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GERMANY AND THE YANGTSZE QUESTION.
(Daily Press, 10th November.) It is eminently satisfactory to learn that the Powers have at last arranged to evacuate Shanghai at any early date, leaving the details of conditions for subse quent settlement, as REUTER informs us. As China is stated to have agreed to make the required reparation in the matter for the Chengchow murders, Great Britain has no further reason for keeping troops at Shanghai, and apart from this matter no Power has any grounds for the retention of
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rest of the Empire. As represented by the Berlin journals and their Shanghai reflection the Ostasiatische Lloyd, Germa y appears in the extremely unflattering light of a disloyal ally, and as the Japan Mail says at the conclusion of the article from which we quote above, the amicable desire of British subjects, who want to live at peace with Germany, whom they admire and in whose ambitions they recoguise familiar sentiments, is receiving some rude shocks.
THE EVACUATION OF SHANGHAI. (Daily Press, 15th November.)
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PIRACY IN THE CANTON NEIGHBOURHOOD.
(Daily Press, 15th November.) We learn from a trustworthy source that there have been no less than six cases of piracy on the Canton River within the space of two days this week. In another column we give details of the murderous attack on an Englishman from Canton by West River pirates. It is evident that the river piracy which the late LI HUNG-CHANG struggled so hard to repress during his term of office at Canton, and which his successor His late The telegram from our Shanghai correspon- Excellency Tao Mu before his fatal illness a garrison there in defiance of the arrange-dent stating definitely that the Japanese tried to keep down, is now once more in full ment made with the late LIU KUNG-YI. garrison evacuates that port on the 22nd swing. The changes of posts which have The difficulties over the evacuation have instant seems to mark the first step toward marked the period following TAO MU's been rather incomprehensible, if we are to
the termination of a very difficult affair.death have no doubt encouraged the assume that all the four Powers concerned If the Japanese leave on the 22nd we may inmemorial pests of the Canton waterways were straightforward. Our junior evening take it that the other three component parts to fresh efforts, and the absence of a sub- contemporary on Saturday night published, of the mixed garrison will also depart at stantive Viceroy has produced apathy ou by arrangement with the Ostasiatische once and that at last Shanghai will be the part of the Chinese officials. This is Lloyd, a Berlin telegram referring to the relieved from its unnecessary defenders. natural, though it renders the inaction of Shanghai question. This telegram reported According to the London Daily Mail the latter no less criminal. But there is the absolu e accord" of Britain and (unfortunately not hitherto the most another point which calls for consideration. Germany and their agreement that every trustworthy source of information as far as What are the foreign gunboats on the West nation shall have the right to re-occupy Shanghai is concerned) the place is to be River and at Canton doing? Their Shanghai, should any foreign Power again evacuated unconditionally. Only a few presence in those waters is justified by the land troops at the port. Such an agree days ago a Berlin telegram to the necessity of protecting life and trade which meat hardly seems Lecessary, as the ¦ Ostasiatische |Lloyd talked complacently of the Chinese alone cannot guarantee. It right" mentioned follows naturally from the discussion on Germany's conditions may readily be recognised that a gunboat the peculiar position of Shanghai, and before evacuation being closed, China cannot be ubiquitous, but if the work is too China's feelings in the matter were of course having consented to them. It is plain that much for the instruments at one's disposal not considered. All that is done by the one of these statements is incorrect. We the only remedy is to get more instruments. arrangement is to legalise sudden joint characterised that in the Lloyd as
If the Chinese officials do not try and the occupations of Shanghai if any one Power
bombast," and such we still consider it; European policing force is too small to cope thinks fit to land troops at the port for the the Berlin telegram in our junior evening with the spread of piracy, there is still no purpose of bringing pressure to bear on
contemporary's issue of yesterday's date is reason for folding one's hands and resigning China. The gain to the Powers is a doubt- but a reiteration of the same point of view; oneself to what is not really inevitable. It ful one.
