURIA V. THE YANGTZE
VALLEY.
her work on the Amur River. Possibly we shall never arrive at the exact truth about the treatment of the Chinese inhabitants on the north bank of that river; but, though the full story as first reported from non- Russian sources appeared incredible, it can hardly be doubted that the Cossacks at least were guilty of atrocities shameful to the troops of civilised nations. The march of the Russian columns through Manchuria was stated on good authority to be marked by similar conduct. It looks now as if the first severity-to use a very mild term→ were intended to teach the lesson and the subsequent change of policy were meant to conciliate the country folk, who can longer be blind to Russia's power. If this be so, the time of the change has been well chosen, for, now that the wreck of the Boxers and the Imperial forces are reduced to prey- ing on their own compatriots, the troops of
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