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THE TRADE OF BANGKOK. The statistics of the import and export trade of Bangkok show the following totals for the past six years i
1896 1897
$ Imports......19,384,513 21,044,328 24,858,071 Exports..... 25,280,598 30,362,912 32,032,393
1895
Total .44,665,111 51,407,240 56,890,461
1898
1899 0900 8
$
8 Imports..... 27,381,913 26,316,301 26,492,396 Exports......36,430,651 33,659,888 32,736,395 Total ......63,792,564 59,976,189 59,228,791 From these figures it will be seen that though the big advance of 1898 has not been maintain- ed the trade of the port cannot be regarded as in any way declining. These figures include the coasting trade.
NORTHERN NOTES.
The following items are from the P. & T. Times of the 4th inst. :----
Barracks for 2,000 troops are now being erected adjoining the British Legation.
The late Viceroy Yu Lu has been posthu. mously degraded and deprived of all rank and honours.
The Germans have completed the bridge at Hanku, and trams may possibly be able to run aorosa next week.
All the new engines except four have now been set up at the Tongku works, and several are now in daily use.
From the 1st instant, mails ceased to have a special military escort by rail, and are now in charge of the postal officials.
The Military Authorities are, we hear, blow- ing up the sunken junks along the Peiho which impede traffic at various points.
Almost every night the foreign poste along the line of communication have a more or less successful scrap with brigands, and we hear Major Ducat has been very successful in killing and capturing a number of these rascals.
Admiral Seymour went up to Peking direct from Tongku on the 2nd inst., being met en route at Tientsin Station by General Lorne Campbell. He was accompanied by Capt. Craddock.
Many of the well-to-do Chinese in Peking are burying whatever treasure and valuables they have, as they say they hear the foreign troops are to be withdrawn and Chinese troops will take their place, and, having suffered already at the hands of the Boxers and foreign troops, they prefer not to take any chances with the Chinese regulars.
The Je Je explains that Tung Fushiang is still in Ning-sha, and that the reason the report has been circulated that he is going to join Russia is due to the unceasing activity of his troops. He is, however, really keeping them well drilled in obedience to the Dowager's orders, as she may require them at any moment. We give this for what it is worth.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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COREA.
Chemulpo, 24th March. It is some time since I wrote as, although there have been many reports concerning Corea, there has really been very little to write about. The winter was, on the whole, a fine one. The cold set in rather later than usual, but now this is over, and spring is upon us.
46
CONCESSION-HUNTERS.
not-
[May 20, 1901.
obtain title deeds for his purchase, withstanding the fact that he had paid his money to the vendor.
dor. He thereupon commenced proceedings and obtained the arrest of the enterprising gentleman who had sold him land which did not belong to him. The prisoner, in order to escape the dreadful punish- ment which would be meted out to him for trafiking in Crown property, informed the authorities that if he were treated with clemency he would reveal a plot of which he had knowledge for the overthrow of the Govern- ment. His offer was accepted, with the result that the ex-officials already mentioned, six of them in all, were suddenly seized and thrown into prison on a charge of conspiracy.
The best known of the gang is the notorions Kim Yun-chiun, who last year endeavoured to foment an anti-foreign rising in the north among the ruffians known as Corean Boxers. He was arrested at the time and convicted, among other things, of conspiring to kill the Lady Om, the favourite concubine of the Emperor, and a staunch adherent of the Russian faction. Through some intrigue or other, however, he then escaped, but it is thought his fate is pretty well scaled now.
A STORM BREWING.
That there is a political storm brewing I am convinced. 10,000 Japanese rifles and a million cartridges have been landed at Chemulpo, and a good deal of mystery is being observed about their ultimate destination.Mercury.
THE CABINET CRISIS IN JAPAN.
With the advent of this season, all the world seenis to have awakened to an interest in the *Land of Morning Calm." It almost deserves the name of the "Stormy Land." New con- cessions are required by people of all nation alities, with the exception of Americans, who are not so active at the present moment. Perhaps it is that they have got all they want. Last year the American Syndicate managed to obtain contracts for the beginning of bank- ing business, the electric lighting of Beoul and extension of the electric trams, cleaning out the drainage-canal running through the centre of the city to the river, the provision of a fresh water supply, etc. These are con- tracts not to be sneered at. The French have opened a Government Scientific School, and are providing instructors for the Cavalry and Artillery. Besides this, they are after gold and coal-mining concessions, and the contract for the building of a railway from Seoul to Sendo, the former capital. They are supplying the plant, as well as a loan to pay for it. The British Pioneer Mining Co., has lately struck what is reported to be a very important coal and copper lode, and they have now got out a professor as head-teacher for the Anglo- Corean College. The German mining conces- It is now plain that although the original sion does not seem to have made a good difference of opinion between Viscount Wata. choice of a site, and I hear that endeavours nabe and his colleagues was adjusted, a new are being made to change the selection How difference subsequently arose, culminating in ever, the concessionaries are not entirely out the crisis of the 2nd instant. At the outset the of it, as they supply the Musical Director of Minister of Finance proposed, not to defer the the Court and the Medical Adviser. A Ger-progress of certain State undertakings, but to man school has also been started. The Japa- abandon them altogether for the present. nese have now the farming of the ginseng Against that project the other members of the monopoly and the finances of the country. Cabinet protested vehemently. They were quite formerly in the hands of the Chief Commissioner ready to agree that if the Treasury found itself of Customs. Their railway concessions are n t without funds, and if the plan of domestic loans materialising, but in the Mint they have what could not be carried into operation owing to should be a good thing. The Russians do not stringency in the money market, corresponding appear to have got quite so much at the adjustments should be made. But they were moment, but with the concession to build a strongly opposed to anything like a radical railway to Wonsan, and thence to the frontier, change of the yost bellum programme. Vis- and a nice site at Wonsan for stations, they count Watanabe appears to have made a con- have not done so badly. There is said to have cession to these objections, and to have agreed lately been some friction about the engagement that the works should not be suspended, but mers- of so many instructors, but this seems to have ly delayed. Thus the threatened crisis, seemed blown over.
