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CONCESSIONS IN CHINA.
(Daily Press, 14th July.) Lord CRANBORNE recently, on the same day in which he made so foolish a remark about the formation of the Anglo-Japanese Agreement, commented strongly on the indolence shown by British subjects who bave obtained concessions in China. It is plain from the brief telegram which reported to us this portion of Lord CRANBORNE's speech that he was defending the British Govern- ment from the charge of neglecting to look after its nationals' interests, a charge which the British Government has frequently had brought against it in the past, and particu- larly in connection with China. CRANBORNE'Ss retort is of course the most
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
obvious one to be made and at the same time, if true, the most effective. The roncessionaires complain, saying: "have got these concessions from China but owing to opposition our claims are "unworkable. Subjects of other govern "ments in similar circumstances can obtain the help of their consuls and home authorities. You, on the other hand, “content yourselves with talking about the Open Door, which is, as far as we are concerned, a mere phrase." The Govern- ment replies: "No, you have obtained your concessions, but fou make no attempt to work them, and it is therefore to your own indolence and not to our neglect that the want of progress is due.'
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[July 19, 1902. HIS MAJESTY'S OPPOSITION.
(Daily Press, 15th July.)
time ago the Shanghai correspondent of the Times sent to that journal an extre nely instructive letter, in which he dealt with this very charge of indolence and examined It is not for a colonial paper to meddle in the conduct in particular of the Peking politics, Whig or Tory Conservative or Syndicate's Shansi and North Honan cou- Radical. However much they may affect the cessions. He then alluded to a previous home reader, there is for us no part to play, letter, written by him in 1898, in which he nor have we any right to meddle in their had said: "There exists a widely-spread mysteries. There is, however, one point in 'impression that the present enterprise is the eternal strife of party, the sempiternal "connected rather with the field of finance struggle of the ins and outs, to which it is "at home than with that of genuine enter- not uninstructive at the moment to turn our "prise in China, and it is generally felt eyes. As long as government by party is "that the promoters of the Peking Syndi- accepted as the ruling agent in our com- cate (Limited) are more concerned with plicated system of rule, so long is it essen- the successful floating of the company tial to the well-being of the body politic "in London than with the future de- that both should be real and active. Much velopment of the resources of Shansi." as the idealist may deplore the everlasting The Times correspondent adds in his later contest of faction within our midst, the letter:-"These views have been largely con- strife is but the result, not the cause, and- firmed during the past four years, though it the circulation of ideas from which it is only fair to state that under its present springs is but the indication that the fires Times organisation and control the Peking below are in full working order. Syndicate's operations have been entirely
from which the strife of party have been "removed from the sphere of speculative absent have been marked by blanks in the finance to that of a bona-fide commercial growth of the nation, de have been followed "and industrial undertaking, and that for by dead calms, during which the nation has some time past everything possible has yielded itself to the influence of the moment "been done by the directors and their able and has permitted itself to drift helplessly representative in Chiua (Mr. GEORGE before the currents of blind destiny. Into JAMIESON, C.M.G.) to remove the dis-such a calm drifted the ship of state when, "abilities which have hitherto blocked all the Napoleonic wars being over, the fires of progress." However, he goes on, after party died down almost to extinction, and reviewing the facts of the case, to say:-
the good ship lay helplessly drifting on to That our Foreign Office failed to insist on the rocks of disruption. The danger called "the fulfilment of the syndicate's contract forth the men, and in the leaders of the by Chica is matter for regret, and proves great party which came to call itself by "that the importance of the concession, in the attractive name of the Liberal Party, "its relation to British interests in Central came a revival; and the nation, instinct
China, has not been realised.
