February 24, 1902.)
THE ANGLO-JAPANESE AGREEMENT.
The following particulars about the reception of the news of the Anglo-Japanese Agreement are brought by Reuter s telegrams
The Dominion Government has advised the British Columbian Government that the bills passed last session containing clauses excluding Japanese will be disallowed unless amended in the coming session.
The Right Honourable Edmund Barton, Prime Minister of Australia, is satisfied with the agreement, and believes that it will benefit Australia. The Press generally approves of the agreement, but Sydney papers believe that it menaces the future of white Australia.
The United States Government welcomes the treaty between Great Britain and Japan, and remains neutral; its neutrality however is benevolent and sympathetic. The American newspapers are of opinion that the United States stands to gain much by the treaty, and should give it its heartiest approval.
The German Press believes that the treaty will tend to preserve peace, but that it is a distinct check to Russia.
In Russian official quarters the Anglo- Japanese treaty has been received with "equanim- ity, and even satisfaction." Its objects, the preservation of the integrity of China and the independence of Cores, correspond with Russian policy, but if peace is imperilled, Russia will take measures to safeguard her own interests. So the telegram states, but Russia's satisfaction
is hard to understand,
The Marquis of Lansdowne, speaking in the House of Lords, said that it was England's desire to protect Japan against a coalition, and that by the agreement just concluded we were compelled to aid this friendly Power whose obliteration it was impossible for us to tolerate, Lord Rosebery warmly congratulated the
Government.
Lord Cranborne stated that the substance of the agreement between Great Britain and Japan was communicated to America before publication. He also stated that Manchuria is no more excluded from the scope of the agree- ment than any other province of China. The Anglo-German agreement remains in force.
The N.-C. Daily News publishes the following telegrams from its Tokyo correspondent:-
Tokyo, 13th February. The Japanese Diet received the announce- ment of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance with acclamation. The newspapers affirm that identity of interests has long been operating to draw the two Powers, together; nevertheless, England's abandonment of ber habitual attitude of isolation, and her conclusion of a written alliance which disregards racial and religious prejudices, must be regarded as a great historical event, constitnting a high honour for Japan. All the journals emphasise the peaceful purpose of the alliance, and insist that it is not directed against any Power, since its real purpose is to preserve the tranquil and equal enjoyment of legitimate opportunities, wherein all are interested. The leading papers fully recognise Japan's responsibility to worthily discharge the duties she has now incurred, by increasing the efficiency of her armaments and developing her material resources, inasmuch as the alliance cannot prove durable and successful unless it is mutually beneficial, actually and potentially.
Tokyo, 14th February. The Anglo-Japanese Alliance has been the cause of many demonstrations of rejoicing at Tokyo. Entertainments have been organised by Chambers of Commerce and political parties in both Houses of Parliament. A torchlight procession of students carrying Anglo-Japanese flags proceeds to-night to the Emperor's Palace, the British Legation, and the Foreign Office, singing specially composed songs about the peace-preserving union between the Land of the Rising Sun and the Land whereon the Sun never Sets.
According to telegraphic news just to band, Mesers. Carlowits & Co. inform us, the report of the ss. Claverdale being a total loss is au- founded. She has been ashore, but got off and proceeded on her voyage.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
SWATOW.
[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.]
Swatow, 12th February.
NEW POSTAGE BATZ3-PENNY: POSTAGE AT
LAST.
[
The following notification was sent round by the local British postal agency yesterday :-
Notice is hereby given that on and after the 15th February, 192, letters will be forward- ed to the United Kingdom, British Colonies and British Possessions, as well as British postal agencies in China, at the rate of 4 cents per oz." It is highly satisfactory that penny postage is now extended to every part of the British domain. This new rate also annuls, as far as Hongkong and the Treaty ports, where there are British postal offices, are concerned, the rates of postage lately circulated by the Hong- kong General Post Office.
CORRESPONDENCE.
[We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents.]
GAMBLING.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DA LY PRE88.
