178
<<
"
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
και
11
the word enmity," the risk would be lessened, without defeating the object of the Bill; but we would prefer to see deleted the twenty words immediately following the words "crime in China." That should leave enough to satisfy Peking.
FREE LECTURES FOR BRITISH
MERCHANTS.
(Daily Press, 20th September.)
毒毒
[September 21, 1907.
The
Times correspondent, looking to the future of foreign trade, is too much obsessed by fear of German competition to notice that detail. Are we to see a new rush upon China, a benevolent one this time, for trade Americ has begun by pre-eminence?
Will Germany follow surrendering money, by surrendering Kiaochow, and England Wei-bai? And after that, will some other means be necessary of fostering foreign trade, when Chinese manufacturers get really busy? It is at least something to
"for very
many years read that
China will not be complicate competition by any facturous autogamy; as a producer for her own wants she is not immediately dangerous.
THE PROPOSED seditioN BILL. its present definition of seditious conduct, | EMPRESS-DOWAGER to Coventry as ought the Hongkong Government would have to have been done, they tried to make (Daily Press, September 19th.)
sent Sir HENRY Campbell-BANNERMAN to a Christian-Scientist of her; and now in The Bill to prevent the publication in jail for his memorable "vive la Douma trying to buy popularity and patronage froin Hongkong of seditious matter, introduced utterance. One may as honestly urge China, with China's own money, they have at Tuesday's session of the Legislative certain reforms in China as plead for the administered (let us hope unthinkingly) & Council, is doubtless well-meant, and in-abolition of the House of Lords. Is that Pharisnic back-bander to their whilom allies. tended to satisfy a "long felt want." We sort of pleading to count as criminally While the western coast is playing whale to hope that its terms will be carefully studied seditious conduct? We trust that the mere the Oriental JONAH, the press of the and weighed, so that there can be no possibility of such narrow interpretations Republic is complacently bandying about possibility of any abuse arising therefrom may be most carefully considered aud the statement that "the Chinese authorities in the future. At present its wording guarded against, before the Bill is allowed regard this [return of indemnity] as the appears to us suspiciously wide, and capable, to become law. Perhaps if the words fairest nad noblest action that has been done by a foreign ruler to China since the opening of commerce with the Treaty Powers more than 60 years back, and they naturally expect other Christian nations, who had robbed China of the enormous sum of indemnity (about Taels 900,000,000 alto- gether), to do the same. The payment of the full indemnity is quite beyond the reach of a poverty-stricken country like China to pay, without causing the greatest strain upon her people." That should be put into rhymed quatrains, and included in the next edition of Jos TROTTER'S hymn-book. Of Only a day or two after pointing out that. course the EMPRESS-DOWAGER and her the European's catchword of conquest Manchu henchmen hasten to thank Pre- having been universal brotherhood, he seems sident ROOSEVELT, though we have not bound to face his fraternal duties without heard that the grievances of her subjects, so much grimacing," we receive a copy of which prompted the boycott, have as yet The Times in which a correspondent in been removed. Still, there is no doubt that Southern Manchuria makes precisely the the incident will have an influence on trade, same point, unpalatable, but honest. He, as it was no doubt calculated to have. it is," remarks the man in Manchuria, | "who has spent years in instilling into alien minds the idea that nscendency is more a question of fitness and morals than of race or colour, and now that bis supremacy is no longer accepted as heaven decreed, is it reasonable to stand aghast at the result of his own propaganda?" Of course it is n t, and the sooner we see that, the sooner will we cease making sorry exhibitions of ourselves by whining over our burnt fingers. The Chinese view of Europeans has always been one of arrogant disdain, sometime mixed with wholesome fear, and of late perhaps turning to some thing like reluctant respact. But with better understanding and appreciation of
Then what is the British the foreigner's qualities, it is not to be over- looked that there has, also come an enhanced merchant to do now, to meet the intervening self-confidence. As the Times simply puts competition of America, Germany, and it, "increased knowledge only renders them Japin? The Times bids him "move with more arrogant." Our problem therefore the times "--[this apparently contempt now is whether we need to revise our ible play on words is accidental and method of dealing with them. Unfortunately, unavoidable: we hope the serious reader we foreigners do not pull together; we will recognise our innocence of any foolish how mattera stand," never have done so, in Chinn, even when jape]" realize pretending to, and perhaps and probably
Cuform to Chinese requirements,” come we never will, anywhere. It is not in down from his pedestal of superiority and nature for large companies, for whole aloofness,' "learn Chinese,” “ open more
"have more nations, to co-operate thoroughly. Nature's branches,"
trustworthy balances depend upon the force of r-pulsion European agents in the interior," and as well as of attraction. While some atomis
"advertise." We cannot help feeling a approach and cohere, others just as in- little sorry for the British merchant, who is dustriously back away from each other, and always, albeit rather vaguely, being taught maintain their distance. The federation of how to suck eggs. Except in the one the world is an idle dream. The ideal is a watter of advertising, which we naturally noble one, but it spells stagnation. To get feel bound to approve, we do not find that back to the matter in hand, America has there is very much practical help in the been showing a typical uncertainty of con- string of advice quoted. We should not duct vis-à-vis the Oriental, mainly because care to start a business ourselves with only Still, we are deeply of this lack of unity in its own corporation. Į tnat information.
