May 30, 1908.]
skittles. So, though there is still more than is wholesome of the old leaven, aud fads and fancies are still in the ascendant, there is a slight rift in the darkness. Now, fortunately to all outside, the frolicksome element is coming to a very unpleasant awakening. Our home defence has dis- appeared the Secretary for Foreign Affairs informs the country that, though he has been striving his utmost to keep affairs straight, that unpleasant little spot in Macedonia will keep breaking out, and although the better disposed of the Powers have always rallied round him there is still an explosive element abroad which may any day get beyond bounds. Then the Secretary of War hints mainly to the coun- try that if, which he reminds them was only after all an experiment, the scheme of the new Territorial Army should not at once go through, it may become necessary to appeal to the country to adopt the only then alternative of compulsory service, which he had hoped to stave off. President of the Board of Trade, breaking The late loose from the felters of the Cobden Club
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
SHIPPING.
(Daily Press 27th May.) stating that the German Government is Yesterday we published a paragraph giving the Nord Deutscher Lloyd an extra subsidy of £25,000 a year for a monthly service to Australia and Japan. In the
rates.
we
message from our London correspondent to same issue
we published a telegraphic the effect that the British Government is opposing the employment of Chinese on British ships. Together the supply a text for some comments on the two items supposed insecure condition of the supre. macy of Great Britain's mercantile marine. To be doing with, British shipping is still a long way ahead of the rest, notwithstanding that comparisons of percentages seem to show it losing ground. The very fact that the British mercantile fleet is so enormous seems to be accountable to some extent for the pessimism prevailing, for there is no British and British. Freights have dropped competition more fierce than that between
to a comparatively low figure, and are only paralysis, had been showing the country to eaved from reaching a point at which some useful purpose how our rivals had, they would be unremunerative by methods while we slept, been stealing marches on that have been giving rise to agitations our chief industries; and even an willing Prime Minister has had to ack- alarmed
an and Commissions-to consignors becoming nowledge that there had been designs to interfered with by artificial inflation of lest their prosperity should be weaken the efficiency of the Navy. Taking all these warnings from ministers respons- be a great deal to be said on both sides, and On this latter point, there seems to ible in their various departments, it is surely time that even the present House of report and the verdict of the Shipping can do no better than to wait for the Commons should begin to see that the Rings Commission. country at large is under a policy of fad in be no doubt that the Government assistance Meanwhile, there can lieu of reason, rapidly falling into a dan-given to foreign shipping puts it into a very gerous state. Surely Board Schools can for the nonce devote some little time to education; and fiery tee-totallers can in the face of a danger threatening all let the intoxication of their desires be sobered sufficiently to see beyond the public house at the corner. The game so peculiarly Irish of "Beggar my Neighbour," while as a corollary doing no good to oneself, has surely been played out, and the country demands that the business of the day should at last be taken in hands. As yet the demand has not formulated the man, and His Majesty's Ministers have still the opportunity of reforming their own ways, instead of seeking the ungracious task of, unasked, striving to remove the mote from their neighbour's eyes. A year and a half of fads, surely even Mr. AsQUITH can not but see, is beyond a safe strain on the already over burdened fabric of the British Nation. We have abundance of time when we've put the locks and bars in order to think about changing round the furniture; meanwhile, the police are away on a wild- goose-chase, and news has just come in that the Bashi Bazouks are over the border. This is, however, just the time that our Cabinet selects to lay down the carpets, and call in the house decorators. Surely in no other country than England, and in no party in England outside the rump of the Cobdenites, could such a conjunction of fad and folly be tolerated for an instant. There is an old maxim beginning:-Quem Deus vilt-Never apparently was it better exemplified.
