January 4, 1909.]
the Governor to His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies. His -Excellency the Governor, even were this procedure not explicitly enjoined upon him, by the Ordinance, is not the man to sanction deportation without satisfying himself of the truth of the allegations brought against the accused person, and we have every con fidence that no man has been banished from the Colony without good cause. All, we believe, have now given the requisite assur- ances not to again offend in the same manner, and have been permitted to return to the Colony. The effect of Government action has been distinctly salutary, though the exaggerated accounts of the Govern- ment's action had the unfortunate result of paralysing trade for a time. It was the penalty of secrecy and now that normal con- ditions have been restored in the Colony the advisability of so amending the Ordin- ance as to provide for a public trial of the accused persons might well be set down among the questions for early consideration by the Legislative Council. More than twenty years have passed since the Peace Preservation Ordinance was enacted. The Chinese may be assumed to have a better appreciation of the fundamental principles of Bristish rule and British justice than they had then, and, should occasion unhap- pily arise at any future time for the issue of & Proclamation under the Peace Preserva- tion Ordinance, it must be evident that it would be to the advantage of the Govern- ment and the commercial community alike were the accused persons given a public trial, and the deportation orders issued only upon conviction by the regular Court of Law. To permit of this the amendment of the Peace Preservation Ordinance would seem to be necessary, and we suggest that the subject is one which may now reasonably be considered.
CHINESE
SELF-SUFFICIENCY.
(Daily Press, December 30th.) From two opposite, and seemingly perfectly incompati le reasons the cry of the Chinese to be permitted to ruin themselves in their own way has of late years increased in volume and intensity. It has been mainly conce ntrated on the subject of railways, regarding which it seemed to many capable and well meaning men a hardship that nearly the whole construction and manage ment of Chinese railways' should have practically passed into foreign hands. Lately, it is instructive to notice, that the body most interested in the construction of railways, namely the Government of China itself, is beginning to find out the reason that 18 at the bottom of the seeming anomaly, It is allowed on all sides that it is not the want of means; for China is sufficiently wealthy herself to put up without any apparent effort all the capital required: It is not want of structural ability; for, where tried, the Chinese have always proved them- selves capible constructors, a fact lately emphasised in the building of the line from Peking to Kalgan, and to a less extent in the little line already made between Shang- hai and Sungkiang. The reason is in point of fact not far to seek, and has for long been grasped by the foreigner, and impressed by him on the Government of China, yet for all his dinning it is only to-day that China is after generations of apathy at last com- mencing to have a glimpse of the truth. This is, however, possibly the most whole some sign in connection with the recent movement in headquarters. However true and wisely conceived were the ide is of the ancient sages, as to the mutual relations of governor and governed, it is nevertheless
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
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the fact that the machine of government | currency, but with the same result: good could never be got to work. While the faith was good enough for the merchant; sages laid down the principle that the for the State it was a useless and State's only raison d'etre was the well-being needless luxury. That such is still the of the people; the State, in the persons of ruling principle of government we have those who administered it. laid down the only to look at the copper coins of the day directly contrary rule that the prosperity of to discover. Yet this debased coin only the people was the appanage of the rulers, some five or six years ago was ushered in to be exploited for their own particular with a flourish of trumpets as an instance benefit. Office was a species of property to of how far China had gone on the road of be bought and sold, and its proceeds reforming her old ways. It. has been the belonged absolutely to the possessor; it was custom with regard to this for Peking to the carrying out to its extreme logical limit cast the finger of scorn at the provincials: of the old adage-beati possidentes. Clever It was these wicked provincial officers that business men as the Chinese have ever been, did it all; true, but Peking had taken care and able as is their administration of com- in the first instance to make the provinces mercial affairs, this one false bearing has pay through the nose for the concession, thrown the whole machine of government and had deprived itself of the means of even. out of gear, and has kept China in a con- protesting. Whatever happened Peking tinual itate of turmoil sad disorder. When had taken care ahead that it, at least, would Manchu succeeded Ming, the instinct of the be no sufferer, whoever had to pay the piper. new government was to rule their newly-ac- quired, possessions as a conquered country, and to prevent concerted action by diminishing the means of communication. Mines were closed and roads permitted to fall into decay, and everything done to isolate the various provinces. Unfortunately from sheer laziness this condition lasted long after the time it might have been use- tul, and was one of the chief causes leading to the great Taiping Rebellion. With the suppression of that movement a few of the wiser heads commenced to see that if the country were to be brought into safe condi- tious, a complete revolution in the methods of intercommunication was required; but the majority brought up in the old school refused to see the inevitable, and stuck to the old groove till the war with Japan once more awoke them out of their slumber. This led to the extension of the telegraph service, but the only railway that had been introduced was looked upon still as a useless incumbrance, only fit for outlandish foreigners to make money of.
