-
232.
COSMOPOLITES.
(Daily Press, 4th April.)
We read in The English Race, the new journal of the Royal Society of St. George, that the person who parades himself as a friend of all nationalities in reality cares for none. Cosmopolitanism is only another expression of a self-centred individualism." Some professed cosmopolitans may be egotists; "the person who parades bimself" as anything at all, even as an imperialistic Englishman, is nut to be what schoolboys felicitously call a
men.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
-thistles.
LIKIN.
44
|
[April 18, 1908.
been. "It is not pleasant," he writes, to in the hands of the Inspector-General. To reflect that we, the countrymen of Shakes-Sir ROBERT HART, who continued to be blind peare, of Newton, and of Locke, are no better to the inner working of affairs, this step than the painted savage who makes a dinner seemed enormously to enhance the dignity off a distant relative]{" It may be that of his office, with the result that he leat. the services of his staff to introduce into cosmopolitans are all a bad lot; it may be that the Japan Chronicle has under-rated the North China the system of Likin, from value of the St. George's Society; we really which it had hitherto been exempt, and all do not care to decide One thing the little the proceeds of the collection were paid argument has made abundantly clear to us, over direct to Peking to the great satis and that is that at his next thanksgiving faction of the hangers on of the Court. the gentleman who is " running" the Unfortunately certain due, in the southern Society's journal will be quite in order in provinces had been allocated to meeting
because "bounder," but surely rejoicing"
he was not born a the engagements of 1900, and officers of the it is irreligious and immoral thus sweepingly quadruped. It is pleasaut to reflect that Maritime Customs being-placed “over these to denounce the ideal underlying cosmopoli- he, a countryman of Shakespeare, of to ensure their collection, these likewise.. tanism. Your genuine cosmopolite is a mån Newton, and of Locke, is a great deal were diverted to Peking. Before 1900 cer- of large outlook; he is really more than better off in many ways than the one who tain shares in the Customs collections of the port, before remittances were made to cosmopolitan-he is a cosmicalist. Universul makes a dinner off- brotherhood to him means the inclusion,
Peking, were detained by the local officials. as with the holy-minded Hindu, of all
in lieu of certain rights formerly surrender ed. After 1900 these were rescinded, and living creatures, and not only all races of
the whole remitted. In addition to this, by the arrangeinent to which Sir JAMES MACKAY agreed, the rates of duty were increased fifty, per cent, and the entire also sent up to Peking,
: The result of the diversion of all these revenues to the capital was that the provincials saw not only what seemed to them an unconstitutional strength- ening of the Ceutral Power, but a serious danger to their own exchequers. To permit the one levy ou trade which was still avail able to them to be abolished at the sol command of Peking, without compensation, and in view of the fact that Peking, con templated still further demands on the provincial Customs, was more than flesh and blood could stand. Sir ROB RT HART had been made a tool of to bring about the new state of affairs, but as he was no longer useful, it was not necessary to redeem his promises, which had moreover been made without authorisation; so the double purpose was accomplished of getting the whole of the duties, new and old, remitted to Peking, and at the same time, without formally dismissing him, of reducing the office to insignificance, with the intention of abolishing the whole establishment as soon as a pretext could be invented.
