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parily, it is to be feared of roughness and t of consideration on the part of the coolies, employed in the disinfecting work, and partly to the dislike felt by Orientals to having their privacy inva led. Yet what is to be done ?. The disinfection of premises cannot be conducted without turning things awry and possibly causing some incon- venience and occasiona la certain amount of loss. It is, we are sure, the desire of the Sanitary Authorities to carry out this cleansing, deodorising, and purifying work with all possible expedition and with every regard for the rights of ||dividuals and for the sanctity of property But, as we have" said, it is not possible to disinfect without giving some annoyance and trouble.
The question that remains, therefore, is whether the weal of the community or the prejudice of a section thereof is to be allowed to have priority. We unhesitatingly say that the greatest good of the greatest number is to be sought before pandering to race pr judice or class ignorauce. It is the bounden duty of the Government to put a stop to the dumping of dead bodies in the streets or public places, and it will be criminally responsible if it fails to do so. It is idle to say that the task is beyond the powers possessed by the Government. To make such a pled would be to solemnly admit its own grievous and shameful in capacity. It is absolutely monstrous to suppose that any Administration possessing all the powers of a bureaucracy cannot, when it chooses, put en ire stop to this most selfish and reckless practic», by which the health and lives of the com- munity are endangered and the trade of the port subjected to an anuual loss amounting to an enormous sum. If the Police Force are really incapable of dealing with this grave offence against the law and sanitary regulations, then further assistance should be invoked, and if these measures also fail to put a stop to the dumping of the dead, then such bodies found ownerless and unidentified should be cremated. There are, we know, some serious objections to the cremation of these bodies. In the first place there is no crematorium in the Colony, and the process is expensive. But neither difficulty or expenso must be allowed to stand in the way of preventing this method of spreading the plague. Nor must sen- timental considerations for the prejudices of the Chinese be suffered to intervene. It is not proposed to cremite any bodies but those dumped and unclaimel, and ample notice could be given of the intention of the Government to adopt this course, so that persons committing the offence would incur the responsibility with their eyes open, and no hardship would be tuflicted. We trust there is not a single person to be found in Hongkong who would be prepared to place the preju lices of law breakers before the common good.
મ
FAMINE IN WANGSI.
(Daily Press, 4th May.)
We publish this morning the first detailed account which His Excellency the GOVERNOR has received from CLEMENTI upon the famine in the Province of Kwangsi. The Report fully confirms all the informa- tion which has previously brén received as to the existence of the most acute suffering and distress in the province, owing to the failure of three succesive harvests. If the sha low of a doubt existed as to the neces: sity for outside help will be instantly dissipated by a perusal of Mr. CLEMENTI's report upon the conditions prevailing in the
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. districts which he has yet traversed. From the Governor of Kwongsi Mr. CLEMENTI has obtained statistics which show that in this perfecture alone there are 150,000 persons in a state of absolute destitu tion. Of his visit to Tsam-chou, Mr. CLEMENTI writes: "The sights I have seen have appalled me, and I am not astonished that the Chinese should now “call Tsam-chnu ́ a dead place.'' Again, writing of a walk through the neighbouring country, he says: "The destitution actually existing there now is terrible. The people "bave first sold their goods and chattels
then their farming implements: next the water buffaloes with which they ploughed their fields, then the tiles off the roofs of their houses, then their daughters, sons, "and finally even their wives. The farm "steads are bare walls, empty of everything except a little dirty straw on which to lie." No appeal in aid of the Relief Fund which has been started in this Colony can be more eloquent than the recital of the bare facts as they appear in Mr. CLEMENTI's report. Evidently, a very considerable sum of money will in the aggregate be required to allow of the barest necessaries of life being doled out to the famishing population until the next rice harvest at the end of July. Hongkong will do its part to help those who are doing all they can to help themselves. Some thousands of people have quitted the famine-stricken districts to find a livelihood in other parts of Kwangsi or the neighbouring provinces, but Mr. CLEMENTI shows how heroically those who remain are battling with adversity in the hope that the next harvest will inaugurate another period of prosperity for them, though having regard to the straits to which they have been reduced, it must be recognised that it will, require more than one good harvest to enable the people who have sold their goods and chattels, their farm implements and their buffaloes, to recover from the state of penury and want to which they have been reduced.
