162
THE YANGTSE LASIN.
(Daily Press, 7th and 8th March.) A visit to the ports in the Yangtse basin can hardly fail to convince even the most unbelieving that some progress has really 7 been made towards the regeneration of China. This is shown not only in great things but still more in petty details, and is for the most part accompanied by a sen- sible improvement in the general condition of the people at large. In the lower river, it is true, there is little external change to be noted;"Chinkiang, Nanking, and Wuhu, to the casual passenger present much the same aspect as before; there is a greater number of receiving hulks, but the discomforts of the traveller in landing are much the same as before, and the same tumble-down stores and offices present themselves on his stepping on shore. But even here, owing to the great increase in the traffic, if the same untidiness and malodourousness is to be noticed, there is decidedly more bustle and life. There is little change in the number of the foreigners actually engaged in busi- ness, and no sign of the foreigners engrossing any increasing amount of the purely native business, and indeed the foreigners at the ports are for the most part, when engaged in business at all, directly in the employ of the various shipping companies. The for- eigners actually resident will in fact be found to belong to two main categories: they are officials engaged in the service of the Im- perial Customs or Cousuls of the various treaty Powers, or they are missionaries, Roman Catholic or Protestant, the last often exceeding number all the other foreigners combined.
At some of the ports, notably Wuhu, the first thing to attract the attention of the traveller is the number of foreign buildings capping the various hills and formning con- spicuous objects in the landscape. On enquiry most of these will be found to be missionary buildings, either residences or such edifices as hospitals or schools belong, ing to the various religious denominations- and this advance of the missions is to a visitor one of the most remarkable signs of the times. It seems almost as if one of the
14
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
can be treated, has materially improved the condition of the people. On the other hand the ordinary European being more brought in contact with the native, has acquired a better understanding of his good points, so that many of the barriers between the races formerly seemed insurmountable are gradually yielding to better influences on both sides.
in
The examples of such cities as Shanghai, where, under the control of a regular police, crime is effectually prevented, and where disease is evidently decreasing under im- proved sanitation, have also not been lost in so practical a people as the Chinese people The enormous traffic carried at large. through its streets without accident or in convenience, and with the slightest inter- ference with individual liberty, and (to the Chinese mind) the enormous revenues raise without undue pressure has also had its effect on the native officials and slowly but surely the fact is having its effects on the cities of the interior. The late Viceroy of the Liang Kiang set the example of wide
roads macadimised
his provincial | capitals, and the example is being, albeit at a distance, followed in the other chief cities. Tientsin is also possessed up of a respectable police force fully organised under a foreign chief. It is true this was commenced under the control of the Foreign Commission after the capture of the city, but the fact that it continued under direct native control and without the application of any pressure from without shows how capable of comprehending its utility are the new generation of rulers. In Sochow and Hangchow similar improvements are being gradually introduced, and smaller cities like steps are being taken. Even so remote a city as Ichang has its police force uniformed and numbered; and what is true of police is likewise true of sanitation The streets left a few years ago to take care of themselves are now in many cases regu- larly scavenged.
has since been
even in the
|
|
[March 11, 1905.
Then
foreign interests ycleped the Foreign Con- cessions at Hankow. Here every petty his few thousand square autocrat over metres is a law unto himself and issuss proclamations to his own nationals regard- less of his neighbour's convenience. Ori- ginally, as in many other ports, English and French settlements were laid out. Full of hope as to the individual success of every British merchant, the British Settlement became gradually built over with almost palatial residences, but evil times came along and floods arose and inundated the foreign settleinent, and most of the houses dis. appeared, and foreign owned property was to be hal almost for the asking. the ecclesiastical establishments came in and occupied the vacant ground, and the place exchanged the cry of the coolie carrying his merchandise, for the drone of the chanter By and by, with the advent of railways, the hopes of Hankow again revived, and once more was heard the cry of the coolie and the hum of the merchant, and places long vacant were eagerly bought up till the original settlement became too small to Then Russia and hold the applicants. France, and Germany and Japan determined each to be in the new fashion and have its own concession, and as the only place possi- ble was a long strip of a few hundred metres broad along the banks of the Yangtze, the foreign concessions assumed perforce the form of an elongated strip. Finally another piece still lower down the river was taken possession of as a terminus for the railway.
