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(October 15, 1906.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
duelling hahit. With the most sweeping "sufficient for that number", but which of bows, hat at arm's length and spine bent by the most generous computation cannot nearly double, he would bave to intimate apparently, be made to square with the total with all due deference that the gentleman number of passengers allowed. First are who had just made a sotto vore comment specified four boats of 999 cubic feet, which on the fit of his hat must condescend to we are advised (by our professional corres- meet him on the field of honour. There is poudent) would accommodate from twenty. too much commonsense nowadays for that, five to thirty persons each. Then are and a too keen realisation of the things mentioned three life rafts capable of that matter and don't matter. There is a supporting thirty persons. It does not say difference between the aloof dignity born of '"each", but we will assume that these a justly acquired self-conceit and the bearish three rafts would save ninety people. ways of the bounder ", who, however, has Finally, sıx life buoys are deemed sufficient. to le blushed for by all nations. In asking It is absurd to allow twelve people to Joux BULL to lift his hat when entering a these, but if the refugees were calm and shop, Mr. SPENDER may think he is merely did not struggle, it would be possible. suggesting that when in Rome, he should Supposing the steamer carries all these imitate the Romans. That adage has lost, things as specified, and we will exceed the its savour for the much-travelled English-expert estimate, and allocate two hundred man. It has been his lot to travel much, people to the four boats, wo find that we among Romans who, metaphorically, were have provided for the safety of 302 people. impossible people to copy. In the Far East not half the number which the licence we do not accord high praise to the man who distinctly allows. Our correspondent values
gocs native".
In a much modified degree, the specified facilities at only 162 lives, and it is advisable in all places for him and for pictures more than half a thousand ship- others to preserve their individuality,which, wrecked passengers being "drowned by as a matter of fact, most of them do. The special licence". It appears that the law is very criticisms that are launched against satisfied with these inadequate provisions, JOHN BULL on the continent could be (and although it has long been held that more often are) wade by the Chinese against all rafts should be provided. The six life-buoys foreigners in China.
. are intended only for casual “men over- board," and sea-going vessels have to provide life-belts in addition, in numbers more in accordance with the number of passengers. It further appears that (Daily Press, October 12th.)
there is a local Ordinance which exempts We have received for publication. from an river steamers from carrying these life- officer of a recently foundered steamer, a belts. No one can suggest any adequate long and very interesting letter, which, on reason why the exemption was bade. consideration, wo are not prepared to To people who travel frequently, and whose publish. Some of the points raised, how-concern is for human safety, it will appear ever, are too important to be ignored; and in discussing them in general terms, it is to be understood that we have very precise data to go upon. Those interested in the prosperity of Hongkong
will readily understand that the present is no time to needlessly harass ship-owners; and will concede the right of the smaller concerns
French friends-to take two particular cases-have no more strength of character than to allow trivial solecisms and some neglect of continental courtesies to colour so deeply their regard of their English neighbours. It is clear that he had such alleged defects chiefly in mind, for he specifically refers to the Englishman's failure to raise his hat when entering a hotel or a shop, and his omission of the regulation bare-headed bow or hows on leaving a public dining room or similar place. As we have noticed that JOHN BULL'S manners in Far Eastern countries are very much what they are in foreign lands nearer his own, we may take somo interest in the theme, threadbare though ie be. To begin with, we should decline tt admit the premiss that the manuers of the Englishman abroad are bad, although it; cannot be denied that they are largely different to those of other travelling, Europeans. Good and bad mauners, like good and bad taste, depend greatly on the point of view, and the definition is an arbitrary one. We should also qualify the assumption that JOHN BULL is as strongly disliked as he is supposed to be; and point out that racial prejudice is a normal condition permeating not July all humanity but all Nature. One critic of Mr. SPENDER admitted the dislike as inveterate and general, and couâned himself to arguing that its causes were mainly political. To this end was instanced the better feeling promoted in France by the entente cordiale, and so on. So far as the conditions dealt with by Mr. SPENDER and others are concerned, we altall also deny the better feeling. The Press may inve less in each country-that is a political effect-but the instinctive aversion to the stranger manifests itself convincingly in the little Normandy boys who throw stones at: the cyclist, or in the urchins of China aud Japan who cry “barbarian after 08. While universal, it is not even big enough to be confined to nations. It is parochial. One street even may show it to another street, as Bubbling Well Road at Shanghai elevates the nose at Hoogkew, or the Peak as much consideration as the great ones. at Kowloon. The very robiu in the coppice When the question is one of saving human | old footing or the trout in the pool, when re-enting life, however, it demands the most earnest intrusion, is manifesting precisely the same consideration that can be given to it. The feelings which inspire the pheuouena that question which our esteemed correspondent give rise to such discussions. Those who wishes to bring before the public relates to share the Scots' Bard's dream of a time; the marine superintendencé, surveying and when man to man the wide world over will general management of the smaller native. be as brothers, may consider it a petty and owned steamers which usually ply between perverse instinct for which Nature is not to Hongkong and its immediate neighbours. be admired; but those who have less faith Before these steamers are allowed to carry in man-schemed utopias, and realise more passengers, they are measured and classed, the absolute all-embracing ingenuity-we and then furnished with a licence drawn cau think of no better word-of Nature, according to the declaration of the accept it as an effective method of averting stagnation.
