340
WHERE COUNT VON WALDER-
SEE HAS FAILED.
(Daily Press, 24th April.)
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[April 27, 1901. But that Szechuen
time
com-
AFFORESTATION IN HONGKONG.
(Daily Press, 20th April.)
a week, where the intention was evidently views about Utopia. to capture or get Chief himself, hond of the Commander-in-- is to b calmly abandoned to the prepon- ve to what lengths the derating influences of France and Russia, party of disorder is prepared to go. From and that Britain and Germany are about to a barrier, across the what has been stated on a previous occasion, watch Russia establish cannot be pleaded by anyone that Count we fear that the Commander-in-Chief per- Yangtsze Valley, are at least improbable WALDERSEE's administration of affairs sonally cannot be exonerated from blame, ideas. Britain and Gerinan keep it do not in Chihli has been a success; rather from and that he has permitted himself to be want to occupy the Valley but to many points of view it has been a failure. befooled in trusting to a set of spies, open. Russia's advance from the north will We say this, not from any mere sectional or evidently in close touch with the enemy. be strictly watched, there can be no doubt. national point of view, because from the Were the result merely personal and con- French intrigues in the south will ultimately very beginning we have held that the only fined to the safety of his staff, the result claim the attention which at present is not conceivable means of settlement of a con- would be still disastrous; but its effects given to them. We have listened for many fessedly difficult situation has lain in a have been deeper and more dangerous. The years to France's preposterous claims to a cordial co-operation between England and Commander under the evil inspiration of sphere of influence in the two Kwang pro Germany. We do not blame the German his intelligence department has been led vinces, Yunnan, and Szechuen. It is Government, who have shown a readiness into making attacks on innocent places and that it should be made clear that such to act with us in bringing about a peaceful innocent people, so that German military claims will never be recognised by the settlement, nor do we accuse Count VON rule in the province has become a by-word mercial Powers any more than they are by WALDERSEE himself of having been actuated for inefficiency and injustice. That the China herself. France's interest in the by any underhand or unworthy, motives. guilty should suffer condign punishment is provinces in question arises simply from easily show how The German Commander-in-Chief has shown right and proper, and we certainly do not contiguity; statistics himself an able soldier, and a gentleman of feel disposed to utter any mealy-mouthed paltry is her commerce with them. The honour, and has won the individual respect protests against what we conceive to be the day of land-grabbing in Chinn, under of all with whom he has come in contact; truest humanity in the end. It becomes, whatever pretext, must be brought to an and yet, we regret to have to state it openly, however, a direct source of danger, when, end, now that the Powers have decided the condition of Chihli, and of affairs gener- acting on false information, an army be against the disastrous policy of partition. ally, is worse than at the beginning of his comes a source of dread to the well-disposed, rule. It is true Count VON WALDERSEE lias and innocent. Had our information come been, we may say cruelly, hampered by the from but one source or could it be traced to want of confidence displayed towards him any one spring, we should hesitate to give it personally by the other Governments, his publicity, but as it comes from two perfectly best plans have been thwarted, and difficulties separate and independent sources, both of which he had no right to expect have been whom we are individually bound to respect, thrown in his path. When, however, we
we feel we are acting in the interests of have made due allowance for all this, we
everyone in giving it publicity. yet feel justified in stating that the Com- mander has failed to perceive the exigencies of the case, and has been practically placed in the wrong from the beginning by the subtle manoeuvres of his, and our, arch enemy LI HUNG-CHANG. In the words of Lord ROBERTS, Commenting on General COL- VILLE, he has shown a want of initiative and military capacity in his conduct of the war against the Boxers in Chibli, and in- stead of gathering to his side the elements of good order existing at the time, he has ended in converting to hostility the entire population of the Metropolitan Province.
This is, we are aware, a grave charge to make against an officer of ability and discretion, whose military accomplishments have never been called in question. Count FON WALDERSEE's honours have, however, been won in a very different field, and against very different enemies from those he has met in China. It is no discredit to him that, as a soldier and a man of honour, he should have failed when matched against so notorious a dissembler as the Viceroy of Chihli. We have more than once had occasion to refer to the inefficient and pol- luted sources on which
One of the spending departments of the Government which does good work and finds little fame and scant encouragement is the Afforestation Department. This depart ment, which, in n Colony of such limited area as Hongkong was, before the recent
FRANCE IN SOUTH AND WEST lease of the adjoining islands aud a large
CHINA.
