T
February 11, 1903.]
THE GOVERNOR'S CHARITABLE
SCHEME.
(Daily Press, 9th February.) Such information as may be gleaned by a reading of the report of the Hongkong Benevolent Society's meeting impels u18 alightly to modify our opinion of the recent charitable proposal of His Excellency the GOVERNOR. The assumption was-and it was not ours, but Sir MATTHEW NATHAN'S --that the Society invited to take up the proposal had better opportunities for making the scheme known, and for getting people to become guarantors." This idea we can no longer entertain, after the official exposure of the existing claims upon the Society, and the unhappy confession with regard to its means to meet them.
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In view
of this, it seems extraordinary that a Society, with a burden already more than it can carry comfortably, should undertake to give part of its influence, admittedly not great enough to make its own path smooth, to the task of obtaining subscriptions for another branch of charitable enterprise. It is useless to insist that the subscribers
are only waiting for some chaunel into which to pour their generosity. Hts EXCELLENCY's letter expressly describes their new duty as that of "getting prople to becoine guarantors"; and we have it on the authority of His Lordship the BISHOP, who presumably has his finger on the pulse of philanthropic Hongkong, that this would be an onerous duty, that, in fact, the gene- rosity of Hongkong endureth ouly for a season, and that in time the guarantors would "diminish in numbers." However, the struggling Benevolent Society was not dismayed, and though its resolution was couched in an unexpected form, it has agreed to try for a year. With its shoulder to the wheel of its own vehicle, it is, as it were, reaching out a hand to help pull along the handcart of the Seamens' Home.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
Church dignitary would experience diffi. culty in drawing the Colonial Government into legislative bypaths where it has no right to be. The summing up- we cannot resist the temptation to call it so-of the CHIEF JUSTICE was as business-like as the others were otherwise. As it was exactly in line with our own previous arguments, we feel flattered. The present position of affairs is on the whole satisfactory. There may not be so many guarantors as the GOVERNOR and the Benevolent Society hope, but on the other hand, if the cases be properly sifted, the demands upon the new fund will be commensurately few.
THE TALK OE PEACE,
"
>
95
Prince TRUBETSKOI's letter to the MINISTER
or THE INTERIOR, which was reproduced by is yesterday, shows that, as the royal writer told the TSAR, it is "not a simple disturbance, but revolution," The Vietina correspondent, Hugo GANZ, whose "Downfall of Russia Messrs. HODDER AND STOUGHTON have just publishel, tells us that in all Russia, save perhaps in parts of the Baltic provinces, he could find no trace of a dynastic sentiment, no loyalty of the kind to be seen in most other countries. To the masses the TSAR represents the essence of temporal and spiritual power; to the intelligent classes, an element of fate. The grand dukes attract more interest, for they are "josses" to be seen and heard, who can help or harm. People speak freely in private of the
classes. There is the same general view of the ruler, which approximates to the Unitarian's vague appreciation of his God; a recognition of power, without any partı- cular feeling of personal devotion. There is the same inystery for outsiders, the diffi- culty of understanding the people; and almost a like mixture of languages and tribe.. Likenesses could also be traced in the methods of administration, and similarity in the intriguing that goes on in the ante- chambers of the respective palices,
There is a similar burlen of national loans. There is also a resemblancs in the status of woman, which is perhaps the most important point of all, for no nation can be uplifted where sexual depravity exists; and neither the Russian nor the Chinaman has yet realised the need of putting woman into the place assigned to her by higher civilisations. Justice is on the like footing. To win a lawsuit," we are told," is in Russia a matier of luck, not the result of a definite state of justice." When a so-calle l European nation can be so compared with China, of all countries, its condition deplorable. And who can say that Russia has yet touched the nethermist deep to which she seems to be trending?
(Daily Press 10th February.)
Soltikoff dyrasty," an unmistakable We notice that both the Times and the allusion to the first lover of the notorious Standard announced the probability of an Empress CATHERINE II. TOLSTOY and the early restoration of peace, The Times was anarchists, working from different ends, "in a position to state," and the Standard have sapped the strength of the popular quoted an authoritative quarter." Au faith in the TSAR as the spiritual head, the examination of the information vouchsafed
faith alone which held together the regard with such hopeful preliminaries does not which personal loyalty elsewhere inspires. encourage us to attach to it the importance Were a sinologue and an authority ou and significance we would be glad to believe things Russian to collaborate with a view it possessed. It is the same old story, to showing the points of similarity between based on the popular but not fully war-
China and Russia, we imagine the result ranted assumption that the fall of Port would startle most people. Superficially, Arthur must hasten the end of the war. we may uote a few. There is the unwieldy The "authoritative source appears to have overgrowth of each empire, itself a natural been Japanese, and Japan has no authority barrier to the cohesion that mans loyalty, to speak for more than herself. It has been There is in each case the ignorance and understood all along that the Japanese would superstition of the masses, and the oppres- welcome peace-on terms. As Viscountsiou and corruption on the part of the HAYASHI phrased it last month: "Of cours we want peace.
