110
INEFFECTIVE CHINESE
PROCLAMATIONS,
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
I not fail to raise their suspicions that there was something underneath it which they could not understand, and this would be quite enough to cause them to have nothing to do with the matter. Knowing nothing of the ins and outs of party politics at home, the coolies on the Rand would be at a loss to find any motive for the extraordinary if somewhat qualifiéd, benevolence of the Gov. | ernment in their behalf; and would come to no other conclusion than that it was designed in some way, which they could not quite understand, to play upon them and make use of them. Under such circum. stances it is not surprising that so few responded to the invitation but what is surprising is that the UNDER COLONIAL SECRETARY should have imagined that so delicate a matter could be dealt with satisfactorily from Downing Street. Even those on the spot acquainted with the Chinese and their mode of regarding things would see much difficulty in issuing a proclamation under the circumstances which was not likely to be misunderstood, as nothing requires more careful and experienced handling than a declaration of this kind to Chinese, who are likely to put their own construction upon what is set forth. If it is dangerous for the Colonial office to dictate as to the conduct of affairs generally in distant. Colonies, it is infinitely more so when the particular matter concerns people to deal with whom special knowledge and tact is required as is the case with the Chinese. It is not, therefore, surprising that the whole matter has ended in a fiasco, and that it has been very clearly shown that the Colonial Office must in matters of this kind take the advice of its repre- sentatives, and leave details to he carried out by those on the spot who know how to handle them. It may be hoped that the lesson which has been taught in this matter will not be lost; aud that a similar attempt at interference will not be made again in a burry even by so sanguine an official as the present UNDER SECRETARY for the COLONIES.
(Daily Press, 20th August.) Nothing could illustrate more forcibly the impossibility of governing distant colonies by orders from the Colonial Office than the outcome of the coolie repatriation pro- clamations which were issued in the| Transvaal by the direction of Mr. WINSTON CHURCHILL, the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies. From his statements in the House it would appear that he was under the impression that the translation of the proclamation which had been sent to the Colonial Office was incorrect, and be threatened that, if such should prove to be the case, the whole subject might be reopened for consideration of the Govern ment. It was evidently anticipated that there would have been a substantial response to the invitation to such of the Chinese immigrants as might be discontented, to avail themselves of the offer made by a paternal government to send them back free of expense to China, and the fact that only about twelve men put in an application was evidently disturbing and disappointing to the official mind. Whether the translation in question was altogether accurate or not will be difficult to determine; and we imagine that, enterprising as Mr. WINSTON CHURCHILL is, he will find it convenient to abstain from any further allusion to this part of the subject. In substance, no doubt, the translation which was published gave what was set forth in the actual document; and it is not necessary to go beyond points in it, which could not be the subject of any two interpretations, to discover how it was that the proclamation so entirely failed. Apparently it was a summary of some despatch from the Colonial Office to the Governor of the Transvaal in which in- structions were given in the usual official style to cause a proclamation to be issued to the effect indicated. This would be the ordinary official routine in such a matter; but unfortunately it would be completely unsuited to the end in view, in dealing with a mass of ignorant or at best half-in- formed Chinese. The qualification which it contained, that only men who had already been on the mines for six months need apply to be repatriated was quite enough, as any one who knows anything of the Chinese would be aware, to make the whole thing a dead letter. The proviso showed at once that the authorities were half-hearted in the matter; and, as the bulk of the Chinese had no special desire to return to their native land and original poverty, it was hardly likely that, with a saving clause of this descrip- tion any particular attention would be paid by the bulk of them to the intimation. Matters, however, went much further than this. It was definitely pointed out that Chinese wishing to be repatriated were expected to set to work and get sufficient means to pay their passage back, or would at least be called upon to explain to Govern- ment why they were not possessed of the requisite funds to do so. These two cɔn- ditions being put together, and regarded from a Chinese point of view, would at once suggest to the native mind the very simple idea that something in the way of K squeeze was to be anticipated and this idea once occurring to the Celestial he would naturally consider that his only prudent course was to leave the proposed repatriation severely alone. The Chicese are so used to proclamations which it is necessary to read "between the lines", and which mean something very different from what appears on the surface, that the iu- volved manifesto which was issued could
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FORMS AND CEREMONIES.
