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February 20, 1905.]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
(Daily Press, 15th February.)
107
German savant once told a Judge that the tiny spherical ovum from which every man is developed is as truly endowed with life even nine months. The Judge laughed in- and soul as the embryo of two, seven, or
credulously. A young man who walked into the City Hall for a pleasant Sunday afternoon would be wiser. He would bail new and startling (to him) facts as quite pleasant. Mr. HICKLING could, if he would, get friends to supply such new' facts. The friends he has been enlisting have presum- ably confined themselves to pulpit facts, which (to the P.S.A. subject) are not, or do not seem, new. If he can persuade big audiences of these young men to come and be innocently amused, a distinct gain will be registered; but he tells us that his friends will not be satisfied with that. He thinks usefully. If this be the limit of their devot- the helpers could occupy their time more
iou to the P.S.A. movement, we fear they will have to be satisfied with the opportun- ities they already enjoy, of improving one another. They seem at present to be in the mountain to come to him. position of the Mahomet who expected the
Attention is drawn to the growing ten- | HONGKONG P.S.A. ASSOCIATION. | desired. Many facts are new to them. A dency of German manufacturers to enter into direct relations with buyers abroad. This may be advantageous and justifiable The Pleasant Sunday Afternoon move- in some cases, but on the whole it is to be deprecated, as industrial firms are not in a with but indifferent success 80 far. The ment has been inaugurated in Hongkong, position to obtain the same reliable inform-average attendance has been about forty, ation as to the standing and solvency of mostly soldiers and sailors. We fear that their customers, and as to their require the reason for the dwindling attendance ments as merchants, who have their corres- lies in the Rev. C. H. HICKLING's concept- pondents all over the different countries.
ion of a Pleasant Sunday Afternoon, which, Owing to the war, the Trans-Siberian needless to say, is not quite the same as railway has not exercised that stimulating that of the rank and file. This is not to effect on trade which was expected last year. say that Mr. HICKLING'S conception is not On the other hand the fiunncial difficulties a better one; but since these meetings are under which China was labouring at that explicitly stated to be organised for young time secin to have disappeared and a large men and others who have no suitable place business has been done with that empire, in which to spend their day of rest, we principally in textile fabrics, metals and think it would be kinder and wiser to view coal, although the growing competition of the subject from more than one point. Mr. the United States and Japan is making HICKLING took the sensible itself keenly felt. The import trade from making enquiries to discover why the P.S.A. course of China is said to have been, on the whole, meetings were not popular. One answer satisfactory due partly to the abundant was, and it was yield of the Ta crop; but it has been some received," that the meetings
"the only reason he had what hampered by the rise in the price of religious. "If they were made more enter. silver and the demand for the Japanese taining," he was told, and Russian armies which for some articles nature, they might get the place filled." more of a sing-song cnused values to advance far beyond those Mr. HICKLING did not think, however, that ruling in Europe. The Customs receipts any of those who came in to help would have profited by the increase of imports. Future prospects are considere:l good, pro- vided peace and quiet can be maintained in China
The fears entertained at the outbreak of the war that trade with Japan would come to a standstill, have not been realised to any great extent, although at first exports were suspended and imports suffered from the additional war dutics. Business was soon resumed on the old scale, and as the finances of Japan seem to be in a sound state in spite of the strain caused by the war, and as the rice crops have turned out well, the economic conditions of the country appear favourable. Trade with Corea has also been satisfic- tory owing to the abundant yield of the rice crop and the supplies required by the armies in the field. The railway between Fusan and Seoul which, thanks to the wonderful energy of the Japanese, has lately ben opened, will, when no longer monopolized | by the military, prove of the greatest ad. vantage to trade in general. The steam ¡ service between the Chinese ports and Corea established by the Hamburg American Line me time ago is doing well." Of Kiouichow little is said beyond that the Shantung, railway, when finished, will open up that province, the mineral wealth of which is well known. The freight market has not shown much improvement. In fact tramp steamers have done rather worse than last
year, as the regular lines, owing to the many advantages they offer to shippers of goods, are monopolizing the business more and more. They have no reason on the whole to complain of the past twelve months. They continue to extend their sphere of action in every direction. The international convention of sailing-ship owners concluded last
year, has fully answered the purpose for which it was forme; the decline in freights has not only been arrested, but an advance has been established pretty well in all quarters. The war in the Far East, by creating an additional demand for freight room, has given an opportunity to some Hamburg companies and private owners to secure good charters and to dispose of many of their older vessels on favourable terms. On the other hand neutral shipping has suffered serious iu- convenience coupled with considerable losses in many instices, at the bands of the belligerents, in consequence of the uncertain state of international law.
