December 30, 1901.]
informed as to the time and manner of attack of a foreign gunboat, with the result that they have frequently got clear away. There will be less chance of this with the Customs in command, for they have their own intelligence officers at work, who will be constantly on the qui vive. It is to be hoped that the Customs will have a perfectly free hand in the matter, and not be hampered by the want of suitable boats. The question of expense should not be greatly considered in the formation of this force. It is so important that the Chinese Government can well afford to pay highly for the restoration of order in the Kwang provinces.
TJE COOLIE QUESTION.
CHARGES OF MISSIONARY INTERFERENCE,
very different fashion.
!
515
On the question whether one section of the missionary body working in China is more given to unnecessary interference in secular affairs than another we do not wish to dwell here. There can be no doubt that what our Shanghai contemporary says on the matter, in the passage quoted above, is substantially correct. A leading article in a recent number of the Times dis- cusses the same question and comes to the The London paper says: same conclusion.
The
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. registration and control, turn out dishonest | hush up every abuse which is caused by rogues. It cannot be too forcibly urged, over-zealous propagandists. Such abuses both on the Government and on those who for seriously affect foreign prestige among the sentimental or other occult reasons pamper natives, and, as it is by giving them publi- the Chinese, that the Chinese working city alone that they can be checked, the classes do not come here for the benefit of only honourable course open to those who their health: they come because they can are interested in the intercourse between secure a high wage for light work-light as China and the outside world is to call compared with the service they would have attention to them as they occur. The to give in China-and they are not likely remedy for those who are grieved at state- to throw up their good livelihood because ments made in print about the occasional they are asked to submit to a wholesome misdoings of the missionaries is not to and reasonable regulation, which would contradict them without the slightest moreover give them a status and bar out knowledge of the actual facts, but to dis- the ineligible and unworthy. The fear that prove them, if possible, from investigations the coolies would revolt is both pusillani- on the spot. In the case of the present mous and cannot be too strongly deprecated. story, we have not the slightest reason to It is the duty of the Government to legis- doubt our correspondent's bona-fides, nor has late for the greatest good of the greatest any contradiction of his statement come (Daily Press, 28th December.). number, and this is a fact that seems to from anyone who has a local acquaintance With great regret we learn that, at a have been absent from consideration in the with the circumstances of the affair. This meeting of the Executive Council held just discussion on the subject at issue. We can does not of course prove the tale true, but it before Christmas, it was decided not to only hope in the interests of the community certainly renders it unwise for an undis- adopt the recommendations contained in the that the matter will be reconsidered, and a criminating champion of missions to reject Report of the Commission appointed on the courageous decision taken. Otherwise the it because it does not please him. If the
i 28th August last to enquire into the ques-arguments in favour of municipal self-charge is to be met, it must be met in a tion of the existing difficulty of procuring government will grow apace. and retaining reliable chair and jinricksha coolies for private chairs and jinrickshas. What passed on the occasion we are, of course, unable to say, but the Council was divided on the question, some members (Daily Press, 21st December.) being strongly in favour of making a trial Certain remarks from our Swatow corres- of registration on the lines suggested by the pondent's letter which appeared in our Commission, while the majority urged that issue of the 27th November, on the subject it would be impracticable or useless. The of "missionary interference" in that locality, real truth probably is that the Chinese view were quoted on the 4th instant by the North of the matter has prevailed, and it has been China Daily News, which added that stories decided, by the persons who are not suffer- like this showed how necessary. it was that ing from the evils it was sought to remedy, the Roman Catholic bishops should insist to leave those evils without a remedy rather on the priests abstaining from interfering, than to run the risk of hurting the feelings ou ex parte complaints, in matters with of the coolie by asking him to be photo-which religion has no concern. Immediately graphed and registered. The community after the reproduction of our correspondent's will be disappointed at this outcome of an story, our Shanghai contemporary received honest attempt to find a remedy for an admitted evil, one under which they have groaned for years. The members of the Commission may perchance wonder why they were ever appointed if it was not intended to do anything. The taxpayers may ask, to what end was all