arm
June 17, 1901.]
The lands assigned to the various tribes were held by them on strictly military tenure. Every male on attaining to full age was bound to enter the military service for a defined term of years; in lieu of rent and taxes his family had to provide him with a caparisoned horse and to him according to regulation, and care was taken that these duties should be regularly performed in person and no substitutes allowed. Such was the origin of the famous Cossack organisation, which has provided for the service of the Tsars an army holding direct of the Crown, and not identified in any way with the Tear's subjects at large. The Cossack, as the events of the last few months have proved, is equally ready to turn his arms against the students of St. Petersburg or the escap. ing fugitives from Blagoveschensk, and neither by association nor tradition has any sympathy with the other subject of the Tsar. It is this that renders the progress
80 of Russia dangerous to civilisation, and perhaps so far we may congratulate ourselves that the measures taken by the early Manchu Emperors were rendered useless by the apathy of their successors. Had the Tartar garrison of Peking, for instance, shown any military disposition whatever, and had, it joined the party of the nominal Manchu Empress- really by blood a Chinese, as the irony of fate makes it-there would have been no escape for the devoted Legations, and the serio-comedy of the coup d'etat would have ended in a very different result than the scuttle to Hsian. The contrast is only another instance of the momentarily in significant causes that ultimately result in
world-wide effects.
GREAT BRITAIN AND THE INDEMNITY.
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. residents in China, Without wishing to cast any reflections on Sir ERNEST SATOW, we must recognise that it is becoming daily evident that a statesman whose previous career would inspire more personal respect is urgently required to represent British interests in Peking. It may be doubted whether Sir ERNEST SATOW has ever developed financial instinct, and the important questions now at issue are almost entirely financial. Among those who are engaged in the task of settling them there is a strong party who care but little about the commercial development of China, in which the nations whom they represent are likely to play little or no part. Britain, Germany, the States, and Japan, on the contrary, are very much interested in the matter. Yet only the two latter seem to act upon any definite line of policy which promises to secure the future of China in relation to the rest of the world. The majority of the Powers' representatives are only to willing to maintain the status quo with such few modifications as they cannot avoid. That any commercial nation should acquiesce in such a policy only indicates the badness of her advisers.
PLAGUE-PREVENTION IN JAPAN.
(Daily Press, 11th June.) Recent copies of the Kobe newspapers have brought intelligence of the energetic way in which the Japanese authorities there are taking precautions against the possible introduction of plague into the town. The serious outbreaks in this Colony and in Formosa are said to have alarmed the Japanese, and they have decided that they caunot too soon be on their guard. As dead rats infected with plague have already, it would seem, been found in Tokyo, the Kobe authorities are showing wis.lom in losing no time. It is instructive to note how Kobe has been acting with a view to keeping away the disease, and to compare its methods with those of Hongkong. As the local Chronicle remarks, in view of the difficulties found in extirpating the disease in Hongkong, Bombay, Cape Town, and in other places where it has found a bold, the success of the Japanese in stamping it out in Osaka, Kobe and Wakayama, so that the country is now quite free, is a thing of which they may well be proud. We do not overlook the difference of conditions in Kobe and Hongkong, nor do we forges the fact that plague now appears endemic here. We think, however, that a consideration of the way in which a practical people is fighting against a terrible threat is not unprofitable.
