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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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assistance which could serve either comba- | RozнDESTVENSKY, may alter all this, and tant in carrying on the war; our harbours some nation possessed of a kindred spirit may were closed to the warships of either be moved to join what for the nonce, and on nation beyond four-and-twenty bours, and paper, may seem the stronger party. Such stores of coal were absolutely forbidden to things have happened before, ani of course be delivered to either combatant. Such way ppen again. Such is the by no conditions ята of course quite logical, means creditable impasse into which Mr. but presently it began to be whis- BALFOUR's propensity for philosophical
that other Powers pered
were not argument seems tu have plunged the quite so particular in their interpre country, tation of the rules of neutrality; and Germany commence i to take very active measures towards supplying one of the belli. gerents with materials of offence. Then the Russian fleet commenced to overhaul and capture merchant ships for conveying what it considered to be contraband, but which had never been included by any Power hitherto as coming under that character. Mr. BALFOUR's feeble and irresolute policy is unfortunately too well known to need re- petition. British ships were captured on the high seas for carrying coals not con signed even to the enemy; and the other nations grinned, and Mr. BALFOUR pro- tested, but protest being the final resort of a weak State it produced no effect but talk. In the end the Russian Baltic fleet, after becoming the talk of the world, finally started, and the world, or the British world at least, confidently said it would never get out of European seas—BUT IT WENT :-
And what gave rise to no little surprise, Nobody reemed one penny the worse.
Is it necessary to tell the rest of the story? The redoubtable Admiral, who had never quailed before a fue (probably because he had never seen one) was alarmed at the apparition of some British fishing smacks, and like DON QUIXOTE with the windmill
determined to attack the enemy; true his tongue for very terror clove to the roof of his month, but what was that to a bold Russiau Admiral? He shut his eyes to the danger, and shot, trusting doubtle-s in God, and in his beloved Tsar; under such au--
But rather
pices who could doubt the result? and the first naval victory on record was scored for a Russian fleet. He did not waste his opportunity in needless peans, but very wisely concluding that a British fleet would be at his heels," made tracks" for the first Spanish pore where he could shelter. the British fleet never appeared, or what is more curious still, a British fleet did appear, but it flew, not the cross of St. George, but the merchant flag, and was engaged, not in upholding the honour of the flag, but in supplying coal to enable the Russian fleet to get out to Eastern waters and attack our Alles.
Of course it has been the practice of the British Admiralty not to interfere with British ships assisting at their own risk a belligerent ship, wheu not engaged in actual hostilities, and the theory is that it could not be a judge in such cases, and that British trade should be pro- tected, not hampered; and it was for the opposing lower to protect its own interests. But it has always been held that there was reasonable discretion to be exercised. In the present case the British Government had made a boast of having concluded a treaty offensive and defensive with Japan under certain eventualities.
Now
it is not to be denied that that eventuality could never have occurred had not the Russian fleet been able to renew its losses before Port Arthur. In such a case no one
would bave felt sufficient interest in Russian
friendship, or the reverse, to have cared to give her anything stronger than "moral" support, a thing far more prone to hamper than to assist. But the advent of a brand new fleet in Pacific waters, even when under the command of the redoubtable Admiral
the
HISTORICAL EVIDENCES.
(Daily Preis, 24th November.) PERHAPS it is proper to regard as symp- tomatic of Hongkong's influence in couraging the Europeanisation" of China the fact that a local Chinese gentleman, Mr. TSE TSAN TAI, has written a letter to the Times, just as any country gentleman at Home might do. Mr. TSE has done more he has favoured us with an advance proof of his contribution to the great London journal, and reques ed us to not ce that his remarks apply me particularly to empire of China, because "no Society exists for the purpose of protecting anl preserving its ancient monuments and historical relics." Our impression was that the whole Chinese nation was in itself such a Society, and Chiuaman an enthusiastic nearly every member thereof. We derived the impres- sion from the incidents that have usually followed efforts to make roa le and railways, threatening here a neglected burial mound, or there some other form of geomantic relic of fung-shui. However, as Mr. TSE TSAN TAI assures us there is no such Society, we must be prepared to believe that the tren- sures of antiquity in China are at present running as great a risk as he thinks the relics of Egypt and other occidental fields of antiquarian research are exposed to. Ju his letter to the Times, he denounces the excavations "in Egypt, the Euphrates Valley, Ancient Greece and Italy," as so many "acts of vandalism"; and he appeals to "every Historian, Bibliologist, Archæ
logist, and Egyptologist to stop them. He does not explain his position with regard to manes, whether with his evident Western learning he has retained the popular Chinese beliefs in the potency for good or evil of ancestral spirits, or not. With such beliefs, it would be more easy to understand his letter, and to sympathise with the distress these acts
of vandalism" appear to have occasioned. He seems to have based his protest, however, on the one assumpt on that the relics removed will suffer by removal. These priceless relics of aucient civilization," he writes, "and incontestable proofs of the history of man ind and the civilization of the world, will in the course
་
of time, be either burnt, lost, or destroyed. They would then be beyond recovery, and what a loss this would te to the world. Thousands of years hence, History, which is now incontrovertible and prosed beyond a doubt, would be regarded as a myth." It is something difficult to reconcile the foregoing quotation with his subsequent remark that."it is a shame to open these ancient sepulchres and distribute their con. tents amongst the different museums of the world."
