96
THE INSPECTORATE
GENERAL
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND security", he said, and he will not like this | need of a master mind at the head of the order from the Shangpu. We expect to office will be felt all round, and by none hear of another long protest and explana. more than the Imperial Government at tion shortly, framing his motives, and Peking, to reconcile existing difficulties. denouncing the unpatriotic people who The Kusso-Japanese war, it is true is 'skulk in Hongkong, where he cannot get finished, but it has left behind it a by- at them to remonstrate. So long as Viceroyrinth of unsettled questions; and the popular SHUм remains, we have small hope of a opinion as to Japan's efforts to establish for settlement: defeated on one point, he raises herself a practical monopoly of Manchurian another; and the only hope for railway trade does not tend to ease the difficulty. development in these parts, and, we might With all his aptitude for organisation. Sir add, for the restoration of order in the ROBERT HART was sadly deficient in any Canton delta, is the appointment of a intuitive knowledge of the broader principles successor who should belong to a newer of safe political economy, and of late, now school than SHUм does.
that he has practically retired from more active participation in the detail working of the system, petty obstructiveness has been developing all round, without any compensating benefit to the Chinese treasury. When Sir ROBERT HART held in his own hands the effective coutrol, it was his pride to see the service carried on with the least amount of friction. It will always be the case that for their own personal ends the Chinese officials condected with the service will seek to raise up as many obstructions as possible. Such is the necessary result of the Chinese governmental system, and it requires both a strong and an 'able head to be able to counteract this tendency, and prove satisfactorily that financially obstruction will react on the collections. In any case we trust that, it not Sir ROBERT HART, the Home Govern. ment will take the problem seriously in hand, and that occasion may not be given to the party of the reactionists to bring about a serious complication.
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OF CUSTOMS. (Daily Press, 16th August) We have been hearing much recently of the frequently reported resignation of Sir ROBERT HART. Some of these reports have certainly emanated from Chinese sources, while most seem to have naturally arisen from the conditions of the case. As a matter of fact Sir ROBERT HART has by many years exceeded the average age during which a statesman bas still sufficient elas ticity of mind and body to be efficient in carrying on the duties of so exhausting an office as that of Inspector General of the Imperial Customs of China; and it is un. questionable that in the face of the universal maze of intrigue now permeating the entire governmental system of China, the respon- sibilities of the post are enormously increased above what they were in the spring-time of his career. It is also undoubtedly the case that for some years the INSPECTOR GENERAL has handed over the more mechanical portion of the duties of the office to Sir ROBERT BREDON, and has thus been con. siderably relieved as to the mere routine of the work; and if that routine were the only matter of importance to be considered, it might be that the administration was in safe hands. As we pointed out not long ago, Sir ROBERT HART had made the mis- take common to many originators of a complex department in that he did not train up amongst his subordinates one or more capable of fi ling his place in the event at any time of his being absent or incapacitated. It is certain now, looking back over his past career, that so far from looking ahead to such an eventuality, he always viewed with a feeling akin to jealousy any of his assistants who displayed any special zoal or ability in his office; and the not unnatural effect of this was that many of his ablest belpers left the service just at the time when under ordinary circumstances they might have anticipate being promoted to positions of greater personal responsibility. It is no longer doubtful, and it is in the public interest that the fact should now be meu. tioned, that the present DEPUTY INSPECTOR GENERAL is by no means a persona grata with either the Chinese Government or the foreign staff, and, in view of complications which cannot be much longer averted, it is meet and proper that the fact should be taken into consideration not only here but by the Home Government. Fortunately the time is reasonably propitious for the calm consideration of the case. The recent intrigues in Peking, and the fact that the arch-intriguer Russia is temporarily occupied elsewhere, have momentarily united the chief commercial nations in one general line of policy, so that most are prepared to unite in one common policy, and it would be becoming on the part of the British Govern- ment, as representative of the largest interest, to take the lend iu currying through the necessary negotiations. It is very evident that troublous times are ahead, where the
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16
COLONISTS.
