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June 13, 1904.]
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. date and the investment there was ample Russian army,-its capacity of rapidly con- time to provision Port Arthur for a pro- structing works of defence, when another longed siege, and also to complete or army would yield to the apparently inevit strengthen the laud forts, many of which at able and retire. The Russian commanders the outbreak of the war were said to be had mistaken the character of the troops unfinished and unarmed. It seems to be with whom they had to fight. The mis- generally expected in the North that the take was natural enough; a nation whose Japanese will attempt the capture of the system of drill is aimed at repressing all fortress by assault, and among the Chinese individuality in its ranks is apt to fare but at Chefoo the fall of Port Arthur is ill in a contest where success mainly depeads regarded as a question of a few days. on the individual soldier. Such was the The weakness of Port Arthur is declared to case in the attack on the heights over Kin- be that its land defences are scattered. It chow; here there was no room for inanœuvr- is suggested that the Japanese could silenceing in the ordinary way, and the soldier, some one of the outer forts by concentrat-taught to fight in large masses, had mani- ing a crushing fire upon it, and once silenced festly no chance against an enemy each it could be stormed and used to mount guns for the reduction of its nearest neighbours, thus opening a way through the ring of forts. After what we have learnt of the bravery and tenacity of the Japanese troops at Chulieucheng, at Kinchow and Nanshan, an attempt to capture Port | Arthur by assault is, we should say, extremely likely.
(Daily Press, 11th June.) Although there is no definite course of action marked out for a defeated commander when giving up to the enemy his post, it is generally considered good form that the worke should be handed over in as good condition as the actual requirements of the war being carried on will permit. The common sense of modern nations deprecates wanton destruction, and a large portion of the modern practice of international law is occupied with the duty of the belligerent in preserving as far as possible intact all private property. With that cynical dis- regard of the conventions which has marked the conduct of the Government of Russia, both at home and abroad, especially since the accession of the present TSAR, all those conventional safeguards for life, liberty, or property, which men of the nineteenth cen- tury foudly imagined had been placed on firm foundations, have been cast to the winds; and international amenities have receded to the low position occupied during the sixteenth century. Slaughter of Jews, persecution of Finlanders in spite and con- tumacy of solemn engagements sworn to by the TSAR on his accession, unprovoked occupation of territory belonging to friendly States without even a pretence of justifica- tion or the miserable makeshift of a formal deed of surrender; and finally a policy towards outside States which in private life would lead to the committal of the per- petrator to gaol for the remainder of his life. These combined with brag and ignor. ance, usually associated with the lowest of gambling saloons, are the main features of the international amenities of the early twen- tieth century. It is not, however, so much to moralise on this fact, which after all is pro- bably but the natural sequence of those wire-drawn ideas of universal peace and untrainmelled trade which mocked poor humanity during the middle of the last bundred years, as to point out the foolish- ness, even from a Russian point of view, of the present craze for destruction which is marking the retirement of the Russian forces in Shengking, that we write there lives.
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KOWLOON-CANTON RAILWAY.
(Daily Press 6th June.)
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In the course of his remarks at the opening ceremony of the Fatshan-Samshui Railway, on the 1st instant, Mr. McWADE, Consul- General for the United States at Canton, made some remarks which
convey the impression that he thinks the colonists of Hongkong are indifferent on the question of the construction of the Kowloon-Canton Railway. He is reported to have said :--- "The people of Hongkong, however, did "not seem to have arrived at the conclusion "that a railway would be a benefit to every、 "marchant in Hongkong. He was sure individual of whom was trained to act they [the Americans] were quite ready to independently as a separate unit. Under take the responsibility of building. the such circumstances, and immediately follow- railway from Kowloon to Canton. If the ing a defear, the Russian commanders wise- building of the railroad from Macao to ly declined to attempt a stand at Dalny.
