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THE SOCIALISTIC BOGIE.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[November 16, 1907 .
ities, might be claimed, as a matter of right, able as a base and a passage for the Chinese by any body of English workmen. The earn-military forces, political missions, &c., sent ings of an old Eastern bave, as a rule, been to extend and consolidate Chinese influence obtained at much personal sacrifice, at the in the Tarim Basin and further west. risk of exposure to doubtful and dreaded One flank ends in wide marshes and drifting climates, and under circumstances of com- sand dunes, through which invaders were peti ion and struggle to which the fluent extremely unlikely to approach; and the Socialist orator is an entire stranger." That other is supposed to have connected with will certainly receive the immediate and the Great Wall. The hundreds of inscribed unqualified endorsement of every reader pieces of wood, bamboo, silk, and the mass who has made or hopes to make his pile in of miscellaneous antiques have survived t'e unhealthy Orient. It is, moreover, almost uninjured even where covered only significant of the impression that the Socia- by the thinnest layer of gravel or debris. lists must have been making at Home. It Sometimes a mere scraping of the surface is quite pathetic, and it is a genuine pleasure sufficed to lay hare files of records thrown to feel as confident as we din at once thus out before the time of CHRIST from the office allaying the nervousness of those who may be weak enough to take the socialistic peril heap in which even the most perishable of some military commander on to a rubbish seriously. Already there are signs of the remains-straw, clothing, &c.-looked per inevitable reaction. The British voter has fectly fresh. They refer to matters of wilit- begun to show his lack of confidence in the ary administration, often giving exact details utopia-mongers. He is but a sheep after as to the strength, move rents, &c., of the all, and it would not matter much if he did various corps distributed along the border, not come to his senses now and then. Those arrangements about their supplies, equip- imbecile demagogues of his might easily ment, &c. Others are privato le ters persuade him to join in a demonstration of addressed to officers, full of quaint actuali. protest against the solar spots, but the sun ties, &., or official reports. Together with would go on shining just the same.
the remains of quarters, furniture, arms, &c., excavated they will amply suffice to this most desolate of borders. restore a picture of the life once led along One of the best preserved ruius is that of an imposing magazine forming a solid block of halla nearly 500ft. loug. There is plenty of evidence to show that those who laid down the line, selected the position for watch. stations, &c., had been guided by a sharp eye for all surface features and their practical advantages.
THE ARCHÆOLOGIST IN CHINA.
(Daily Press, November 11th.) It is almost if not quite impossible for individualist to write about socialisin with aut being told that that the ideas he scouts as visionary and absurd-is not socialism. It must be admitted that the average man, with his feet firmly planted on the rock-bottom of commonsense, is unlike- ly to be well grounded in the latest formula of the dreamers. It would be unreasonable to expect him to waste much of his time in mastering the latest samples of their jargon. Broadly, it is quite possible for him to understand what they are all driving at, without being able to show familiarity with the shibboleths of their latest sect. The common retort that bis summary of their position is all wrong may really be taken as evidence that no two socialists advocate just the same social sm. There is, in fact, no socialistic doctrine that can be said to bave universal application. If one school of socialists were to seem likely to get their own ideas carried into practice, there would be plenty of socialists to rise up in protest. It is as opponents. of the basic idea of socialism, as well as of its most recent 看看 programme, that we venture to waste a little space on these comments. We take it that, if the Sermon on the Mount were to be tacted upon by the whole of Christendom the socialists of all sorts and sects would have nothing left to clamour for. So far as that goes, it is an admission in favour of the socialists. As we understand the position of both parties, the term Christian- Socialist is tautological, for a pukka Christian must be, ipso facto, a pukka Socialist, and a pukka Socialist professes merely Christian ethics. This would leave ua without a leg to stand on, if Christendom had not, with marvellous unanimity, agreed tacitly that some of its own accepted ideals are impracticable, The minority which consents to turn the other cheek, to offer its coat also to the thief who has stolen i's cloak, is so small as to be quite a negligible quantity in any ‹ensus. If it exists at all, a possibility we are bound to admit though we have never been fortunate enough to encounter it, it no doubt deserves a pelestal of honour all to itself, though, as common- place men in a commonplace community, we cannot rise to the woral grandeur of ignoring its practical workaday foolishness. Simple old CONFUCIUS saw rank injustice in the ideal of blessing and doing good to his