to have been averted. But the question of next year's Budget then came up for discussion, and it transpired that Viscount Watanabe had never entertained any idea of abandoning his principle. On the contrary, he considered that in modifying his proposal, so far as the current fiscal year was concerned, he had secured its operation in subsequent years. In other words, while continuing the works on a reduced scale until 31st March, 1902, he looked forward to suspending them indefinitely after that date. He did not deny the beneficial character of the works or the advantages they would confer on the State, but he held that until the domestic money market 'should become easy enough to permit the floating of loans, all expenditures demanding such a course should be curtailed, and he further argued that a foreign loan was not to be thought of, inasmuch as to make further appeals to foreign markets would be a disgrace to Japan. Thus once more a gulf was found to be set between him and his colleagues, the latter being quite determined that the country's progress must not be arrested, and being also convinced that by a little management the financial difficulty could be overcome since the surplus revenue already flowing into the Trea sury and that which will by and by acerus from new and increased taxes passed by the Diet last session, would afford ample means to prosecute, if even on a reduced scale, the productive on- terprises to which the State has put its hand. Viscount Watanabe, however, declined to Haten to any of these arguments. He maintained his ground with singular resolution, and finally Marquis Ito out the knot by resigning, his example being followed by all the other Minis- ters, including the Ministers of Was the Navy, but excluding Viscount who, true to his resolution, sta
RUSSIAN ADVISER AT FOREIGN OFFICE.
I am credibly assured that a Russian has been engaged as adviser at the Foreign Office, and if this is readly the case a gr at deal may turn on the appointment. It would be no joke for Great Britain and Japan if a Russian were to be installed in the F. O., for bearing in mind tho many advantages the wily Muscovite already possesses in these regions, the hold he has on Manchuria and his occupation of Port Arthur, it would mean little short of a Russian dominion in Corea if he succeeded in securing to himself the direction of Corea's foreign relations.
RUMOURED RUSSIAN OCCUPTAIN (F MASAMPO.
There is now a squadron of six Russian cruisers at Masampo, and I am told that the officer in command has instructions to land guns, erect batteries and leave 1,000 marines to man them. Whether the report is tru or not I cannot say, but I should think a programme of the kind could not be carried out without a vigorous protest being entered by some of the other Powers interested. •
The Recreation Ground was the scene of an impressive and pretty ceremony on Thursday morning last, when the whole of the British troops in the garrison were paraded to do honour to three of our Tientsin ladies-Mrs. Bellingham, Mrs. Droste and Miss Bourgignen. The parade was held at 10 a.m., when Major- General Lorne Campbell, accompanied by his Staff, escorted the ladies to the centre of a square, addressed a few appropriate remarks to them, pinned the medals on, and escorted them to the saluting-base; after which the troops
What may still be called the Kim Ok.kim marched past to the strains of the Band of the faction is again showing signs of activity, and Hongkong Regiment. After the purely the Government has found it necessary to military function was over, the ladies had a
arrest a number of persons for complicity in a very warm reception from their civilian neigh-suspected conspiracy. The prisoners are all
bours on the Pavilion.
=
In the list of winning owners at the Shang- hai Races last week. Mr. Toeg came first with 3 firsts and 3 seconds, followed by Mr. Duplex (3 firsts), Mr. G. H. Potts (2 firsts, 4 seconds, 1 third), and Mr. Kannok (2 firsts, 3 seconds, 1 third).
PLOT AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT.
men who formerly held high office, and in their time were prominent supporters of the Japanese party. This the way their arrest was brought about. Some time ago one of the Mins, who, it seems, was an advocate of Russian polioy here, sold the northern part of Rose Island opposite the foreign settlements of Chemulpo to a Japanese. The island is Crown land and the buyer found it impossible to
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