414
CHINA'S Future NEEDS.
ANNUM. The rest he distributes thus:-
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
invasion is certain." Therefore he re- commends the establishment of three fleets (Daily Press, 31st May.)
northern, southern, and central-each to | We have received from the Inspectorate. consist of ten battleships, ten cruisers, ten General of Customs at Shanghai the full destroyers, and fifty torpedo-boats. The total text of Sir ROBERT HART's suggestions cost of such a Navy, with crews, he estimates, to the Chinese Government concerning the in round numbers, at Tls. 30,000,000. Then rearrangement of the Land Tax, with a for arsenals in connection with the four view to strengthening China so that she Army Corps Sir ROBERT HART apportions may be able to hold her own in the world. Tls. 10,000,000 per The Inspector-General commences hs
of the money memorandum by stating that, though the Tls. 160,000,000 for official salaries in con- immediate cause of the war now proceeding nection with the Land Tax collection; is the opposite policies of Japan and Russia, Tls. 10,000,000 for Education; Tls. 1,000,000 its real origin is the growing weakness of for Post Office; Tls. 5,000,000 for Tele- China a proposition
which cannot be
graphy; and Tis. 10,000,000 for Palace denied. He then says that, whether the
expenses. The total amount thus ex war. finishes in two or three years or lastspended," he says, " including a further sum five or six, when it does end China may have a serious difficulty to face (we think that Sir ROBERT HART might well have said "will certainly have a serious difficulty to face"), and that, to be able to secure a hearing then, and not simply obey orders, she ought not to neglect the opportunity to put ber military affairs in order. To be strong, Sir ROBERT continues, a country must have funds. How, then, is China to raise the requisite funds for the purpose? This is the question which the Inspector- General sets himself to answer. At present China's revenue amounts only to about Tla. 80,000,000 annually, of which more than half is mortgaged for payment of foreign loans, indemnities, etc. The only promising suggestion for supplying the want is, in the writer's opinion, the rearrange- ment of the Land Tax. He shows, from an estimate of the area of China proper, and of its payiuga opacity, that a total Land Tax of Tls. 400,000,000 may surely be reckoned on; the late IA HUNG-CHANG, he mentions, put the figures at 1ls. 600,000,000. This could be collected without in the slightest degree damaging or inconveniencing the people, Sir ROBERT HART says; and he then goes on to show a possible method of pro- cedure. Into the details of this we need not go. The principal points in it are that, instead of all the eighteen provinces begin- ning simultaneously, one district in one prefecture of a province should be selected to start with, and the reorganised taxation spread gradually therefrom, three years being allowed for the whole of the eighteen provinces to be brought into order; and that special precautions are to be taken to prevent any "squeezing" whatever by the collecting magistrates or their employees. The latter, we might remark, is distinctly revolutionary for China, though Sir ROBERT HART does not write of it as if the preven tion of "squeezing” would be of enormous difficulty. He is over-sanguine, we fear.
Having organised the scheme and put it into execution, China will have, by the Inspector-General's plan, four hundred million Taels annually. Sir ROBERT pro- ceeds to set forth what could be done with
** to
thie large sum. In the first place, secure perfect security for people and State" proper attention must be paid to military - mtiaers. To secure this, he advocates the establishment of iour Army Corps, oue in Chili, one in the Two Kiang, one in Hukwang, andthefourth in the Two Kwang. Each should eonsist fo 50,000 men; and ebe total cost is reckoneb at Tls. 27,400,000 per annum. Fonr military schools advocated by the writer should cost Tls. 2,000,000 a year;
a
and another Tls. 3,000,000 are to be devoted to arms and ammunition. Thus we get total annual expenditure of Tls. 32,400,000 on the Army. Sir ROBERT HART goes on to say: "Yet even more important is the Navy, for with a Navy fighting might even be kept out of a country, tud without it
"
(4
[June 4, 1904. Western civilisation should force on China the necessity of having a large standing Army, on modern lines. But such is the fact, and it will do China immense harm to put off its recognition.
