146
PHILIPPINE TRADE DESPOX-
DENT.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[August 27, 1904.
any proof that things insular are so bad as
their appetite for fighting whetted, and they are made out to be. A continuance of their enthusiasm maintained by being un- railway enterprise, with a cheap freights as leashed in sundry skirmishings and neces- But no great ena possibly be arranged, ought to make the sary preliminary operations. outlook very much brighter for our neigh-numbers have been risked on a premature bours. We have already hinted at the assault that might not achieve all that is virtue of a little patience. We cannot cou. hoped for. A deliberate and careful plan clude more appropriately than by quoting, of attack is nudoubtedly being followed. from the same journal whence we took the with scrupulous adherence to details ar- ranged. The Japanese forces now environ- pessimistic news already cited, these words. They were used in connection with quite ing Port Arthur are being worked like the acother subject, but they apply equally well milling machinery of the gods.
The days of the empire are goue ; move slowly, but the garrison of Port to this.
"the day of the chit and assertive ignorance, Arthur will be ground exceeding small. "of merchants who submit to blackmail, The temptation to prophesy has to be
passes fast.
What counts now is labor, resisted strenuously; otherwise we should honesty and accomplishment, not the be inclined to promise some important news "ethereal stuffing of the balloou nor the in the course of the present week. "frantic endeavor to pull oneself up by
one's bootstraps.
Is
"C
THE WAR.
They
(Daily Press, 22nd August.) Our dear neighbours, the American colonists of the Philippines, would appear (if their local journals afford any criteria to judge by) to be somewhat discouraged by the results of their efforts in those tropical islands. The Manila newspapers, which customarily seem about as antipathetic, each to other, as the most repellent of the atoms, agree in bewailing the general condition of Philippine prosperity. They have written that trade has gone from bad to worse; that the most that can be done is to scrape a precarious living 'from the platter of busi- ness; and they have published warnings
Turning to the recent naval operations, a meant to undeceive such of their fellow
Russian who took part in the light of the countrymen in the States as might be under
fleet from Port Arthur has outlined for our the impression that the U.S. insular colony
Shanghai contemporary the order of the fight. is another El Dorado. One of the last
With five torpedo craft on the left, as they papers to band by Saturday's mail reports
emerged, and six on the right, the nine that a large number of civilians had just
(Daily Press 23rd August.) left Manila, "returning to the Home-land General RUMOUR has (now almost if not Russian ships sailed straight out for the with the expressed intention of remaining entirely annihilated the Japanese army open sea. The Novik, since sunk, was try- there." They were men who had failed which has in hand the task of capturinging to join them, approaching from the dismally in the race for commercial pro- Port Arthur. Early in the present month Corea bay on their left. From the south- sperity" who "had battled bravely against General STOESSEL, the Russian Commander, east, five Japanese ships and a flotilla of their left, the. an untoward fate, and had only surrendered estimated his enemy to number 70,000. torpedo-boats closed in on when success seemed impossible of attain- Since then General RUMOUR notified us bigger ships circling to the south to head ment." We are told they "left the Philip that in one battle the Japanese lost 30,000; them off. On their right was another sqund of torpedo craft, and these, with other pines sorrowfully, with deep regret for the in another 14,000; and that there were necessity of seeking other fields of useful- "enormous losses in the other attacks cruisers, drew up to join the rest in check- ness. There is an ever-pressing tempta- which have been made on the garrison, of ing their escape. The two squadrons con- General Rum-verged about eleven o'clock, meeting the tion to exaggeration in the case of journalists which we have lost count. who have to bring before their readers a picture our has certainly killed a number equalling Russian ships at the same time at a point of the state of things as they are, either good if not exceeding the 70,000 men which about forty miles south-west by south of or bad; and we are afraid we cannot des- General STOESSEL estimated the attacking Port Arthur. cribe our Manila contemporaries as immune force to number. The Japanese Govern- thereto. The tone of the business man who ment has not taken the trouble to publicly is dissatisfied with his progress, even though contradict these absurd and impossible he has to admit some progress, is prover-statements, because it appears to be general- bially pessimistic. His complainings, caught by the newspaper man and by him re-echoed, are apt to lose in conscientious accuracy what they undoubtedly gain in expressive- ness and force. American enterprise on this side of the Pacific is young yet.
