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RAILWAYS IN CHINA.
(Daily Press, 15th July.)
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
a railway from their mines to the Yangtze on terms not inferior to those granted to other railways; while in a despatch from Prince CHING to Sir ERNEST SATOW of the 24th April, 1902, Prince CHING explicitly re-affirmed the right of the Syndicate to connect the mines with the Yangt8z3. It is only natural that the question should be asked what is the value of these promise. An answer to this will be looked for when Sir ERNEST SATOW returns to China. From Lord LANSDOWNE's speech on the 16th ultimo we know that the British Minister has full instructions to support energetically the views of the Government—which are, as stated by Lord LANSDOWNE, that Great Britain has serious cause for complaint over the treatment of British applications for railway concession. Therefore the return to Peking of Sir ERNEST SATOW will be anxiously awaited, in the hope that the un- doubted grievances of which Dr. MORRISON complains so strongly may be remedied.
THE NEW ORDINANCE AND THE HOUSING QUESTION.
(Daily Press, 17th July.)
Hongkong is at present confronted with the most serious question which can face any large and rapidly growing community, that of the housing accommodation of its workers and their families. We publish
to-day a translation of a leading article which appeared yesterday morning in the Chung Ngoi San Po and which has already attracted a great deal of attention among our Chinese fellow-residents. The article
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[July 18, 1903. which they can dwell in decency with their families. Or, more shortly, we may put it thus:-A continuance of airless cubicles and overcrowding means death and heavy loss; au immediate enforcement of the regulations against that continuance means intolerable hardships for the poorer Chinese and possibly the driving out of their families. We do not know that there exist in Hongkong sufficient available homes for the population which must be displaced in the attempt to give enough living room and light to the poorer part of the community. On the 27th November last H.E. the Governor, in the concluding " speech of an extremely interesting debate on the second reading of the Public Health und Building Bill, said :-" A very large question that has been brought forward is the question of what "is to be done with the large number of people who must be displaced by the operation of the Ordinance. I quite agree "with that. But then, on the other hand, "the Ordinance is not going to act nt a "moment's notice. Action must necessarily be slow, and the broad question will 'present itself to us whether it is better that we should suddenly undertake a large measure of socialist legislation by the Government entering with the public money into competition with those whose “business it is to build and supply houses for the accommodation of the people, or "whether we should leave that to the ordinary operation of commercial prin- ciples; and ny own view is that it is better to leave it to the ordinary operation, especially here in Hongkong, "where there are societies nud indivi- "duals who have money and are quite
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It is possible from the mail papers received yesterday to see one reason at least for Lord | LANSDOWNE'S notable statement in the House of Lords on the 16th timo, that Great Britain has serious cause fur com- plaint at the manner in which China has dealt with applications for railway conces- sions and that he would be obliged to remonstrate strongly. In another column to-day will be found a telegram sent to the Times on the 8th June by Dr MORRISON, the famous Peking correspondent. Dr. MORRISON therein points out what the Russians, Germans, and Belgians are doing in the matter of railway enterprise in North and Central China. He might have added some remarks about French schemes in the South, but his case is strong enough as it stands. His point is that even in the Yangisze region once proudly styled the British sphere of influence - British railway prospects are at present materially worse than ever before. Russia has the concession of the Chingting-fu and Taiyuen-fu line; Germany two important extensions of the Shuntung railway system; and Belgium the Kaifeng-fu and Honan city line. To quote Dr. MORRISON's words :-" Compared with these successes, the British position is not encouraging. "The Pekin Syndicate have early com- pleted 90 miles of railway from their coal measures in Honan province to the Wei river, a waterway navigable for sha'low- draught junks to Tientsin, where they hope to find a market. The British and speaks for itself. It is a powerful appeal Chinese Corporation and the Pekin Syndi on behalf of the almost innumerable Chinese cate recently applied conjointly for a families on whom the provisions of the new railway concession from Suyang, on the Ordinance must weigh ex'remely heavily. ready to supply it when they find that “main fine from Pekin to Hankow, along If any confirmation of the principal state- "the public require it." Now, however "the Han river valley, Siangyang, and ments made therein be required we need slow the working of the Ordinance, it has across to Chengiu-fu, the capital of only refer to