""
Hongkong, 15th February. SIR, We hear almost daily of some raid made by the Police upon houses where a number of Chinese meet for gambling purposes, and of the punishment meted out to such people by the magistrate. Now, Mr. Editor, shall be much obliged if you will inform me whether the same law does not apply to foreigners when they commit the same transgression. I happen to know of a house in a residential quarter of Hongkong, where as often as not, especially on aturday nights, a number of people meet, and such innocent pastimes as Poker, Baccarat, &c., are indulged in to such an extent that it is no uncommon thing to hear some of these most respectable gentlemen boast of having lost, in a night a whole month's salary! And the beauty of it is that these gentlemen are merely clerks with a salary hardly enough to help keep body and soul together! can quite understand some people resorting to cards to while away the time, but when they go so far as to lose in one night what they earn in a month, it is time the Police came in and put a stop to such disgraceful proceedings. The morals of such pepole are doubtful, and, having lost their last cent, they have recourse to the blood-sucking money-lender with the result that sooner or later they do the "vanishing act" or something worse.-Yours, etc.,
FIREFLY,
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against England's political designs that the most preposterous things would be 58110- tioned in Germany, if were but against Eng- land. The only people in Germany who stand by old England are men who have seen the world, and met in that wide world Englishmen of the type which represents that cultivated nation; not the tailor, or shopkeeper, who travels on the Rhine and makes himself detested by his arrogant manner, but the true Englishman who carries culture wherever he goes, and who is glad to associate with any nationality as long as its representative is a gentleman. You have no idea what lies the German Press, without exception, daily brings about Englund's doings, and every word is believed by every German as if it were the Gospel. I daresay England will outlive all this, and I can keep my hat on!
TIENTSIN BESIEGED.
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The déli-
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAÍLY PRESS,' SIE, I renture to send you the following remarks upon a book called Tientsin Besieged and After the Siege, described as a daily record by the correspondent of the North-China Daily News. It is a great pity that these notes, which, according to the author, had "been usually scribbled in the odd moments of a busy man,' should have been given to the world in a more permanent form than the file of a daily paper (to quote again the author) or in any form at gins of all, after they were known to be "full omission and commission," which "could have been made good," he publicly avers. berate repetition of mis-statements and inac curacies known to be such and not facts, is hardly a claim for consideration for Lis journal, however "honest and spontaneous" his ideas may have been when he first recorded his "impressions." He has simply perpetuated the wild irresponsible gossip and rumour of the Gordon Archway, and sent it forth as a correct record of events in Tientsin during the period referred to, thereby foisting on the public as reliable hi-tory the wildest shaves" which passed current for intelligence at a disturbed period amongst a perturbed community. In most cases, the truth could have been obtained by a very short journey from the shelter of the Gordon Hall, and these very inaccurate, and in cases, unjust notes, would not have been written, or at any rate published as records of facts. Unjust, as applied to some of these notes, may seem strong, but is deserved. For or writes of, instance, when he accuses, "women scuttling to the cellars," he might with greater truth and justice have applied Indeed the that phrase to many of the men. conduct of the women was usually an example While worthy of being imitated by the men. seizing upon any chance of bestowing some- what fulsome praise on any local resident or institution, he is very obary of expressing any approbation of the men who really did the work. The Gas and Water Supplies were due SIR, Perhaps the extract below of a home to the exertions of the British, whose engineer, private letter may help to explain the anti-officers, and stokers, etc., kept these works going British feeling in Germany. It is written by frequently under fire. One resident alone, and an old China hand now residing in the Father- he formerly an officer in the Navy, worked at' land, and I venture to think it will be read these very useful and indeed necessary matters with much interest by his own countrymen in indefatigably and unostentatiously, but, prais the East and also by Britishers. As a leading was bestowed elsewhere, while the services of paper at home put it, some months ago. the the Navy were not even alluded to in this con- whole attitude on the Continent seems to be nection. The deed of a local volunteer, gallant the result of sour grapes, or, as a friend of enough in itself, and deserving of consideration as such for its own sake, has been magnified mine suggests, and I subscribe myself,
out of all proportion as the means of saving Tientsin; which it assuredly was not. despatches or appeals of any kind from the British are conveyed on that occasion. Neither did the deed in question hasten the relief or reinforcements by one minute, or aid in saving life in Tientsin, in spite of the many statements made to the effect that it did by those who know The author is little or nothing about it. apparently in ignorance of the fact that the action of his own countrymen, for whom he has not a great amount of praise, prevented the abandonment of Tientsin and thus saved it” (if he likes the expression, though it is some- what lofty). But some people are so constituted that thoy cannot see much good in their own countrymen or their actions, while they are ready to bespatter with fulsome praise any deeds of foreigners, but who remember there i such a flag as a Union Jack when trouble arisos.
GERMAN ANGLOPHOBIA.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY PRESS."
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Hongkong, 15th February.
SOUR KRAUT.
(Enclosure.) Another great trouble is that America treatens European industries, and I must say the Yankees can do a lot. Our great shipping companies are shaking in their boots for fear of America buying up their fleets, and I think it most likely that some millionaire will do so unless the German Government forestalls them and makes these companies Government con- cerns. However, I think it wrong to do so. What do I oare if our ships are owned by Americans, or Jews emanating in some way from Germany, via Jerusalem, and there will be a sufficient number of men in Parliament to oppose such a scheme. Yet, if England made the slightest attempt to buy up a German Company, there wouldn't be one man in Par- liament to oppose the Government, because there exists such a hatred in Germany
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