232
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
April 15, 1907.
these agreements or contracts fail to securement, and the employer find himself face to | whether on vital matters they will reach
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will
way.
COLONIAL CONFERENCES,
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the juncture of issue necessary for com- promise or settlement is another story. We are not swayel by the suggestion that previous meetings have ended in talk. The Jubilee and Coronation Conferences
were different affairs altogether, mere holiday junketing, and though the present assembly does not at present promise much more, it has, as we have hinted, possibilities of leading to important results. At the worst, not to blink the fact that there is much misunderstan·ling between the states. men and people at home and abroad due entirely to lack of mutual acquaintance, the Conference should show the members that there are good men on both siles, and girə them the opportunity of arriving at a truer We maintain appreciation of each other, that the
is “insular prejudice ' not exclusively found in England; colonial bora publicists are often tarred with the same brush; and travel to the homeland for such should have the same broadening mental effect that it is supposed to have ou those travelling
the homeland. from "What do they know of England, who only England know was an amazingly clever | line; bu' it capable of a laptation. Punch after all is in that class, and some harmful philippics might be spared wire it also remembered to ask : "What do they know. of Empire, who only one Colony know? Colonies are not appendages or dependencies any longer, nor are they so regarded by any save a few illiterate "Union-Jack-as803.'
is unsuited The old meaning of "Empire to the new century; and the true Im perialist is not worried by such ideas as contained in the phrase the tail wagging the dog." In non-essentials, it does not matter which end of the animal gets into motion first, as long as both or all wag_together for essentials. The ideal relationship will be that of a father and adult_sons; the ideal conference will be a sort of Family Council, where the admitted virility and indepen douce of each member does not obscure the facts that knit and un'te them. There must be no more Winston-Churchillerisms, however, of talk of vetoes and the like.
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any
all the advantages they are meant to do; face with the very trouble he was most yet there are difficulties in the way of anxious to be safeguarded against. As a dispensing with them. If all the employers | rule, disputes do not arise without fault on simultaneously agreed to face the temporary one side or the other; and where employer inconvenience of waiting until the supply and employed each mean to do fairly by of labour-to use a generic term-became each other, the written bond does not matter equal or more than equal to the demand, at all. That is why we often think no it is probable that matters would soon agreement is the beat agreement-hut as adjust themselves; and there would then this by analogy savours of Free Love dogma exist the conditions familiar at home, by and anti-marriage propaganda, it is perhaps which the employee would find himself as well not to regar l it as the last word on under the necessity of keeping the spirit as the subject. If som
one of our Chief well as the letter of his contract. The Justices or able counsel were to write and feeling that his services were not indis | publish a book on the law of the subject as pensable, because quickly and easily it affects the Far East, we should predict replaced, would make the personal satisfac- | an immediate success for it. tion of the employer a more important objective than it is in many cases at prosent. Good or valuable employees, on the other hand, would not feel dependent, knowing that another position, with speedy apprecin-
(Daily Press, 10th April.) tion of honest effort, would follow any
The Colonial Conference mav be a misunderstanding or attempt at overreaching harbinger
of good; in itself, it is Notwith- on the part of the employer,
not expected to nien i
much either Punch standing the grumbles of a couple of years
has Ange
clever verses ago, we also believe that the conditions of hitting off one aspect of it, but with all Fervice and remuneration here and respect to our humorous contemporary's | elsewhere in the Far East are sufficiently shrewdness, and admifting that the Colonies attractive to bring a sufficiency of employees. have deservel better things of the Mother However, "olo custom is strong in this as Country than they have been used to, we in other matters, and the agreement system,
helieve that, so far as sentiment goes, there by which the employer stipulates for more is no feeling in the Colonies that is not than he gets, and the employee contracts to more than reciprocated in the United King. do more than he usually does, will doubt- dom. Te tie of a common language is a less continue for many years to e ime. This close tie, but it is not the closest. A com- means that generations of " griffins