that memorandum of Dr. already begun to touch the needy Chinese, Szechueu. China replie that a native PEARSE, Acting Medical Officer of Health, and must do so increasingly. In the mean- capitalist had already asked for this con- which was published on the 3rd instant. time, do we find that Sir HENRY BLAKE'S "cession. The British responded that if it The case is there put more dispassionately confidence in the ordinary operations," "were built with Chinese money they could than in our Chines: contemporary's article, quoted above, justified? Are there spring- "make no objection, but should China re- but its strength_can none the more being up a sufficient number of new houses "quire foreign capital for its construction disregarded. If any one fact stands out preference should be given to them as first clearly after a perusal of these two "in the field. The Chinese have not replied, documents, it is that no mere abolition and there the matter stands. Nothing ha of cubicles will solve the question how to "been said regarding terms cr any details." secure increased health and sanitation in Again, the British and Chinese Corporation | this Colouy, Now we have always warmly obtained in 1898 a concession for a railway | from Pukow opposite Nanking, to Sinyang; but no atteinpt has yet been made to utilise the concession. SHENG recently gave notice that unless the corporation, within six months, carried out the terms of the prelimi- nary contract, the concession would be cancelled. Yet again the Pekin Syndicate claim the right to build a railway from the Shansi mines to Pulow; but the clan meets with strong opposition from France on the
gr. und that the line will divert traffic from the Peking-Hapkow main line, and that if the right is given to the British an indemnity must be paid to the Franco-Bel- gian syndicate financing the main line. Is it then to be wondered at that Dr. MORRISON claims that British railway prospect, even in the Yang'ɛzo region are materially worse than ever before? The Shansi coil concessions obtained by the Pekin Syndi- What then is the situation? We have, cates are denied nu outlet to the Yangtze, on the one hand, a teeming population of without which they are valueless. The Chinese cooped up in insanitary buildings, Times correspondent concludes bis despatch without sufficient light or air, and by their with the remarks that perhaps it is neces- existence in such a condition menacing the sary to remind the British Government that health and lives of themselves and of the a despatch from Sir CLAUDE MACDONALD European and other non-Chinese residents of the 4th September, 1898, uformed Lord of Hongkong, as well as vitally damaging Salisbury that the Tsungli Yamen had in | the Colony's commerce. We have, on the an interview of the previous day consented other, the pitiable Chinese appeal that the that the Pekin Syndicate should construct working people must have some place in
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ready for occupation by the people on the point of being displaced from their present unhealthy surroundings? The new tram- ways are progressing rapidly; are the suburbs arising at their further ends? His Excellency, it seems to us, made an unfair advocated all reasonable measures directed use of the odium attaching to the word against overcrowding among our working 'socialist" in conservative minds when, in the classes, and particularly against that over- speech we have quoted he spoke of “under- crowding which flourishes in windowless taking a large measure of socialist legisla cubicles. Fro u this kind of overcrowding tion by the Government entering with the "with the we are convinced comes the virulence and public money into competition regularity of our plague epidemics. Any-owners and builders. We may well ask one doubting this should refresh is the question, whether is it more worthy memory by reading again Dr. F. W. CLARK's of the Government to pour out vast sums Medical Report for 1902, where the relation of money yearly in the fight against plague, between surface-crowding and plague is or to run the risk (if such exists) of being fully di-cussed. It is hardly necessary to called socialist by providing a certain refer to Bombay aud other Indian cities for number of model dwellings for the dis- confirmation of the views expressed. While placed workers and their families. we have our Chinese population huddled is little essential difference, after all, be- together without air or light in too small a tween providing segregation-blocks for space for their number, so long shall we plague contacts and providing blocks for have to fight a hopeless battle against those whom the plague is more than likely plague, the worst enemy of the Colony's to affect next year. The terror of the prosperity.
name of socialism cannot surely. b3 so oppressive to men of commonseuse.
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The marriaga took place at Manila on the 7th inst. of Capt. A. W. Onterbridge, of the C.N... Sungkiang, to Miss Jessie Halliday Woodward, of the nursing staff of Corregidor D.D.. performed the ceremony at his residence. Island Hospital. The Rt. Rev. Bishop Brent, Later, a numerous party sat down at the festive board on the Sungkiang. The happy couple arrived here on the 11th inst.
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