The-Hong-Kong-Weekly-Press-1904-09-10 — Page 2

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REGISTRATION OF SERVANTS.

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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND asked by servants in Hongkong are in inverse ratio to their capacity or experience. Every change is the signal for asking an advance on the wages enjoyed by the last incumbent of the post. Perhaps the height of impudence was reached the other day by some chair coolies, who, hearing a lady was likely soon to require such servants, applied for the job and calmly demanded fifteen dollars per month each as wages!

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[September 10, 1904.

PORT ARTHUR,

(Daily Press, 6th September.)

(Daily Press, 5th September.) The advantages derivable from the system of registration of servants as worked in Ceylon is tersely summarised by our Singa-

The persistent holding out of General pore contemporary. It would be curious to

STOESSEL at Port Arthur long after pru. hear what the present Governor of the

'dence and military honour would seem to Spicy Island, Sir HENRY BLAKE, has to

have demanded surrender is one of those. features of the present war which to the say on the subject. Fortunately for the people of Ceylon-employers and employed It is not wonderful, in such circumstances, onlooker accustomed to the ordinary amen:- -they had secured the system before His that the domestic servants should have been ties of civilised war would seem to demaud Excellency's arrival. Sir HENRY BLAKE degenerating ever since the voluntary system some explanation. It is of course the fact, knew something of the drawbacks and evils of registration was abandoned. The servants Russia was at the beginning so intent on attending the present want of such a system at that period were not all that could be her game of bluff, and so confident that in this Colony, and it is quite possible that, ¦ wished, but they were infinitely superior to Japan, following the example of her in spite of his tenderness for Chinese pre- their successors in capacity, civility, and European contemporaries, would never have judices, he would have adopted the recom, behaviour. They were as a rule drawn from the cool judgment to question the hand of mendations of the Commission appointed by a better class, they took some interest in her opponent, that, over sanguine as to the him to consider the question of the regula- their work, were more reliable, and certainly result, she temporarily lost control of her tion of chair and jiuricksha coolies had not ¦ did not include gaol birds in their ranks, mental faculties, and concluded that Japan, the petticoat influence at Government House nor is the supply of servants, even of this like herself, was only indulging in a profes heen too potent. It is a comfort to think undesirable type, equal to the demand. The sional flutter which, after the example of that in Ceylon, where the system is workingServants' Guild sees to this. If a bad ser- the game so characteristically abandoned by so well, Lady BLAKE's influence is not like vant has at length exhausted the endurance England, would, in view of the bigh stakes ly to bring about its reversal. The Straits of his mistress by insolence and laziness, and on the table, refuse to call, and leave a walk That Japan alone of all Times says, and we make no apology for fieds summary dismissal, he hies him to the over to the other. again reproducing its remarks:-"In Ceylon Guild, and by misrepresentation of his griov- the Powers should have seen through the "a person who needs a servant sends a note ance procures a boycott of his late employer, very antiquated game being played by "to the Registrar, who exhibits a list of The latter is then compelled to do without Russia seemed to that over-confident l'ower "vacancies ut his office daily. All uuem. assistance for soure time or engage one of the so incomprehensible that for the time she ployed registered servants go there to waste.s who sure to apply and demand, fairly "went off her chump," yet 'tis con- "examine this list, and dozens generally excessive wages for absolute incompetence: · sonant with human nature; but that this apply for the appointment within a very Registration would speedily bring about condition of obfuscation should continue till "few hours. Applicants are trained seria cure for all these evils, and a realisa- now, more than six months after Japan) -"vants who have a complete record[of their ; tion of the benefits sketched so clearly by accepted the challenge, is hardly consistent "service in their pocket registers, men our Singapore contemporary. The British with ordinary sagacity. That in St. Petera- whose name, description, nationality, &c., and foreign community have been very long-burg, where gush and spirituali ca are mo- recorded in the book for purposes of suffering in this matter. They have urged. mentarily in the ascendant, any folly, identification; whose whole career from date the introduction of registration for years however criminal, should hold sway over "of registration is accounted for; whose past, and all the arguments against it have the feeble couscience of the TSAR we may "recorded characters are genuine and not been completely demolished. The only one well imagine, but that the General in Com borrowed for the occasion; men who cau- having any force at all is that some of the mand at Port Arthur, whose patronymie of "not swear that their last salary was say servants would object to be photographed. STOESSEL. seems to point him out as n' Rs. 30 when it was only Rs. 15; in a word,! Considering all the benefits which regis- Courlander, or at least of Teutonic descent, men whose antecedents are carefully re-tration would confer

should acquiesce in so seemingly criminal a "corded for one's benefit." Recorded, we in securing their record and facilitating suggestion, seems incompatible with our should say, for the benefit of both master

ordinary ideas of Teutonic caution. It is true that the TSAR himself telegraphed to and servant, being a weans of protection to the former from imposition, and a passport