But harking back now to the more personal topic of JOHN BULL'S manners when away from home, we must again draw attention to his own point or points of view. That is the only fair way to arrive at a just decision. JOHN BULL is beyond everything a freeman. The idea of freedou, of personal independence and individual liberty, has throbbed in his brain ever since Magua Carta.
If he is shy of formal courtesies, it is because he is very much afraid of servility. After all, he knows that so
many of these social amenities siguify nothing. Put him to the test in an affair demanding genuine chivalry, aud we have no fear that even brusque loнN BULL will prove himself a gentleman in the truest sense of the word. To return to the days of the punctilious Dandies, which is really what some of his critics-Mr. HAROLD SPENDER, for instance-seem to desire him to do, would also put him back into the
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SAFETY OF RIVER STEAMER PASSENGERS.
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petty beyond measure to count the cost of such a provision; but if we do take the ship-owner's natural point of view as to that, can it be said that the expense of even one life-belt to each passenger would be prohibitive? We trust that after recent painful lessons, His Excellency the present GOVERNOR Will consider the advisability of putting these river steamers back on the
THE KAIFENGFU JEWS.
(Daily Press, October 13th.) } Mr. OLIVER BAINBRIDGE, the gentleman who re-discovered the uulost Chinese Jews of Kaifengfu, and whose appearance as L lecturer at Shanghai, Hongkong, and other Far Eastern ports caused more than one kind of a sensation, has a very interesting story to tell of his visit to Kaifengfu, in the pages of the Jewish Chronicle for Sept. 7th. The surprising thing, indeed, is that the half dozen photographs embellishing the thrilling letterpress should be so peaceful and tame as they are. He was searching for certain articles supposed to have been stolen from the synagogue, and this is what happened:
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Shipwright Surveyor". Our correspondent draws a distinction between his definition of a Shipwright Surveyor and of an Engineer Surveyor", which may or may not be so important as be appears to think. We are more interested in an actual licence which be enclosed with his letter, and ou which it seems clear to us a good deal may "I visited mosque after mosque, which excited not imprudently be said. Issued some years and annoyed the Mohammedans, who mistoo ago, and signed by His Excellency Sir
me for a Jewish Rabbi in disguise. The fourth HENRY BLAKE, this weather-worn document proved to be the one I wanted, for in a small certifies that the vessel named was "fit to it, when the crowd objected, and pushed me out, room I saw the ark on a table, and made toward- carry nearly seven hundred passengers. emphasising their disapproval in no nacertain We purposely avoid exact figures. The
manner. The soldiers were helpless, but I have certificate of fitness is contingent; it goes
a strong suspicion they were at heart with the on. "provided the life-saving appliances are: mob. The climax came, clambered on to the sufficient for that number". That is quite roof of the mosque and began to examine the satisfactory, but theu immediately follows tiles, for thousands of Chinese surrounded the
mosque, yelling out. "Kiok a feature whose glaring inconsistency is at
the devil's stomach ! "Batter his devil's brain on the once puzzling and somewhat alarming. The
stones! Kill the Jew: " Choke the sinew- certificate itself, based on the Shipwright
"Tear the foreign devil's entrails Surveyor's declaration, and signed by the out! and other diabolical things too numeruns Governor, sets forth a table of life-saving and too filthy for words. The majority were appliances which are presumably considered | armed with bricks, clubs, or koives, and were
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