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MR. MAY'S APPOINTMENT AS
COLONIAL SECRETARY. ·
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[ April 7, 1902.
"action. This is the spirit that now inspires "the measures of Government, which, though not beyond criticism, are reason- ably palliative. The victory over plague can only be completed when the people "are better acquainted with the virtues of light and air. Their co-operation is "essential; and we have had bitter experience that violent haste will only succeed in "arousing their resistance.”
THE HONGĶONG WEEKLY PRESS AND among others we trust that in the appoint. ment to the now vacant office of Captain Superintendent of Police the excellent work of the present acting official will not be Under Mr. BADELEY'S gui- overlooked. dance there has been no relaxation in the efficiency of the police, the rumours of dis-" content have died away, and the public bas generally been treated with the courtesy which it is entitled to demand. The office of policeman tends perhaps to the encourage- ment of an overbearing spirit toward the rest of the world, and this makes it very necessary that the head of the Force should be not only strong but also self-re strained.
BOMBAY, HONGKONG, AND THE PLAGUE.
(Daily Press, 3rd April.)
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The Times of India, it will be remem. bered, sneered at the complaints of the severity of the epidemic in Hongkong last year, and strongly supported the official side in the discussion over the sanitary con- dition of this Colony. However, though we may think that the Indian paper was then writing without any first-hand knowledge of the subject discussed-for the mortality though not approaching the appalling, even incredible death-rate announced from the Punjaub yesterday, was terribly severe in Hongkong, and the sanitary conditions upon the have at last forced themselves notice of our authorities-we are quite ready to sympathise with Bombay over the wildly inaccurate accounts published about its state.
(Daily Press, 4th April.) The announcement, which is to be found in another column to-day, of the appoint- ment of the Hon. F. H. MAY, OM.G., Captain Superintendent of Police, to the post of Colonial Secretary in Hongkong, rendered vacant by the promotion of the Hon J. H. STEwart-Lockhart to Weihai- wei, cannot but be received with mixed feelings in this Colony. It was of course recognised, when Mr. LOCKHART's trans- ference was make known, that if the Colonial Secretaryship was to be given to an official already in the Hongkong Government service, it must fall to Mr. MAY on account of his seniority and services. There was, however, the other alternative of an appoint-
The Times of India has been vigorously ment from outside, and not from our own service. There have not been wanting protesting against the "wild and extrava- strong expressions of hope that this latter gant statements regarding the results of course would be adopted by the Colonial the prevalence of pingue in Bombay that are obtaining currency," and finds it dis- Office. authorities. The reason for this is not hard to understand. No one denies the tressing to think what the ultimate result merits of the career of Mr. MAY in this upon the trade of the city is likely to be. It
As a disseminator of infection Colony. Appointed to a Hongkong Cadet- appears that another Bombay paper has ship in 1881, he was employed as a passed been stating that Bombay is the blackest Bombay is bound to be less guilty than the breeding- Hongkong as far as the conveyance of cadet ju the Colonial Secretary's Office from spot in the civilised world,” 1886. During the years 1889-91 he was ground of the most destructive disease infected persons by sea is concerned. The to the known to mankind", and "the pest-house principles of the Venice Convention are private secretary in succession Governor, Sir WILLIAM DES VEUX, to of the world"; and finally, that if it were very strictly observed there and the harbour Lieutenant not for British might the Powers would inspection system has been declared as Sir F. FLEMING, and to
send a cordon of warships to isolate Bom- nearly as possible perfect. In Hongkong General DIGBY BARKER. In 1891 he was
we have recently rejected a recommendation appointed Assistant Colonial Secretary, bay, and a line of soldiers to confine the and next year Assistant Colonial Treasurer. inhabitants on the land side. It is hardly to appoint two assistant surgeons to examine In 1893 he became Captain Superin- to be wondered at that such language has passengers entering and leaving the port; tendent of Police, an office which he called forth a protest. The Times of India hence the risks which have existed in the
In 1895 he was
says that Canton, "where the mortality past of our contracting and spreading has held up to now. appointed to the Legislative Council and from plague was at one time far severer plague, etc., are still as great as ever. As received his C.M.G., being decorated for than in lombay," still enjoys uninterrupted far as the sanitary supervision of the city services rendered during the coolie strike intercourse and an enormous trade with the and suburbs is concerned, a vast measure of and the plague epidemic of 1894. In 1896 world without, in spite of the absence of the improvement has this year been introduced, to protect it. As for the and it seems as if it were already bearing he was made Superintendent of Victoria strong arm Gaol and of the Fire Brigade. In Septem- assertion about Bombay being the breeding-fruit, as regards plague at least. But while ber last Captain Superintendent MAY weit ground of the most destructive disease the ingress into and egress from the Colony
our to mankind, contemporary of countless natives, potentially the bearers home on leave, whence he will return about, | known the 14th proximo as Colonial Secretary, asserts that plague is not the most destruc- of disease, is absolutely free, we cannot When we mention that he is also author of tive disease and that there is not a case of protest with the sincerity of Bombay a Guide to Colloquial Cantonese, it will plague that has been discovered on any against the outery of our neighbours. be recognised that he has during his ship after leaving Bombay during the his last five years that has not been traced connection with Hongkong shown
The most' pro- versatility in a remarkable degree. To his and duly accounted for.
