December 17, 1904.]
to the Russian army, as himself a Russian officer, and as such bound to be under the TSAE's actual orders, and so giving German official approbation to all military operations of the Russian army. This it is true may not mean much, and doubtless the TSAR would heed as little the German Emperor's remonstrances as he would those of the world at large. Still no independent state would care to endorse beforehand every detail of Russian strategy, and unless Germany intend to proclaim abroad that
she ready to do this the appointment of such an officer is difficult to explain. These are only feathers, and of themselves of no weight or importance, but feathers are the best means for indicating the way the wind is blowing, and Germany by her rather conspicuous display of these petly attentions seems, unconsciously perhaps, to intimate to the world how consonant with her own are Russian's methods. These are the real difficulties, and not any unfriendliness on the part of Great Britain, that keep apart the two countries.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
447
The
than the contract term, about a month and | Consul, the police have small hopes of a half having been saved on the time allow. securing a conviction. In the case men- ance, This shows what can be done if tioned, there seems to have been no doubt railway constructors are in real earnest and that a prosecution was justified. intend to get a work completed within a defendant's Consul had practically admitted given period. Let us hope that the Kow-it previously; but like other foreign loon-Canton Railway will not only be com- Consuls at Shanghai, he appeared to consider menced soon, but that its construction will that his correct rôle was that of counsel be pushed forward with all the energy of for the defence. The Municipal Council is which the concessionaires are capable. The thus placed in a very anomalous position. newly proposed line from Canton to Macao It is practically the authority appointed of is, we hear, to be pressed on with all pos- the people, by the people, for the people; sible expedition, and as the bulk of the but as its locus standi is not beyond all capital for this railway is to be found by question, its decisions and actions in many Chinese we may be pretty sure that, in the instances can readily be overruled by a body event of its being completed before the of officials, who in turn can do little without Kowloon-Canton line, the syndicate will not ministerial advices from Peking. All this rest until it has communication with a deep does not alter the also notorious fact that water port. We would again warn the the Shanghai Municipal Council is not a British-Chinese Corporation that, if they particularly wise or able body. In this really wish or intend to build this rail- prosecution referred to, the house proceeded way, the time for doing so has more against is outside the municipal boundary, than arrived. It is passing rapidly; and an impartial observer has to conclude the weeks grow to months and the that the Council had in view the months to years, and it will soon be question of revenue as well as the question six years and a half since the agreement of of morality. It is decidedly quaint to hear THE LAGGING BRITISH-CHINESE | 1898 was signed for the construction of the high-toned pronouncements of the evils of Kowloon-Canton line. More than a year gambling from an authority which permits has passed since Sir HENRY BLAKE, when lotteries and other gambling affairs to be bidding farewell to the Colony, uttered his openly conducted within its precincts. It is memorable warning on the danger of delay, also discreditable that a body which issues and since then, we believe, repeated re. licences to and receives payment from presentations have been sent Home on the immoral institutions within its borders subject. To the onlooker it seems indeed should lay stress on the fact that the bad passing strange why there should be a characters it shelters frequent the hotel week's delay when the vast importance of outside, which was the object of its recent time is considered in relation to this enter- attentions. There was a serious allegation prise. It also strikes us as nothing short recently, during the crusade of social purity, of marvellous that the Imperial British that certain proceedings had been dropped Government should permit such extra in order to avert a scandal implicating ordinary delays, in view of the momentous highly-placed citizens, and to this we have issues which may follow them. Most
as yet seen no definite reply. It must be Governments would long since have relieved admitted that in Hongkong, the liberty of the Corporation of their responsibility in the subject is not nearly what it is at Home, the matter.
and that there are insurmountable reasons for it; but the Hongkong resident appears to have not the slightest reason to envy the status of the Britisher in the so-called "Model Settlement" of Shanghai,
CORPORATION.
