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SHANGHAI WATER SUPPLY.
The Shanghai Municipal Council regards the
admission of the following condition (in their agreement with the Water Company) as an-im- portant principle.
At the same time, it is recognised that in special cases, exceptional treatment may be necessary in the interests of the Company, and the Council is prepared to
consider a statement of such exceptional cases for inclusion in a subsidiary agreement, if submitted by the Company,
Condition No. 1-That the Company should agree that hereafter the charge for water for domestic purposes to consumers shall not exceed 5 per cent on rentals in the case of Chinese houses and 4 per cent for foreign dwellings. Furthermore, that it be admitted that the pre- sent scale of charges for existing foreign houses shall not be increased.
The Directors of the Company have replied that they are prepared to accept the principle of that condition. but stipulate that it be so framed as to prevent any difference of opinion hereafter arising as to the rate which the Com- pany is entitled to charge in the event of the осспралсу of any foreign House being changed so as to cause or require an increased supply of water for domestic purposes.
$10,000 BAIL REFUSED.
Mr. F. A. Hazeland
In connection with the recent fire at West Point it is alleged that there are certain dis- crepancies between book entries and the goods that were actually in the godówas. It is reported that the owner of the goods did not care to take action in the matter, softhe police on Dec. 13th charged the man said to be responsible with larceny as a bailee. The case came before (Second Magistrate). Mr. Dixon, of Mr. John Hastings' office, ap- peared for the defence, and, on the case being remanded for a week, applied for bail-they were prepared to furnish $10,000 bail if necessary. The police strongly objected, and, on the Magistrate appearing to hesitate, said that if bail was granted" they would rearrest the man on another charge as soon as he was released. Mr. Hazeland said that as no eridence had been taken in the case, and bearing in mind that it was a charge which might pos sibly go to the Supreme Court, he thought he would not be justified in allowing bail. Bail refused.
CHINESE NEIGHBOURLY
AMENITIES.
Lau Chan, married woman, residing on the ground floor of No. 38, Upper Lascar Row, proceeded against Lo Ah Chee, married woman, residing on the first floor of the same house, for using abusive and insulting language whereby a breach of the peace might have been occasion ed; also with damaging the complainant's clothes to the value of $5. Mr. O. D. Thomson appeared for the defendant. Lau Chan said the defendant poured water into her flat through cracks in the floor. When she complained
Lo Aй Chee abused her and called her [various female animals] The defendant was constantly pouring water into her room, wherefor she wished to bring the matter under His Worship's notice. She produced the damaged jacket.
His Worship after examination found the damage very trifling. It was not water but mud that had been put on it.
To the Interpreter: Tell her that I have tried hundreds of these cases, and ask her does she say $5 worth of damage has been done.
Complainant: That is what the jacket cost when new.
His Worship: But it has been very much moth eaten.
Complainant: I have resided in the same house for years, and have never had a quarrel, but since the advent of the defendant she has always been quarrelling.
His Worship: Yes, I know. She is a very troublesome woman.
By Mr. Thomson :- When the defendant abused me I retaliated. I said "You are [female animals.]"
His Worship: Those are not very nice words to use, you know.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
Ling Yee, a married woman residing on the same fat as complainant, said she heard the complainant and defendant using impolite words. His Worship said he had heard a considerable number of these cases, and there was always the same old story about the water. He found the defendant had used abusive language, and in order that he might not be troubled further with these people, he would bind her over in a personal bond of $100 to keep the peace for 12
months.
LI'S QUILT OR ENGLAND'S ?
Under this caption, Mrs. Archibald Little (Li's biographer) writes to the N.-C. Daily News, as follows:-
Those who are feeling that steps shou'd be taken to prevent in future the sacrifice of so many lives, the blighting of so many more, will do well to consider how this present war has been brought about. Nations have their duties as well as individuals, and from the moment
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when England made herself une quantité négli geable, as one of the best diplomatists in the Far East described her, some ten years ago, it became inevitable that either Russia must engulf Japan, or Japan resist Russia. A letter of the late Li Hung Chang to the late Prince Yung
Lu has lately been quoted with very severe comment, and without apparently con. sidering how well Li knew that "in present circumstances it might be difficult for us to recover possession of it (Manchuria). Knowing what Li knew of the condition of the Chinese Army he might as well have written frankly impossible. He therefore relied upon war between Russia and Japan, and whichever side won, hoped to secure some advantage for his own country-an opportunist policy, all that he had ever attained to in his long life. But this is to consider the letter as if we knew no more, had never heard of the cheque at Moscow, which an eyewitness, one of our most brilliant writers, assured me he had seen. What also of the following story, which I now simply proceed to relate as it was told to me, in the hope that it may be either refuted or confirmed. The events are so recent they are surely easily susceptible of proof or disproof.