The British Concession has been long covered with buildings; the Russian followed with several factories; the French has a good many completed and more in progress; the German has culy just started; and nothing at all has been done on the Japanese. Unfortu nately for the effect of the whole, each strives to be complete in itself and meet its own entire wants. A stray dog suspected of being rabid, for instance, wanders into one or other concession. The autocrat1 of that particular concession issues & muzzling ordinance, and the owners of dogs in the adjoining settlements have, in taking them through-the forbidden laud, like the Swiss under GESSLER, to salute the chapeau of the special autocrat, by muzzling the animal on its passage.
Of more important works in the Yangtsze basin, the necessity of water supply is beginning to impress itself in most of the great cities. Shanghai is already supplied, and Nanking is contemplating an expenditure of several millions. Others are only waiting the result to follow. The example of Japan has had in all these More practical is the Fuhan Railway, in- cases considerable effect. The present tended to effect communication between Viceroy of Hupeh has expended millions Hankow and Peking, which is already in on the erection of ironworks, and although partial working order to the Yellow river, the financial result has been of the worst, where a break of a couple of days intervenes the intention to make the country indepen-between the river and the northern section. | dent of foreign assistance is one of the most The administration have found it necessary satisfactory issues of the movement. To in order to meet the wants of the people to levate the nation to a position of indepen-anticipate the completion of the work by dence has been the aim of the present gene- ration of Chinese statesmen, and though it may occasionally lead to friction and misunderstandings, it is on the whole better than the contemptible policy of seeking to play off one foreign Power against another, which was the highest art to which statesmen of the calibre of the late LI HUNG-CHANG could hope to attain.
dreams of the late ANSON BURLINGAM was in a fair way of being realised and the Shining Cross" should gleam from every mountain in the land. More remarkable still is the fact that the innovation excites little remark from the people at large, who have seemingly accepted the inevitable or even look upon it with favourable eyes. High officials openly preside at the inauguration of these edifices and not unfrequently comment upon them in favourable terms. Not unfrequently the local authorities are ou terms of personal friendship with the more respected of the local missionary body, and do not hesitate to come to them betimes for advice! Markedly too amongst the people the chance trave ler is, in places where but a few years ago he would be addressed in the vilest of language or even openly assaulted, now treated with respect or gladly welcomed, and finds every facility offered, So inuch for the lower Yangtsze valley, so far as the resources of the country extend, On arrival at Hankow the most casual to his travelling freely. The fact is, of traveller, if acquainted with the place in course that the native has discovered that former days, cannot fail to be struck with the advantages, which for many years he the marked alteration. The first object to questioned, of "opening up' "the country be noticed some five or six miles below the are almost altogether ou bis side, and that junction of the river with the Han is a stone with improved facilities for getting about, bund in process of construction, and at in- and the opening of new markets for his tervals all the way to the original British products, he is in a much superior position Settlement, bunded some 40 years ago, the than formerly. There is no doubt that the same process may be noted. The work missionaries have contributed much towards is done, as it would seem, in different this, and that the action of the medical sectious and ou different plans and is missionary and the wide distribution of the first apparent evidence that hospitals, where especially surgical cases extraordinary conglomerate of opposing
of
carrying goods conjointly with the construc- tion trains. The effect has been the tap- ping of a fertile district in the north of Hupeh, and a very considerable amount of traffic in commodities such as beans and other produce, which have filled to some extent the void produced by the closing of Newchwang owing to the war.
(To be continued.)
NEW AMERICAN MINISTERS AND CONSULS.
(Daily Press, 9th March.) The numerous American diplomatic and consular changes which our London corres- pondent telegraphically reports in this issue have particular interest at this time. With regard to some of them, non-American readers may be inclined to attach special political significance, notably in the ambas sadorial change at St. Petersburg; but there is nothing more implied by this transfer than in the others. Periodical games of
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