A SCARE AT MACAO.
at
the
the same tima
(Daily Press, 1st June.) There is a simple explanation of imagination of somebody who saw in the Quixotic stories originating in the heated presence of four small Chinese war.craft in the waters of Macao a hostile demonstration against the Government of that Colony because, so the story ran, the authorities had declined to extradite the ex-Magistrate of Namboi without the formality of the of, say, Tls. 50,000,000 for Loan and usual legal proceedings. Whether such a Indemnity accounts, etc., would be
demand was ever preferred by the Canton Tls. 326,000,000, and, the collection being Government we do not know, but we are in-
· Tls. 400,000,000, there would remain an
formed that the presence of Chinese war-craft "annual surplus of Tls. 74,000,000, to be at a time when extradition proceedings were either deposited as a reserve fund or used being taken against the fugitive magistrate for productive and beneficial expenditure."
was a purely fortuitous circumstance and Such is Sir ROBERT HART's scheme. In not intended as a minatory act on the part the fourth section of his Memorandum be of the Viceroy of Canton. The explanation addresses his arguments to the Chinese of the whole matter, we learn, is that one of Government, forestalling objections to a the Chinese gunboats in question was on new departure and to additional taxation. her way to Pakhoi laden with treasure and The one question he insists on is the had to put in at Macao because of a break- suitability to the times of what he proposes. down in her engine-room. A Superintendent He says:"Once the war ends and terms of Customs was on board the gunboat, and of peace are to be negotiated, Chinese in-he wired from Macao to Canton for another terests in both East and West are certain gunboat to replace the one disabled. Two to be thereby seriously affected. There.
torpedo-boats were "fore China ought not to lose a moment, going down to Macao with secretaries and "but make the best use of time and witnesses required at the trial of the fugi
opportunity to plan and carry out every tive magistrate, and so it happened that "work of national importance so as to be four Chinese ships of war met in the waters ready to hold her own should matters that of Macao and scared some of the members concern her rights and welfare be under of the community into a belief that a bom- discussion. The times we live in show bardment was intended! We are credibly that for nations to reap advantage or avert informed that the gunboats were practically calamity might is almost of more import- without ammunition, and that the torpedo. ance than right: the country that wants boats carried no torpedos; but whether this to be strong must have funds, and in be literally true or not, it is certain that "China there is only this one source of these small craft were not equipped for any Revenue, the Land Tax, which seems like warlike purpose. The armada did not ly to yield enough and more than enough remain long, and the people of Macao are quickly and continuously." Those who able again to sleep peacefully o' nights have spent any time in the consideration of China's position in the world must, we think, agree with Sir ROBERT HABT in principle. If China is not to disappear from the rank of independent nations she must, to a great extent, act on the lines recommended by him. When we say this, we do not mean that we necessarily endorse all his sugges- tions. For instance, wo are very doubtful with regard to the necessity, or oven utility, of such a Navy as he urges. The purchase of 240 war-vessels would at the present, or in the near future, be futile. China has hardly the nucleus of a Navy, and no sudden launching into vast expense will pro- cure her one within a period of many years. If she is to have a Navy, she must build one up very gradually. With the Army, matters are different. China has the materials, if we are to believe the experts, of a very excellent Army. Moreover, she has to fear aggression on the land side. Even should Russia be heavily defeated in the present war, there will be the perpetual menace of Russia, if not still in Manchuria, at least in Mongolia, in Ili, in Chinese Turkestan. Many years, possibly hundred of years, may pass before China can resist a navai attack on her coast by au European nation. But there is no rason why she should not before long be in a position to withstand threats on her land frontier, extended_though it is. This part of Sir ROBERT HART's scheme seems to us to be dictated by the soundest policy. It is no doubt a sad necessity that contact of
64
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JAPANESE OCCUPATION OF
DALNY.
(Daily Press, 2nd June.) It does not appear from the Japanese official telegram published in our yesterday's issue that the Russians did as much damage when they abandoned Daluy as Admiral ALEXIEFF's telegram to St. Petersburg represented. The Viceroy reported that the Russians had blown up the docks and piers to prevent the enemy from utilising them; but on occupying the place the Japanese have found that the docks and piers are uninjured with the exception of Since the "Great Pier," which was sunk. Dalny came into the possession of the Russians it is well known that immense sums of money have been expended with the object of making the terminal port of the Chinese Eastern Railway one of com- manding importance in the Far East. Magnificent wharves were built to accom- modate the largest ocean steamers, and every facility was provided, including three floating steam cranes capable of lifting fifty tous each, for the rapid handling of cargo. Behind the railway lines, which are brought right alongside the ship berths, roomy godowns of corrugated iron were erected, the design for these covering a The floor area of 100,000 square feet. hundred warehouses mentioned in the Japanese official despatch as being found
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