42
Tientsin. He is now a junior Vice-President of the Waiwapa. He is a remarkably able official and in every sense of the word a strong man. He is a vigorous "rights-recovery partisan, and will be an exceedingly hard nut for Major Nathan to crack. The Agent and General Manager of the Mining Co. is very popular among all classes in Tientsin, and every one would wish him success in his diplo- matic encounter with Mr. M. T. Liang, as His Excellency is called here, but it is anticipated that unless Major Nathan concedes what the Chinese consider their reasonable demanda Mr. Liang will wipe the floor with him diplo matically speaking.
THE NEXT MINISTER TO ENGLAND.
After H. E. Liang has concluded these negotiations with the Mining Co. he will continue in Peking his work as a member of the Waiwupu until the return to China of Lord Li Ching Fang, the Chinese Minister in England, whom he will succeed. And no man, it can safely be said, is better fitted to fill the post. Mr. Liang is certainly the ablest of the numerous Cantonese who helped H. E. Yuan Shih Kai to spell efficiency and integrity with capital letters in Pechili.
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THE AMERICAN FLEET'S VISIT. H. E. Liang Tung Yen, another Cantonese protégé of H. E. Yuan Shih Kai, now a Vice. President of the Waiwapu, and a former Customs Taotai of Tientsin, has been appointed to go to Amoy to welcome the U.S. battleship feet when it arrives in the coming autumn.
In this connection is to be remarked the rumour that H. E. Yuen will give up the Pre sidency of Waiwapu to become President of the Board of the Navy with a view of establish ing a new and efficient Navy for China. It having been noised abroad that China wanted a Navy, Peking has for some months past been thronged with naval shipbuilders' representa- tives from all parts of the world seeking for orders. The most enterprising of these, perhaps, have been the Japanese, But the visit of the U. S. battleship fleet will be a huge advertisement for American shipbuilders and ordnance manufacturers, and no doubt the trade representatives of those industries will seek to make the most of it in Peking.
A CHINESE NAVY.
Where and how the money for this navy is to be raised still remains to be seen. Of course in the long run the burden must fall on the Chinese taxpayer, who is ill-prepared to bear it. I wonder whether the Peking Government realises the cost of armaments and the drain they impose on the resources of a country. By the last mail from England I have received some interesting statistios of an official character which plainly show how imprudent it would be for China to attempt at this juncture to compete with other countries that already possess big and efficient navies,
Compare China with her two neighbours in the Pacific, Japan and the United States. Japan is reckoned a poor country as compared with the leading Western countries, but by her side China cuts a ridiculous figure. Japan has & revenue and expenditure per head of her popu lation of £1-0-9; China, 84d! In the United States the revenue per head is £1-12-10 and the expenditure £1-8-10. In the United Kingdom the revenue per head is £3-5-8 and the expendi- ture £3-3-8, while in France-and France is a neighbour of China-the revenue per head is £3-18.0, and the expenditure is the same. Bat China 8d., and abe wants a navy! Surely if the Peking Government want to spend money there are other objects on which it may be spent far more usefully than on a navy. But the naval talk may prove as unreal and futile as much other talk that is indulged in in the capital. Paper plans and proposals are cheap. At present they are the only ones in which the Chinese revenue will permit the Government to indulge.
THE CHINESE STATE BANK,
AND
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND written a little pamphlet entitled "Notes on the Chinese Government Bank'an institu- tion of which the Chairman said at the first annual general meeting simply to pay rich dividends to the State or to —“Our object is not private individuals; what we want most is to strengthen the State's credit and the Nation's commercial health." And there is ample room for this.
No, the preliminary of all progress and reform in China-though some would not, consider naval or military expenditure either progress or reform-is a reorganisation of the national finances. The "sinews of war" must first be provided. That China is now, in this respect, in a better position than she was may not be saying much, but at any rate it is satisfactory to be able to say it at all, Peking member of the I.M.C. has just
THE IMPERIAL BANK OF CHINA.
THE TA CH'ING BANK.
[July 20, 1908,
appointed months ago, at the beginning of this year, and for the past three months at least have been drawing their salaries. But they have have been unable to do so. They have had no done very little if any work simply because they staff. Their subordinates have not been appointed, and go to work has been impossible. This, of course, tends to add to the cost of the undertaking.
The Pukow Railway; I may mention for the information of Southern readers, will tap Shantung and connect Tientsin with Nanking, forming an important link in the chain of railwa a that will one day extend from Tientsin. and Peking to Shanghai and Canton. · ·
TRAGEDY AT STANLEY.