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(Daily Press, 6th May.J We publish to-day another letter which His Excellency the GOVERNOR has received from Mr. CLEMENTI. This communication shows in evou a more striking auner than the last the terrible character of the distress prevailing over an enormous area of the province. The statements that women and children have been sold like cattle in order to insure that they shall be provided with food, are verified by Mr. CLEMENTI, who personally witnessed a public sale at Kweishen, and he adds the remark that the gentry estimate that some ten thousand children (boys and girls alike) have already been, sold and that eight wives out of every ten in the district have also been sold. A further telegram, we understand, has leen received reporting that acute distress prevails at Wengsun, near Nanning, where 66,000 people are starving. It is roughly estimated that at least 10,000 piculs of rice or maize will be needed between now and the end of July, if the distress is to be alleviated. What the Hongkong Committee will do towards supplying it, will, of course, be regulated by the amount of the subscriptions received. Up to the present the Committee have sent three shipments, each of 150 piculs of rice, and propose to continue regular shipments to the extent the Fund permits.
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PROPOSED INTERNATIONAL
INSTITUTE,
(Daily Press, 5th May.)
as the embodiment of special work The proposed International Institute among the higher classes of China, is to be established in Shanghai instead of Peking. Dr. REID found that the lending «fficjale in Peking were not disposed to espouse the scheme. They offered no opposition to his carrying out the scheme biuself, and they cherished no resentent of foreign control, but they gave no opportunities for helping on the work among the official classes con- gregated in the capital. It appears that many of Dr. REID's ideas are incorporated in the plan of the Imperial University which is to be established in Peking, and with that the leading officials are content. It would be difficult they say, to unite the Institute with the University, and it would be difficult to carry the two schemes out independently. Hence, after much con sideration, it has been decided to set up the Institute in Shanghai. Some branches of the Institute's work have been put to the test with very encouraging results. A clasa in History and Political Science has been held, public lectures on "Comparativa la. Governments have been delivered in the mandarin dialect, and other work is in course of preparation. Dr. REID, at a mest. ing held at Shanghai last week, explained the main significance of the proposed work to be: First, the foundation of the work is in the idea of a mission among the higher classes of China, seeking the influence of the influential officials, literati and others, for the good of all. Second, it is an institu tional work, wherein certain ideas shall be embodied. Third, it is an international or cosmopolitan work, whereby the generous. minded of different countries and creeds seek the good of the people ofChina. The sum sug gested as required altogether is Tls. 300,000 of which one-third is for building and the remaining two-thirds for endowment. large and influential Advisory Council has been formed at Shanghai and the Committee. is requested by public resolution to imme- diately inaugurate the Institute. Their first duty is to get the capital, of which only Tls. 20,000 appears to be in hand,
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SOUTH AFRICA AND CHINESE LABOUR.
A
(Daily Pres, 8th May.) In the politics of the Rand the question of introducing Chinese labour into South Africa is still a very burning one and little disposition is shown to await the Report of the Commission which has been sent from South Africa to San Francisco and China to view and investigate the problem in all its bearings. Last month a mass meeting of upwards of 3,500 people at Johannesburg declared itself overwhelm- ugly opposed to the introduction of Asiatio labour, but the reports of the speeches made on the occasion contain little or nothing which can convince a dispassionate student of the problem that the outcry against the introduction of the Chinese coolie is well based, especially when all the arguments are considered in the light of the restrictions. which the advocates of Chinese immigration
propose in order to protect the try
from a replication of the evils of town such as exists at San Francisco and
• two other places, Chinatown in San Francisco is drawn by the opponents of Chinese labour in the Rand in most harrowing detail and set before the people
Captain J. S. Thomp on of the NY.K. or
News has rench d Japan of the death of Kawachi Muru shortly due here from London. Capt. Thompson died during the passage through the Red Sea.
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