Now very much the same has happened wi h regard to the railways, and the only difference is that this time Peking has had the grace to acknowledge that all is not as straight as it should be, and that there is some justification for the feeling of the gentry and people that the Government has. not deserved to be trusted. They do not, they say, un lerst ind what is meant by the statement that railways are to be a joint undertaking between Government and Gentry; they have, they make bold to say, had enough of these governmental affairs, and recall the promises held out with regard to the telegraphs which did not prevent the Government from practically confiscating the whole of the private shares. An even worse case was that of the Canton Hankow Railway. It is bere no excuse to say that the foreign concessionaires were little better. The Government took the concession away from the original con- tractors who had broken their pledges, and announced its intention of raising the money by a patriotic sub-cription from its own subjects, who were promised full control. We all know what the result has been. The Tientsin-Pukou line is uot as yet two years old; way it not be that things are cleaner there ? We have again the authority of Peking itself that practically they are about as bad as they could well be. The money has gone, and there is no one who finds it his duty to tell where. It is notorious that the first thing done was to appoint a number of useless and besmirched officials to various nominal posts about the line, long ere any beginning of the work was thought of. Peking complains of this, but there is unfortunately a good deal of suspic on that the crime here was not in having appropriated funds intended for cons.ruction t their own private uses, but rather that they had forestalled the capitál, All all events the result is much the same; the foreigner has been found to provide the funds, and this time he has engaged to ask no questions. Whether the result is likely to be satisfactory, for either lender or borrower, remains to be seen. Seeing how little sign there is of any disposition to amend, it would certainly seem to be kinder, in the interests of good government in China, and the welfare of people and Government alike, to require some means of practical, control. It is not meet that we should find ourselves in the unenviable position of riveting on China the yoke of the eunuchs, who have already brought her so low. Yet that is what we seem to be. doing, for there is little doubt that here, as in the case of the copper ten-cash issue, certain eunuchs in or about the court of the late EMPRESS DOWAGER could give some account of the money that has been alequandered.
The result of the Russo-Japanese war, which largely turned on the gool use made by Japan of her more rapid means of com munication, at last conviuced the Govern ment itself, that to be safe from attack from without railways had become an actual necessity. Foreigners had been for many years pressing them on Peking, but had overshot the mark by the indecent urgency with which they pressed for concessions all parts of the Empire, with the natural result that the suspicions of Government and people were aroused as to their ultimate objects. What foreigners could do China thought she could do as well, with the ad- ditional advantage to the country that the gains which the foreigners intended to put in their own pocket would thereby acerue to China. The argument was sound as far as it went, ut one thing was kept in the background. Who was to do it? Here at once Cain's old failing came to the front there was no confidence-between rulers and ruled, their interests were different, their methods incompatible. With a system of banking instituted, centuries before Europe had thought of such a thing, and with bank- ing facilities almost as perfect as those of the most advanced nations of the world. China still remained without a currency. The reason she well knew her commerce was carried on by means of silver ingots. These ingots bore no State mark, but merely the impress of a private bank and why? The bank had early learnt the lesson that good faith is the foundation of pro- fitable commerce. The State founded its ordinary practice on the reverse principle that what came into its hands was its own, and not to be enquired into. Time after time the State had essayed to introduce
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