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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND tine Canton because we "depend mostly for many of our supplies on Canton." We should be glad of a really sound demonstra tion that we cannot manage without those supplies.
THE BRITISH FLEETS.
no
annoyance of both landlord and tenants, and though we fuily appreciate his argu- ments, we think the proposat he made, that it be compulsory once a year, was absurdly inconsequent. No one supposed, unless they were very simple, that lime-washing It was was a preventative or disinfectant, insisted upon, we are told, as an encourage- ment of cleanliness generally. Unless the
(Daily Press, 6th April) Sanitary Board has ceased to believe it can
The British Admiralty, frightened out of make Chinese peasants clean by Act of its seven senses by the continually increas- Legislature, it should not rest satisfied ing annual expenditure made necessary with defeating Mr. HMPHREYS' motion, by the efforts of certain of the Continental but should insist upon fime-washing quart- Powers to increase the power of their naval erly, or even oftener. To encourage forces, bas taken the very sensible step of cleanliness only twice a year is as bad as to separating certain home services from the go to church only at Easter time. The general Navy Estimates. Why, for instance, question is, however, does it do anything it argued fairly, should the whole of the of the sort? We have seen a Chinese shop scientific expenses of Greenwich Observa- routed out and lime-washed, the inmates tory, and more markedly still the cost of the objecting but only passively protestant; home Coastguard, be counted in the naval and the furniture and stock, covered with expenditure of the Empire? Clearly, the extraneous accretions that had for though Greenwich Observatory was ori months been the happy hunting ground of ginally started in the entire interest of the the microbe folk, was pushed hack, un- Navy, it has long since ceased to apply cleaned, against the exemplary walls. The itself merely to naval matters, and concerns Chinese idea was, "thank goodness, that's itself mainly with matters of scientific over; " and the bygienic good seed intended interest, which every nation nowadays, to blossom into flowers of cleanliness whether naval or not, considers has a call fell on stony ground: the Sanitary on the national resources. The Coastguard, Board had, in fact, ploughed an- though occasionally on an emergency it has other furrow in the sand. Of a piece been used by the Navy temporarily as a with the rest, may be mentioned Mr. means of supplying deleted crews, has HEWETT'S semi-tragic revelations, as to otherwise connection with the Navy, pools of stagnant water on Government and its upkeep as a matter of protection of property. It is hardly likely the Govern the Customs revenue, and the mere policing ment or the contractors would have raised of the coasts of the Three Kingdoms, has no objection if a few of the Sanitary Board's more to do with the Navy than has the coolies had been sent to bale out and wipe policing of the city of Birmingham. So up the mosquito hatcheries referred to. far for the Navy itself, whose duties are to Then the evil would not have continued superintend and protect the enormous sea. while the agitated member was studying borne commerce of the British Empire: and his bottleful of organic matter, and raising this statement at once raises the further quite unnecessary doubts as to whether question: Why, seeing that the Empire Government property is outside the law consists of so many units which, although or not It is not outside the law, controlled by a strong ceutral power, are where public health is coucerued, nud yet in many respects, especially financial, if any time is wasted in discussing independent of the central control, should abstruse legal precedents while the malarial no attempt be made to apportion expeuses insects are attending to their business, to the relative necessities of each case? then he public will
to More particularly is this the case with say severe things, not the least_severe respect to the great fleet which Great being, "How like the Sanitary Board." Britain is by the necessities of her position Like the hoofbents of a well-known bound to keep in the Mediterranean Sea, anecdote, -it WAS "proputty, proputty, In the days of NELSON the Mediterranean proputty," that aubled through the dis- fleet was kept up, it may be said, merely course of Mr. HUMPHREYS as he begged for in the interest of the home country. Cantonese statistics. We are with him there, NAPOLEON was threatening with his Con. although less hopeful; but there can be no tinental military combinations the very doubt that the figures would only strikingly existence of the British Isles as an independ. confirm the fact of which we are fully ent Power, and the preponderance in the persuaded, and against which the Sanitary Mediterranean of a British squadron as a Board confesses it has no remedy. Canton | defence to Great Britain became a matter is the source of most of our dis ase. We of national necessity. But not one of the have told recently how brazenly the most British dependencies outside the Four Seas infectious and contagious diseases stalk were in any respect interested in the abroad at Canton; and if the Chinese presence of the fleet in Mediterranean or authorities are so indifferent to the diseases other waters. Except as a check on the pro- their people live with, it is hardly to be ex-jected union of France and Russia in an pected they will pay much attention to the complaints they die of. Hence any statistics they send are unlikely to Le of much service, and we hope Mr. BUMPHREYS' remark that they would be "worth much money" not be taken seriously by the TREASURER. In various places the remark occurs that certain sanitary reforms are out of the question because they cost too much. Apart from the view that considerations of expense should not outweigh real needs, there is the reflection that in much experi- menting and tinkering, inuch money is wast- ed, and the public needlessly worried. We are ather sorry that Mr. LAU CHU-PAK, whose excellently argued "minute" speaks for itself, did not say something in reply to Dr. CLARK's remark that we cannot quaran.
