278
RUSSIA'S PROPOSED NAVAL REINFORCEMENTS.
Papers by the mail contain confirmation of the special telegram published in the Daily Press a month ago announcing Russia's, in tention to dispatch 45 warships to the Far East at the end of June. The squadron will consist of fifteen large ships, which will be accompanied, as we suggested at the time, by about 30 torpedo-boats. The composition of the squadron will be as follows:-The eight battleships Borodino, Orel. Imperator, Alexander | III., Kniaz Suvarof, Ossliabya, Navarin, Sissoi Veliky, and Imperator Alexander II the two armoured cruisers, Dmitri Donskoi and Oleg; the three protected cruisers, Aurora, Jamtchug, and Izumrud, the two latter being of the Novik type; and the two large transports, Kamtchatka and Ocean, which recently returned from the Far East. This squadron will be commanded by Rear-Admiral Royestvensky.
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A commentator remarks that this fleet is a scratch pack" in every sense of the term, made up as it is of vessels that are still in dockyard hands and have not yet run their preliminary trials, together with some of the oldest vessels that the modern Russian Navy | possesses. They all, too, vary among themselves in speed and in coal capacity. while none of them has the means of getting over more than half the distance without re-coaling. How that supreme difficulty in this regard will he got over remains yet to be seen, and it will he a highly interesting spectacle for outsiders.
MILITARY OPERATIONS IN
JOLO.
[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT:
Manila, 29th March.
With the death of the Moro datto. Pangliman, Hassan, all opposition to United States authority in the Island of Jolo ceases. He was not only the prime author of the recent disturbances, but the only one of the Sulu chiefs to remain hostile after the repeated drubbing they have received. Hassan was defiant to the last. and the manner of his death was tragic to the last degree.
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
and favourite wife of the rebel were killed in the fire, and two of his sons wounded, one of whom has since died; but Hassan himself was not there, having been gone some days.
This was in the latter days of February. Hassan was next heard of living in a hut in the extinct crater of Mount Barska, about twenty miles away. With him were two other Moros, one of whom gave Scott the necessary information. According to the accoun. of an officer recently from Jolo, Hassan was ignorant of the swamp affair and was expecting his family to join him in his new retreat. One of his companious endeavoured to persuade the irreconcilable to give himself up. but was told for answer that if he was no longer his friend the best he could do was to go to Scott and tell him to come up here and I'll show him how to die." This Hassan made good in a mauner to command the admiration of all who respect a brave man. After deciding that no other means would satisfy. Colonel Scott, sur rounded Bagsak during the night of March 4th and drew in on him at daybreak of the 5th. Hassan met the demand for his surrender by deliberately firing into the soldiers. With both legs broken and riddled by bullets, he continued to fight with the ferocity of a cornered wild-cat. He had already emptied his magazine three times when a rifle hall shattered the bolt-handle of his gun, and then. drawing his barong, the dragged himself towards the nearest soldier, a cavalry sergeant, who was obliged to dispatch him with a pistol hall. When examined after death his body is said to have contained twenty-six gunshot wounds.
The abrogation of the Bates treaty has pro- duced no new phase in the Moro situation in Mindanao. This occasions no surprise here to those informed on Moro affairs, inasmuch as the terms of the President's decree have been in effect for the better part of a year. As late as last September General Wood notified the sul- tans and dattos that as they had failed to fulfil their obligations, especially in the matter of maintaining order, they had forfeited their annuities and that slavery resolved into a viola- tion of the American laws. As a matter of fact the sultan and his dattos have not received a cent from the Government for ten months. To this announcement the Moro chiefs made no demur. which in itself was a paramount admission of their failure to comply with the terms of the treaty; indeed, I am informed by those from Mindanao that they frankly confess the fact. It is notorious enough without that. however, that the dattos have maintained anything but order in the past year, and that their relations with the United States have long ago assumed a different aspect.
The Bates treaty gave recognition to the authority of the dattos over their followers, and provided an annual compensation for them upon the express condition that they were to preserve peace and order within their respective territo- ries. The Moro laws were recognised by the same instrument in so far as they did not conflict with the United States laws. except that slavery was tentatively tolerated. The an
nuities. therefore, were more than
mere
such as any local official in the Islands might receive, and their withdrawal was the only logical outcome of the state of affairs.
Colonel Hugh Scott. who commanded the cavalry column that has been operating against the recalcitrant dattos in that locality, was treacherously wounded last November by this same Moro. He was led by some friendly chiefs, who were acting as go-betweens, to a house in the jungle where Hassan had promised to sur- render himself, and was fired upon at close range from behind a high wall that screened it. Since then Colonel Scott engaged Hassan on the tenth of last month near Siet Lake, where he was holding out in the strongly fortified cotta of a kinsman named Laksamana. In this fight the cotta was taken with a loss to Scott's party of an officer and seven men, but although well over two hundred of the defenders were slain, Hassan and Laksamana succeeded in making their escape, the latter badly wounded.
