October 5, 1907.]
ing trade and commerce, inaugurates an era in the history of China which in the course of ar other half century will be fraught with results, not only to the Chinese nation itself but to the entire world, which we may leave the reader to himself foreast.
When we turn to Japau and view fifty years of progress there, we see much more rapid development. Japan was not really opened to foreign trade until 1858. Com- modore Perry signed a preliminary treaty of commerce between the United States and Japan in 1854, aud similar treaties with European powers followed, granting foreigners the right to reside and trade with- out molestation at Yokohama, Hiogo, Naa- saki, and Hakodate, but the early history of foreign intercourse was very similar in Japan to what it had been in China. In 1863 there was an attempt on the part of the Fendal lords to close the strait of Sh monoseki against the passage of foreign ships. A joint foreign naval expedition to the Strait reulted and the Japanese f rts were bom- barded and silenced. Two years later the Emperor at Kyoto accepted the commercial treaties which had been made by the Shogun at Yede, and since the accession of the preset Emperor, the history of Japan is an uninterrupted story of efforts to Assimilate the Western arts and sciences and to bring herself in complete accord with Western nations in every department of public life. How magnificently she has succeeded in so short a period it is not necessary for us to dilate, upon for the story of Japan is more or less familiar to every reader. Possessing, as she has done all along, leaders of commanding ability like Ma quis Ito, Count Okuma and scores of others who could be mentioned, an intellec- tual influence has been excercised over the minds of the people inspiring even the humblest with ideals of national power and industrial and commercial advancemen'. The newspaper press has been a powerful factor in this connection. Though like China, Japan had no newspapers until Eng-
lishmen intr. duced them." There are now in Japan upwards of a thousand vernacular pa- pers published daily, while in China we doubt whether throughout the length and breath of the land more than fifty daily newspapers can yet be counted. In shipbuilding, en- gineering, cotton weaving, and sugar refin- ing Japan is continuing her marvellous story of progress. The end of the half century sees Japan building in her wn shi, building yards battleships of 19,000 tons displace ment, and passenger liners of 13,500 t us which compare favourably in their con- struction with the ships built in the ship yards of her Western tutors, At the present time Japan possesses a mercantile fleet of about 1500 s eamers with a capacity in the aggregate of 1,000,000 tons, and her naval fleet ranks fourth or fifth in the list of the world's navice.
Coming southward again we note the change of ownership of the island of For- mosa from the Chinese to the Japanese as ore of the spoils of the war of 1894-5; and
still further southward we witness the passing of the Philippines, also as the result of war, from the sovereignty of the Spanish to the more benevolent control of the United States whose Government has lavished money freely on works of public improvement in the islands, and notably on the education of the people, with the idea of helping them to rise in the scale of civilisation and of capacity for self-Government, hoping in the end that they will be able to stand, if not entirely alone, yet in some such relation to the United States as Cuba now stands.
❘
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
207
In Siam the main feature of the past helf | fitable colony to the Mother Country, since century has been the settlement of the feud it derives from the gamblin monop 1 s between the present King and his brother which give to it the character and descrip- by the diplomatic arbitration of the late tion of a Monte Carlo of East, an annual General Sir Andrew Clarke, and the pence- revenue largely in excess of its expen- ful development of the country since largely d ture. along western lines, Further south ward we have to note the grand achievement of the federation of the Malny States, the prosperous development of Singapore, and the establishment of a British Protec torate over the territories of Sarawak, Brunei and British North Borneo.
We have yet to comment upon the growth of We have touched briefly on its acquisit on; the Colony of Hongkong.
and we cannot illustrate its marvellou de- velopment better than by contrasting he statistics of 1857 with those of 1907. In 1857 the population of HongkoLy was: Whites 1,411; Coloured 75,683. (In 1841 whea the island was ceded to Get Britain the Chinese population was ascertained to be 5,650). The population of the Colony according to the census of Novem er 1906 the Chinese land population 233,251, and was: non-Chinese civil popul:tion 10,981;
te floating population 45,582. In 1857 the number of ships ntered was 1070 of a total tonnage of 541.063. Now the number of ships eut ring the port every year averages about 20,000 and the aggregate tonnage exceeds ten Hongkong in this respect above every o ber millions, placing
port in the world The revenue of the Clony has advanced in fifty years rom 858,842 to 86 526,144, exclusive of land sales, an the Colony has, in shor, deve o-d into a great distributing centre for inter- national trade with China estimated approximate to the figure of £60,000,000 serlin a year.
