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GREAT BRITAIN AND THE
HUNAN MURDERS.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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especially at a time when her own plans are in a very undeveloped stage. Her Majesty is said to have constantly declared to fleto around her that she never forgets —reforring of cours· to the events of 19000 and 1991 and it is believel that she is possessed by the one idea of obtaining revenge on the
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November 3, 1901.
accordance with the final protocol of Sep- tember, 1901. With regard to this Mr. MORGAN writes: -"The signing of the Peace Protocol restored emfidence and business at once became brisker. Large "quantities of higher quality foreign goods and articles formerly duty-free were rushed in immediately prior to the "enforcement of the new Tariff. Consequently the new Tariff yielded only some Ik. T. 10,000 up to the 31st December, and owing to this large stock its effects will probably not be very apparent for scone fi ue. A large portion "of this excess stock of piece-goods, how- “ever, has been destroyed recently by fire. "The general tendency as ben advane s
ment, and there is every promise of great activity in the near future.” Mr. MORGAN goes on to speak of the reclamations alt Canton and the consequent welcome relief of pressure on the harbour, the limit ol size of which has been a great insouvenience to traders. The local authorities showed a are to be taught the use of the magazine, willingness to support the Customs desire rifle for six months and to undergo"drill, to extend the harbour, and only a few and then to return to their Banner resory:- details remained to be settled at the begiu- tious, their places being filled by a similar, uing of the present year. number of fresh men, who would undergo the same curriculum, and so on until the whole available manhood of the Manchu nation would have become disciplined according to Western drill. The first con- tiugent of braves has already passed through the mill, and new men are being sent to take their places. In this way the Empress Dowager is making her prepara, tions to avert a repetition of the humiliation, of 1900-01; some say to have a sweet revenge for it| Whether this be the fact or not, it is certain at any rate that Her Majesty's advisers appear to have learned little from the lessons of that period, and the Foreign Ministers do not seem to have learned much more! It is true that the Foreign Legations are now fortified and garrisoned, but of what avail would those small garrisons and their slender armament be against a force of even fifty thousand men drilled in the use of repeating rifles and possessing-as they no doubt would possess a park of artillery? The mistake made was ever to have permitted the Empress Dowager to return to power. She should, like some other native rulers, have ben relegated to obscurity, and the Emperor Kwase Hsu
invested with supreme authority foreign protection and advice.
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(Daily Press, 29th October.) It is satisfactory to find the British (fov- ernment are supporting Sir ERNEST SATOW in his just and righteous demand for the fitting punishment of the murderers of the "Western Barbarians," A correspon lent British missionaries at Chenchow-fu. The of our Shanghai morning cont mporary says British Minister at Peking has all along that the Empress Dowager is secretly re- showed laudable firmness in his demand, constituting, on a new basis, the Machurian and on the 19th inst., when the Emperor army, and that she has nearly 700,000 held a reception for the members of the Bannermon between the ages of eighteen, diploma'ic service, Sir ERNEST SATOW very and forty-six available. These are being properly refused to attend that function, quietly enrolled, and Her Majesty has now He has declined all social intercourse with some 30,000 Mauchus divided into regiments ¦ the Court on account of the grievous mis- and half regiments, who are armed with the carriage of justice in this matter. The most modern weapons and are being assidu- Consul-General in Huuan has been in- ously drilled on the Western method, structed to demand the immediate execu- These men are to form the nucleus of a tion of the military official responsible for great Manchurian army of half a million the murders and the adequate punishment | men, prepared not only to defend the dynasty, of the other officials concerned in the crime.against the "Western Barbarians," but also The action of the British Government, in from Chinese malcontents, The first batch insisting upon exemplary and deterrent punishment being meted out to the guilty parties at Chenchow, is fully endorsed by the leading British papers. The Standard, as our own telegram report d last week, remarks that "there is a vital question of principle involved in the punishment of "the Chenchow mandarins. Though another quarrel with the Chinese Govern- "ment is to be regretted, Sir ERNEST "SATOW is bound to exact the fullest reparation for the crime and the insulting levity with which the crime is treated." Meantime the Chinese Government are resorting to their old tactics of procrastinal tion, and all sorts of excuses are no doubt being tendered to the British Minister for the failure to bring the guilty parties to justice. This incident serves to show, in a very striking manner, the utter indifference of the Chinese to treaty obligations, and their failure to profit by the teachings of experience. It might have been supposed that the recent capture and investment of Peking by the foreign troops would at least have inspired some degree of caution in the minds of the provincial officials. But secure in their listance from the seat of central control, and probably relying, as was their wont in former times, on the divisions among the Powers to get this question shelved or slurred over, the Imperial Government have been trifling with the British Minister's demand in a manner that is equally irritating and annoying. That they will be allowed to persevere much longer in this line of policy seems happily improbable. Naturally the British Government do not wish, so soot after the evacuation of Peking, to be com- pelled to a display of force. Yet what will be left to them if the Chinese Government continue to set them at defiance? One thing at least is very clear, if China persists in this course, that the time has not come for the evacuation of Shanghai. | and the garrison will undoubtedly be retained there so ng as this shameful crime cont.nues to be unatoned for. Until this atonement is unde, the fact that Gerinany and France are willing to evacuate Shanghai should not, in any degree, precipitate the withdrawal of the British troops. On the other hand, if the d.mands of the British Minister are not promptly complied with, Tientsin should be again occupied, and the railway to Peking seized and held.