During the latter part of his campaign. Co-retaining fees, so to speak, but rather salaries lonel Scott has had the assistance of all the former hostile dattos, who, already satisfied with their punishment, were anxious to ingratiate themselves. He was especially desirous of turing Hassan rather than killing him, as he considered him as probably the most influential of the Sulu chiefs. whose power might be uti- As lised for good results if properly directed. an old Indian fighter, Scott readily recognised that the best way to get Hassan was through his own people, as he would never be forced to sur- render, nor would he permit himself to be taken by the Americans, and that remained the only way in which to reach him. In response to the pro- testations of the friendly dattos, Colonel Scott therefore told them that the best proof they could offer of their intentions was to bring in the instigator of the trouble, which they vowed to do. After the Siet Lake affair the Moro allies managed to surround Hassan in a large swamp, where they tried to starve him out. is said that their sincerity was at first doubted, but whether they really intended to keep their promise or not they soon tired of the unwhole- someness of swamp life and went in after the fugitive. In the attack on the house where Hassan was supposed to be refuged, the mother
It
As regards the slavery question. it might be supposed that the abolition at one stroke of so fast-rooted and traditional a custom would wreck the Moro social structure. Yet the dattos accepted the new order most imperturb ably. They merely enquired what they were expected to do with the dependants they already held as slaves, and were told that there was nothing to prevent them remaining in the service of their present masters, but that, on the other hand, if any of them chose to walk off their former owners would be powerless under the law to bring them back or to otherwise detain them. This seemed to fully satisfy the dattos, and it is not supposed that any new state of affairs will arise out of this order. The Moro slave-owners will undoubtedly take good care that their human belongings learn as little as possible of their advantage, and, in any event, they will probably use methods of their own to discourage their slaves from availing themselves of it, and yet remain within the law. In the meantime the issue is apparently settled and all sides satisfied.
[April 9, 1904
A TRIP TO WAICHOW.
AN INTERESTING
EXPEDITION.
The importance of the town of Waichow, on the East River, was until recently little realised in Hongkong, but there is no excuse now for its possibilities in relation to this Colony being overlooked. The local Chamber of Commerce for some time past has been urging the advan- tages to Hongkong which would accrue from the opening of Waichow to foreign trade. In September last we described at some length the resources of the town and its neighbourhood, and since then both the Chamber of Commerce and the Hongkong Government have kept the matter well in view. No doubt it is the fact of the talk which there has been about the place that inspired three Hongkong residents, one of them the Secretary of the Chamber of Com. merce, to spend their Easter holidays in visiting Waichow. The gentlemen who started on this interesting journey were Messrs. A. R. Lowe. W. H. T. Davis, and O. D. Thomson. They left Hongkong at 2.30 p.m. on the 31st ult. and returned on Tuesday afternoon.
We are enabled by the courtesy of Mr. Thomson to give an account of the visit.
Starting from Hongkong at 2.30 p.m. on Thursday for Mirs Bay in the Chamber of Commerce launch, the passage to Sang Cheong. north of Mirs Bay, was unpleasantly rough. This stage was reached at about 6.30 p.m., and the Customs officials, who know they were coming, made them comfortable for the night. They set away next morning at a quarter to Seven. For the first couple of miles they went along the banks of the river which flows into Mirs Bay. At this time of the year the mouth is silted up, and a bar about two miles inland makes navigation im. possible. Then they tramped down into a more fertile, well-cultivated valley, along a good path. The whole district was under cultivation of some kind. conspicuous among the produce being sugar-cane. After two or three miles of this they crossed a range of hills, the gap being not more than 600ft. high. Just on the other side of the gap. from Mirs Bay. is said to be a haunt of pirates. and it appeared well adapted for that purpose. Here also the country seemed well under cultivation. At 11 a.m. they had entered quite a different kind of place, wild moorland with an abundance of trees stretching as far as the eye could reach. A range of hills showed up as a background. There was no inconsiderable traffic through this district, several 15 to 20 ft. roads crossing that along which the party were travelling. They passed the source of a river, which turned out to be that of the stream Tau Shiu. Tea-houses were passed every few miles along the road. and a considerable number of people carry- ing various kinds of merchandise. The foreign trio were not interfered with in any way on the road. Tamsui, about 20 miles from Mirs Bay, was reached at about 3 p.m.; and a native boat was hired to take them to Waichow. The stream at Tamsui is extremely shallow, aad though the boat had a flat bottom it very often went aground. The craft was punted along, the crew occasionally getting out to tow her from the banks. The aspect of the country hereabouts was much the same as that already described-fairly flat, with no high hills near the river. The boat continued to proceed slowly till about 9 p.m., when she
was anchored for the night, the journey being resumed at daybreak (4 a.m.) by the same means at the same rate of progress as on the previous evening. At six o'clock the travellers landed and walked along the banks. Here the country began to lack those signs of cultivation, everywhere noticeable on the way up, but it was evident this was not due to barrenness of the soil, as trees and bushes of various kinds were to be seen on all sides. The scantiness of the population may account for the land being out of cultivation, for there are very few villages along the river banks. Fui- pu,
where
there 18 a German Mission Station, was reached at 10 a.m. The jour- ney was continued till tiffin-time through a low-lying country, but after the mid-day refreshment they emerged again into a dis- triet partly in cultivation and partly pasture land. The surrounding country was beautifully green and charming to behold. The boat was anchored just outside Waichow at 9 p.m., as it'
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