mon interest or interests such as sime continueto meet with disappointment born of optimistic people expect to result from this too grent expectations, and employers to and succeeding conferences would be much note the "slacking off" due to thos dis- more important, ret so far it has been appointments. The ignorance of the youth at denied. Whether a vital interest possible | home, as to what he really may expect in of being shared by countries so widely | these places, is notorions; and there is separated is øver likely to be discovered is a perhaps some carelessness exhibited by question which really candid peosle shrink agents there who conduct the negotiations from answering. To know one Colony well for "
trapping the griffia." Too anxious, is to know how many and how divergent perhaps, to secure a likely enquirer, they interests may be, and there is no doubt that may sometimes overcolour their pictures of Canada, Australia, and South Africa have life here, the after-office-hours life, that as many points of potential conflict with the is to say. The modern young man (and fur | London Government as
absolutely anything we know, the young man of all foreign Power can be said to have. They time) gives quite as much of his mind to are suggested from time to time in the those hours and their possibilities as to ordinary course of events, and wo need not the hours in which he is to be permitted to pause here to make selections. The point is that the Culonial Conference should diligently establish the foundatious of a taipan-ship and a fortune. We have heard ideally be directed to sorting out all these
(Daily Press, April 11th.) of cases where he was allowed to expect possible issues, classifying and labellingthem 'Oh, to be in England, now that April's far too much, out of all comparison with his as essentials and non-essentials. A hasty here" Yesterday it was no ill thing to be opportunities for enjoyment at home, yet consideration of the agenda ns described by, in Hongkong, for the time of the singing of his disappointment would be none the less Lord ELGIN, Secretary of State for the the cicadas had come, and with the ther- for that. There might be less of that kind Colonies, upon whom its preparation seems mometer measuring seventy-two in the of disappointment, and it is a frequent to have devolved, shows that nothing so shale at eight o'clock in the morning, for source of trouble to both sides later, if practical has been attempted.
those whose temperament disposes them to employers or their agents were to confine LORD Elois's fault, or the fault s lely of the be glad in the sunshine, there was incentive that vibrates their representations to the purely business Home Government. The Colonies them- to that "shrill, silent music side of the shield. To work so many hours, selves do not seem to have taken the the chords of the healthy humna diaphragm. or at so many tasks, for a remuneration projet very seriously, and in respouse to There was a purple haza, and the ses was a equal to so much per cent over normal living the invitation to submit subjects for dis- languorous beauty diaphan susly clotbed; the expenses, would be sufficient to tell the cussion, only Australia, New Zealand, and bleak uplands of Kowloon across the water enquirer, and it would make him think for Cape Colony have dɔne so, The result is became the shining ramparts of a Delect- himself as to his future plans and purpose. that, so far, its scope threatens to be some able Land; and the cicadas, making their To tell him that in Pagoda-land he can what limited. After making arrango neula hilarious débat, were insistent of the fact keep his own horse, his yacht, his men. for future Conferences-clearing the decks that the pageant of summer had begun its servants, and eujoy a “run over to Japan for action, it is to be hoped the Conference march. Thoughtful looking men descended occasionally, is on y to make mischief later. will discuss preferential trade (interests from the Park tram etition, with hats As it is, with the fare paid out and home, here are by no means identical), defence tilted more loosely, and rests do.erpt or after a term moro like a long vacation than (another thorny subject in which much | unbuttoned, and though habit i ok them anything else, there is not the best of
"scrub" will have to be cleared awa、), | straightly to their several places of business, persuasions to industry and effort. Agree aturalization, emigration, judicial apponla, ¦ it was easy to imagine an involuntary pause, ments themselves are often too wide and too reciprocal admission to certain professions and a regretful glance about, just before complicated. It is impossible to
(a very delica e topic capable of much they proved under the lintel," from the every possible point of every case, and in friction), extension of British intere ts in sibilant open air to cloistral silonos, from trying to be comprehensive, they often fail the Pacific (which seem£
the piping of Pan to the Agures of com. The shorter sad severe Colonial scolding for the Imperial mercs, from Buttering fritillarinų to rustling simpler they are, as a rule, the better it Government), the botric system, and the counterfoils, from sylvan verditure to sil would be for both sides. One clause bad reservation of Bills. It will be soon there quotations. There be promicsouls who alread in law may vitiate all the rest of the agree-is soupe for a great deal of talking, but comment that the weather is become “etle
to
secure essentials.
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This is not
to threaten a
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APRIL 10TH: CICADAS MAKE MUSIC.
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