Buccess of the British Lately, to gloze over certain unconfortable | naxious for the facts which led to the late Chinese boycott merchant in China, and on the offchance of American goods, some unctuous moralist that it may do him good, we reprint the of Washington hit upon the idea of refund- whole of the article elsewhere, in this issue. We can however, hear with the ing Tls. 33,510,000 of the Chinese indem- nity, the unneeded balance which UNCLE ears of faith his comment on the sapient SA, having an enormous annual surplus, observation that "loss of trade entails loss and comparatively no war debts like other of prestige." Having had our legs under Powers, can easily afford. We suspect he his hospitable table, we know that he is not saw it as a cheap and good investment. The a picker and choser of phrases, except peril and suffering of their Legation staff in perhaps when he speaketh in the Chamber Our friend the British 1900 was forgotten; instead of sending the of Commerce.
in the hands of some too-zealous official of" virulent and active" were inserted before the future, of applications not at present intended. 'Every person, it says,
"who within the Colony prints, publishes, or offers for sale or distributes any printed or written newspaper or book or other publication con- taining matter calculated to excite tumult or disorder in China or to excite persons to crime in China or to excite enmity between His Majesty's subjects and the Government of China or between that Government and its subjects, shall be guilty of an offence and being convicted thereof shall be liable to imprisonment with or without hard labur for any term not exceeding two years or to a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars or to both." A newspaper editor in Canton may write articles calculated to excite disgust (and consequently enmity) with the existing administration of China, and if he escape the Viceroy's minions and get to Hongkong, the British Government will regard him as a political offender and refuse to give him up. A Hongkong editor may then copy and reproduce the very same article or articles, in his paper in Hongkong, and be imprisoned therefor for two years and/or fined five hundred dollars. That is one way of looking at it, and it looks like penalizing such Chinese as have exercised a preference for the just and benevolent Government of this Colony, and denationa- lized themselves because of the (possibly) unjust and malevolent government which they are (under the new Ordinance) to be forbiddea to decry. It is obvious that the
Bill in action will call for a good deal of legal interpretation. That means that a too zealous Crown Prosecutor or a cantankerous Judge (to be provided by posterity) can stretch the clause to cover the most natural and at present permissible comments on the maladministration of the Manchu Govern- ment. Aimed, doubtless, at native malcont- ents who may be tempted to use Hongkong as headquarters for the propaguuda of rebellion, it seems quite capable of being stretched to cover European journalists who may venture to put into print their disrespect for a condition of things they think might be amended with advantage. It is the English principle to allow every possible latitude to bone-fide reformers, as witness the wildly and extravagantly seditious utterances of the Irish Nationalistic press, and it would certainly be outrageous and un-English if the liberty of the Press were to be seriously crippled here, for less cause. The handwriting has appeared on the wall already for the present officialdom of China, and it will have to be either mended or ended. To merely say things like that is calculated to excite enmity between the Chinese "Government and its subjects; but there is no direct incitation to commit crimes. The Chinese are being educated to agitate for a purer administration and for greater liberty of the subject, such as foreigners enjoy under their coustitutional governments. Does the Hongkong Govern- ment wish to check that, for as long as the Chinese administration may remain impure and its Government unconstitutional ? We cannot suppose that it does. As we read
come
uble
to
to
manu.
37 24
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.