4
February 16, 1901.
His Worship Well, the onus lies on you of proving that yon came by these things in an honest manner.........
Defendant-Very well, I think I can do so; I plead not guilty to that charge.
Chan Ming, embroidery dealer, Canton and Hongkong, one of the complainants, was swora and gave evidence as to the defendant's purchas ing the goods in Canton, his statement that he was an assistant surgeon on the Brooklyn, his promises to pay when he got to Honkgong, the journey from Canton to Hongkong, and, finally, the defendant's disappearance when the Heung shun arrived here.
His Worship-I cannot convict on this charge. The goods were obtained at Canton -altogether out of my jurisdiction. With reference to the first charge, to which the defendant has pleaded guilty, it appears to be a most serious matter. I order him to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for three months.
An order was made for the return of the - goods to Chan Ming,
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
Britain. Manchuria absorbed by Russia must [ inevitably become closed to our commerce. The British people witnesses its annexation with indifference; nor are there any signs of awkening interest or activity to safeguard our present and future position and to maintain our treaty rights.
4.—At a time when the future of China hangs in the balance, when the maintenance of our position and trade in that Empire depends on the immediate policy of Her Majesty's Go- vernment, the Imperial Parliament enunciates no policy on the Far Eastern question; states- men and publicists remain silent in regard to the crisis, offering no solution calculated to protect British interests. A debate on the China question attracts less attention than a minor question of parochial government.
5.—That this is so is obviously due to the fact that the country and its legislators have failed to realise the vast issues at stake. It is for the people of Great Britain justly to appreciate the value, present and future, of our trade with China and the importance of preserving in their integrity our political and commercial interests from Kirin to Cantón, from Shanghai to the
MURDER ON A BLUE FUNNEL | borders of Thibet.
STEAMER.
A shocking murder, arising out of a trivial dispute, took place on board the Blue Funnel steamer Patrocolug on the high sens, about sixty miles from Hongkong, at midnight on Thursday, the 7th inst. The simple facts are that a dispute as to the wheeling of some coal arose in the tokehold of the steamer between some Chinese and Manila firemen. The matter of contention was a ridiculously simple one, but words rán high, and finally two of, the dis- putants, a fireman from Manils and a 'China- man, started to fight. A third fireman. a Chinaman named Chan Wai, interfered, urging the two men not to quarrel. He got between them, and was forcing the combatants apart when the Filipino suddenly whipped out a long knife and without a word of warning drove it clean through the left temple of the unfortunate peace-maker. The blow must have been de- livered with tremendous force, for the knife traversed the head and severed the spinal cord The wounded man dropped, and expired in about three minutes The eye-witnesses of the tragedy, horrified at this sudden and awful termination to the quarrel, ran out and informed the ship's officers of what had occurred. The murderer was immediately placed in irons and kept a prisoner till the Patrocols arrival in Victoria Harbour on Friday; the 8th inst., when Sergeant Gourlay, of the detective staff, boarded her and took charge of the murderer. The body of Chan Wai has been removed to the mortuary The Patrocolus has gone on to Shanghai, but two Chinese firemen who saw the fatal blow`struck have been detained as witnesses.
The fireman was brought up before Mr. Hazeland on Monday, when the hearing of the case was adjourned until next week.
|
NAVY LEAGUE LECTURE BY
CAPT. ANDERSON. →
4
On Tuesday, the 12th inst., Captain G. C. Anderson delivered a lecture in the City Hall, un- der the auspices of the Hongkong branch of the Navy League, on "The interest of the British Em pire in the Far East, and the needs of the Navy." Mr. JzJ. Francis, K. C., presided.
The CHAIRMAN said there were very great, very important British impérial interests in the Far East, and so far as they who were out hers and who were in close contact with the ques- tions were able to judge for themselves, those interests had to a considerable extent, they were sorry to say, been greatly neglected. It was a very serious question for all who had at heart the interests of the British empire to con- sider what those interests were out here-to make themselves acquainted with the facts, and to do all they possibly could to promote those interests, and to make the people in England better acquainted with them. Imperial interests in the East rested mainly upon the strength of our naval forces, and therefore it was that Captain. Anderson had combined the consideration of im- perial interests with that of the needs of the
Navy.
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Captain ANDERSON then delivered his lecture, which was a most able one. We are unable, however, to find space for the whole of it, and must content ourselves with the following ex-
tracts:--
THE IGNORANCE OF EASTERN AFFAIRS AT
¿ HOME.
Recent events have revealed the fact that a remarkable degree of ignorance of Eastern affairs prevails in the old country, not only among the rank and file of the people, but also amongst our leading men, who seem to have THE CHINA LEAGUE.
been for a time completely fogged, when the The newly formed China League is at pre-outbreak in the Far North took the country by sent circulating a pamphlet pointing out the fatal apathy shown by the House of Commons in regard to the Far Eastern question and the vital issues now pending at Peking, which re flect the general attitude of the electorate of Great Britain. It is to the following effect :— 1.Any and every increase in the population of Great Britain must depenl for its very existence upon the maintenance and develop ment of the country's manufactures and its export and carrying trade, &c.
