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June 18, 1904.]
governed the land and directed the Church "under the cover of the unfortunate Dalai
4
"Lama boy, would accept the sudden political "intervention of Panchen Rimpoche, at a "moment when the Church is in danger. By "an encyclical letter he may depose the Dalai "Lama and crush the moral authority of the "Lhassa monasteries, which by the presence
or the possible arrival of Indian troops i "would be prevented from taking up an open struggle. He may then take upon himself "the political administration of the country, stating in a bull that the Lhussa oligarchy have, up to now, by innumerable crimes, prevented the Dalai Lama from directing "the affairs of the Church, and that, in the present difficulties, a reorganisation of the "ecclesiastical administration is unavoid-, "able." In this way an Anglophile Buddhist Pope might, Mr. ULAR thinks, be set up without much difficulty. There is little doubt that PANCHEN RINPOCHE would accept the position, especially if offered in addition a monopoly of the tea trade from India and a participation in exploiting the gold mines. This scheme appears on the face of it to be practicable, and to possess the merit of averting the trouble of annexation or the erection of a formal protectorate. No doubt, however, Lord CURZON is well in formed as to the position, and will not fail to turn it to the best account when the right moment arrives.
REPORTING THE WAR.
• CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
of his forerunners. The indiscretions, as we may now call them, of news-getters in the Transvaal have awakened the present devotees of Mars to the risks attending too many cooks over the broth-pot. As Punch wittily indicated recently, they have adorned the adventurous representatives of the Fourth Estate with an honourable badge, to be worn gagwise. Thus the first war of the twentieth century F
has shown us the profession of the war correspondent gone limbo.wards, after that of the engraver of wood-cuts. It is to be remarked thereon that the ills they did have not died with them. The public has still to wait agog for the first intelligences, and it has still to discriminate, as we must admit was afore time needful, het ween the halfpenny coloured and the penny plain. A tolerant Austrian Consul, in one of the Chinese treaty ports, recently face to face with much "hard-swearing.". remarked that the conflicting testimonies of the witnesses for and against did not necessarily imply wilful perjury. It was, he said, due to the excite. ment necessarily attendant upon an affray between a policeman and a civilian. In valiant emulation of which amiable view, may we not, now that we seem to depend for our war news upon the interested parties, assume that some tergiversatory tellings may be the natural outcome of an excited observation, by narrators who are animated by more-much more-than the I journalistic desire to be first in the witness box with a more or less convincing bit of evidence? In any case, whatever harsh things we are tempted to think of the suggestio falsi, we are bound to rentember
1
(Daily Press, 17th June.) By all usage to which our grandsires were accustomed, the Press had no part in war save that of recording its incidents and results. As now, they could voice public opinion and clamour for it; but once the glove was down, they were, the gentlemen.Į of the Press, to bow to the gentlemen of the sword and culverin, sayin: meekly: “Après
vous.
." It was our Amrican cousins who. as though tired of the mute, inglorious inactivity incumbent upon them, first set the fashion of " every dog helping to kill the fox."
"
that there are often reasons of State for the suppressio veri.
HONGKONG JOTTINGS.
year the rainfall amounted to 25.230 inches. The prospect is not pleasant.
(Daily Press, 13th June.) Jupiter Pluvius this year.
We are getting treated rather badly by to have been making prolonged visits at other While he appears points along the coast his visits here are unusual- In the modern war play, the Pressly few and far between for the time of the year. is neither hero nor villain, first walking The rainfall for the month of May, according to gentleman nor principal comedian, yet it the observations of the Hongkong Observatory. bad at first a speaking part which enabled inches, and in 1902, 36.730 inches. In June last was 7.705 inches. Last year it was 13.960 it to hold the stage and almost, in one sense at least, to "
queer the business'
of the principals. The small armies of correspon- dents at various supposed headquarters are more heard of, for obvious reasons, than the forces in the field. The "Thunderer's" Haimun, with its DE FOR- REST apparatus and roving commission, sounds with as many salvoes as the combined fleets-at this time. Telegrams tell of per- mit applications as often as of punitive ex- peditions, courts-martial on correspondents as well as prize courts. International laws are cited in the interests of threatened journalists. No news is the good news that sets waiting scribes in editorial sanctums to the task of Israel in bondage. The daily tale must be prepared, and with no straw withal.