LUKONG FATALLY WOUNDS HIS ASSAILANT,
i
Mr. Jules Gory, the author of the pamphlet above referred to, does not make a single allusion to the Imperial Bank of China, though he mentions the Shansi and other Chinese banks, The Imperial Bank of China is a purely Chinese bank, though run on European banking lines and managed by Europeans. The head manager who set it going was a former manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank at Shanghai. Its books are modelled on those of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. It does a big and thriving business among the Chinese,
A shooting fatality was reported to the police It has a large note issue of its own.
on July 13. The occurrence took place at Stan: But it is not a State bank. No foreigner can hold sharesley on July 12th when a lukong in plain clothes in it, and the staff is becoming more and more
was on special duty. He was walking outwards Chinese and less and less European, but it is
from the village when he met a man carrying purely a private commercial bank.
a suspicious looking bundle and followed at a little distance by other two men. He challen- what he had in it but the man refused to have ged the man with the bundle and asked him it searched, and as the other two came up they, snatched his whistle from him after he had so it is alleged attacked the lukong. They blown it, and declared they would throw him their threat into execution he drew his revolver into the sea. Fearing that they would pot and fired twice in the air. This alarmed the second and third men who made off, but the other remained and continued his struggle with the lukong. He grasped the lukong by the plight he fired his revolver low, with the queue, and as the latter was in an awkward intention of disabling his assailant. Apparent- ly the shot took no effect and be fired again.... to the ground saying that he had been shot. Then the other relinquished his hold and sank The lakong appealed to a passer-by to go for the ambulance, but he returned and declared he could not find it. The lakong thereafter went to the station and reported the matter. The dying an was removed to the station where it was found that he had been shot in the abdomen - and that the parcel which he refused to have. examined consisted of dynamite. He told the sergeant that he had refused to have his bundle searobed and the lukong had shot him. On the way to the launch he died, and the body was brought to the mortuary at Victoria,
The bank described in Mr. Gory's brochure is the Ta Ch'ing (formerly the Hu Pu) Bank, This, institution, as the author explains, was founded less than three years ago more or less as an outcome of the Mackay Treaty of 1903; the idea was that China should take the neces- sary steps to provide for an uniform national coinage by establishing a centre bank to issue the coin and regulate its circulation. The bank is absolutely and entirely run and managed by Chinese. The manager and sub manager are both Southern Chinese, the former being Cantonese who was at one time compradore of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank in Hong- kong, Mr Ch'en Wen-oh'üen. This year a branch is to be opened in Canton
The Ta Ch'ing Back has inflicted considerable damage upon the Shansi bankers, infringing their long-enjoyed monopoly of remittances and other transactions for the account of the Government. Mr. Gory thinks the day is not far off when the Shansi banks will have nothing more to do with the Government money. New branches of the Ta Ch'ing Bank are continually being opened. Besides the head office in Peking there are branch offices in Tientsin, Shanghai, Hankow, Ch'inan, Kalgan, Newchwang, Urga, and Chungking, and sub-offices at Paoting, Chou Ts'un, Antung, and in a number of other places the bank is represented by native banks. Pro- posals are now being considered to open branch offices at Nanking, Foochow, Hangohowku.' K'aifeng, Kirin, Taiyuan, Nanshang, and Ch'angsha.
At first the commercial class viewed, the bank with suspicion, but the fact that the bank has paid 30 per cent, on its capital shows that it is a success from the outset. The reform of the currency has not been lost sight of. Much has been done during the past twelve months with regard to the copper currency, and the fame and credit of the Bank's tael, dollar, and cash notes are rapidly extending. For official purposes the Government is doing all it can to encourage the use of the Ta Ch'ing Bank's notes, and even for commercial purposes both official and mercantile Chinese are pushing the bank's notes in preference to foreign bank
notes.
There is a story hailing from Peking that the Board of Finance has ordered from America machinery for printing bank notes, and that when this arrives the Board itself will print and issue notes and will allow no notes to be issued by other banks, private or Government; bat this, I think, is obviously an erroneous report, due to some missapprehension.
TIENTSIN-PUKOW BAILWAY.
It is not usual for the silver epade to be broken on the occasion of the cutting of the first sod of a railway, but this is the contre temps that marred the proceedings to-day at the opening ceremony of the Tientsin-Pakow Railway at Hsiku, which was attended by practically all Tientsin and a good many from Peking. Absit omen.
By the by, the Board of Communications is not to be congratulated on the way in which the construction of this railway is being managed. All the high and highly paid officials were
"
called to the other "ta" and they shouted "ta
The lukong's story was that the first man -
defence will be inquired into, and the matter iz Whether the lukong really acted in self-
Superintendent of Police. at present engaging the attention of the
BRAZILIAN CRUISER IN PORT.
On July 10th the Brazilian cruiser “Benjamin Constant," a training ship carrying a number of cadets who are in training for service in the Brazilian Navy, arrrived in port. The crniser, which is on a voyage round the world, left Bio visited Monte Video, Punta Arenas, Callao, Honolulu, Yokohama, Nagasaki, Sasebo and de Janeiro on January 22nd, and has since -
Shanghai. On Saturday Senhor J. J. Leiria, Consul for Brazil, boarded the cruiser, and shortly after noon he was accompanied by the Commander on a visit to His Excellency the Governor. An official call was then made on
Major-General Broadwood, the! General Officer Commanding. In the afternoon the captain
and other officers of the vessel were taken to the Gymkhana by Consul Leiris, and after a few races had been run they left for Kowloon · in order to be present when His Excellency the Governor performed the opening ceremony in connection with the new pavilion for the Kow- loon Cricket Club. The Captain and officers, of the "Benjamin Constant" dined with Mr Leiria at the Hongkong Hotel on Saturday' night, and after dinner paid a visit to the Flood Fund Bazaar at Shektontsui,
It is reported at Saigon that two thousand men have left France for Indo-China by one of the steamers of the Compagnie des Transports Maritimes.
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