112.
THE NEW CHINA.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
THE TYPHOON SHELTER QUESTION.
[August 17, 1908.
is one which is read in Europe with mingled | when directed to do so, whereby two laun- and uncertain feelings. But the completion ches were sunk. The great majority of (Daily Pras, August 7th.)
of the transformation will not be witnessed these losses were in the harbour, and it may Three is nothing in the admirable little in the lifetime of the present generation, to very pertinently be said in reply to the speech made by Sir ROBERT HART at the which Sir ROBERT HART does not vainly COLONIAL SECRETARY's letter that the lowes - dinner given in his honour by the London appeal for sympathy, for moral support would probably have been insignificant had branch of the China Association that will and reasonable criticism.. Whether China's the craft heeded the warning and sought appeal to residents in China as being transformation will necessarily make for the shelter behind Stonecutters or in other simi. strikingly new to them; but a speech greater security and happiness of the larly protected places. There can be no delivered in the metropolis of the British West is a large question which the future guarantee that similar risks will not be Empire by the great administrator-the must be left to decide for itself, but we can taken when the Mongkoktsui shelter is Great Mandarin, as he is described by one quite believe with the Pall Mall Gazette completed. On this last occasion the ship- of the London papers-commands world- that one of the hardest tasks of Western ping craft had fully five hours' warning that wide attention. No man in China is better statesmanship in the coming years will be danger was to be apprehended. The day's qualified than the universally honoured furnished by this inevitable real meeting work was finished when the black signal Inspector-General of Customs to express between East and West.
was hoisted at six o'clock, and steam Isan- an opinion on the regenerating influences
ches, lighters and junks had no pecuniary which are at work, presaging vast and
inducement to remain in unprotected parts pregnant changes in the national life of
of the harbour after dark when they saw China. And optimism was the key-note of
the signals warning them of the risks they the speech. China, he told bis audience, is
(Daily Press. August 8th.)
were taking. We cannot say therefore that facing the future with confidence. "The Though it is a matter for deep regret that the list of casualties on the present occasion time of transition may be long, and both the Government of this Colony should at affords convincing proof of the necessity accident and mistake may have either the present time of severe commercial for the new shelter. HIS EXCALLANCY THE the effect of retarding or temporarily depression be required to embark on any GOVERNOR, however, was able in his address stopping progress, but there will be an scheme involving the expenditure of a large to the Council to offer some proof that advance of progress surely, if slowly," amount of money, we think the community the shelter at Causeway Bay was inadequate Unlike many superficial writers on the will be convinced by the debate which took on this occasion to accommodate all thę subject, Sir ROBERT HART does not incline place in the Legislative Council Chamber on lighters which sought shelter there, and he to belief in a rapid transformation such as Thursday that the Government is amply was able to give the Council information as the world witnessed in Japan. The trans-justified in proceeding to construct an addi- to the number of vessels which sought formation in China must inevitably be slow tional harbour of refuge for small shipping shelter in Kowloon Bay, Hunghom Bay, and it would have been extremely interest craft, though they may not consider that off Yaumati, behind Stonecutters and in ing to have had Sir ROBERT HART's obser- the arguments of the Shipping Firms Chinwan Bay, a total of some 450 small vations on the forces making for progress against the scheme have been convincingly craft of various descriptions, and it is, of in greater detail. China, it appears to us, refuted. The protest of the leading British course, conceivable that, had the Mongkok. will owe her transformation not so much to Shipping Firms, which denied that any taui shelter been in existence, they might any initiative on the part of the present real necessity exists for additional accom- all have obtained therein that greater se- generation of high officials as to the force of modation, came as a surprise to thecurity which a shelter is designed to afford. a new public opinion created by the great general public when it was published a army of Chinese students who are being month ago. It was a complete volte face, for educated abroad in more advanced countries. the need of additional accommodation had The West is daily coming more and more not hitherto been questioned, so far as we are into violent contact with the East. When aware, by a single public man in the Colony. Sir Roszar was speaking of his own par- Yet the case the Shipping Companies made ticular work, he incidentally remarked that out against the scheme was not Western science and Western knowledge which could be dismissed in any off-hand are reaching every hamlet in every