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A CHINA MANUFACTURING
COMPANY,'
"
;
(Daily Press, 80th May.) The China Manufacturing Company, Limited, is a new undertaking now under promotion at Shanghai, and we draw the attention of investors to the abridged prospectus appearing in another part of this issue. The company, it will be seen, is being formed with a view to extensive development of manufacturing for the large and still growing Chinese market. Begin- ning with paper, which can be made from almost anything, we are naturally curious to know the nature of this hitherto unused material of which the London experts report so favourably, and of which the new company seems to expect a large, permanent, and cheap supply. For the manufacture of cheap, coarse paper from rice straw, the company should certainly never lack material. That there is an immense field (for paper) waiting to be exploited' we cannot doubt; and it was probably the realisation of this, as partly illustrated by the heavy imports of foreign paper, that caused recent enquiries to be made by an American syndicate of paper manufacturers who were fully alive to the advantages of producing their goods within the threshold of one of their most important markets. Whether the American scheme has been allowed to remain in abeyance, or is being now prosecuted, we cannot say; but we have no hesitation in expressing the opinion that the conditions are altogether favourable for the prosecution of such enterprise. In the case of the China Manufacturing Company the conditions, so far as the manufacture of paper is concerned, appear particularly so. The company has got favourable expert opinions on actual samples, not only of the new raw material, but of the finished article. It is excellently situated with regard to the necessary materials; and we are told that there is already enquiry being made with a view to buying its output. The manufacture of
воар, of glass, and of other manufactures for which there is a large Chinese demand, will follow in due course. In the meantime, only half the capital of one million taels is being called up, and the fact that the ven- dors accept payment entirely in shares is a good sign, calculated to inspire confidence in the undertaking. The description of the property to be acquired appears in the pro- spectus. While investors are not advised to reckon too confidently on the estimate! twenty per cent dividend, which will depend greatly on the varieties of paper made, and on the out-put being unham- pered by labour troubles or other native disturbances, it is a proposal they cannot afford to disregard, as the possibilities, looking a few years ahead, are so enormous. In addition, it is worth noticing how easy are the terms of subscription," which can locally be very conveniently arranged at the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank.
NAVAL ADMIRABLE CRICHTONS.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
never
“The
[June 3, 1905. while they waited at the place appointed for their dawdling foes we shall know; but they must have suffered agonies of impatience. The pregnant sentence with which the simple, conservative official report concludes indicates that the great Russian Armada has entered a fatal web. naval engagement is still in progress." "It will take sometime before the final results can be known." In detail, no doubt, that is so; but broadly speaking, the final result can- not we think, be anything less than the total extinction for a long time of Russia as a naval power. "No damage to our ships was sustained." It will probably also be learned in due time that this remarkable statement is substantially and finally cor- rect. If Japan loses no more ships by those horrid floating mines, RozaDESTVENSKY in unlikely to rob her of any. The end of the war will most probably find Japan's navy, not only as strong as ever it was, but considerably augmented and enriched by some of the valuable ships that Russia has just sent out to the East, "regardless of expense"; and, it must be added, regardless of several other things.
CURRENCY DOUBTS.
navy have both enjoyed the prayerful support of priest and emperor, the pious advice and encouragement of devout officers, and a plentiful supply of ikons, the heathen has been permitted to win all along the line. In the absence of any ghostly coun. cillor to direct our wondering attention to some inscrutable purpose" in it all, we can but suppose that the Japanese have completely defeated the Russians because they happen to be, among other things, more skilful, more in earnest, more brave, more intelligent, more temperate, more ably officered, and better provided with the needful stores of food, gear, and accoutre- ments. In the beginning, when we had been reminding the Japanese that" thrice is be armed that hath his quarrel just," there was some apparent reason for telling us that, at the first naval attack on Port Arthur, Japan had illustrated the correctness of the familiar paraphrase which accords superior might to him "that gets his blow in fust." That was, indeed, a shrewd first blow, but the Japanese navy has shown us that it does not depend for success upon a knack of dealing blows only at an unready enemy. Admiral URIU'S task at Chemulpo on February 8th, 1904, was comparatively easy. Admiral 10Go's torpedo attack at Port Arthur on the same day was not; but we will make allowance for Russia's claim that her naval men were caught unprepared.