In bis view patriotism dwindles to
(Daily Press, April 6th.) the status of petty parochialism, for his When the Wise Man of the East, the In- eyes behold in the glare of millions of suus dian Sage, Sir JAMES MACKAY, came to put in this small globe of ours going gnat-like order the maladministered finances of Chi- All living na, he made a boastful promise that he was through a swarm of worlds, creatures in the Eternal Wheel of Things about to remove from the land the curse of ale to bim companions in misfortune, Likin. He was warned that the course he to whom death cometh soon or late; was adopting was of all others that most or they are fellow sharers of the joy calculated to rivet its chains still tighter. of life according to temperament. That This was in 1902, and it is curious to obsérve he might have been a Prussian, a Turk how completely the prophecies of those who or else a Russian, or eke an Italian, is not from 16ng experience of China foretold the a reflection to bring him a shudder, for failure of his 'prentice hand have been it is, with his outlook" on life, one of those fulfilled. With that fatal readiness to things that do not supremely matter. He confound. Chinese promises with Chinese no more dreams of thanking God that he performance which has been from the happens to be an Englishman than he beginning of our intercourse the curse of the would of thanking the Lord of Hosts for gushing young. diplomat, Sir JAMES MAC letting him be a Wesleyan. Just as the KAY, on the mere promise of SIR ROBERT Israelites gloried in being the chosen HART; without any guarantee that he had people of Jabveh, so did the Moabites joy authority to represent the Chinese Govern- in being the elect of Chemos, the Am- ment, proceeded to barter away certain very monites of Rimmon, the Babylonians of tangible privileges, and increase both ex- Bel, and the cosmopolite smiles indulgently port and import duties one half. The con- at all such fond pretensions, including the cessions were accepted without demur by formula of the St. George's Society, by the authorities at Peking, but the corres- which the members make a point of acknow- ponding reductions, which under Sir JAMES ledging the divine favour of making thein MACKAY's instructions he was to secure Englishmen. Such breadth of mind, and before parting with the extra duties, so far vastness of outlook, appears harmless from being removed, have since increased eLough, albeit somewhat impractical, and enormously in their incidence everywhere; we would be surprised to find the redactor and besides this have in the face of the en- of the organ of the St. George's Society sogagements entered into, been introduced vehemently declaring that against such with all their evil consequences in all the we are utterly opposed," did we not re. Northern provinces where before they did cognise the nature of his provocation. It áot exist. It was pointed out at the time appears that a writer in the Japan Chronicle that this would be the logical and therefore isavowedly a cosmopolite," and that the inevitable consequence of the concessions Kobe journal mentioned has been guilty of that Sir JAMES MACKAY proposed to make. malevolent misrepresentations," of HO Wise in his own conceit, and misled by Sir illogical farrago of contradictions," aud; ROBERT HART who was in the affair simply, in short, of treating the "work" of this the mouthpiece of the Palace party at Pe- patriotic organization very disrespectfully. king, Sir JAMES MACKAY yielded the most The Japan Chronicle remarked, for instance, important points at issue, only to find that The tone of the Royal Society of St. George Peking had not the slightest intention of is best expressed in the few words 'Thank God fulfilling the unauthorised promises made we are English. To the mind even of a for it by the Inspector General. At, of course sincere religions man it surely must border on
does not say much for Sir ROBERT HART's blasphemy to suggest that a Deity should have
himself to have been made the mouthpiece in astuteness that he should have permitted such a questionable transaction, and it is only The redactor of the organ of the Royal fair that we should look at the affair in the Society of St. George was infuriated light in which he doubtless viewed it, As In- thereby, and referred to the "platitud- spector-General, when that office carried any inous jaws" of the Kobe paper, to its "unc political influence, Sir RoBERT HART had all tuous nonsense worthy of Uriah Heap his life been working to enhance the Impe- and Stiggins at their best." Disentanglrial influence of Peking vis a vis the provinces. ing his argument from such obscurative One by one provincial perquisites had been abuse, we find him replying to this effect, curtailed in the interests of the centraf that there is only one Deity, and that He Governmeut, and when after the events ol did make the Englishman superior to the 1909 it seemed to the Foreign powers wise, "heathen Chinee" or the "naked black in order to enable it to meet the
new man." lf He bad not done so
liabilities imposed on it, to make provision for the collection of certain dues previously classed as illegal, the collection was placed
1
created one section of the human race superior
to the many others that have also managed to exist upon the terrestrial globe."
well.
the reflection of the Society's champion shows how dreadful the position would have
Sir ROBERT HART had permitted himself, as we have seen, to be made a tool for the introduction of the iniquitous, and as far system of as trade is concerned, the suicidal Likin into the northern provinces The come when his council was time had no longer necessary, and the old ways might be resumed with impunity. One of the worst, if not the very worst, of the effects of the Likin system as ad ministered in China, is its enormous cost to the country in proportion to the actual amount obtained, the service being so inefficient that nearly the whole is abs rbed in collection.. A whole army of useless collectors amounting in each province to tens or hundreds of thousands are spread over the country at every crossing of roads, each of whom is authorised to prey at his As each man in descending order has had to pay to his discretion on trade. immediate superior for the right, it can ba readily seen that supervision is impossible, while each man's takings depending on his ability to seize what fortune offers, it will be seen that he has every temptation to Practically it is a system exact the utmost. of simple piracy-that he may take who has the power, and he may keep who can. This is the system which Sir JAMES MACKAY'S izabrint and wrong-hended action has been effective in rivetting worse than ever on the neck of the country.. It was one of the reasons that helped on the construction of railways, whose projectors fondly hoped that with the construction of railways the
i
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