The story is that when Li was sent for by the Dowager Empress to come to Peking and make terms of peace with the Allies there was a little trouble about his steamer. I had heard before that it was originally intended he should travel in a Russian man-of-war or be guarded by a Russian man-of-war, but the British Admiral stopped that, saying the British flag was enough protection. I now hear that Li changed his ship on the river opposite the Kaiping mine wharves, there getting on to one of that Company's steamers, and that on the new steamer there were a number of field guns and ammunition. When told these would cause trouble on arrival at Tangku, Li said: "I am on a Peace Commission, they trust me, there will be no trouble at all."
At Taku Bar an English cutter came off to board the vessel, but the Lieutenant just told them to carry on, and they went on to Tangku alongside the wharf. Whilst there the Admiral called, and Li returned the callssian
whilst all this was going on Russian soldiers came and took away all the field guns.
Mr. Kingsley, detached from Castoms Service for 14 or 15 years, and told off to accompany Li, then pressed him for a despatch to take up to the Peitang fort, ordering the officer in command to hand it over to the British, saying if this were not done there would be trouble. Li would not consent. Mr. Kingsley pressed his point as best he could. At last Li said "You go out of the room, and I'll have a despatch written." The despatch was finished, handed to Mr. Kingsley by Li, and by him passed on to a confidential man in a steam- I he man went up to the Peitang fort, but the attack had already commenced. Thus the despatch was never delivered, possibly is still in Mr. Kingsley's hands. According to my informant the despatch ordered that the fort should be delivered to the Russians !
launch.
There need not have been any fighting there and then, if the Admirals had waited, though the result might not have pleased everyone
concerned.
This is surely exactly of a piece with the rest of Li's policy, and how much it was approved
•
[December 17, 1904.
in the eyes of the "Liege Lady," to use Ku Hung-ming's favourite phrase, is sufficiently shown by the unexampled honour just recently accorded to his heir, one never before granted
to a Chinese.
hat he and his "Liege Lady' were agreed as to their line of policy I cannot understand anyone doubting. Now if Li had his reasons of solid value for following it, does it seem reasonable to suppose that she had not?
I recollect stnding at the doors of the women's quarter of the Palace in the Forbidden City in 1901 whilst agonised eunuchs put their backs against the doors and pleaded there were ladies of the Imperial Harem left behind there.
Oh, well, I suppose we must not go in and frighten the ladies." said the then highest officer of our Intelligence Department, whilst I pleaded I did not believe there were any ladies there, that if there were I should like to see them, and certainly could not frighten them. We have all heard since what treasure was hidden behind those doors.
Judging Li Hung Chang, we must remember he was the Dowager Empress's Prime Minister, and to remain so must act in accordance with her interests; and in considering this war and the miserable expenditure of human lives, and yet larger number of unhappy lives blighted by the loss of the bread-winners, the loved ones, we must realis, how long and how carefully Russian politicians have been preparing their various moves, absolutely regardless of the misery they might cause in Russia.
It is far more. the thought of the unhappy, unwilling Russians led to slaughter than of the Japanese dead that moves me to write these lines. For the Japanese go gladly to die for their country, knowing it is a matter of life and death for her; the Russians most, unwillingly. What do they know of Manchuria, poor-natured peasants? But it might surely all have been averted if England had maintained her post as policeman of the world's peace, and not made herself, as she continues to make herself, une quantite negligeable in the Far East. If the
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war continues we shall have to fight in the end. If we had shewn ourselves ready to fight from the first and insisted with Japan on Russia keeping to its agreement about Manchuria who can think there would then have been any war Why should Li Hung Chang have written of us We for England cannot employ force"? know it is false but what pains we have taken to convince the Far East it is true, and till it is only a pain to look at our huge men-of-war never used kept as toys, too expensive to be properly exercised and in proper gun practice even, and with, as I still believe, the finest men in the world inactive behind those guns, when they ought to be always active in upholding justice, repelling aggression, and promoting peace throughout the world. We want no more jand. We want peace, we English. But if the policeman neglects his work, peaceful citizens must arm themselves to eject burglars. The Chinese could not by themselves drive the Russians out of Manchuria, They knew it, all the world knew it, especially Russia.
THE CHINESE EMPEROR'S DÉSIRE
TO LEARN.
A Peking correspondent states that at a recent audience, while questioning an official who had come from Shanghai, his Majesty the Emperor having learned that there is quite a large number of standard foreign works on almost every branch of science and philosophy, as well as histories of various ancient and modern countries, that have been translated into Chinese and are now on sale at the bookshops of hanghai, at once issued commands to the Imperial Household Department to send a special official of the Court down to Shanghai to purchase as many such books as
can be bought. Occasionally a high official sends the Emperor a translated work or so, and these are always read with avidity by his Majesty, but the donors generally take care to sand only such books as have no dangerous tendency to influence their readers to seek to revolutionise existing conditions. Evidently his Majesty had been so far kept in ignorance of the fact that such large numbers of foreign books of every sort had been trans- lated into Chinese and were ready to the hand by
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