Geuerul STOESSEL that he would expect the to good employment to the latter as well as

garrison of Port Arthur to uphold the a means of protection against pretenders.

honour of Russian arms, but it is well to What happens in Hongkong, where there

remember thint the ROMANOFFs have ever is no registration, is as follows:-It is diffi-

proved but sorry lords, and have shown cult to get efficient servants in any case,

but little gratitude, especially when the most of those off. ring being what are knowu

recipient bears the dark stain of a Teutonic name. In this case it is well to recall a historie parallel. TODLEBEN, who so stoutly in his heroic defence, of maintained

the 'honour' of Russian Sebastopol arms, won little reward for his exertions; he was, had the he, Russian though similar misfortune to bear an unmistakeable Teutonic appellation, and in consequence for the rest of his life, though his defence had won for him the admiration of the mili- tary world, was at home treated with studied neglect. Once, indeed, when the favoured at St. Petersburg had failed to make any impression on the Turkish lines of Plevna, he was recalled from obscurity to accomplish the task, but the work once sccomplished the honours wore distributed amongst others less worthy, and the great general left to So for the sink into an unhonoured grave. parallel is noteworthy; General STOESSEL hus perhaps failed in one of the great re- quirements of a Russian General : he has not been the facile inventor of lying d spatches turning disgraceful defeats into brilliant victories, nor has he been participator in

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employment 10 good workers, while eliminating the dishonest and un- deserving, it is hardly worth while to discuss this objection. Men of quite as good a class and earning better wages-viz., the engineers and sailors employed in steam- launches, &c.—make no objection to being photographed as a means of identification, aud it is preposterous to imagine that larn pidgeons," and the veriest duffers domestic servants would prove less amena- often at that. Either they have no written ble to reason. Of course if the objection is testimonials of any value or else they ex- to be raised for them they will be quick to hibit borrowed certificates the true owner-endorse it, but if they realise that theČioverù. ship of which it is not easy to detect. Not ment mean to insist upou registration they infrequently bad characters obtain entry will promptly give way. The ladies of the into respectable households by these Colony recently addressed a memorial on means, and the first hint of the fact is given this question to Mr. MAY, while acting as by the discovery of the pudden flitting of Administrator, and though he did not feel at the newly-engaged GANYMEDE with the bulk liberty to so soon reverse the policy of Sir of the moveable valuables.' In other cases HENRY BLAKE, we trust that when Sir amusing revelations come to light. One MATTHEW NATHAN has had time to grapple lady engaged a staid and solemn-looking with this subject he will not hesitate to

boy Chinatuan as

or butler, and after a inaugurate the long-desired system. It long and sore exercise of patience with his would be unfair to expect His Excellency, apparently unaccountable blunders and to act hastily or without due consideration, clumsiness, accidentally discovered that the and it is perhaps rather early as yet to new domestic had been faki in a Chinese worry him with the question, but as it has shop, and had only acted on one occasion as incidentally cropped up we have ventured "substitute boy for a friend. Another to invite his attention to the circumstances, boy whose aspirations for pay mounted to a very high figure as compared with his youth and absence of reliable references, was found to possess absolutely no qualifications for the post beyond a slender stock of broken cheek," which English und an unlimited on this occasion failed to carry him through. On another occasion a Police officer who had been called in to investigate a robbery from the house, recognised in the person of the head domestic an old offender. The wages

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A member of the Shanghai Chamber of Com. merce wrote asking whether an exporting firm at Home, when quoting C.F.I. Shanghai, includes, according to general usage and British law, the risk of war, and further whether, in the event of the goods not being so covered by him. and being lost or delayed from causes arising out of the existence of a state of war, the export- er is responsible. The reply was that it was a question of law, rather than of usage, and could not be answered by the Chamber.

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simple demonstrations," but has had trained, and, we may ald, fighting for a to yield step by step before an army better better and holier cause. It would be well for him e'er it is too late to lay these things to heart.