will
be entitled
11
to
must
April 7, 1906. the Admiralty decided that only four battle- ships should for the time be left t in the Mediterranean fleet. Even a quarter of a century ago the whole British nation would have risen in indignation at such a proposal. Except the complaints of those immediately concerned for private reasons, the explana tion that it is more important at the moment
the strengthen
North Sen fleet has been held sufficient, on the under. standing that no permanent weakening is intended. The Mediterramenn fleet bas its own special function, but at the instant that being secure, a momentary withdrawal in a cause where France is equally interested with ourselves is viewed with complacence. The exception here, as in many other cases really goes far to prove the rule. But in the view of the great interests of the Empire at large it is clear that the Mediterranean fleet, on which now lies the burden of pre serving the main communications of the Empire at large, though it has diminished in importance when viewed incrly from the an importance as Four Seas, ha now affecting the Empire which it never before possessed. In the same light we view the China fleet, though to a certain extent that name is a misnomer, as it has, according to present arrangements, to over. scre the whole of the North Pacific. Seventy years ago the ships flving the British flag in the Pacific were condued to`n few East India-men and a still smaller number of what were called "country ships" owned by natives of India, and their voyages never went beyond the port of Cautou. Nowa- days our port of Hongkong boasts that in the number of vessels entering and clearing it is the first in the world. Now the larger number of these ships sail under the British flag, but even those flying the British flag are not all owned within the Four Seas, anul outside even this a not inconsiderable number carry the flag d fferenced for one or other of the great colonies. The trade of the modern Pacific is in effect the trade of the Empire, even more distinctly than it is the trade of the Three Kingdoms. Even in that large port on that has its headquarters in the British Isles the British resilent on the Pacific coast engaged in building up the British Empire in these distant regions has his share of the proceeds, while a by no means inconsiderable portion of the trade is between the British Colonies themselves, and never sees the British Isles. Every year, then, the British Navy is becoming more and more Imperial, and less European, and it would not be either a useless or uninteresting task to ascertain within approximate limits how much of the cost is fairly chargeable to British, and how much to Imperial uses. The whole question may fairly become a question to be mooted at the approaching meeting of the delegates from the Colouies. This conference was to have taken place during the next summer. but the remarkable volte fuce exhibited in the recent Election has rendered a post- ponement inevitable. Perhaps we may find a grain of consolation even in this. Had the Unionist Cabinet remained in power their opponents were apparen ly preparedto throw every obstacle in the way of an under- standing. With the change of government and the accession to office of the previous
overland march on India, the fleet might as well be at Barbadoes as in the Mediterranean Sea. Australia as a colony was not even thought of, the Cape had only just come under British sovereignty, and Canada was thought worth only a few frigates to protect the town of Halifax; and in any case did not concern herself about the Europeau
Outs gTM” the latter, willingly or unwillingly, stations of the fleet. At the present day,
all this is changed. of course,
The have felt compelled to take up the burden, Mediterranean is the highway of British and it is now announced that though commerce not only with our great depen- postpone it is to be beld a year later. dency of India, but with a large proportion That necessity has at last indicated the a recognition of the of the Pacific, and its influence in merely advisability of European politics hus shrunk corres-Imperial element in any future schemes pondingly. This is
•
source of some
well shown in a of defence must be single incident. After the completion of little satisfaction to all lovers of their the great naval manœuvres of the summer country. Even three years ago the task
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