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were too
care to give up their time on a Sunday afternoon to a sing-song. There might be nothing wrong in it, but personally he thought he could use his time better, so be was not inclined to accept that suggestion in any way, to get numbers at the expense of spiritual profit." Thus we see that the reverend and well-meaning gentleman has signify "profitable Sunday afternoon"; and somehow taken the letters "P.S.A." to
that, like many others who ask for advice, he is reluctant to act upon it when it presents itself in unpalatable guise. That Mr. HICKLING has misunderstood the nature of the successful P.S.A. work at Home is evident in some other remarks he made. His great point with which to tickle the groundlings to smile upon these meetings is that they are "strictly unsectarian." That may be true, and yet they may not come up to the popular idea of a pleasant Sunday afternoon. The complaint that they have been "too religious" *eeds no more justification than his own admission that they were started with a view to "push on the work of Christianity." If Mr. HICKLING would only be satisfied with the quite real advantage of enticing men away from resorts that may be pleasant, but are decidedly unprofitable, there might yet be hope for the local P. S. A. movement. Even a sing-song, of a clean, wholesome sort, would be a decided step in the right direction, as against the attractions that do draw our young men. We do not, however, ngree with the person who suggested that a sing-song" was the only kind of enter- tainment that would draw the crowd of men desired.
Mr. HICKLING'S P.S.A. is evidently only a disguised copy of a pleasant Sunday morning or evening in the Union Church; aud he has to realise that the men he now desires to help have a prejudice against religious services. They are not particularly enamourel of sing-songs: some of them would probably be bored at a penny concert. They labour under the ancient human ache, the insatiate yearning for something new under the sun. They have heard all they hear from the pulpit before: if instead it came newly to them, they would probably be as much interested and affected as were the first men who heard the gospel. Variety is the programme that they look for; and this, we venture to suggest, could be given to them without omitting the profit that Mr. HICKLING knows is to be
44
THE MISSIONARY QUESTION.
(Daily Press, 16th February.) Wereally are reluctant to deal with subjects such as the one now in hand, but the political importance of missionary conduct in China is too great to be disregarded. It seems now necessary, even at the risk of wounding the susceptibilities of those with strong convictions, to, refer to a recent sermon delivered in Shanghai by the Rev. C. E. DAEWENT. It was specially aimed at the recent memorandum of Professor JENKS, who discussed the missionary question solely from the political standpoint. The Shanghai preacher admitted this, but claimed that it was quite impossible to consider missions in that aspect. This should have prevented him from attacking Professor JENKS' im- portant observations; but instead, he pro- ceeded to rebut purely political arguments by appeals to the faith of his hearers. He did niore. He indulged in dis- courteous attacks upon other religions, which we consider quite sufficient ex- cuse, if any more be needed, for saying what we shall have to say. We do not expect the Rev. C. E. DARWENT or his fellow missionaries to regard politics as important, but we do expect them to allow others to do so, and to grant them equal freedom of expression.
It surely st:ould not be necessary to insult those things which millions of our fellow creatures hold în reverence. Necessary or not, if missionaries are going to talk as the Rev. C. E. 'ARWENT talked on the 5th instant, reprisals are inevitable, and there cannot in justice be any protest. For instance, he did not deny the truth of Professor JENKS' remark that missionaries are responsible for a good deal of distur- bance His answer was that disturbances were inevitable, as "a condition of progress." "What," he demanded, "would weeds think when the hoe was applied to them? They would not like the disturbance, but never- theless it had to be." This asumption that Buddhism and the other Eastern religions are weeds leaves out of account the opinion of the Chinese and others. If Mr. DARWENT were attacking weeds in his own garden, his position would be less vulnerable; but he has come to the Chinaman's garden.“ What would the English law do to the cabbage-cultivator who jumped over into his neighbour's garden, and insisting that the tobacco plants flourishing there were
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