The concluding part of the Berlin
we have therefore the more hope that the would be interesting to know whether the despatch is curious, and we therefore re-
Mail's version will prove to be the correct Hongkong authorities are displaying any produce it. As Germany's proposal to
one. To admit the Chinese-German agree-interest in the matter. Britain lins two river China, that she bind herself not to con.
ment would be for England to resign her gunboats, the Sandpiper and the Moorhen, "cede to any other nation any preferential claim to hegemony on the Yangtsze. What on the West River. When these have been advantages in the Yangtze Valley, the actual story of the intrigues in connection mentioned, our representatives in the Canton "whether political, military, commercial, or
with the Yangtsze question is, time will district are exhausted. It seems hardly economic has been accepted by the perhaps show. A Peking telegram to the credible that at Canton itself Great Britain Chinese Government, there is no further Japanese newspaper Jiji gives one account, is unrepresented. Flying visits from the cause for discussion on this point." This in which it is stated that Sir ERNEST SATow West River gunboats there have been, but is a piece of bombast. The conditions of asked Prince CILING some time ago if there our Fleet apparently cannot spare a single the settlement await discussion, and the
was not some clause in the draft of the vessel for Canton. As far as the Admiralty above statement merely reflects the attitude agreement for the evacuation of Shanghai is concerned, every effort seems to be made of the Berlin Press. Writing of this attitude which the Chinese Government was about to encourage the idea that Canton is beyond with regard to the Yangtsze question, the to sign with Germany, and that Prince the British sphere of influence. Perhaps Japan Mail of the 27th October made some CNG replied definitely in the negative. A that august body studies one of those maps very just remarks.
"We are in the pre- few days afterwards the Prince signed an in which the whole of the Kwang provinces "sence of an almost farcical display of bias," agreement which was very disadvantageous are labelled "French sphere" and therefore said our Yokohama contemporary. No
to Great Britain. On the British Minister does not concern itself with Canton affairs, German journalist cau labour under the hearing of the issue of the affair he strongly There is, however, no reason why the "smallest misapprehension in this matter. denounced Prince CHING for his deceitful Hongkong Government should subscribe to "He must know quite well that what
ness. Sir ERNEST SATow declared he such an idea, having every reason to know England objects to is not an arrangement would have nothing to do with the Shanghai | better, In the interests of this Colony an guaranteeing the integrity of the Yangtze evacuation proposal if the Chinese autho-appeal must be made that some remions-
Valley and the preservation of the open
rities acted so unfairly and deceitfully; trance be addressed to the supine authorities "door there, since these are the declared hence, nd Is the Jiji's correspondent, the bases not only of England's general delay in the withdrawal from Shanghai, policy, but also of her compacts with Prince CHING's known vacillation of charac- Germany and Jupan. He must know ter lends a certain probability to the tale, quite well that what she objects to is the but we should hesitate to accept it unsup. undisguised hostility of Germany and portel. It has become increasingly clear, France, which two Powers, having hitherto however, that there was some such under- professed to work hand in hand with her hand attempt to undermine Britain's for the settlement of the China problem, position in the Yangtsze Valley. This was "have now deliberately thrown her over and discovered by Sir ERNEST SATOW, but attempted to conclude with the Peking whether it has becu defeated remains to be Government an arrangement unequivo-seen. The aunounced date of the with- cally ousting Great Britain from the position of acknowledged influence hither- "to held by her in the Yangtze Valley." We can add nothing to the above which will make the situation clearer. The insincerity of the Franco-German move is shown by the limitation of the so-called guarantee of China to the Yangtsze Valley-as if China were now in despair of being able to maintain the integrity of the
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drawal of the Japanese troops augurs well for the settlement of the question, and this again seems to indicate that, unless the British Government has completely" climbed down," some other Power has performed that uncomfortable fent,
Router learns that the Powers have arranged to evacuate Shanghai at an early date, leaving details of conditions for subsequent settlement.
at Canton to do their duty with regard to the adjacent waterways, and that at least one of our spare gunboats should help those authorities to restore that order which they are utterty unable to keep alone. Harmon- ious relations, on the whole, have prevailed for some years between Hongkong and Canton, but they cannot continue inde- finitely if British commerce and even life is allowed to be menaced in the river districts in the very neighbourhood of Canton.
According to a Peking despatch to Shanghai, several wealthy Chinese are now in that city petitioning the Head Office of Mines and Railways for permission to construct a railway between Kaifeng, the capital of Honan province, and Nganking, capital of Auhwei province. It is further stated that the Ministers of Mines and Railways have given their consent to the enter prise, but that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not made up its mind yet in the matter.
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