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(Angust 25, 1906, vowed to escort him on these occasions attired in red clothes and dishevelled hair as condemned criminals in retura for some faucied answering of a
prayer". For the concluding phrase we are patently indebted to a pious scoffer, who would be very properly annoyed if a Chinaman were to ́re-employ it in another connection. However, we must admit that from our point of view the Chinese do waste immense sums of money on these forms and cere- monies which we regard as useless. The computation has been made that in Shang- hai àlone the auoual waste is at least a quarter of a million dollars. Another lac of dollars, paid to the native priests for praying for the uneasy ghosts, cannot be said to be altogether wasted, although it night certainly be expended to better pur- pose. An enlightened body at Shanghai, we read, which regards these as "idolatrous practices", has persuaded the Shanghai MAGISTRATE to issue a special proclama- tion, exhorting the people to divert the large sums to the vastly more worthy and practical object of endowing and establish- ing more schools of modern learning", or as it is elsewhere paraphrased, " to the more worthy work of educating future generations in their duties to sovereign and country Nothing could be more logical or reason- able, in our opinion; and though the mis- sionaries are not specifically mentioned in connection with the petition, we feel that they are entitled to credit for lighting the spark of common-sense which is responsible for such re-action against hory superstition. They would, we are sure, esgerly endorse with us the argument we have briefly cited. At least, they ought to. Curiously enough, however, we encounter in company with the foregoing report another report dealing with certain proceedings at Kuling, repeated among the briefer news items in this issue. Kuling is a healthy place situated on a mountain. It is, in fact, a health and holiday resort annually frequented by mis- sionaries. There is no suggestion that the word " holiday" conveys the same idle and frivolous implications that it would in the case of the laity. The tired workers who there recuperate do not spurt or flirt or laze; they employ the time of rest very largely in conferences, which, vulgarly, may be said to be "talking shop", a very sen- sible thing for all honest workers to do. We meution this so that subscribers at Home, who think of missionaries as brave men and women toiling in loneliness, dirt, privation, and peril, and who may not have heard of these summer resorts, will not misunderstand, and jump to the unfair conclusion that missionaries enjoy what the laity calls "a good time". In order, presumably, to make the hill-top sojourn more in touch with their daily life, it has been decided to build there a twelve. thousand-dollar church. First, there seems to have been a "crisis", about which we know nothing, save that it was averted by the "discreet chairmanship" of a gentleman interested. The new church is being built, it will be observed, largely because the old one is not architecturally beautiful", the unbeautiful one is to be pulled down. By this means says the paragraph, “it is hoped to preserve the unity in diversity which has hitherto so happily prevailed among the representatives of the many creeds and shades of creeds, who annually assemble on the mountain top". In case the relevance of this to our opening remarks is not at once apparent, we may be per- mitted to remark that twelve thousand dollars is a large sum, even for a church to accommodate six hundred people at a holi- day resort in China. It is not in our
(Daily Press, 21st August.) Some modern maker of paradoxes has remarked that since life is illogical, we cannot expect men to live logically. The utmost we can expect of them is that they, should argue logically, he concluded. We are not prepared to defend the logic of the remark, since at the moment we are con- fronted, in China, with a condition of things in which some most estimable men appear to be stultifying some decidedly logical arguments by acts that appear, 10 severely logical eyes, to be scarcely in keeping. We have often had the protesta- tious of those who are rightly enough shocked at the waste of time and money of which Chinese are guilty when on joss pidjin" beut. The most glaring instauces pointed out by missionaries and other reformers occur thrice a year, when over- tures are made to the spirits of the departed. On three several days in each year, many of the Chinese believe, the denizens of the spirit world are permitted to revisit the scenes familiar to them when they were in the flesh. On these days, the civic "joss" or tutelary deity is brought out from his temple, to figure in a solemn procession, during which the people sacrifice vast stores of paper garments and gear, incense, candles, and pecuniary offerings. The bustom is for the faithful to adopt in these processions the Chinese equivalents for "sackcloth and ashes ", people who (as an apparently biassed writer remarks) "have
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