It seems to us full early to let it go forth that there is an actual "necessity of seeking other fields of usefulness." Indeed, it would
:
19
ly known in Japan that there is no founda. tion in fact for them. There prevails in the Press that tone of quiet confidence in victory which was so markedly apparent in the official report regarding the tendering of advice to the Russian General to surrender If that magnanimous sugges- the fortress. tion emanated from the shadowy remnant of a besieging army, which is all the not be a rash assertion if we ventured to Russians have allowed, telegraphically, to suggest that the list of arrivals at Manila exist, then we can hardly avoid some com- is probably as lengthy as the list of de-parison of Japanese and Russian “cheek. partures.
Those who
11
15
are described as having failed dismally
were perhaps victims of that racial fever which has been characteristically summarised by UNCLE SAM'S citizens themselves as the get-rich-quick itch." No doubt in the early days, before the "old resident' species-rare as it is in the Philippines -had had time to evolve, returns were quicker and profits on a more generous scale. Similar beginnings and like dwindlings have been noticed in China. There is, of course, a big difference between our methods in this colony, and in the various Chinese settlements, and the American methods of treating the indigenous community in theirs; and we must be pardoned for pre- ferring our own. It is not yet five years ago since the ports of Luzon were thrown None of our merchant princes expected or managed to get rich so quickly as these despondent and departing men of Manila. It is, moreover, a fact by no means hostile to our argument that there should be so many British firms, some old established, in the Philippines, none of whom seem to have recognised "the neces- sity of seeking other fields of usefulness." Also, despite a corrective comment directed at us recently by one of our sprightly cen- temporaries, we are still unable to read into the trade statistics of the last three years
open to trade.
was
A:
The Bayan struck a stray mine and put back into harbour before that. The Tsarevitch had her rudder damaged early on, and began to move in circles. the others were not informed of this, and had orders to follow her, the whole Russian fleet began waltzing, a manoeuvre that must have somewhat amazed the Japanese. The result is already known. Five damaged ships managed to regain the shelter of the forts; the rest are being hounded down by the Japanese, while the few that have sought sanctuary in neutral ports are either dis- arming, or screwing up courage to once more face the watching and waiting foe.
In the far north, everything points to another big battle, unless KUROPATKIN once more folds up his tents like the Arabs, and silently steals away. Some time must yet elapse before a combined attack can be made upon him at Harbin, if, as is far from unlikely, he elects to fall back so far north.
YOKOHAMA SPECIE BANK.
But undoubtedly the humane proposal was made, not in a spirit of over-confidence or bravado, but with a calm assurance, based on the position actually attained, of ultim- ate conquest. All the news coming from the south of the Kwangtung Peninsula bears out the uuprejudiced opinion that the capture of Port Arthur is within measurable
(Daily Press, 24th August.) distance. The very delay of the final as-
The palatial new headquarters of the sault, which has been viewed by some people as indication that Japau Yokohama Specie Bank (Shokin Ginkoj finding it a harder nut to crack than have taken five years and four months to they expected, confirms us in the idea complete. The building was finished last that these enormous losses are Russian month, and people at Home, indifferently wish was the informed of things Japanese, would be exaggerations, to which father. Throughout, the brave face that amazed by an inspection of this bank, which Japan has presented to the world, the sang undoubtedly embraces the best features of froid her nationals have assumed, has mis-modern bank buildings of the most advanced led many outsiders into thinking that the type. In addition to seeing the building military forces of the Mikado were subject as it approached completion, we have now to megalomania; that they were, in homely phrase, too cock-sure. Nothing of the kind. Those who were in Tokyo during the final preparations, and had opportunities of con versing with the higher class soldiers and officers, could not help noticing that beneath the external tone of confidence was a very real and with difficulty concealed realisation of the immensity of the task about to be undertaken. Like soldiers of other nation alities, the Japanese rank and file would have fretted in inaction, and they have had
been favoured with a book of excellent. photographs showing the internal arrange- ments. The enormous expense of these finest bank premises in the Orient (for such "the steady they must be) is justified by expansion and augmentation of its business business in operations." Opened February, 1880, the Yokohama Specie Bank has been conducted specially in view of its position as an organ of Japan's foreign trade, paying particular attention to foreign exchange, and acting freqüently,
for
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.