Decembar 5, 1903.]
CHINA AND SOUTH AFRICA.
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
413
first to Sikkim and Nepal, and then to India. If there is to be a race for the pro- tectorate of the tributaries of the decaying Dragon Throne, then it is a matter of state policy that England should get there first. At present, and as things stand, Great Britain has no hankering for either Man- churia, Mongolia, or Tibet, but if they are all to be torn from the feeble grasp of KWANG Hsu, she cannot and will not allow them all to be absorbed in the territories on the Tsar.
THE MISSIONARIES AND THE PRESS.
latter. More encouragement should be given to white labour, and there is no (Daily Press, 4th December.)
doubt that it would be more resorted to if The statement made by the London Morn- a higher rate of wages could be offered. ing Post to the effect that the Chinese The Chinese would not prove so much Government has decided to refuse to per cheaper; they do not spend anything like mit recruiting for labourers for the South the same proportion of their earnings in the African mines in any part of the Chinese country, and they would not, in any case, Empire as a measure of retaliation for the settle down on the soil. Nor would they anti-Chinese legislation in Cauala requires he altogether desirable citizens even if they confirmation before being accepted. It could be allowed or induced to naturalise. would not, however, be the first time China A few of the more intelligent might do so, has attempted to get even with States that but the rank and file would, as in other have seen fit to adopt a policy of Chinese colonies, merely be birds of passage, retain- exclusion. The Chinese Government has ing their own manners and customs, in- never been much in favour of Chinese porting much of their own food, and per- emigration Au edict was passed, more etuating their own vices. Some temporary | (Daily Press, 30th November.) thau half a century ago, prohibiting emigra- benefit would result from their employment Dr. HOARE, in his sermon at S. John's tiou, and this has never been repeale 1 by the development of the muing industry Cathedral yesterday morning, mentioned though it has suited the Chinese Govern- and perhaps some convenience be derived the improvement which he had noticed in ment to allow it to remain a dead letter. by their use as domestic servants, but in the attitude of the Press toward missionaries The advantages of emigration have made the long run the good would be counter-and mission work. His remarks had no themselves felt, by the amount of money balance by the intr due ion of another particular local application, but referred to brought back to China by returning emi-foreign and disturbing element in t'e, the British Press generally. The question grants and by the development of trade racial problem, and the consequent post-, of the altitu le of the Press toward missionary with the countries to which the Chinese ponement of that much-to-be-desired fusion ¡ effort has alway been a difficult one, and have migrated. But these advantages are of the Briton and Boer in South Afri..... not without certain drawbacks. The emigration drains many districts of able- bodied males, without whose labours it is difficult to cultivate the soil successfully. and in some parts the agriculture has suffered. Moreover, it is incidental y a blow to Chinese vanity to be told that Chinese labour is unacceptable. The Peking au thorities were very indignant when the United States Government passed their stringent laws for the exclusion of Chinese coolies, and they are now as much annoyed by the restrictions imposed on, the landing of Chinese coolies in Australia and Canada, The fact that the Chinese compete successfully in the labour market with white labourers
does not, in the opinion of the Chinese G.vernment, constitute any valid reason why they shoull be excluded from those countries; and the Chinese Government are, not upnaturally, little inclined to permit their people to be made use of when needed and to be denied admission when they are found unwelcome. Nevertheless the Chinese Imperial Goverument is ordinarily more or less indifferent to the condition of those subjects of the Dragou Throne as may prove so ill-advised as to seck to better their fortunes in another laud. They are prépared | to profit by their enter, rise, but they do not care to take any trouble to protect them against adverse legislation. It is possible, however, that the Chinese Govern- inent has, for soine reason or o.her, seen fit to rouse up from its accustomed apathy and find a grim satis.action in laying a veto on the engagement of ceolies to work in South Africa.
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GREAT BRITAIN AND TIBET.