Bombay, case of infection from connection with the Sanitary Board it is bable hardly necessary to call attention, for he the Times of India considers to be the was in that body much too prominent a outbreak in South Africa, though it no direct evidence implicating the member to be overlooked or, forgotten. A finds good verdict on Mr. May's position was Indian port. The journal therefore protests recently given by the Hongkong correspon-against the idea being spread abroad that dent of the North-China Daily News, when Bombay is infecting the world and con- he wrote:-" A capable, industrious, and tinues: "If our existence as a great seaport “is in danger of being threatened, the trouble "hard-working official, Mr. MAY
"will arise, not so much from the pre- formerly popular and respected. He is
sence of plague, as from the incalculable "still respected, but truth compels me to “say that he is popular no louger,
"mischief done by assertions of the kind “It must be conceded that the honourable “under discussion, which will be readily accepted in Europe when it is known that gentleman has all the qualifications that go to make a Dictator. Unfortunately the they have been openly printed in Bombay." “Colony does not want a Dictator, and is not The Times insists on the adequacy of the
mood to be run by the head of the measures now bein: taken in Bombay Police department." The same correspon- "not long ago," says our contemporary, "the Governor of Hongkong pressed his dent expressed the hope that in the Colonial Secretary's Office, if he should be promoted Council to initiate some of the measures to that post, Mr. MAY's talents would be adopted in this city"--and on the undesira less wasted than in the Police. Hongkong bility of heroic remedies any longer. The residents must be contented, with this cor- ultimate extinction of plague in India, as pondent, to hope for the best. Certainly the Plague Commission pointed out, must the methods which Mr. MAY adopted as rest with the people themselves. In a ptain –– Superintendent of Police and second article on the same subject, the Times ber of the Sanitary Board will not bear of India takes up this point again, saying: splantation to the Colonial Secretary's Plague, it is now realised, cannot be Friction between the Police depart- stamped out in a few short months, as ment and the public is always to be" was at first hoped. Its eradication must
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Ad
THE KWANGSI TROUBLES
(Daily Press, 1st April.) Our Pakhoi correspondent's announcement of the arrival at that port of several detach- ments of Chinese troops despatched by sea to Nanning, from Canton, on their way confirms te report of the Canton corres- pondent of our senior evening contemporary a few days ago that the Viceroy of the Kwang provinces had been stirred up by recent news to despatch troops against the rebels or robbers-whichever is their most fitting appellation-in Kwangsi. Those rumours which have reached Hongkong with regard to the Kwangsi “rebellion have been scanty and uncircumstantial, and indeed more seems to have been made of it in Shanghai and the North than in this neighbourhood. The fact is, as the China Mail's correspondent pointed out, Kwangsi is in a chronic state of rebellion, and for this reason Canton does not trouble itself much about reports of insurrection in the province. From what our Påkhoi correspondent writes in his letter of the 26th ult., neither is Pakboi much alarmed by the reports, though an extension of the disturbances would materially affect the port's trade. The suggestion that foreign men-of-war might sometimes visit Pakhoi is worthy of consideration. “At present the deplored, and such friction was marked in "be a slow and gradual process, accom-duty is left practically entirely to the French, plished without unduly depriving whole who have, however, no ground for looking 1900-1901. A welcome change has been"
"communities of their liberty of life and on Pakhoi as their own preserve. Such observable of late, and for this reason
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