11
favourable position to compete with the British, which is not even left to work out its own salvation, but is now threatened (on pseudo-patriotic grounds) with interference that will make its working costs heavier and its administration more difficult. necessary reduction of expenses may have The resulted in some cases, as has been alleged, in ships being sent out ill-equipped, under- manned, and badly provisioned, and it no doubt led up to the recent alteration of the load-line, which from the point of view of the sailor. was objectionable There is no equally valid objection to the employment of cheaper labour, especially as white stokers have been so notoriously un- satisfactory. One set of patriots bewails the diminution of the percentage of British carrying trade; another laments the in- It seems obvious that both cannot have crease in the number of aliens employed. their way, and it must be decided which point of view is the more important. There is also the question whether it is better for British bottoms to maintain their percent- age by carrying foreign trade on favourable terms (as is said to be doue) pr for British trade to grow by favouring the transports that give it the best terms and conditions, irrespective of their nationality. These reflections show how complicated the whole subject is, and how difficult it is to discover what is really required. There is sure to be an outcry from some of our shipping companies against the Government's latest move, and yet that move was undoubtedly inspired by the patriotic alarm at the number of foreigners and aliens supplant- ing British sailors on British ships. Ought Great Britain to subsidise its shipping, as foreign nations are doing? Shareholders will naturally answer one way, and tax-
On May 17th was issued a Decree stating that the country round about Peking had not had a sufficiency of rain since the opening of the summer term, in consequence of which it was feared the farmers would suffer. payers another. The Emperor therefore selected the 20th instant as a day to pray for rain and appointed Princes Chan, Li, Tsai Jun, Tsai Hsun and P'a Lun, and the Imperial noble Tsai Fu to proceed to the various temples to offer the prayers,
A native paper states that the French Govern. ment has offered to the Chinese Government to suppress anti-monarchists for it, but that the offer has been peremptorily refused.
SHANGHAI.
341
(Daily Press, 28th May.) in connection with that peculiar institution Shanghai is again experiencing trouble which it calls the Mixed Court. There was wrangling between an eminent and admittedly respectable and qualified Ameri- can counsel and the Chinese Magistrate, who had sitting with him on this occasion, very fortunately, an American Assessor. We are glad that the Assessor happened to to smooth matters, but because the rupture be American, not because he did anything is simplified by being limited to one foreign nationality. The foreign opinion at Shang- hal seems to be that Dr. BARCHET, the Assessor, is not playing the game. He is he were inclined to support the new Ameri- an aged ex-missionary, and it looks as if
officials, regardless of the undoubted rights can policy of truckling to anti-foreign of the foreign community and its Municipal occurred: Council. Here is a summary of what
The case of Li Chun-lan, the actor, who had
been detained in custody without a hearing for Magistrate. The Court was packed with seven months, was brought up before the Chinese, who followed the proceedings with noisy interest; they applauded the Magistrate with counsel he emphasized points of difference loudly, especially when in his passages of arms
bias against the latter, and generally they be between Chinese and foreigners with marked
wards the end of the hearing, to check these haved in a manner derogatory to the dignity of the tribunal. No attempt was made, until to-
breaches of decorum, either by the Magistrate fit to intervene on behalf of his fellow-country- or by the Assessor; nor did Dr. Barohet think
men, Messrs. T. R. Jernigan and 8. Fessenden, when they met with scant courtesy at the hands of Mr. Pao Yi. The whole proceedings to the foreign mind were unseemly, and it is a matter for regret that there was no one on the Bench bitter qualified to uphold the prestige of foreign or of the Chinese section. this community whether in the interests of the
The
libertine, a breaker of family peace, and It appears that the prisoner was a
Chinese public opinion, and the Chinese that he had already been condemned by
Guild, desired to sentence him on a charge Magistrate, at the request of the Cantonese
that had not been formally preferred. Pri- soner's counsel demanded his release, owing to the continued absence of the complainant, and reminded the Magistrate of the legal requirements in the case, of the Chinese law as applicable to that Court. to the commands of the Emperor." This Magistrate, he said, ought to "pay attention Mr. PAO YI regarded as insulting, and he lost his temper, and began to "talk to the gallery", which applauded him, especially when he said this was a purely Chinese case and that foreigners had nothing to do with it. This one remark was sufficient to show his unfitness for the difficult position he occupies, for the very presence of the foreign Assessor should have reminded him that Chinese justice in that Court is supposed to be tempered according to foreign notions. The foreign community is determined to tolerate no extreme Chinese judicial methods in its midst, and its right to intervene with this object has been admitted and agreed to. Its Assessors are not sent merely to supervise cases in which there may be foreign complainants or defendants. The Chinese had previously made efforts to have this man surrendered to a purely native court, and it appears that Dr. BARCHET was at first inclined to be weak in that direction.
No one acquainted with the struggle engaged in by the Municipal authorities to secure re- cognition by Chinese officials of the Mixed Court's jurisdiction could suppose that Li
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