August 26, 1905.]
are
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
THE CHINESE POST OFFICE SYSTEM.
immigrants would not have grown so large, and this circumstance goes to show the increased demand for Chinese labour despite the clamour raised against it in We some quarters," It may show that.
(Daily Press 23rd August.) do not doubt that the employers who bene- It is nine years since the Chinese Imperial, fit by cheap and good Chinese labour are Post Office was established by Imperial innocent of agitating against its in- Decree. The date was March 20th, 1896. port. The patriotism of these is probably It had been thought of nearly forty years on no higher level than that of the Chinese before that, a typical instance of the placard artist who reviles all things slowness with which any innovation, how- American and some things that
ever desirable, is introduced in China. If not American. But the remark of our the result in this case be typical of what Japanese contemporary suggests to us au
awaits other Chinese reforms, then patience idea that we had overlooked before, and is, indeed, to be encouraged; and the motto which we may present for what it is worth. slow but sure" applied to China-China It is that while there may be little excuse
with European helpers, of course. According for the attitude of the officials whose con- to Mr. PIRY's report of last year's working, duct President ROOSEVELT has promised to
which we received yesterday, it was the investigate and check, there may be au gool example set by the Customs in the early sixties that decided the Tsungli explanation. The prejudice in the western states has continued for years, yet we are Yamien to agree to a national postal system. told that the number of Chinese immigrants There were no coast stramers running in has grown large. How ? Is it not by the winter, and the Customs arranged a Chinese fraud? We know from experience conuection of river steamers and ov land that the Chinese coolie whose mind has be- couriers to serve Shanghai and Peking. It eome filled by the auri sacra fames will was in 1876, when the Chefoo Convention willingly undergo hardships, adopt all sorts was being discuss'd, that Sir Thomas of humiliating subterfuges, and in some WADE learned of the Chiness awakening; cases pay cousiderable sums of money, to but for some at clearly an leest sol reason, force his way into a land out of which be nothing got into that Treaty, and the thinks he is being unfairly barred. Aus matter was dropped for another season. tralia is at its wit's end to keep them out, and The Customs cutiuued its postal enterprise, recent Hongkong cases disclosed the amaz-opening more offes, an even (u 1878) ing fact that there are Chinese who pay, aud | issuing stamps. That year saw a formal We Chinese who receive payment, for the invitation to join the Postal Union. smuggling in of illegal emigrants. There is, are
to find in the Hongkong perhaps, little to be wondered at if some of Government Gazette of that periol any
t› the these lawbreakers are roughly handled at reference
British post office which times; or if others of the race, with better Hongkong,
a contemporary credentials, are made to suffer impoliteness suggests, the British were realy to with because of their relationship to those whom draw." It seuns an unlikely thing.
It is the dutiful official has learned to regard recorded that in 1879 the British post with suspicion. These are
reasons for offices in Japan were closed, an i the business believing that some of the allegations turned over to the Japanese Governmen'. agai st American customs officers are well. The Chinese Government in the days hid founned; as we have never doubted; but it its own Courier Service, and the carriage o remadns just as probable that they have private mails was in the hands of private also been exaggerated. In the boycotthongs, literaiture it is certain that they have. But we would not be surprised to learn that most of what the better class Chinese travellers have had to complain was no worse than the vexatious treatment meted out to travellers in other places. Those who have toured in Switzerland, for instance, or experienced the thousand and one restric- tions of German travel, know that it does not do to be too thin skinned. Anyway, to return to the maiu subject, the gentlemen who are now at work in Hongkong have no such grievances to complain of, and it would make the word stink for ever to credit the authors and admirers of recent placards with any form of patriotism. We cordially
at
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in the world.
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many pegs driven into the soil of China,” more political than postal, a suspicion which is far from unreasonable. With regard to the present position of the C.I.P.O., it is established in every provincial capital, and has got sub- offices and branches in almost all important towns throughout the Empire. On December 31st there were altogether 1,319 offices. There are 117 foreigners on the staff. In 1904 sixty six million articles were dealt with, Canton's contribution to these being three millions. Although economy is the keynote of the administra- tion, the institution is still run at a loss. The Customs department found all the money until last year, when, for the first time, a grant was made, the amount (to be anaual) being Tls. 720,000. As usual in China, all the grant has not been paid yet.