(Daily Press, 10th June.) Our London correspondent's telegram received yesterday is to the effect that the representatives of the Powers in Chinaare not yet agreed as to several points in connection with the indemnity which that country is to pay. One of these points is the advisability of stipulating that the whole of the Chinese Empire shall be thrown open to foreign trade instead of the proposed increase of the Tariff. This proposal was made by Mr. ROCKHILL, the United States Commissioner, and it is understood that Japan is in favour of it. The British representative, Sir ERNEST SATOW, we are told, opposes it. If we understand the American proposal rightly, the throwing open of the whole of the Empire to foreign trade by the large increase which it will bring into the Imperial
In the first place, the crusade against exchequer is to take the place of any rats is being prosecuted with all possible augmentation of the existing Tariff. This vigour. The Japanese plague-experts are general opening of China to foreign com- firmly convinced in the large share of guilt borne by rats in the dissemination of the meree is a necessity of the future, and no one can deny that the Powers should do all disease, and indeed an universal crusade that they can to facilitate the process. against these vermin has been advocated The only question at issue is whether it by some of them. The reward offered for can be brought about at once. Up to the every rat, live or dead, has been increased present, even the opening of the inland by the Kobe authorities from two to five waters to foreign trade and navigation, sen since the 9th of last month, and all rats nominally conceded to Sir CLAUDE MAC- alike examined for plague-germs, DONALD, has never been effective. Mr. instead of only the dead ones as before. ROCKHILL'S proposal is wider still in its Seven to eight hundred daily was the scope. Its opponents, no doubt, question average number of rats being brought whether the time is yet come for such a in at the end of May, but no pest had been discovered up to sweeping change. We have no means at bacillus
date. From all trace of the present of ascertaining how Sir ERNEST SATOW formulated his objections to the disease, in leed, Kobe has American proposal. It is unfortunate that, been entirely free, and the precautions taken at the present crisis in the history of by the authorities appear so complete that China's intercourse with the rest of the it is very reasonably hoped locally that world, Great Britain is not represented by plague will not show itself, or that if an a man who inspires confidence in British isolated case should occur it will be at once
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discovered and infection prevented. No less than twenty-eight doctors are engaged by the Kobe authorities. The houses of the poorer classes are, being medically inspected and cleansed under police super- intendence, and large numbers of persons, some 26,500 in all, had by the end of May been inoculated with anti-plague serum. latter proceeding the Chronicle The
a method of precaution designates as which, as even the doctors do not seem to believe that it gives immunity for longer than a year, appears somewhat superfluous until the disease actually displays itself." It is nevertheless a sign of the whole-hearted way in which the Japanese are taking up the question of plague-prevention.
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Now our sanitary authorities have been carrying on a vigorous crusade against rats from au early date last year, and in this particular it cannot be urged that they have been remiss. But of course the difficulties of coping with these vermin here are greater by far than in Japan, in fact probably greater than in any port of the East, owing to the bulk of our shipping. Moreover, the plague had got a firm hold on the place before a continuous warfare against them was begun. Whatever their actual con- nection with plague, there is no doubt that Hongkong labours under especial disadvan- tages as far as infection by rats in concerned, and we do not desire to minimise the difficulties of our sanitary con ditions, as our drainage system is certainly one which fosters the harbouring of vermin. Taking the second point, however,. that of the medical staff engaged on the spot, it need not be said to those who have read recent articles in these columns and in those of our contemporaries that Hongkong is shamefully undermanned medically, and that as far as can be seen no special efforts are being made to meet the emergency. Then as to medical inspection and cleansing of the poorer-class dwellings, this in Hongkong has been put off until the plague was on us in full violence. For reasons apparently sentimental we refrained from cleansing our villages during the season when plague practically was non- existent.
A recommendation of the Sanitary Board on the point was rejected by the Legislative Council, and it was decided that the villages should remain dirty with what result we now know. Even if we grant the contention of the Chinese members of the Council that it is a hardship on the villagers to make them keep their houses in a decent condition, it is an absurd parsimony on the part of the Government to hesitate about the cost of limewashing their dwellings for them. Much more money is being spent now, even on these very measures alone, to make up for this penny-wise pond-foolish policy. No long ago Great Britain was generally allowed the position of the most sanitary nation in the world. A few more Colonies like Hongkong would destroy this reputa- tion for ever. It is plain that such sanitary authorities as we are favoured with have a lot to learn from our neighbours in the Far East; but we see little indication of their beginning to learn the lesson.
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The Imperial Bank of China at Shanghai is reported to have received a wire from the Board of Revenue to the effect that the deposit receipt with the Bank held in name of the middle division of Wu-wei Army (of which Yang Lu is the ex-Generalissimo) has been de- clared to be missing and made null and void. The loss of this deposit receipt happened during the crisis. The Chinese Pesce Plenipotentiaries have notified the foreign Ministers of its cancellation.
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