province manner. The impression it created was in China, thanks to the rapidly developing that all the past agitation for an additional postal organisation. There can be no doubt shelter had been panic-born, and when the about it that China is drinking deeply of public recalled the terrible suddenness of the elixir of a new life and storing up the great typhoon of the 18th September energy and vitality to meet the changed 1906, it was difficult to contest the statement conditions and the development that is that" for a typhoon unsignalled, as in 1906 still to come. It was as astute ав it no refuge of any size or description or, was wise on the part of the Govern-situation would be of avail." The other con- ment of China to announce the decision tentions, viz: that "the area of the existing to grant a constitution and at the same shelter at Causeway Bay is large enough for time to delay the concession for all practical purposes,' "that lighters and ten years. The decision to grant the con- large junks can ride at anchor as they have stitution takes some of the wind out of the always done and that small craft can be sails of the more advanced reformers, while well accommodated at Causeway Bay in the postponement of its inauguration allows ordinary typhoons," were contentions that time for preparation which is most desirable we felt the Government were in a position and necessary. In the next ten years we may to examine in the light of information which expect to see progress made in the re- the Harbour Master and other competen, arrangement of Chinese affairs at a greatly observers were in a position to furnish, accelerated rate, and the end of the decade The severe typhoon of July 27-28th has will doubtless find the nation far better since afforded a further opportunity for the prepared to receive a constitution than it is collection of information on the subject, to-day. We cannot measure the progress of and the result is contained in the Govern- the future in China by the achievements ment's letter of 6th inst. in which the fact of the past. In the expressive phrase of the that no fewer than six steam launches, one Inspector-General, the old has been cut motor-boat, 10 European lighters, and 66 away and the new is coming in. There can junks, cargo boats and sampans were be no turning back. And when the trans- wrecked, with a loss of 45 lives, is quoted formation is completed, China, with her as disproving the contention of the immense territories, with the untold and Shipping Companies. We doubt whether yet-to-be-developed wealth of her great this list of casualties will convert the provinces, with her hundreds of millions of in- Shipping Companies until it is supple- dustrious, intelligent, law-abiding, and easily mented by information showing that governed people, organized to meet require those losses cannot be ascribed to the ments of the new times, and armed with the negligence of the persons in charge of the teaching and appliances of scientists - China craft. At the present time cases are pend- will rank among the Powers of the world ing at the Magistracy against the coxwains and be a great factor in history." There of two launches who are charged with cul- can be no doubt of that, and the prediction | pable negligence in not proceeding to shelter
one
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As to how many, if any, oraft were lost in these sheltered bays, His EXCELLENCY'S speech affords no information, but the fact that so large a number safely rode out the storm in these places-and that some- thing like nine-tenths of the casualties occurred among craft which had not sought shelter, if our information on the subject is @orrect rather strengthens than weakens the assertion of the Shipping Firms. But if the direction of the wind had been different the results would possibly have been worse, and therefore it would be unsafe to rely on the experience of any one typhoon.
The
It has to be admitted that the Govern- ment has been given a strong mandate by the Community, and largely on the initia tive of representatives of the Shipping interest, to proceed with the construction of another shelter as an urgent measure. official papers which have been recently laid on the table of the Legislative Council, and in large part reproduced in the Daily Press, have shown how strong has been the pressure on the Government to construct this additional shelter, and they have also shown that various schemes have been fully considered without the necessity for another shelter being once questioned. We must recognise, in view of all that has been done, that further postponement would look very much like (to use the words of the GOVERNOR) culpable vacillation." The arguments which, at the eleventh hour, have been put forward by the Shipping Firms, strong as they appear to be, are not so entirely convincing as to justify the Govern- ment in going back upon its decision in the matter. At the Legislative Council the Government found almost unanimous support. The Hon. Mr. Murray StewaRT, the representative of the Chamber of Commerce, made it perfectly clear that personally he supported the Government on this question; he merely wished for a further postponement in the hope that the Chamber of Commerce would be likewise convinced
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