2.-It is to the East, to the vast territories of China, where a third of the human race now lives under conditions of restricted development that we must look for the most important ex- pansion of commerce. The China of to-day, commercially speaking, lies fallow; its possibi- lities are almost unrealised, its potential w alth immense. It is obvious that the interests of Chins and of the British Empire alike impera- tively demand the preservation of the territorial integrity of the Chinese Empire and of the
door" for trade. 3-Looked at from this standpoint the loss of the three Manchurian provinces is a matter of vital, importance to the future trade of Great
open
surprise. Perhaps this is not to be wondered at considering the pace at which people have to live in modern times, and to the fact that the eyes of all Western nations were, for the time, hard set on South Africa.
HONGKONG AND WEIHAIWEL.
must
139
tung promontory and the Liaotung gulf, it is a base port which Weihaiwei shonld have been by this time. We do not know what the winter has in store for us. Our ships cannot stop at Taku Bar through the winter on account of the ice. Shanhaikwan is nearly as bad, and there is nothing nearer than Hope Sound or Chefoo; neither of them desirable places, after Decem- ber, and I have had many years' experience of the Gulfs of Pechili and Liaotung summer and winter, and have often taken advantage of the welcome shelter of Weihaiwei. Pos- sibly South Africa overshadowed Weihaiwei, anyhow it has been unaccountably neg- lested, nay more, Lord Salisbury went out of his way to prevent any railway enterprise being allowed at the place and thus destroyed the chances of the port as a place of shipment, which he need not have done, had he been kept better informed. The place itself is no more than a walled fishing village, but there is good country behind, now booked for Germany
HONGKONG'S TONMAGE.
8
The Harbour-Master's report of this colony for 1899 shows the total tonnage entered and cleared during the years, to be in round figures 18 million tons, being an increase of 35,000 tous on the prévious year. Of this total ton-.- nage, 48 per cent, was under the British flag, 264 per cent. ntider foreign flags, and 25'6 per cent., of junk trade. Taking steamers alone, 68-17 per cent. was British. The British river tonnage amounted to 3.550,169 tons entered and cleared, which shows the importance of the British trade with Canton, Macao, and the West River ports; and-when matters are set- tled on a new basis, as they must eventually be, this trade is capable of infinite expansion, though it is temporarily under a cloud, owing to Chinese official obstruction, Sir Robert Hart's
To take our own colony of Hongkong first as an instance of the magnitude of Imperial British interests in the Far East. crave forgiveness if I quote a few dry statistical figures in support of the general statement "that this colony is of supreme importance to the Empire, as its furtherest outport, coaling station, and naval base," with a trade capable of infinite expansion. Weihaiwei does not count yet for, though it is a better place for our purposes than Port Arthur, there is not a big gun in position, or any attempt being made be- yond dredging, to convert it into a secondary naval base, as was promised; and for some reason or other, probably the want of defences, large quantities of supplies have been returned to shanghai from there. Now, if there is one thing more than another wanted in the far North at the present time, with a large number of our warships and transports between Shan-
famous river trade regulations, together with dis- turbances and unrest in the southern provinces. The figures I have just quoted show that Hong- kong is the most important of all the British foreign possessions in the matter of shipping. Besides, the tonnage already mentioned which in recorded in the books of the Harbour Depart- ment, there are no less than 165 steam launches employed in the Harbour and of these 71 are licenced for the conveyance of passengers, 77 are owned by private individuals or firms, 12 are the property of the Colonial Government, and 5 belong to the Military Authorities. These launches are all built in the colony, and Hongkong has become celebrated for the excel- lence of its small steam craft, which are built and exported all over the Far East, from Vladi- vostock to Java and the Straits and to Europe.
THE TRADE OF HONGKONG.
We now come to the trade of Hongkong, a very important British interest, roughly on- timated to be worth £50,000,000 per annum, The total import trade for 1899 was carried in 28,010 vessels, which brought 5,707,898 tons of cargo, of which 8,750,195 tons were discharged in Hongkong, exclusive of the local junk trade. The total export trade for 1899 was carried, by 27,692 vessels of 8,563,127 tons, which took 2,914,797 tons of cargo, and shipped 493,871 tons of bunker coal.
[/
-REVENUE,
The total revenue collected by the Harbour Department during 1899 was $190,555.50, being an increase of $6,927.49 on the pre- vions year, made up as follows: 1 Light dues
2 Licences & Inter-
nal Revenue 3 Fee of Court and
Office
Total
52,406.93
39,127.40
*99,021.07 **
..190,555.50 EMIGRATION/
}
£19,055 Stg.
T
61,075 Emigrants left Hongkong for various places during 1899, 45,358 were carried by British ships and 16,719 by foreign ships, 110,448 were reported as having been brought to Hongkong from places to which they had emigrated, and of these 86,235, were brought in- British ships and 24,213 in foreign ships.
THE COAST PORTS TRADE. "The total value of the foreign trade of the eight principal coast ports of Canton, Bwstow, Amoy, Foochow, Shanghai, Chefoo, Tientsin, and Newchwang, is roughly about £44,000,000 sterling per annum, of which something like 70 per cent. is British. For the year 1899, the total foreign trade of China has been estimated
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