The members of the Kowloon Bowling Club were rather concerned on the point whether or no the King's Park was going to interfere with their beautiful greens which have been laid out A satisfactory arrangement has new been come and kept up at considerable expense to them.
to whereby the greens will be incorporated in the Park but not interfered with in any way. Probably the present bamboo hedge will be replaced by an ornamental railing. suggested that there may even be a public bowling green in the Park such as we find in most of our city parks at home.
It is
The Chinese have a peculiar custom with regard to turtles which they regard as very good joss. Almost any day one can see these creatures, some of them of huge size, being carried on board the river steamers, not to be taken to Canton for culinary purposes. but to be dumped into the sea and restored to liberty for the Canton man to make to his friend in and freedom. Turtles are a favourite present
Instead of that, the recipient has to go to But they must not be eaten. Hongkong. considerable expense in sending them back to their natural element. Good luck is thereby considered to rest upon both the giver and the receiver.
Well may the Hague idealists sor- row inwardly, as they note the undeniable, fact that the popular outlook on war is that of the Roman circus. The public, not find ing its matutinal instalment of spectacular slaughter, blames its caterer, finds the Press amiss. There is, it thinks, too much in the Press about the Press. Paraphrasing, with as little irreverence as possible, the Scripture, they "would see Janus, but could not for the press." And yet it is not (all) the fault of the note-taking "chiel." His
We do not often hear sea serpent stories in plight is to be explained as the Chinese Hongkong, but of late there have been repeated philosophers explain the sorry state of the accounts about the presence of sharks in the Chinese JOB. He suffers for the misdeeds Harbour. A stray shark such as that which
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scared a bathing party at Stonecutters last summer is not so very alarming to think about, out in the stream a few days ago tells me that but the skipper of a steamer which was lying
sporting about his bows. he saw no less than seven of these fearsome fish monsters might well disquieten a V.R.C. polo A few of these
match.
The arrival in port of the leviathan steamer Mongolia induces reflections on the change which has come over the character of the shipping entering the port in recent years. The times change and ships change with them lines we have in the last few years seen great In the coasting trade as well as on the foreign improvements and the shipping in the Far East compares now not unfavourably with that of the Atlantic.
The
A
The fire season seems to be over. alarm bell has not summoned the Fire Brigade for a whole week or more, and the joyful sense of relief. By the fires this season insurance companies must be experiencing I understand the insurance companies have suffered a total loss of about half a million dollars in the Colony.
The number of armed robberies in the New
more
Territory has been rather remarkable of late. Chengshawan and the other in the Saikong Yesterday two
were reported, one at
police that such offences are so frequent. The district. It certainly is not the fault of the
difficulty lies in the facts that the regions to be patrolled by the police are of such an extensive area and that when a patrol does leave one of the outlying stations bound on a raid upon the robbers their departure is made known to the gang before they have even got under way. Only an increase of the force in the New Territory will meet the requirements of the case, and at present, curiously enough, the policy of the Government is to decrease rather than increase the police strength in the hinterland.
Building operations are still to be seen on every hand on the island as well as at Kowloon. Having regard to the increas- ing value of land and the consequent high rentals which oblige people to sub-let portions of their houses. I have been asked why it is that the flat system is not introduced at Kowloon, for example, instead of running up rows of four-roomed houses. I imagine “flats in the Tropics would never answer until that millenium is reached which is pictured by Wil- liam Morris in one of his books when the entire reconciled to the idea of a common dining population of a congerie of flats has become
room. Cooking cannot be done here, in the hot season at any rate, by the white woman, and moreover flats with cooking and servants' quar- ters to each would not, I suspect, work out cheaper than the self-contained four-roomed house.
The honeymoon trip" which was assigned as the reason for the somewhat sudden dis-
advertised Mr. Warwick Peele has considerably appearance from the Colony of the freely
exceeded the ten days it was estimated by
him to take. Many with whom he had business relations are dejectedly asking
带垫
Will he no come back again ? Doubtless he is improving the occasion by practising some- where the Up-to-Date" system of making
accounts he forgot to pay in his hurry to start money; but if only he would settle up the little
on the trip. I am sure I shall be interpreting the feelings of those who have been left lamenting when I say they would instantly ome quite reconciled to his absence from the Colony.
BANYAN.
A smart steam launch built by Messrs. Geo. Fenwick & Co., Ld., for the British Admiralty, left Hongkong for Weihaiwei on the evening of the 4th inst., under the command of Capt. Ellis, and arrived at her destination early on the 14th, having made the passage in 94 days. As this includes calling in at Ningpo for coals the result must be considered very creditable, both to the builders and the navigator of the little craft.
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