The-Hong-Kong-Weekly-Press-1905-10-07 — Page 2

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WEI-HAI-WEI VIGNETTES.

THE HONGONG WKEELY PRESS AND

[October 7, 1905.

people still live and die," and the absence | manure, or stand in their boundary-ditches to of clan feuds. Mr. JOHNSTON writes :-

Farma

are often

or

you

Daily Press, 2nd October.)

"The country is too poor to tempt. Mr. R. F. JOHNSTON, until May of last immigrants, and lands seldom change hauds

except among relatives. year acting as Assistant Colonial Secretary mortgaged, bat nearly always subsequently at Hongkong, ik now al. Wei hai-wei, redeemed. The villages are generally named where here, laced Mr. R. WALTER as after families that have lived in them for many Secretary to the Government and Magis- centuries. Sun Chia T'an is the village of the trate. He seems to be the fortunate pos- Sun family; Ch'i Chia T'an is the village of sessor of a sping eye and a facile pen, to the Ch'i family; and so on with most of the Title deeds, and judge from interesting appendices he has villages in the territory.

tombstones all reveal the same tale, the written for Mr. Commissioner. STEWART

landowners are everywhere the dirent LOCKHART's annual report, which has just collateral descendants of the people who arrived from His Majesty's printers in tilled the same fields in the days Ludon. Dryness is never or very rar ly of the Sung or the Ming dynasty. characteristic of official reports relating A curions result of this is the manner to China, where there is so much interest in which individuals identify themselves with ing material; but Mr. JouNSTON's des their own ancestors. "I bought this land and cription of his experiences of the Fundred now the Liu family are trying to steal it from

When did y and fifty thousand: Chines among whome," complains a petitioner.

buy i " remarks the magistrate. "In the his work lies make literature. These pro- fourth year of Yung-Chêng," says the petit- vincials of his are remarkably friendly, ioner, and sure enough his title-deed bears the peaceful, and well disposed towards the date of 1727. Nearly every man has his few British Government, as they would he" acres of arable land and his share in the com. (he affirms)" toward any Government that mon pasture land; every one is responsible treated them fairly." But like all Chinese, to someone else for his correct behaviour, they are fond of litigation; aud, unfortu- and all owe some obedience to the elders of his honse or the village headman that nately, it is difficult to convince them "

or te'un tung. At present the villages of British justice is not a marketable com- Weihaiwei are to a certain limited extent, so modity. This illus rates by ricochet the far as their domestic affairs are concerned, like quality of Chinese justice. These people, so many little self-contained repablis, each accustomed to that kind for so long, are with its president or

Every individual is bound by rigid unwritten law to conform to the will of the major et sanior pars and to fulfil his duties to the community even if they involve his own discomfort, Recently I had to decide a case in which an individual was accused by his fellow-villagers of refusing to subscribe towards the engage ment of a travelling theatrical company. He admitted that he was in the wrong, and pro- mised to contribute his full share forthwith. There is thus a clear sense of mutual respon sibility, and a general obligation to co-operate in for common ends. There are many points common between the mediaeval village commu nities and burghal associations of Europe and the present village communities of North China, but the aalogy must not be pushed too far. The absence of the seignorial or manorial system in Chin is alone sufficient to vitiate any such comparison."

"

always offering bribes to the Magistrate's underlings, and it is "all but impossible' to make them believe that his decisions are not thereby influenced. Mr. JOHNSTON appears to have anticipated the idea of the Canton magistrate CHAN PAK HAU, with regard 10 precautions against

squeeze." He says:

I found room for improvement in the judici. 1 procedure th-n in vogue, and I have ramo1elled the system of receiving and dealing with "p titions" in such a way that the opportunities for extortion on the part of my staff are now much curtailed. All petitions are brought to the Magistrate by the petitioners in person, and the Magistrate's honge, as well as his Court, are open at all times to all persons who wish to make s'atements or to bring complaints."

This, while entailing much extra work, is the only way in which to make the Chinese realise that there are actually cases where justice, strict and untarnished, is the goal aime lat. This is a form of missionary enterprise calling for the highest coin- mendation. The number and nature of criniinal cases in this part of China were gratifyingly unimportant, the chief source of trouble being disputes us to the owner- ship of land. In one case a tit drei whose date corresponded to our year 1761 was put in. Many deels, pedigrees, and other records were destroyed by the Japanese when they captured Wei-hai-wei in 1894 and Mr. JOHNSTON thinks that if there

· were a survey and a lawl court, much of the land would be found to belong to the Crown; but not enough, apparently, to ecoup it for the heavy expenditure "that would be involved. It would seem a shame

(rou take any

present holders, merely because recent invaders had destroyed their profs of owner. ship; aud 80 it is just as well, may be, that

tthere is uo intention of exacing the full legal rights of the Government. The e is, as we said, very little crime; and there is no police force. The obvious conciusion ˆ is that the absenc

to

•

|

h-adman.

