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October 16, 1905.]
The whole aesthetic case, divided, falls to the ground.
The case for removal, in so far as it rests on the plea of invisibility, cannot be so easily disposed of. Considerable admissions must be made, though not without certain reservations. It may be freely admitted at once that people who never go half way up the Queen's Road, or through Pedder Street, or along Des Voeux Road where it crosses Pedder Street, will never see the Clock Tower at all, unless from the higher levels. But it must not be forgotten that both Pedder Street and Des Voeux Road (where these cross and the tram has practically a station) are both busy thoroughfares. No clock, whether on tower or building, could now be seen from all parts of the town. Put it where you will comparatively for people can profit by it and I know of no reason why those who move in the vicinity of Pedder Street should not have the advantage as well as any others. But this is not a point that need be pressed. There are undoubtedly better places for a clock. The ideal place at present is the tower on Queen's Buildings, visible for a long way both from the east and the west. But possibly the Law Courts may uplift & still more commanding tower. It will be interesting to see.
In any case it may be admitted that our old Tower has outlived its time in respect of elevation. In these days of sky-scrapers it is manifestly out of date. Forty years ago it topped the town. To-day the position is reversed. What then? If a town.clock higher up is really wanted, hare it by all means, but why destroy the old one ?
This question raises the main point of the combined attack. It is alleged by both demolishers and removers that the Tower blocks traffic. This is the most serious allegation made and it requires to be seriously considered. If it were true the old edifice would, rightly and properly, have to be moved.
It is not true. I can speak with authority on this point. I have carefully studied the question for over a year-ever since the memorable out- burst already alluded to. I have watched the roadway there to see what amount of truth was in the contention. I have had exceptional op: portunities for watching it. Two or three and often four and five or even six times a day I have had occasion to pass up Pedder Street and out into the Queen's Road, or vice versa, in a ricsha. Not once have I ever seen anything that could fairly be called an obstruction in the traffic. Every day I witness obstruction of traffic-in Ice House Street, for example-but never in Pedder Street. The allegation was untrue, in the sense of being a gross exaggeration, when it was made. It is simply nonsense repeated now. The opening of the electric tramway transferred a large stream of traffic from Queen's Road to Des Voeux Road and the latter is now for all practical purposes the main road. Queen's Road is positively quiet compared to what it used to be and so far from there being a jam of traffic at the corner by the Post Office, I notice that Post Office trucks are often left lying in the roadway, empty; apparently without any protest from anybody and therefore apparently in nobody's way. Put one in Ice House Street at the Des Voeux Road corner and then perhaps the people who decry the Clock Tower as an obstruction to traffic would understand what obstruction means.
The alleged obstruction amounts to this, at the present time, that the Tower stands in the way of those, and only those, who imitate the critics of the Government in wilfully running their heads up against it.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
and the only warrant for the destruction of the record; and the relics of the past. To destroy otherwise than under it is nothing less than savagery. In this sense, modern civilization is often savage. It is savage when it acts as if unmindful of the humanising view of history as "an endless chain of causes and effects"- continuous growth, uot a chapter of accidents, -when it acts as if inspired by nothing uobler than the roysterer's gospel "let us eat and drink for to-morrow wo die"; when lentlessly; when it displays either indifference it digs up heedlessly or tramples down re- to the hope of the future or forgetfuluess of what is owed to the past; when it is selfish aud sordid and its outlook is bounded by mean material considerations; and again when it is wantonly destructive. to destroy is essentially savage and men, The passion the most modern, frequently display savagery when acting together as a crowd. A crowd is always on the verge of destruction. The least inflammatory word said, and down go the railings and whizz go the stones. in a larger sense; and when thus the devil of It is so destruction enters into and possesses the modern spirit modera civilization, then beside itself, graws hard and heartless and begets savages, clothed though Savages know nothing about the past and care these may be in fine linen and frock cost. less. They live from hand to mouth from day to day and ask nothing of how or whence they came or whither they are bound. To ask this is the distinguishing feature of the civilized
even
This pretty well covers the ground chosen by the assailants in making their renewed attack. On their own ground it is quite easy to defeat them. On ground chosen for defense it will, I think be easier still. I invite them on to it.