We wanted peace before war broke out, and have continued to desire it ever since. But it takes two parties to come to an agreement, and we have yet to learn that Russia will accede to our terms." Thus, while it is pleasant to con- template a cessation of the slaughter The general impression left with as after that has shocked us, and interesting to reading the lengthy report is concerned with read of the long anticipated de- the adaptability of various professional men mands for Saghalien, for ย Corean to practical politics. Inter alia, the value protectorate, for Port Arthur, for the of Judges and the futility of Bishops seems Manchurian Railways to be made Iuter to obtrude. This is not a polite thing to national, and for a large indemnity, we have say, but, as Sir H. S. BERKELEY put it, to recognise these things as parts of an of- there is n use in mincing matters. It told tale, and to realise that while Japan must be admitted that, as the Judge has too much right and too much wight also said, nearly all the speakers wander- now to concede any material point, and while ed away from the real question. No
Russia clings desperately to her vanishing one wandered further, it seems to us, than prestige, there can be no certainty of an early the Rt. Rev. Bishop HOARE, some of whose settlement. The war, too, shares one charac- obiter dicta startled us exceedingly. Acteristic of the domestic quarrel, in that the cording to him, it was a weak point that the longer it is allowed to continue, the harder scheme should put upon individuals a respon will be to patch up the peace. The more cost sibility which ought to rest upon the whole Japan is put to, iu blood and treasure, the community. When in leisure moments we
greater must be the price of peace, and the permit ourselves to pouder the usual teach-
more firmly will slre insist upon her "pound ings of bishops, one phrase comes uppermost. of flesh." That reference is hardly just in It relates to one's duty to one's neighbour, the connection, for Japan's demands, great and there is a sort of implication that this as they are, do not in principle go beyond duty is more of a privilege than a responsi- the objects for which she plunged into bility Has there been a change of tenets, hostilities, and her insistence on the major or is HIS LORDSHIP mistaken in suggesting points indicated will be inspired less by that our duty to our neighbour has now avarice than by the simple necessity of self become the duty of the Government? An- preservation. Had Russia not been embar- other remark he made referred to the Rev. rassed by domestic disorder, the outlook for peace would have been still more hopeless, We know that the TSAR'S Government was hoping against hope for some victory that would restore her prestige, or, as the Chinese say, save her face. There is 110 doubt that this hope still persists, and the notorious chanciuess of battle justifies it, notwithstanding the uninterrupted successes of the Japanese forces. That the distur- bances in Russia are serious enough to affect the conduct of her troops in the East cannot for a moment be doubted, although we are hearing less about then than we did.
J. H. FRANCE, who "came here to be a clergyman," and not to assist philanthropic movements, We have a lively admiration for the Rev. J. H. FRANCE's truer concep- tion of his duty as a follower of the great Philanthropist and cannot imagine him complaining that he is "as hard worked as any man in the Colony." However, it was perhaps a naturally professional view for a Bishop to take, and we need not take the words too seriously. Governments are pro- verbially hard to move, and we never felt so glad of it as when we reflected that even a
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HONGKONG SANITARY
BOARD.
A meeting of the Sanitary Board was held in the Board Room on February 7th. Dr. there were also present the on. Mr. P. N. H. J. M. Atkinson (President) presided, and Jones (Vice-President), the Hon. Mr. A. W. Brewin, Col. W. E. Webb, R.A.M.C., Mr. Lan Chu Pak, Mr. A. Rumjahn, Dr. F. Clark, Dr. H. Macfarlane, Dr. F.. Gröne, and Mr. T. A. Hanmer (Secretary).
The minutes of the previous meeting were confirmed.
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MR. RUMJAHN CALLED TO ORDER.
The PRESIDENT, pursuant to notice, moved That the Board, under the provisions of Section 30 of the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance, 1903, depute Dr. W. W. Pearse and Dr. F. Gröne to institute summary proceeding
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