the expense of putting into type a bulky book of pro- ceedings if the matter was to end in smoke. The coolies, who will in due course hear of the decision to allow them still to exercise their own sweet will, will laugh in their sleeves at the weakness and folly of the Government, and will be encouraged to make further demands upon and to wax more insolent to their employers. The difficulty of obtaining any guarantee for the respectability and honesty of servants will grow more and more serious, and the troubles and cost of house- keeping will go on, increasing, What with the rise in rentals and wages of domestics, the higher cost of all imported articles, whether of food or clothing, and the continuing decline in exchange, it will soon be impossible for quite a large section of the British and foreign community to exist on the rates of pay now given. Employers, on the other hand, find it extremely difficult to advance the rates of pay owing to the keenness of competition in trade which has brought down the margin of profits to a perilously low point. More over, business is depressed all over China and its effects are felt in every rank of life in this Colony. Yet the Government, for fear of hurting the feelings of the Chinese coolie, is afraid to put into operation a simple measure for the regulation of a troublesome class of domestics, who render the most unwilling service for very high rates of pay, and frequently, for want of
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"
we
"In this respect" [i.e. of interference in affairs]" a distinction must, we believe, be established between the missionaries of the different Protestant denominations and those of the Roman Catholic Church." Times continues: "The claims set up by France, and more recently by Germany as far as Shantung concerned, to exercise "a peculiar protectorate over Roman Catholic missionaries, and indirectly even over native Roman Catholics, and the "methods by which that protectorate has in "certain cases been exercised, must necess.
""
*
乐富
+6
In cases like
from a valued correspondent "a protest, in the name of the Roman Catholic clergy, against the story itself and against the general statement that the Roman Catholic clergy" will always support their adepts, even when evidently wrong, while the Protestant missionaries never interfere in the worldly
arily give some colour to the charge that, concerns of their co-religionists." The
"under the cloak of religious propa- :-"We, of course, are Daily News rejoins:
ganda, political objects have not in- in no way responsible for the story, which
frequently been pursued and achieved." stated was extracted from a Hongkong paper, and our correspondent allowed that, To a certain extent, the Roman Catholic being so far from the scene of the events, missionaries suffer from a too careful pro- "he was not in a position to deny its truth, tection by the military arm.
though he felt sure it was exaggerated. that described by our Swatow correspondent, As for the general statement, it is widely however, this question is not involved, and 'believed that the Protestant missionaries it can only be deemed highly regrettable. are more careful than their Catholic that such incidents of uncalled-for inter. 'colleagues to avoid mixing themselves ference by the missionaries themselves in 'up in secular matters and in litigation, the entirely non-religious affairs of their "and the general testimony of Chinese converts should be so comparatively fre- “officials confirms this belief." The Shang-queut. hai paper then goes on to point out that in our issue of the 7th instant there appears the conclusion of the story, in which it is recorded that, as the result of the Roman Catholic missionaries' interference in a dispute rising out of a collision between two sampans, a non-Christian boatman was only released from prison after his relatives and the oatmen's guild conjointly had paid $300 compensation into the coffers of the Roman Catholic body.
44
E
**
The N.-C. Daily News says:-Our Wachang correspondent is well within the truth in say- ing that great sympathy will be felt with H.Ě. Chang Chih-tung in the melancholy death of his grandson, of whom he was justly proud, just as the young man was returning home. He was an extremely smart young fellow, very bright and intelligent. When he arrived at Shanghai some two years ago on his way to Japan, he was met at the wharf by the Shang- hai officials, who were scandalised at his appear- It is obviously unwise, as well as unjust, ing in a semi-Western military uniform, in- for any foreigu newspaper in China to stead of the regulation long silk coat, official circulate stories to the detriment of missions hat, etc. He said that he meant to be a soldier, without a reasonable assurance of their and therefore he had no use for the full dress of genuineness, and we are convinced that a Chinese official, in which it was impossible to move about. With his native intelligence, and there is not a journal which would so act. the prestige of his birth he bade fair to be of But it is absolutely against the best interests great value to his country, and his premature of the missionary body as a whole and the death just as his education was completed is general reputation of foreigners in China to, very greatly to be regretted.
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