June 6, 1903.]
REVIEWS.
The Land of the Boxers, or China under the Allies. By Captain GORDON CASSERLY, Indian Army. With 15 Illustrations and a Plan. London, Longmans, Green & Co, 39 Paternoster Bow.
Or books on this subject there appear to be no end, but the reader who dips into this volume will find that it possesses au attractiveness of its own which is refreshing The book is dedicated to the Officers of the American and British Naval and Military fore in China. Fuller soconuts have been published of the military operations in the troublons days of 1900), but Captain Casserly's book makes no pretence of being a standard record of these events; it may rather be described 88 Я per sɔnal narrative of his travels and of "the impressions be formed of the places visited and the people of varied nationalities with whom he was brought into contact. A very good example of his style is the amusing des- | oription of Hongkong Society we reprinted from the book a few days ago. Interesting d scriptions are given in the book of Hongkong, Canton, Maca, Tientsin, Peking, Weihaiwei, Shanhaikwan and other places, There is a very readable chapter on the Allied Armies in China in which the author writes with lavish appreciation of the Japanese Army and of our own Indian troops. The nal chapter entitled China- Past, Present and Future" contains nothing that has not been said befo e times without number. We all know that the undeveloped wealth of China is enormous, that her soil is incredibly for ile and her people industrious, and fancy has often 'played with the vision of China transformed, se Japan has been trans- fmed in the short space of forty years, as if by a magician's wand. That is as far as we get. There are signs of" a great awakening" it is true; but they lose a great deal by con rast with the signs in Japan in the fifties. Though we cannot say of Usptain Cisserly's book that it adds much to the knowledge of residents in the Far Eau, it is an eminently readable volume which should command a good sale at home, the information being ralable and inter. sating y written, and Hongkong readers, will And much to interest them in the chapters dealing with this Colony and that of Macao. The letterpress and the illustrations, of which there are fifteen, are excellent.
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Marriage. By Rev. E. J. Hardy, M.A. Hongkong, W. Brewer & Co., Queen's Road. THIS is the lecture recently given by the Chaplain of H.M.'s forces before the Odd Volumes Society, and inscribed to H.E. Major-General Gascoigne, K.C.M.G., who presided at the lecture Though the new paper reports, we now barn from the author, were more or less insccurate they will doubtless have sumoiently served the pur. pose of indicating the nature of the contents of the volume to those who wish to buy. The author having no M.8. oc uotes has compiled the lecture, he says, from the collation of these more or less inaccurate newspaper reports. A little more graceful acknowledgment of the indebtedness would not have come amiss.
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
THE CHINESE OPIUM TAX.
In the House of Commons on the 5th olt. Mr. H. J. Wilson asked the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs whether he was aware that the Government of the Province of Canton last year, with a view to meeting its share of the indemnities imposed upon Chins, instituted an additional tax upon opium, both native-grown and imported, which was in operation for about two months; that, in September last, the British Consul at Canton remonstrated against this additional tax, on the ground that it was incon- sistent with the Tresty obligations of China, and that it was in consequence discõktinued whether the Secretary for Foreign Affairs had sauctioned this action of the Consul, having regard to Clause 5 of the additional Article to the Chefoo Convention, signed in London in 1885, which provided for further taxation on imported opium, subject only to the condition that such taxation equally applied to the native drug,
· Viscount Cranborne: An attempt was made last year to levy an additional tax upon opium. Under the prescribed conditions this could only bave operated so as to discriminate in favour of native opium. But it was also in violation of Clause 2 of the Additional Article of the Chefod Convention, because it was to be levied at the port and while the packages were still unopened for consumption, in which case the amount of the tax, is, by the Clause, specifically limited. His Majesty's Minister at Peking and His Majesty's Consul-General at Canton, noting under the instructions of His Majesty's Govern- ment, protested against the tax, and the new regulations were withdrawn.
THE RUSSIAN NAVY.
DEE1 ROYERS FOR THE FAB KAST.
A St. Petersburg despatch states that of the nine torpedo-destroyers which were built and delivered last year by the News Shipbuilding Yard soven BIO HOW ing fitted out at Crous adt for the voyage to the Far East,
The Russo Chipese frontier along the Amur river continues to be the scene of disorders and skirmishes, and the Ministry of Marine has just ordered from a Russian shipbuilding yard 20 Bat-bottomed gunboats fitted with turbine motors for service on the Amur.
VICEROY CHANG CHIH-TUNG.