Such a step might perhaps have the effect of bringing the Imperial Government to book. It would certainly appeal to the Empress Dowager, who does not desire a return of the foreign troops to the capital,
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L'ANTON'S TRADE IN 1901.
(Daily Press, 25th October.)
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Foreign imports showed an increase of nearly three millions of Haikwan Taels over the previous year's figures. But there is, as Mr. Scort pointed out, no way of estimating the real increase, owing to the large quantity of certain commodities which do not come under the cognisance of the Im- perial Maritime Customs." Mr. MORGAN, too, says that "when ver competition between native and foreign craft ceases, or when statistic, of the trade done by the former become available, we shall be able to obtain more accurate results." To that unknown quantity, the junk-trade, both the British Consul and the Customs Commissioner attribute the apparent large falling off in the import of kerosene oil. Foreign exports, though manifesting an improvement of Hk. Tls. 2,875,601 on the 1900 figures, were IIk, Tis. 3,027,714 worse than in 1899, and so, as Mr. MORGAN says, there was a good recovery after the troublous times, but nothing approaching conspicuous advance.
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The year 1901, as was noted by the British Consular report, was the record year in the shipping history of Canton, no less than 1,882,413 tons in all having entered the port. The figures for steamers, accord- undering to nationality, were:-British, 1,554,966 tins : German, 144,718; Chinese, 101,408; Freuch, 31,165; American, 23,724; Norwe- gian, 10,887; Japanese, 9,783. For sailing vessels the figures were:- French, 2,170, and British, 592.tons. Mr. MORGAN says: Sone six weeks ago we considered the
-“The chief item of interest is the increase | report by Mr. Consul-General James Scorr oftomage under the French flag. Where- on Canton's trade in 1901. We have now as in 1900 only four vessels, of 28 tons, before us the report of Mr. F. A. MORGAN, under that flag appeared, in 1901 there are IM. Customs Commissioner. Both docu-* 242, of 62,330.tous, due chiefly to a boat ments testify to a promising state of affairs "plying regularly to Hongkong and one to at Canton." The "disturbed condition of "Kwanchauwan." The fact of several of North China i.. the early part of 1901, as the China Merchants' vessels still flying the was only to be capected, alversely affected! British, Cuit-d States, German, and Caufon's trade; but in spite of this the Japanese flags contributed largely to a revenue collected was the largest for any decrease in shipping under the Chinese flag year since 1892, amounting in all to Hk. of 1,594 steamers and 145.193 tons. Tis. 2,159,627, Hk. Tls. 320,697 more than Under the heading of Miscellaneous the revenue of 1900. The import duties | Mr. MorGaas has a good deal to say about gave a good return, says Mr. Mongas, the piracy. He writes : —** Ou visiting the West coas trade duties showed a marked im-j“ River one cannot fail to notice the absence provement, the opium duties recovercal to a !" of population, except just in a thin fringe level they have not reached since 1893, and * along the banks of the river; and there is the export duties rose a litle above the little doubt that this is due to a feeling of average of the previous nine years. As wer
general insecurity on account of robbers. statel when considering Mr. Score's report, | "The suppression of bandits means in- 1901 was an important year in the historycreased population, prosperity, and ex- of Chutou, for in it took place the transfer panding trade. Those who find trade on of the Native Customs Department to the Imperial Maritime Customs Service, in
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the West River fall short of expectations "blame regulations for what is more justly
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