For if these "incontrovertible proofs of History are to remain buried underground, the 'loss to the world would not be appreciably re luced. This is, however, not the only inconsistency of this very interesting letter. Mr. Tse TSAN TAI almost immediately forgets that he has written of "these priceless relics," or he surely would not add: "This morbid craving for archeological collections is contrary to the high ideals of civilization, and should be checked before it is too late."
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[November 28, 1904.
Perhaps he had some notion of this after all, for he proceeds to explain that "in order to add to our knowledge of the Earth and its bistory, archæological excavations should be encouraged. but the relics
till
which are brought to light should not on any account be removed. They should be treasured in a building to be built on the He anticipates objections to this, spot." and concedes that they may be "temporarily removed to a place of safe keeping. it is safe to restore them to the place of their origin." This savours strongly of the feeling which is responsible for the return, dead or alive, of the Chinese emi- grant; and as other references made by the writer with regard to the work of the
#f desecration," res- archeologists include “ pect for the graves of dead nations," and "roblery of tombs," we may fairly suppose that his regard is less for education than for superstition; and (it might be addel) more concerned with hysteria than History.
CHINESE PEDIGREES.
•
In those
(Daily Press, 25th November. The Hon. F. H. MAY, Colonial Secretary, has just recalled an occasion when he was riding in the interior of China, and a China man frightened his pony. days (it was, he explains, some years ago) he never allowed an opportunity of puuch. ing a Chinaman to go neglected. He got off his fidgetting pony, and thrashed the Chinuman. After the thrashing he entered into conversation with the man, and they became quite friendly. He went to the Chinamau's house, and when his new friend showed him a small plot of ground which contained the remains of eighteen of his male ancestors, all in the direct line, Mr. MAY conceived a respect for the man. reflected, so he told the Odd Volumes Society this week, that he himself could not specify nearly so many forerunners. hands with the nineteenth scion, and gave him a dollar. This interesting narrative, which is told nearly in the Colonial Secre. tary's own words, gives rise to various re- flections. It is not easy to decide which most to admire, his humility in deciding that a Chinaman to whom he ha'l just given "a goo l'thrashing himself; or his manly admission that at one time he used to think the Chinese needed thrashing.
He
He shook
was a better man than
reason
The most remark. able feature about the little anecdote
the
Mr. MAY however, is, gives for his sudden conversion from a puncher to a respector of persons. The sight of eighteen tablets, or eighteen urns, or eighteen tombstones, whichever it was, made him conscious of a gl ring discrepancy in the matter of tabulated ancestors. The reflection that this recently beaten China- man had a longer pedigree than many county gentlemen at Home awoke him to a sense of the heinousness of his behaviour toward the lineal descendant of eighteen Chinamen. Obvio isly, a man who included in his corporeal make-up the nineteenth tinuation of a long buried germ-plasm must be entitled to respect. The Colonial Secre
When we try shook hands with him. remember, as Mr. MAY would probably admit if questioned, that Chinaman Number Nineteen was almost an exact reproduction of Chinaman Number One, in all the char- acteristics of this conservative race, we are made to wonder whether the Europeau had discovered adequate reason for his newer attitude. Lineage at Home is associated in our minds with some apparent development and progress in the scale of civilization. We do not give credit to heredity alone for the superior culture of VERE DE VERE,
con-
人
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