It with life, burst out and found for itself "is imperative, unless this valuable con- fresh realms to conquer. Then came the "cession is to pass out of British control, era of Free Trade, when Sir ROBERT PEEL, that our Government should insist on the turning his back on party, changed the "contract being made effective without whole financial system of his country, and “further delay." The correspondent thus gave a spur to commerce which in a com- does not hold the Peking Syndicate so paratively short period landed England in responsible for delays as a Government the forefront of the commercial nations of apologist might like to make out. In the the world. Early in the last century there case of the British and Chinese Corporation; came into notice a young man who, for good on the other hand, pointing out that
or evil, had much to say to the subsequent nothing had been done with regard to the divisions of party. BENJAMIN DISRAELI purely British concessions of this Corpora- had generous instincts, and saw not only tion since 1898, the same correspondent says the disabilities under which his country that it has "adopted a policy of masterly was labouring in the state of vassalage in inactivity, Chinese in procrastination, but which the upper classes were seeking ot British in tenacity."
keep their less fortunate neighbours, but the dangers threatening the nation from the war of classes. Beyond all these he saw in a manner more distinct than any of his contemporaries the vast possibilities for empire even then looming on the horizon. The first of these feelings made him inclined on his entrance into public life to join the rising Liberal Party, but a consideration of the comparative littleness of mind which actuated the leaders, and their narrow views of empire, led him eventually to determine on adhesion to the remains of the old Tory now denominated itself Party, which Conservative,
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is difficult for a neutral party decide with exact justice between the two state- ments of the case, but it seems that one is justified in dividing up the blame between the concessionaires and the home Govern- ment, rather than laying it all on one set of shoulders. It is not necessary to dwell, in a community so used to the experience as the British residents in China, upon the Jack of sympathy nearly invariably mani fested by British consular officials towards the schemes of their commercial fellow citizens. The South of China has not exhibited the least striking examples of this, within recent memory. While we have seen other foreign consuls strenuously backing up the causes of their national, we have seen Great Britain's representatives only too often discouraging as far as possible the Britons who appealed to them, or even flatly refusing to concern them- selves at all. British consuls who have dope otherwise have frequently, as their reward, been relegated to the class of "disappointed men," snubbed by their Government and certain to get no high promotion. However, while the generally unfriendly and unfair attitude of the British Government in the past towards the enterprises of its own nationals cannot be denied, it will not do to attribute to this alone the lying idle of various British concessions in China. We are told now, and we trust sincerely, that it is the case that our Government adequately realises the serious political side of the question at issue. Some four years ago the British Foreign Office seemed content in the view that, though the construction of railways in China by foreign Powers might cost the British traders loss of orders, it meant little or nothing to Great Britain. But since then Manchuria and Shantung have opened the of those at home, we are assured,
eyes and the urgency of the question is fully recognised. In this case, of course, it will not do for the British Government to take up a position and say to the concessionaires; "You are idle. We cannot help you." It is quite true that a want of energy has been shown by those who have obtained very extensive claims from China. A short
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In conclusion we may quote the Times correspondent's idea of the way out of the difficulty, with which he closes his letter to the Times. The view is one that recom- mends itself for commonsense, though it is not palatable to the Government. He writes: "The question is one for the British Governinent to decide. If it is beyond the power of that Government to guarantee foreign loans, there are pre "cedents which appear to afford an ade
quato solution of the difficulty. If British syndicates are really unable, in open competition, to finance railways in China "under existing conditions, the fact must "be accepted, and once established, after proper investigation made, would furnish "conclusive proof that the railway under
'takings of other Powers are not bona fide "commercial enterprises. But the Govern "ment which took official cognisance' of "the Peking railway loan of 1899, which was ready to guarantee Japan's military expenses in 1900, an1 actually advance "funds to the Wuchang Viceroy in the "same year for his provincial exchequer, "should be able to devise means for lending “a measure of effective support to those important concessions which, by its own "action, have been proclaimed to the world
as exclusively British.”
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Succeeding to the premiership in 1868, DISRAELI, true to his first love, proceeded, as he boastfully termed it, to "educate" his party. The relations of classes had become intensely embittered, and the Liberals of the day were seeking to wideu the breach; to heal the wound by enlarging the liberties of all and softening down the abuses of prerogative became the object of his policy, which was at first swallowed as a bitter pill by the new Conservative Party. The affair, it is true, had at the moment its ludicrous side, and one of the ablest cari- catures of the day represented DISRAELI
as
the Political FAGIN teaching his followers to pick the pockets of the Liberal Party of the principles of political
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