THE EGOTISM OF THE CHINESE,
-
It is obvious to the
(Daily Press, 24th August.) If there is one fault more common than another in journalism, we suppose it must be the tendency to point out and emphasise the obvious, or, to be exact, the see ming obvious. The exigencies of the profession are probably more to blame for this than the deficiencies of the professionals. Some- thing has to be said, and in too many cases there is no time to think what ought to ba said. This handicap may in some instances bring about rapid thinking; but too often it is to be feared that the pen travels as the avant.courrier of the mind. Where these conditions occur without actual knowledge of the subject to be treated, it follows naturally that the reader is treated to de luctions without correct premises, con-
reached by way of improper clusions analogies, and presumptions or assump. tions which, though plausibly put and attractively phrased, are apt to be mislead- ing to the uuinformed, who justly expect that the writer knows what he is writing about. One of the commonest points of
on things view taken by commentators lon; used and respected by the Chinese-the said commentators, as might people." The British Post-Master-General be supposed, being usually located outside tolerates no competition : it is the monopoly is that China has throughout been a very which has made his organisation what it is, much misused party. the best aud (next to Japan's) the cheapest meanest intelligence, for instance, that the In China, the Inspector Chinese should own every inch of Chinese soil; and that they do not; that the Chinese General of Customs (who occupies the place of the P.M.(.) cannot go so fast. These are a venerable race, with a civilisation native letter hongs are still in business in antedating that of all the foreigners who all parts of China. But there is no doubt presu ne to come and teach them; and so on, the almost ad infinitum. When a political they are being supersede l avantages of the organised service become question arises to which the Chinese nation known. The Government has practically is a party, it is so easy to turn to these abandoned its couriers an trusts to the stock arguments, in the absence of informa C. I. P. O. In the meantime, while the tion of the special circumstances; and that is what happeus Ethics in the abstract, latter is slowly extending its tentacles over China, it is registering the private under- platitudes of fair-play, generalities of our Shanghai contemporary takings which it is as yet unready to replace, justice, sympathy for the under-dog--- when it says that "the boycott in the form and so securing some sort of regularity these string together with delightful adapt- Three hundred ability into a literary rosary which may be it has now assumed is a phenomenon of! and order in the mass
used in exactly the same way as the madness that must be crushed by the power have been registered so far, and these now of the Government, whose sincerity will work in connection with the Imperial Post.cclesiastical one, with perhaps not so much necessarily be judged by the result of its Almost every represcuted nition has a post efforts to crush it; and it must be crushed office in Shanghai. This is supposed still promptly, or injury will be done to be necessary although it is admittedly which it will take months even confusing. · But," says Mr. PIRY's report: years to repair." Prevention is better they rave since extendel and opened at than cure, and a firmer stand taken while numerous ports, where French, British, the scheme was only a matter of talk German, and Japanese post offices are now might have saved much. There was never found doing a work for which the national Not only do any question as to the nature and probable pist office alone would suffice. growth of the movement. From the begin they curtail the legitimate share of the ning, except in the case of the gushing few latter in the interport carriage of corres- who were eager to bail
the spreading of alien મૈં newborn pondence, but patriotism, it should have been seen that a establishments at places where they are not national boycott in the hands of the saine wanted is resented, and retards in this class as that which was so unanimously country the popularity of au institution so These are patriotic in 1900 must develop aloog highly | closely resembling them." objectionable lines.
regarded by the Ñ-C. Daily News as so
agree with
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or
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benefit. It is to be feared that into some of the legions of books about China ba? crept a like rapidity. Certainly there is as yet no satisfying unanimity of opinion as to the Chinese character, which, but for one or two in whom trust may be placed, would remain a terra incogita. There is, of course, the common ground of humanity. They are men like ourselves, and from that we may grope
a better uu lerstanding. We can see for ourselves that there is no more homogeneity than in the European races, a ud it is a safe and easy step to the decision that there are good and bad Chinamen. These elemen- tary facts (as obvious as the obviousnesses that should not be dwelt upon) may save
our
way
to
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