AT COURT,
Fa"
The following is a description received from the North with feference to what took place on the 19th alt, the first time Viceroy Chang Chih-tung presented himself at the Palace to pray for an Imperial audience on his arrival in Peking. His Excellency went to report himself at 6 o'clock on the morning of the 19th ult, at the Privy Cabinet Office, and stayed there until their Majesties were ready to receive him. Whilst waiting for the summons into the Imperial presence the Empress Dowager sent to H.E, borne by numbers of eunuchs, various kinds of cakes and confectionery, birds' hest candy being one of them, also a moon-shaped silk fan with a water- The Deutsche Ostasiatische Gesellschaft colour painting on it by her Majesty's own hand, (German East Asiatic Society) on April 18th a large scroll with the single character held its annual meeting at Berlin, the Com- (prosperity) on it, and a couple of smaller scrolls, all written by her Majesty's own mander of the 1st Army Corps, General von hand. Half an hour afterwards H.E. was der Golts, bbing in the chair. A number of summoned to the presence in the Chingel eu well-known people interested in the Far East Throne-ball, where no one else, excepting her Fere present. Dr. Vossberg-Reokow, in an sloquent speech, took survey of German- Majesty and the Viceroy and a couple of at- fend at eunuchs, was present. The private Asiatic politics of last year, and especially audience lasted nearly a hour, and upon H.E. dwelt on the question of the making of backing out of the Imperial presence he w ́s
ways of communication in Asia snil the conditions for the producing of told that her Majesty had graciously given him industrial raw material, &o. After this much-a pony with its accompanying trappings to ride Applanded speech General A. D von Zeppelin upon within the precincts of the Forbidden
City-N.-C. Daily News. referred to the East Asiatic journey of lisp osion made by the Russian Minister of Piuances, M. de Witte and especially spoke about the possibility of seeing an agrículinial Competition organised in Riburls, which point Will be further considered by the society. The Board of Directors were elected, and Baren von Ganl and General von Liebert were appointed vice-presidents
new
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415
A POSSIBLE DANGER TO`
NAVIGATION.
There is every reason to believe, the N.-C. Daily News remarks, that changes" dife volcanic action are constantly going on in this part of the world in the bed of the ocean, an received by the Harbour Master's department our contemporary publishes the following letter at Shanghai:-
8.8. Glenesk, Shanghai, 28th May, 1909. To the HARBOUR MASTE",
Shanghai.
DEAR ŠIE—I have the honour to bmit the following report: On the 14th dihet whilst on passage from Singapore to Hồn ong I passed about one mile East of t Charlotte Bank (8 N. 107 35 E.) and noticed.
very decided line of broken water on the centre of the bank. As the sea elsewhere aë quite smooth and the wind almost nîl I imagine there must be less water than shown on charts. I have daring the last 16 years, passed this place in all sorts of weather and never saw broken water before and have therefore deemed. it proper to report the matter to you, having also reported the matter in Hongkong --Fam Sir, &c.,
(8d.) Jöns BaFFERTY, Master, Glenesk.
HONGKONG
Mr. T. I. Rose, haring, returned 15 the Colony, has resumed, hit dutiset as congotary atį the Hongkong and Whampoù Dock Co., LL... |
The marriage of M's Blake, daughter of His Excellency the Governor and Lady Blake, to Captain J. B. Arbuthnot (Sooté "Guárds) takes place at St. John's Cathedral on Monday next, the 8th inst., at 5 p.m.
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On the 2nd inst., Police Bergeant Kerr arreste at 10, Cheung San Lane Fast a native woman who was in possession of 307 in countárle twenty-cunt pieces, so palpably sparious that it it difficult to conceive how they could be praised as good.
چینی
On the complaint of Dr. Pearse, Acting Medical Officer of Health, Lai Tan, a hawker, was fined $25, with the option of six weeks hard labour, at the Police Court on the 3rd inst. for removing clothing from a plague house without a permit.
A movement has been started to open a lodge of the Royal and Ancient Order of Buffatõës in the Colony, to be called the King Edward VII Lodge No. 919. A meeting of the promoters on the 29th ult. to `elect office, was held bearers and arrange details
It is satisfactory to note that the weekly return of cases of communicable diseases, bou tains, apart from the deplorably heavy plague returns, only one case of small-pos and ize of Against all other diseases puerperal fever.
appears the word nil.
With the Tamar and the Robin in dook, and with the departure yesterday of our solitary protector of the last few days—the Portuguesa gunboat Diu-the man-of-war anchorage la entirely vacent. The Ocean, which is at Mies Bay, leaves for Weihaiwei to-morrow.
The London Gazette notifies that the King has been pleased to give directions for the appointment of Mr. Arthur W. Brewin Registrar-General of the Colony of Hongkong, to be an official member of the Le Council of the Colony for so long as he tha:l hold the said once of Registrar-Général. ¦ ¦
The Hongkong correspondent of Daily News, re, erring to the
§. T. Dann as Superintendens of h and Afforestation Department,
is scope for the display of a good dal
in this department, not only in connection
With reference fo the disappearares of Mr. the botany of the Colon and Eouth Chful, by W. Eimp on, one of the passengers on the Also in the lätr. duction of ve Tamba Máru, va March 24th, the Straits | New Territory and the amorosialio Times understands that he left a will bequeath of numerous hills there and
**La ll'ands lä' ely acquill ing his whole estate, including the
for years Minerva " cigar factory in Manila, to his sister | work of kortstation in Scotland.
pastially carried on:
Even In Hou
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