(Daily Press, 14th December.) While Japan has with wonderful energy and resource prosecuted the deadly struggle
with Russia for the maintenance of her national life and the continuance of her commerce, she has not confined her energies to mere military activities. She has, with quiet perseverance, proceeded with the work of the construction of the Seoul-Fusaa Railway in Corea, and this line was actually completed on the 10th ultimo, and it will be formally opened throughout on the 1st January next. It will, however, be running provisionally before that period, and is probably open to traffic now. The Sanyo Railway Company has decided to establish a steamship service between Shimonoseki and Fusan in order to connect their railway with the Seoul-Fusan line, and two steamers of 1,500 tons have been ordered and will be ready for service about the middle of next year. The distance between Tokyo and the capital of Corea is about 1,118 miles, and has hitherto taken about a week to cover; it will, however, now be possible to ac- complish it in some fifty-six hours. The Japanese Government have every reason to congratulate themselves on the completion of this important undertaking. It brings Seoul into much closer touch with Japan, and will tend to a great development of intercourse, political, social, and coinmercial. It will also, in the event of a foreign foe threatening the Hermit Kingdom, render it comparatively easy for Japan to throw a military force into Seoul to assist her neighbour. Had this railway been con- structed two years earlier it is just possible that Muscovite pretensions in the Land of the Morning Calm might have been soine- what moderated, and the present war obviated or at least delayed. It will at any rate serve to strengthen Japan's suzerainty or protectorate over Corea, whichever it may be styled, and help to warn off any other aspiring would-be over-lord. With the magnificent stand made by the Japanese so far against the whole might of the TSAR, as an object lesson for the civilised world, it is unlikely that any other Power will have the temerity to try and snatch the palm of victory from the hands of the Japanese.
Despite the fact that they have been so seriously handicapped in this work by the warlike movements in progress, the Japanese contractors and engineers engaged upon it have managed to complete the line in less
SHANGHAI,
|
"SQUEEZE "
(Daily Press, 15th December.) RECENT rumours to the effect that the Chinese Government is coquetting with the idea of raising a further foreign loan, to tide it over immediate difficulties connected with the payment of the indemnities, must revive interest in the recent proposals of Sir ROBERT HART, and the prospects of any augmentation of revenue. On Sir ROBERT HART's scheme, so strongly opposed by the retrograde CHANG CHIH TUNG, we have already made considerable comment. Of the hopelessness of expecting any real re- form to follow such excellent schemes, much more might be said. Never could the state of Denmark, even in HAMLET's time, have
(Daily Press, 15th December.) Probably there is no other community in the world that abides under such an auomalous system of government as that of Shangbai. Some of the lore peculiar features of the Settlement have recently been emphasised by a police prosecution (unimportant in itself) of a suburban hotel which is believed to be a gambling hell and a resort of had characters. The defendant tenant was a Spanish subject, and the Spanish Consul strongly resented an re- gular procedure adopted by the Municipal Police in order to ensure a successful raid on the premises concerned. They acted on an old warrant, and did not trouble the Spanish Consul with a notification of the date they intended to raid the place. Ap parently the suggestion is that if they had given formal notice, the news of their in- been so rotten as that of China, which tention would have leaked out. The point ought to be a rich and smiling country with is that the Consular Body, when app aled all its natural resources and all its patient, to, considered that the Spanish Consul's industrious people, but which is instead a prerogatives had been jeopardised, and (as land of chronic poverty and suffering, due à local paper put it, with but little show of entirely to the fact that a lot of conscienceless reason) the principle of individual liberty officials are battening on the miseries of threatened. That an irregularity had been their poorer brethren. If the cryptic New committed was admitted, and an apology Testament saying, that to the rich man shall was tendered by the Council. There is be given, and from the poor man taken away far too much individual liberty at even that which he hath, has meaning any Shanghai, in our opinion; the only people where, it is in China. Sir ROBERT HART who do not get a fair share being the talked of appointing "ten picked officials" British, who made the place. For the to assist in inaugurating bis administrative benefit of the community, the Municipal | reform scheme, It would be difficult to seO Council employs a big staff of police to any advantage in ten picked from the all bad. maintain law and order, and it is notorious They would in all probability be ten that when a non-British culprit is caught, pickers" instead, picking and stealing as and taken (as he must) before his own usual from that which should go to the
+
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.