January 18, 1902.]
|
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
J. 8. Bach 1. Toccata and Fugue in D minor 2. Offertoire on two Christmas themes...Guilmant
(Dudley 3. Recitative
Buck
and Aria
not to be influenced by dangerous counsels, etc., but again and again did I find difficulty in my
"Behold! there attempt to stop the tide. As for the Princes
shal' be a day, of the various orders and all the Ministers of
Mrs. D. E. BROWN. the Court, they unite with one acclamation on
4. Prayer from "
Lohengrin" one subject [the divine mission and invulner-
.Wagner (arranged by Sulze) ability of the Boxers-Translator]-and on
from Twelve Pieces? King what subject your Excellencies may have 5. (a)" Berceuse for Violin and Piano already heard, but which I dare not put down.
(b) "Interlude
53
25
Mrs. D. E. BROWN,
Allegro Maestoso 2 from lat Sonato,
Guilmant Costa
} ... Peace
A FRENCH VIEW OF THE SITUATION IN SIAM.
in so many words. Moreover, those daily 6. Recitative and Aria from “Eli' around the principal Princes are half of them members of the Boxer Sociely. In the various Manchu and Chiness regiments more than half 7. Finale of the privates belong to the same organisation. There are several tons of thousand Boxes inside Peking who go about to and fro, numer- ous as grasshoppers. It is a myriad times im- possible to bring order out of this chaos, even with the sacred intelligence of their Imperial Majesties to aid them, they cannot turn back to reason the great majority around them. Alas! What then was to be done? I could only wait and see what could afterwards be done to remedy matters in the face of those almost superhuman difficulties. I at, first recommended that there should be a conference at the Tsungli Yamên in the hope of fluding some loophole by which order could be restored; but again was I frustrated, for on that day certain soldiers and desperadoes murdered the German Minister, and thus another phase has been put upon the face of affairs. Indeed the crisis changes like a kaleidoscope each day, for there are from a thousand to ten thousand changes daily which it is impossible to picture to your Excellencies. Prince hing and Wang Wen-shao still retain the semblance of having their country's welfare at heart; but they can do nothing. As for a simple person like myself, were I to die the death, there is nothing to be regretted; but then I should be culpable in the eyes of ten thousand generations in the future (for having died uselessly without having done something to save my country in a perilous crisis like the present). I call upon Heaven to witness that I speak from the heart. Alas! alas! I see no way at all just now except to hope that the sacred spirits in the heavens will help this country, considering that this dynasty has always shown virtue and kindness to its sub- jects. At present, I see no way to do anything; *Finally, I would beg to call your Excellencies' attention to the fact that I hope you will not obey any of the Imperial decrees which may be issued after the 20th of June (1900). It is to be feared that desperadoes may become restless and rise up in the regions bordering the Yangtze River, and it is my earnest hope that your Excellencies will take steps to protect your several jurisdictions against disturbances, each man doing his duty to the best of his ability.- Yung Lu
The Avenir du Tonkin of the 10th inst. devotes its leading article to an exposition of the situation in Siam. It says, in effect : --
Hitherto only timid attempts have been made to repair the evil wrought by our mistakes in 1893 and 1896, and to regain our influence in Siam. At the present noment, however, the
we up, and
are question has again come informed by Havas that M. Klobukowski has been charged with obtaining for France in the valley of the Menam economic privileges equal to those which have been conferred on other nations, and which have been promised by the King to M. Doumer. France wants to share in the advantages of the development of the Menam Valley, the only part of the kingdom that is really rich and well populated.
"From the above it will be gathered," says the N.-C. Daily News," that H.. Yung Lu is now, at least, very anxious to be on the right side of the fence, as far as foreigners are concerned."
We can obtain this, not by threatening iam at Bangkok itself, a course from which we are precluded by the Anglo-French Agreement of 1893. but by exercising on the Government sufficient pressure in the region of the Mekong, which by the same Agreement was implicitly
There we
made a zone of French influence. can aut freely, and the Siamese Government will no doubt perfer to grant us certain advant ages on the Menam rather than see its authority completely destroyed in the basin of the Mekong. Such are the two alternatives that our resolution would leave to Siam, for whatever be the attitude of her Government the 1896 Agree- ment will turn the situation to our advantage, either in the nentral zone of the Menam or in the zone of the Mekong.
Nor is it an empty phrase to speak of the Siamese Government being able to allow our nationals to share in the advantages arising from the economic development of the valley of the Menam. Something more is meant than the free competition of foreign merchants, on which the attitude of the Government can have little influence. To say nothing of the ill-treatment of our nationals and protègès, which ought to cease, high officials are being appointed in the valley of the Menam, public works are being carried out there, appointments and works in which the Siamese Government can find a place for Frenchmen. As instances of there appoint- ments we may mention the recent constitution
ORGAN RECITAL IN ST. JOHN'S of the Gendarmerie ander Danish officers, and
CATHEDRAL.