*
The last fifty years embrace too the success- ful efforts of the French o enlarge their empire in Asia. It is nearly a century and a quarter since France first sought to create a depen lency in Asia a a counter- weight to British India. In 1787 Loui XVI. obtained for France a number of commercial and political privileges n Cochin China in exchange for assistance given in establishing on the Throne the rightful king of the territory who sub sequently conqued and added to his domains the province of Tonkin. There. after the French scheme of an Eastern empire dropped out of sight until 1862 when a treaty was signed at Saigon conve‹- ing the southern provinces of Bien-Hon, Gia-Dinh, and Dinh-Tuong with the island of Condor to 1874 a treaty
The French. In was concluded
a Sigon with the King of Annam by which the King recognised the sovereignty of France over all the territories occupied by her. The Imperfect as a sketch of the even's of Taungli-yamen immediately on the terms fify years m 18 be wheu compressed within of the Treaty becoming known to them the limits of a lea ling article, what we have took strong exception to it.
Annam was
written will sufficiently serve to show a dependency of Chin", and the right of the broadly what has been accomplished. The King to make a treaty without the sauction immediate future is pregnant with great of his suzerain was strenuously repudiated. possibilities in Asia. China at lust seems France refused to acknowledge the right to have definitely entered upon the pats of of China to interfere in the matter and the
progress. The success of her neighboar
of war. two countries were brought to the verge Japan which she affected to dispis- but
China, however, was not p e-
little more than ten years ago has mani- pared for further overt measure8 than festly opened the eye of China's leading formal prot sts, but there is little doubt states:nen to the effete condi ion of the that the Chinese government as-isted with money
-ecretly celestial empire, and it is a remarkable
8 marauding expeli. sign of penitence and tions of the Black Flags from the moutain
p'edge of reform when we read in Imperial Edicta frontier between China and Tonkin.
trank acknowledgement of the King of Annam (who had lost no oppor success against the French encouraged the superiority of Western iustitutions and tunity during the whole course
in thods of government. The leaven of rform is clearly w rking iu China, and ispute in emphasising his dependence upon whit the next fifty yars may hold for this China) to declare war against the French vast empire and for the world at larg as a The result was the French occupation of result of the awakening o. Chiua, he would Hue, and the placing of a pr tégé of be a bold ma who would attempt a pre. Fance upon the Throne with a French diction. But the signs au prients at the Resident to guide his policy. Annam again present time certainly point strongly to an yiel et hy formal treaty her independenc- early reformation, and that the lines ad ip ed into French bands. Further military opera- by Japan will be clo e y flowed. When the tions succeeded the announcement as a Daily Press his to publish its next half cen- result of China's hostility to the treaty, tury review it may have to chronicle in the but in 1884 a by which China undertook to respect the last ifty years have produced in Japan.
convention was signe case of Ciua a marvellous a ouange as the
Their
of the
treaties concluded between France and th King of Annam in exchange for an under- taking by France to protect against all aggress on the Southern frontiers of C ina and Tonkin. Since then France has been peacefully developing these 'erritories, but though great expecta- tions are formed of their future now that railways are spreading in all directions, the benefit of the colonies to France up to the present time has not been strikingly mani- fested.
The beginning of the half century under review saw the Portuguese settlement of Macao -the oldest foreign settlemen on the China coust―n he ney-day of its prosperty. At the close we view it as a relic of the historic past rather than as an important centre of trade. It has not ceased to be a self-supporting Colony-it is even a pro-
B
At Paking, on September 20th, was issued a decree in the name of the Emprem Dow.ger acknowledging that a Constitution is necessa. y to the country. As the two Houses of Parlia- ment cannot at once be inaugurated, it wil be necessary first to establish an Assou big of Ministers to confer on ~tate matters and to the found tions of Constitutional prepare
Secretary an Chis-ai are appointed to preside Government. Prince P'a Lung and the Grund
over the said Assembly and they are commanded to confer with the Grand Council on detalles d modes of procedure. Having settled upon these
derails are to be pre ented to the Throwe for imperis: saction, __There was ala› a deores in P inse Chau the privilege of riding on horse- the name of the Empress D wager gra‹ting back, and th Gad Secretry taug th∙ priv.legs of riding in a two-bancar hang Chik- solan-chair within the precincts of the Western- gate of the Imperial Falaco.
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