enemies how then, he enquired, can I reward my friends? Que has to have a complex mind, to which the paradox is He found and surveyed about 140 miles of child's play, to recognise the utilitarianism these watch stations, sectional headquarters of the ideal which Christendom professes, magazines, and so on. More than that, he without, as we say, putting it into practice. unearthed a vast quantity of Chinese The broad ideals of socialism are practically records, mostly on bamboo, which convinced identical, and we are by no means cynical him beyond reasonable doubt that these in confessing our faith that the demagogues defences were constructed more than A of communism will fail even as the priests century Before CHRIST, under the Emperor bave failed. The right of the individual to Wo TI. Nearly two thousand of these own property is in no real danger, notwith Chinese "documents were obtained, and standing the alarning signs of the times. they and other materials collected are said The sanctity of incomes earned, in the to be so ample and varied that they will regular ways, will even throw the mantle of require prolonged labour on the part of protection over what the pauper proletariat several specialists. Meanwhile, according loves to call unearned incomes. The capi- to the abstract of Dr. STEIN's reports, talist is as inevitable as to-morrow's dawn, | obtained by the Times, the fortified area and thrift is a virtue that will not be robbed appears to have remained regularly gar of its reward, though all the wasters of the risoned down to the middle of the second world were suddenly to develop a unanimity century A.D. Dated documents are parti. of which at present they seem happily cularly numerous from 98 B.c. to about 25 incapable. False, therefore, was the alarm A.D., the time when a period of internal and of the London writer who was recently external troubles came to an end with the scared into saying that few old resident- of | advent of the second Han dynasty, There tae Far East would be ready to admit that cau be no doubt that the main purpose of their "hoarded earnings, whether invested the Limes was to guard the territory south in a Scotch estate or in well-chosen secur- of the Su-le-ho river, which was indispens,
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(Daily Press. November 12th.) Whatever the Chinese are now, whatever they may become in the future, there is little doubt that at one time they were a military nation. Remarkable confirmation of this belief has recently been unearthed by the archeologist, Dr. M. A. STEIN, on the most westerly border of the province of Kansu, the province that juts into the great Gobi desert north of Tibet. About the end of February Dr. STEIN journeyed towards the oasis of Shachou, or Tunhwang, follow- ing a route faithfully described by MARCO PoLo. That explorer's description was found thoroughly accurate in all its topo- graphical details." It is an ancient cara- van route, 350 miles long, abandoned for centuries, and coming into use again within the last few years, for traders from Khotan and Kashgar, who are importing English piece goods brought from Kashmir on pack animals. Dr. STEIN's last communications are dated June 18th. The expedition found remains of ruined watchtowers and an i ancient wall or entrenchment. Various ar- chæological indications convinced Dr. STEIN that they belonged to an ancient system of frontier defence corresponding to the
extant "Great Wall" on the Kansu border
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EXC USIVE IMPERIALISM.
(Daily Press, November 13th.) When first noting the fact that a London club for colonials and over-sens Englishmen and Englishwomen was being promoted, we expressed the opinion briefly that such
an institution would deserve and achieve success. Since reading what may be called the prospectus of the Imperial Colonial Club and Overseas Union we feel inclined to modify the comment. We still have little doubt that the new institution will succeed financially, but as to its avowed aims and objects, and their success, We are less affair of women, and the prospectus is optimistic. It appears to be largely an headed with a long list of marchionesses, countessex, and ladies, with a sprinkling of lords. The Marchioness of Donegall was
the originator, and Mrs. Hwfa WilliamI is the organising president of the Idles' social committee, as well as responsible for the taste and furnishing of the house over- looking Green Park, which has already been secured. The membership is being limited to fifteen hundred habitual members of whom 650 may be women, and a thousand overseas members, of whom three hundred may be of the ten ler sex. Five guineas is the cost of membership to all joining entrance fac and five guineas a year
row, and the Club is to he opened at the New Year. It is intended to extend “good feeling and a cordial understanding between Great Britain and her Culonies, and between London, as the capital of the Empire, såd the English-speaking peoples oversens the first object; and three more objects are
thus define:
As
The Entertainment of all persons from the Colonies, and Members of other English-speak- iug Peoples Over-eaɛ who ar› in England on any Political Mission, connected either with the affairs of the Colonies, or the Commercial Reciprocations of the World.
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