Mr. A. G. Ward's organ recitals are always looked forward to by the really musical section of the Hongkong public, and, in evidence of this interest and expectancy, about three hundred people were present on the 13th inst. in the Cathedral. The vocalist was Ars. D. E. Brown, who made a splendid first appearance in the Colony, her translation of the composers' ideas in her two solos showing her to be possessed of true artistic feeling as well as of a lovely voice. Nothing better in the way of recitative could be desired than that of Mrs. Brown in the first solo, and her enunciation and declamatory style in the part“ Arise ye, get ye up unto Mount Zion," was perfect. Coming to the organ numbers, Mr. Ward submitted a selection of all charac ters of composition which was as appropriate as it was musicianly. The opening piece, a toccata and fugue in D minor by Bach, brought out the brilliant execution of the instrumentalist, and was & splendid interpretation. The other organ items were performed with Mr. Ward's usual skill and with a happy choice of combinations, collection was taken on behalf of the choir fund, amounting to $96. The following was the programme
K
+
|
the creation of a post of Adviser for Irrig- ation, which has been conferred on a Dutchman. Iu Siam we do not take the position that se should considering.our treaties and our situation in Indo-Chinn, but under the energetic impul. sion of M. Klobukowski things are going to be changed.
The following items are from the Foochow Echo of the 4th inst.:-On the evening of Monday last, a fire broke out some little distance beyond the long bridge and soon proved itself to be a serious matter. The flames spread with wonderful rapidity aud within an hour some thirty houses were destroyed Thege included three native banks, the owners of which are ruined. The fire originated in a store, tho owner of which was tampering with tins of kerosene oil. No great loss of life is reported, but a considerable amount of valuable property was destroyed.-It is satisfactory to note that the accoun:s of the health of His Excellency the Viceroy, which last week gavo some danse for anxiety, are decidedly better.-A very pretty function, following our Now Year's holiday, was the wedding of Miss Emily Begley to Mr. Carl Rosemann, the Superintendent of the Foochow Match and Timber Factory.
!
|
|
|
CORRESPONDENCE.
43
[We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opini na expressed by our correspondents.]
SPIRITISM.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE “DAILY PRESS.'
Hongkong, 10th January. SIE, It is really very refreshing to find at least one of our prominent fellow citizens able to find time and "leisure, amidst all the bustle of money-making, to devote himself to spiritual subjects. Mr. R. Shewan's letter to you cer- tainly deserves more than a passing notice, and availing myself of the truism that there are always two sides to a question, I would ask you to be good enough to allow me to have also a say in the matter.
One of the most remarkable forms of super- stition which still takes a very active part in modern life is no doubt Spiritism," and it is s surprising and lamentable fact that so many educated people are still dominated by it distinguished scientists are entanyled in it, and a number of spiritusas ic journals spread the To the list of names faith far and wide.
Even.
given by Mr. Shewan I can also add those of Zoliner and Fechner in Germany, and Wallace The regrettable and Crookes in England. circumstance that physicists and biologists of such distinction should have been led astray by spirit'sm is accounted for by Prof. Haeckel as due partly to their excessive imagination land partly by the influence of do mas which a religious education imprinted on the brain in early youth; moreover, it was precisely through the famous seances at Leipzig in which the physicists Zollner, Fechner, and Wilhelm Weber were imposed upon by the clever American conjuror Slade, that the fraud of the latter was afterwards fully exposed and he was discovered to be a barefaced impostor. In other cases, too, where the alleged marvels of spirit. ism have been thoroughly investigated, these have been traced to more or less clever decep. tion and it is a notable fact that "mediums are almost invariably of the weaker sex and
found to be nervous persons of abnormal irritability.--Yours, &c.,
ANTI-HUMBUG.
THE CATHEDRAL CHAPLAINCY,
"slide
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY PRESS.” Hongkong, 14th January, SIR.-I must apologise for again troubling yon with the above matter, but I cannot sit still and see things
without making one more attempt to rouse church-people to a sense of their duty and to an insistence on their rights. Since my last letter thehurch Body has thought fit to issue a circular letter an- nouncing the appointment of a Senior Chaplain to succeed the Rev. R. F. Cobbold, and giving some sort of explanation thereof. It has also posted notices on the doors of the Cathedral convening the annual general moeting of seat- holders and subscribers-though, why it has not thought fit to advertise the meeting in the local Press is, to say the leas: of it, curions. With regard to the circular letter, I cannot see that it strengthene the position of the Church Body in the slightest degree. On the contrary, I consider-and there are others of the same opinion—that it brought into even greater prominence the weakness and incon- sideration that has characterised its attitude with regard to the above matter from the very beginning. The extraordinary disinclination that the Church Body has evinced to meet the seatholders and subscribers fairly and squarely-i e., at a specially convened meeting
-
mo to be something more - appears to than a mere sign of its slackners and incom. petence. Indeed, did I not happen to know that more than one of its members deemed the whole matter of such trivia! importance as to be scarely worthy of consideration (!), I could come to no other conclusion than that it was a deliberate attempt to prevent such’a discussion,
The announcement. of course, speaks only too eloquently-for itself. We are, unless indeed some strong move is made, doomed to period of stagnation, if not something in Church matters for the next few Already I seem to seo a sad falling off
the
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.