"Canton was turned over to the Americans No prudent general would have done other- they would build it, and build it free of wise. Having made up their minds to expense to the people who gave them the evacuate, the Russian commanders would "contract." This, of course, is very nice have displayed more wisdom, as well as a and kind, and we'doubt not will be duly better appreciation of military honour, had appreciated by the promoters of the railway they yielded the place intact. The ab- in question, who might perhaps do worse solutely wanton destruction of buildings than accept the offer. But the people of and jetties, and the malicious damage to the Hongkong do not want anyone to make bridges and rolling stock of the brauch line their railway from Kowloon to Canton; they from the main track to Dalny, which formed only desire the opportunity to make it no part of the defence, and would have themselves or to get it made with British done no service to the besiegers, cannot capital and British material. Moreover, bs coustrued as the act of a Power with the colonists are keenly alive to the advan- any pretensions to be considered civilised. tazes it would confer not only on the With an affectation that they were engaged merchants of Hongkong but on the entire in warfare with an uncivilised Power, population of the Colony, and also that of the Russian commanders have all through the district of Kwangtung, through which the present campaign pretended to be the line would pass. It is from no lack of lieve themselves exempt from the ordinary local appreciation of the benefits of railway rules of civilised war; and have carried communication that the construction of it on
temper very ill becom- the projected railway has been so long ing the position which they have delayed; this is simply and solely due to been weakly allowed to assume by the the concessionaries in London, who have other European Powers. On the other failed to utilise their concession. The hand, it is interesting to note the contrary people of this Colony have been waiting with method of conducting the war adopted by a patience that would have been admirable their antagonists. Here every care has in some circumstances, but was perhaps ill- been taken to do as little damage as possible judged in this instance, to see work com- to private property, the Geneva cross bas menced on the railway. There are some been scrupulously respected, even in the excuses for this apparent apathy.
The case where the Russian Commander-in-Chief concession to make the railway had been was mean enough to make use of it to cover obtained by a powerful and representative his own flight from Port Arthur; Russian syndicate, and we may safely assert that it prisoners again have had the same care was never for one moment imagined by this taken of them as Japanese soldiers them-community that at the end of five long selves, while Japanese ladies of rank have not thought it beneath them to themselves attend on Russian wounded. Looking at the affair in its most sordid, light the action of the Russian commanders bus from a merely financial point of view been unwise in a marked degree. Had the Russian troops respected this property, unserviceable as it would have been to a belligerent, they would from this point of view have established a claim for consideration when expenses came to be adjusted. Whatever happens in the future it is in the last degree unlikely that Russia will ever be restored to the posses sion of Port Arthur; a wise belligerent would have taken some pains, if not to preserve his good name, at least to have some tangible counterclaim to present against bis expulsion. It is well that these facts should in the interest of civilisa tion receive more attention from the other Powers, whose own honour is intimately concerned, than they have hitherto bestowed upon it.
It is no discredit to the moral worth of the Russian commanders in Shengking that in the course of a serious war they have been de- feated; both belligerents cannot be on the winning side, and the defeated in all periods of the world's history when brave men have fought and lost have felt consolation in a cl.eerful acceptance of the decrees of au adverse fate. The fight at Kinchow ex- hibited some of the best traits of the
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An interesting ceremony took place last week at the offices of the Shanghai Horse Bazaar Co., Ld., the occasion being the presentation by a few old Shanghai friends of a handsome silver salver to Mr. Henry Symons, on the eve of his departure for home, as a token of their esteem and respect for him.
years not a single sod would have been turned. This fact and the still more dis- heartening one that the detailed survey has not been effected or the very first initial step towards active work taken, could not have been dreamed of by even the most pessimistic observer or the most captious of critics. Other stirring events were taking place meanwhile; war was long impending between Russia and Japan, and the public attention diverted for a time from this most urgent question of the railway. When, however, on the occasion of his departure for Ceylon, Sir HENRY BLAKE alluded in his farewell speech to this question s0 impressively, the Colony woke up to the position, and it certainly has not slumbered since. It is true that no mass meetings have been convened, no torchlight demon- strations made, as would have been the case in a purely British city menaced with dis- aster by the lethargy of a ponderous corporation, but strong and urgent repre- sentations have been made on the subject by the representative bodies in the Colony, and these have been aided by a strongly sympathetic Government, while the Press of this Colony have earnestly seconded these efforts. It is difficult to see what more can be done for the moment. Speak- ing for ourselves, we may say that we shall
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