It is nonsense,
of course; they ought to have been ready, knowing that war was knocking at the door; but, for the sake of argument, let us admit that not yet had the Japanese navy done anything wonderful. Does Russian naval history contain anything finer than the destroyer attack in the blizzard of February 14th ? Admiral KAMIMURA's bombard ment of Vladivostock on March 6th may not have done much, but it was doing some thing. The Russian navy had its chance to revenge MAKAROFF's death on April 14th, but it preferred to stay under the port guns. The Vladivostock squadron sank a few Japanese junks and unarmed steamers; but until this, last Saturday, the naval losses of Japan were accidental only, cases like the Hatsuse; the Russiaus, whose pompous Armada is now meeting the fate of its "his. toric Spanish prototype, have doue absolutely nothing to prove their title to the prestige they once claimed. The first Russian fleet made several sorties from Port Arthur and, according to the chroniclers, was "driven back with loss." That is wrong. They were not driven back: they scuttled back. The Russian sailor dies for his country very much to the same extent that the modern Christian gives up all that he hath. There is an important reservation. He construes. "all that he hath" to mean "all that he hath to spare"; and in the Russian anxiety to save something from the wreck may be discovered some explanation of Japan's consistent success at sea. Really, it is remarkable how little the Russian maval forces have done. Search through any of the numerous diaries of the war, and there is no record of anything but successful Is it not remarkable that the Japanese successful
attacks on merchant craft, and remarkably
" evasions of armed flotillas. | involve an should continue to succeed with such This last naval reverse of Russia's is a remarkable regularity! No single reverse bigger one than that of August 10th, when comes to justify the prognostications of ToGo scattered the Port Arthur fleet like those who have been adding up Japan's chaff. It was three days later that Admiral difficulties. On land, on sea, uniform RozиDESTVENSKY assumed command of the success is with them, although they have fleet that, with its reinforcements, has now not had the "biggest battalions"
that met a like bumiliating fate, after dilly NAPOLEON referred to. There seems to be, dallying for eight months and a half ou its if we retain all evidence that has been
eager voyage towards the enemy. The raked up
for us by pro-Bussian or anti-Japanese naval man has shown that he can Japanese, something almost mysterious fight with patience as well as dash. about it. Although the Russian army and must have cost Togo and his officers mentally What it
в
(Daily Press, 31st May.)
S
+
of the face value of the
It
(Daily Press 1st June.) There is a point in connection with the currency in countries which have a mixed gold and silver circulation, which has not been animadverted upon in the many discussions which have taken place on the subject, but which may be of considerable importance in connection with the suggested establishment of a gold standard in China. In places where the actual standard is gold but in which, at the same time, there is a large silver currency, the latter, if there is a continuous fall in the value of the white metal, ceases to become a coin properly speaking and takes the position-to use the term frequently adopted-of a "token.” The essential element of a coin, according to recognised principles, is that the intrinsic value of the metal in its uncoined state should be coin. This point is dealt with with admirable clearness by STUART MILL, in bis "Political Economy," and the principles which he there sets forth have never been called in question. is somewhat noticeable that in all the controversies that have taken place in respect to the relative value of silver and gold, no reference has been made to the important bearing which the decline of silver has, not only upon Eastern Exchanges, but also upon the currency of Great Britain itself. The amount of silver which is in circulation is a great factor in the British monetary system; and the plain fact remains that its intrinsic value is really only about one half of its face value. To place British coinage upon an absolutely sound basis the amount of silver in all the subsidiary coins ought in strictness to be doubled. The sixpence ought to be as large ns. the shilling; the shilling as large as the florin; the half crown as big as the old crown-piece. To put the coinage upon this footing would ment, and it is not surprising that the most enormous expense to Govern-
rigid economists have not thought it desirable to raise the question of adopting such a step. So long as the credit of the British Government stands - as let us hope it always may stand-unimpeachable--no difficulty arises; but it is well that the true state of the fact should be grasped, and that is, that the value of the subordinate coins depends not upon the worth of the metal of certainty that they can always be exchanged which they are composed, but upon the
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