(Daily Press, 30th November.) The despatch of the British Expedition to Tibet has been made an Russian Press for a n
excuse by the tirade against Great Britain. REUT1.2 announces that the Russin papers are discussing the question, enlarging on the effect of the expedition, direct aud indirect, upon Central Asia generally, and declaring that it will establish, British prestige to the detriment of that of Russ a. They credit the British Indian Government with am'itions designs, such no doubt as auimate their own Government.
perhaps it is exceptionally difficult in such pra's of the world as the Far East, where we see for ourselves the missionary at work, and do not merely have to rely on the accounts given in the reports of various societies or from the pulpit on such occasions as yseter- day, the annual day of intercession för mis- sins. The European resident but here sees the missionary, if he acts up to his profes- siou, striving his best to convert the natives of the country to that religion in which the resident himself, like the evangeliser, ha- been brought up, or at least under the influence of which his mother country is governed. He would, therefore, in the majority of cases, we take it, be predisposed to look upon the work more favourably than and urge that every effort should be made not, though he might not himself do any to thwart these imaginary designs. The thing to forward it actively. But is this truth is, no doubt, that they hail the oppor-so? The question can hardly be answered tunity which they think the despatch of this in the affirmative. It is plain then that expedition gives them as a heaven-sent there must be other factors in the situation chance to retort upon Great Britain the which determine him rather against his accusations which a portion of the British natural inclination. We think there are, Press hve levelled against Rassia of desigus roadly, two. The first is, that the methods upon Manchuria. If they are accused of in a lot of missiouising endeavour are ob- desiring an intending to annex Manchuria,jectionable; the second, and really more why should they not attribute to Great important, is that the thought cannot be Britain the same siuister intentions with put aside that so vast an amount of work is regard to Tibet? It matters little to
left undone at home that those who are Muscovite writers that the circumstances admirably suited to do it, but instead come are widely different. Great Britain inay out here and undertake work for which they not desire to drive a railway across the are by no means well suited, should not com- passes to the "Roof of the World," and is mand much sympathy. We do not intend not in search of a port in unfrozen waters as here to go into the question of wrong methods, the terminus of its great arterial line of as we have on various occasions in the past railway, but she may be seeking for a new dalt with it at some length; the unfortunate market--if a limited one-for British mann-point that these methods are practically factures and products, and even the land unchanged. As for the work left undone at of the Dalai Lama is a consumer of tea and home, there is no one in this Colony who other products which England and India ever lived in Britain who could not boar have for sale. The volume of such tra le ample witness to it.
We have, of course, would, it is true, be very small, especially hear.l strong advocates of missionary enter. considering that Tibet already imports prise who have admitted the urgency of from India to a fair extent. Then Great labour at home, but have claimed that there Britain has no hankering for the inclement must be men (and women) for botù tasks. country comprised in the Tibetan plateaus, In that case it seems to us that it is a great and would not care to spend either men or pity that so many of the earnest and sincere people who come out and blunder along in their attempt to convert the Chinese were wt reasoned with before they set out for the East and induced to consider seriously whether they might not do far more good in their own country. Dr. HOARE takes the Hongkong people to task for not supporting missious more liberally. The Bishop was himself a missionary and was, we know, one of the hardest workers among them. But we think he rather ignores the possibility that Hongkong people require to be more convinced of the
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If this should turn out to be the case, we doubi not that it will prove to the ultimate advantage of South Africa. The British colonies there have, it seems to us, quite a sufficient number of racial questions to agitate them without another being added, 10 complicate still further their politics, They have the Boers to assimilate, the blacks and browns (Kafirs and Hottcuts) to control an educare, the Indian immi-money in such a cause. She is interested, grants to protect and to check, and the Continental European element to watch and keep in strict limits, and they do not need another population which will be more or less antagonist.ct and unsympathetic with all the rest. Most o. these Colonies are adapted for the home of the Caucasian; he can labour there in the open air, aud reap the fruits of the earth There is no reason for resorting to Asiatic labour except the great scarcity of European workmen, and it is by no means proved that it is impossible to procure the
like the rest of the world, in exploring the wide territories at the foot of the great mountains of Central Asia, but she has no wish to annex а country which would scarcely give any return on the cost of cou- quering, and editainly, even as a market for products or goods, would never pay for any serious effort to secure its possession. What the British Indian Government cannot allow, however, is for another and perhaps rival Power to establish itself amongst th: snows of Tibet and become a standing menace,
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