(Daily Press, 17th August.) The emigration scheme that Mr. RIDER HAGGARD, M.P., proposed as a result of his investigations two years ago in Canada and America, is condemned by a Blue Book just issued. His ideas were more ambitious than practical; he saw with the eye of the romance writer, instead of the eye of the legislator. The recent developments in the United Kingdom, the "back to the land" warcry, and the extraordinary prominence of the unemployed or the unemployable, will cause a certain amount of interest to be directed to this Blue Book, which might otherwise be regarded as a "back-number . Although the investigating committee r comments that public funds be usd to help such of the emigration societies as are recognised and approved by the Emigrants' Information Office, this does not mean much of a boom in plaus for dealing with the superfluous tenth as the modern para phrase has it. There are good reasons why there can be no startling changes. The most important point has been noted, that the status of the immigrant is no longer what it was. The invitel guest, who was formerly enticed to leave his native heath, is now oftener regarded as au "undesirable alien ". Where Canada used to offer easy terms and inducements to immigrants, we find now (in this recommendation) the Mother Country encouraging emigrants. It is the exporter, not the importer,
"cumshaw " who now pays the
This reversal of positions might have been expected. An undeveloped country keeps open house, and does not enquire too closely into the antecedents of its visitors, provided they can work in any way to develop it. Once started, the flow of immigrants runs automatically, the example of Kinsmen and friends, and the increasing facilities for transportation and accommodation which these hace provided, partly serving to maintain the supply. Presently, in the
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[August 20, 1906.
United States, they have more than they think they want, and discourage, rather than encourage, new arrivals. In the case of Canada, the government is still inviting colonists, but it has become more critical than it was. As there is plainly room for millions
than have entered the Dominion, there must be a reason for the complaints that have been heard from Canada respecting the usefulness and otherwise of the imported population. This is where the committee, cautious as it has been with Mr. HAGGARD's scheme, seems to bave done wrong in meddling at all, for the probability is that these organisations devoted to sending emigrants abroad are The people responsible for the trouble. wanted by our Colonies are the people who do not think of leaving Home, because they have no need to do so.
To encourage her best, steady workers to leave for the Colonies would-be suicidally foolish on the part of the Old Country, while to deport her undesirables is an unfriendly act toward the Colony that receives them. This question of emigration is beset with difficulties, and is one that the wisest reformer shou.d approach with diffidence, while the rest should avoid it altogether.
CHINA'S CONSTITUTION TO BE.
(Daily Press, 18th August.)
the
We are again hearing much of a constitutional government for China. The Commissioners who made the grand tour to search out what might appear to be the better features of foreign systems of govern. ment have undoubtedly reported that some' If alterations appeared to them advisable. we had to wait for their detailed report, with recommendations on eclectic lines, the subject would not be worth discussing for many years to come. If they had been foreign Commissioners, it would have been quite likely that some of them would have. felt justified in submitting within a few days a cut-and-dried scheme of their return
The Oriental Inov83 more of reform. deliberately. It has been suggested that to summarise in Chinese the constitutions of the world, and to prepare for comparative purposes an account of the custoins and practices of the Chinese empire, would take at least a decade. This appals the eager reforiners, aud they have hit upon expedient of asking for predigested food. That is to say, they propose to take the constitution that Japan evolved after assimilating what seemed the more suitable features of foreign administrative method‹. after all, would Japan's constitution, probably fit China just as well, "to be doing with ", as it fits Japan. It is not the best of fits for Jupin, but that is bepause the Japanese had not quite succeded in adapting themselves to their foreign ideas. Old instincts and habits ruled string. The Chinese as a people are still further removed from the conditions which will be necessary to make the new constitution work well. At the beginning of the war, the Japancse was somewhat roughly constitution
The Diet really had 08 handled.
the Russian much to complain of as Duma is said to have, but the situation was saved by the very real loyalty to the Throne. The Japanese "did not get their representative government as the English got theirs at Runnymede. They accepted it as a voluntary offering from their wisest of Emperors, and they probably valued it more for its giver than for its qualities, as yet unrecognised. In Russia, while there are thousands unprepared for representative government, there is a large and growing section quite prepared to
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