(Daily Press, 22nd April.)
concession on the mainland, rightly tacked on to the Botanical Gardens, has always been more or less starved, to the detriment of the City of Victoria and of the woods In a recent issue the Echo de Chine repro-and forests of the colony. Sir JOHN POPE duced from the Dépêche Coloniale an article, HENNESSY was the only Governor who signed with the well-known signature of ever took much interest in the Department CH, LEMIRE, which is certainly interesting or its work, and he was certainly the only and possibly not without importance. The Governor who ever proposed a really liberal writer discusses the establishment of more vote for it. Sir ARTHUR KENNEDY en- rapid and more certain relations between couraged, the planting on a small scale, it is Indo-China and Russia via Western China. true, but this was only on the slopes im He calls attention to the report of the Chi-mediately behind the City of Victoria. Sir nese Court settling at Chengtu in Szechuen, JOHN HENNESSY went in for planting on a "where we (the French) in common with large scale, over considerable areas in the the Russians have preponderating commer-island, and most of our forests of pine-trees cial interests," which would necessitate were commenced during or immediately fol- French troops being sent overland from lowing his administration. The result is Tonkin to protect France's nationals, accord-before the community, and it will be gener- ing to M. LEMIRE; and to the decision of ally admitted that it is equally pleasing Russia to connect Omsk, the capital of and salubrious. Most disastrous results Western Siber a, with the capital of have followed the denudation of the forest Semiretschinsk province, from which the line areas in numerous countries, both as re- will be carried to Tashkend, Russian Tur-gards bygienic conditions and in connec-
Chief has been wont the Commander-in-kestan, and thence across the Chinese fron- tion with the rainfall. France, Spain, Italy
rely. In fact his intelligence department has been practically in the hands of the enemy, and those on whom he relied have all through been acting as spies for the Chinese Viceroy. The knowledge necessary to accomplish the out- rage of burning the Winter Palace and the disappearance of his chief of staff must have come from his own surroundings; nor is this the only instance. The murder of Captain BAETSCH on the high road from the Summer Palace, and scarcely five miles outside Peking, points to a similarly deep laid plot, evidently planned within the Comman- der's own lines......... That such an outrage could occur under the circumstance of Captain BARTSCH's ride from Sheoshan to Peking
tier. M. LEMIRE continues: "From Tash- “kend to Liangchou. the distance is, as we "have said, 300 miles. Now Liangchou is "a telegraphie station on the line from "Kuldja to Hsiaufu. All that is required "is to join this point to Chengtu, which is "already in telegraphic connection with "Yunnanfu, Laokai, and Hanoi." France now h. s hier duty, says the writer; and that is, not to allow the erection of an "Anglo-German barrier such as would arise from the occupation of the Yangtze region by these two Powers." Our true wall of China," goes on M. LEMIRE, “should con- sist in the projected establishment of a Russian railway from Samarkand to Han- kow.". Such is the scheme; Russia is to build the railways and telegraph lines, and France is to keep the way clear to the south. It was formerly considered utopinn, M. LEMIRE says, but is so no longer. Person- ally we see nothing" utopian" about the within 'scheme, but different nations have different"
course, conceivable with the best organised service; but the unsatisfactory part of the affair is that it happened so after attention had been drawn to the defects of Count vox WALDERSEE'S com- mand. The repetition of the crime withi
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and most of the American states colonised by the Spaniards have found reason to lament the wanton and wholesale destruc- tion of their forests without provision being made for re-planting. Many States in the American Union have also seen cause to regret the undue destruction of their timber. In Hongkong we have nothing to reproach ourselves with on this head. The timber was never there to destroy since the island was. ceded to Great Britain, though during the past twelve months we have suffered more largely that perhaps ever before from forest fires, which have laid waste large stretches of hill-side on the south of the island. This may be due to the paucity of forest guards for the work they ought to do. The broken branches and prostrate trees still lie all about, cumbering and disfiguring the ground, and bearing silent evidence to the fury of the typhoon of November last. This neglect is certainly due to the fact that the Depart- ment is undermanned. Mr. FORD has been
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