These head-

The power of description betrayed in the forgoing extract should not be confiued to the literature of the pigeon-hole. It be- comes almost a duty for Mr. Joanston to add to the bibliography of China, formidable as that has already grown. He has sym- pathy, also, which is necessary for such a work. His predecessor wrote disparagingly in 1902 of these village bead-men: not so Mr. JOHNSTON. He shows their power and its effects, and decides that they are of great assistance to the Government. men are a result of the natural evolution of village life in those parts and as village life there way is pictured for us as almost ideal by this graphic official pen, we can It is accept the head-men with the rest. old to read, apropos their possible reuioval, that one result would be a growth of individuality "which in rural Chim would still be dangerous and premature." TOLSTOY would be doubtless fascinated by this “ignorant and illiterate" peasantry, whose lives are generally peaceful, uneventful, and probably happy."For legally or not, they hold the land; and, as Mr. JOHNSTON says, in conclusion :

专窗

They have the advantage of living in a healthy climate, and their splendid physique oft a

and the great age to which they often live prove that their normal condition is not one of ceaseless hardship and privation. For weeks at a stretch, at the sowing time and the two annual harrests, every adult and child is busy in the 6-lds. In the long and bitterly cold winter nights they sit on their k'ange, had led together for those of vermoor, while duct fuel dad they issue out of doors to collect

police force is responsible for a lack of criminal records; but Mr JOHNSTON is care- ful to point out thint this would be an erroneous criticism, as the victims of crime rarely fail to make complaint. The secret appears to be in the "modified patriarchal system under which the vast majority of the

watch the ponies and hounds from Port Edward chasing the hare over their ancestral acrós. Three times a week they wend their way with heavily laden mules to the Weihaiwel market, and commence quarrels that will end in la leaving the women at home to mend the cloth

suits."

BRITISH NAVAL BASES..

(Daily Press 3rd October). We have waited for some further explana- tion of REUTER'S telegram of the 25th September about the foundation of a new naval base at Singapore. That Admiral. FISHER's policy of centralisation of our naval armaments is, in principle and from a belligerent point of view, perfectly correct is not to be denied. An army or a navy scattered in small detachments over, & large extent of territory loses in efficiency. and power, and the nearer to the point, of supply, other things being equal, such a base is situated, the greater is the advan. tage. Like the force of gravity, the efficiency becomes here actually in the in- verse proportion of the square of the dis- tance. What the carrying out of the scheme demands, however, in other particulars, is noteworthy. If the fleet of England wer an indefinite quantity, the forming of any. particular hase could be undertaken with- out consideration for other localities, but, of course the fleet of England, though the most numerous amongst the nations, has its limits, and strengthening one point, implies necessarily wenkening others. Halifax, Esquimault, Trincomalee and Weihai are those named for abatement. Hera course there is room for much d'fference of opinion. In the old days of wind-jammers, Halifax was, of course, for the Navy & most important base whence to look after the east coast of America. In these days of twenty-

knot cruisers and innumerable submarine cables, it is as easy to watch the coast from Plymouth or Beerhaven. But why reduce Esquimault? Esquimault has innumerable advantages which Singapore can never hope to attain. One thing at least, is important.

it is within call of a military force, either from Canada or from the home Pacific in a way which Singapore cannot country itself. It looks out over the ver rival; it has a safe refuge in King George's Sound should a misfortune ever occur, and it has within itself the means of refitting, or even rebuilding a navy. Trimcomalee is within reach any time of Aden or Bombay, so as a base it probably is only standing in the way of some more suitable gathering place. Of Weihai as a.

naval base there is not a word, except

its alubrity, to recommend it. When taken possession of, it was a useful advance guard, but as a base, it is not only at the extreme limit of distance, so that instead. of nursing the Fleet it would require to be nursed by it; but it has actually no military resources of any kind to fall back on. So much we unhesitatingly acknowledge. Yet in stating the other day that the abandonment of Weihai would be au act of eriniinal folly on the part of any Minister who recommended it, we by no means stultify our opinions. The import. ance of Weibai as an advanced station was very apparent two years ago. That it has for the present ceased to be obvious does ot argue any alteration in the position of Weihni, but merely that in the present con- dition its military serviceableness has ended. Mainly, Weihai in English hands was ́in- ended as a counterp ise to Port Arthur în Russian hands; that contingency has de parted, let us hope, in the interests of the world at large, for ever.

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