The ground upon which the defenders of the Clock Tower would naturally oboose to take their stand is the general principle, governing all present relations with the past, that it is highly undesirable to destroy more than is absolutely necessary. Life needs room for growth, of course; and, whenever it can be clearly shown that the claims of even the most sacred dead interfere with the well-being of the living, necessity assumes an absolute aspect and rightly refuses to know any law. This is the warrant
man and no man is civilized in the true has no reverent consideration for the past. sense who, in his attitude towards the future,
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It may be said that our chief concern is with the future. Undoubtedly it is. front! Forward!" is the everlasting command. Eyes
do not omit to "greet the unseen with a cheer." But we go forward all the more steadily if we
Japanese infantry the finest in the world. It is the spirit of their ancestors that makes Let the dead past bury its dead." By all means. But this does not mean that it should
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be quickly forgotten. Let the corps be decently heel upou its helpless upturned face. Don't buried. Don't stamp a hasty contemptuous
enough. Be a little tender towards the old destroy. Time's fell haud will do that fast days and the old ways wherein and whereby the roads to success, along which, perchance. These were neither levelled without labour nor we now go galloping gaily, were painfully laid. straightened without pain. In the top dressing is mingled the blood and boues of our forerunners. Do not despise the old road builders. They builded better than they knew. We who follow in their footsteps know how we It becomes us, therefore, to hold the Colony's past in grateful and affectionate rembrance and to guard jealously whatsoever may sreve to This is the application of the general principle remind us of the various stages in its progress. to Hongkong, The general principle will not be gainsaid, nor will its general application to the affairs of the Colony. Only its application in a particular instance is under dispute. Let me attempt to apply it more narrowly,
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the latter there is this to be said, that the townspeople are sufficiently advanced to have felt the need of monuments. One which I found erected in memory of the fact that R.L.S. worked there on a newspaper seemed to show the urgency of their need. It is a human need, age, and its indulgence has a humanising effect. older by far than the Pyramids, old as the stone This also will not be gainaaid. Only its appli ation to the Clock Tower question is missed. This I shall strive to make clear.
than most For Eastern towns, though poorer, Hongkong was for a long time better off of course, than Maoao, in this respect. The works of Price made her, at any rate, beautiful in places mostly unregarded now. But there has been a sad failure to preserve. A few years working in combination. ago Glenealy was a triumph of art and nature, Now look at it! Glenealy, the most beautiful of Price's many dreams is destroyed. Inevitable? Perhaps. Parha s not. That word is ever in the
mouths of those who take such things lying old Hongkong is passing away, and soon down." Anyhow, irrevocable. And irrevocably will disappear beneath the great ranges of modern mountainous buildings which tower increasingly skyward. So be it. But it is just here that the usefulness of the Clock Tower, as a reminder of the days that were, of blood and war to commemorate, we have a comes in. Though we have no dramatic history remarkable record of rapid progress and this story the Clock Tower is better able to tell than all the books that ever will be written.
This view of it as a memento of bygone days cuts the ground completely from under the feet of the assaulting party, and makes light of the reasous advanced for the Tower's demolition. You can indulge a fanciful admission of them all (with the exception of the alleged block to traffic and still remain untouched as a defender.
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Take, for instance, the allegation that the Clock cannot well by seen owing to the way in which Increased. Admit it. Lat more high and the height of houses in the vicinity has
be put there in fancy or built there in fact. terrific houses, frowning down upon it,
monument. As such, the fact that it is largely This will only increase its value as a historical invisible becomes highly valuable, because, as soon ly instructive and in a most striking manner. as the fact is seized upon, it becomes instant- It tells the reflect've observer that once upon a time the surrounding houses only came up to the knees of our latter day structures. It tells struggling for existence manfully with its back him of a low-built. small, and compact town, against the wall of the Peak and anxiously looking out for a mouthly mail from England carries his thoughts back half a century to the and the opium clippers from Calcutta. It palmy days of British influence in China when
carried out his vigorous policy. old King Pam was the inspiring influence, and men like Consul Parkes and Harry Keppel eflective observer stops to wonder why the town And if the
the harbour and is Id to enquire, he will Clock was placed where it could not be seen from learn that the sea only lately lapped the shore not a hundred and fifty yards below it, It has frequently been remarked that Far and realise why a British Admiral once urged Eastern commercial cities are, as a rule, very the advisability of abandoning the island because uninteresting. It has often been observed there was no room for a town to grow on the.. that the reason is the poverty of their historical mere ledge of land which nature bad provided by an entirely new turn of events they are all associations. Projected suddenly into existence for the purpose. That such thingserer were may be ultimately disbelieved, or perhaps forgotten pore to Yokohama, the criticism applies, though is allowed to remain. Other things, perhaps more or less in the same plight. From inga altogether, unless some outward and visible sign Macao may be held to escape it. Interesting better worth remembering, may also be forgotten. in one way they all are, but everyone knows There is only spaca here to hint at the Tower's what is meant. You arrive; you are pleased story. Our traditions, all told, are few, and perhaps by the general aspect of the town; you land inglorious. Nevertheless, they are ours and by us and admire fine buildings set out along the they ought to be preserved. A poor thing but front, like the goods in a shop window; you
We ought to be proud of them, if are taken to the Club; you go out for a walk; only out of a sense of possession. From a you “look round" and all is over. It is different material point of view we have reason, as a when you go to Calcutta. Why? Because Colouy, to be proud. The rapidity of Calcutta has a story to tell and has preserved growth, the giant strides of our prosperity, are many monuments to give it point. These others among the modern wonders of the world. have only short and rather dull stories to relate Proud by all means let us be, but not with the and, as if in despair of making what little there arrogance of worldly success. True pride does is interesting, they have preserved next to not kick away the past. Only purse pride is nothing. This does not apply only to the Farashamed of humble origins; its day of small East. It is much the same with the commercial things is despised, if possible forgotten. True towns on the Pacific slops-Vancouver, Port- pride reverences all that has enabled it to rise, land, Seattle, even San Francisco. As regards and our true pride, in showing what we are,
mine own."
知情
I ́our,
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