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His Majesty the Emperor of Korea was vaccinated recently for the first time, reports the Korea Daily News. The operation was successfully performed by the vice-superinten. dent of the Dai Han hospital.
A few weeks ago the manager of the Shang- hai Tramways addressed a letter to the hang. hai Chamber of Commerce on the subject of Chinese currency. In response to subsequent representations by the Chamber, the Diplomatic Body has nominated a Committee composed of several of their number to enter into direct negotiations with the Waiwupu.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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THE BRITISH BUDGET.
G
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(Daily Press, May 1st.) Now we know the hen roosts the Chancellor of the British Exchequer has for six months past had it in his mind to rob, Careful estimates of the increasing expend ture and the falling revenue showed months go that the Chancellor would be obliged to raise something like fifteen millions of new The actual amount is sixteen and taxation. a half million sterling. Mr. LLOYD GEORGE We recently mentioned that Messrs. Butterfield had himself told the country that he was not going to tax the working and Swire were opening a branch office at Dalny on the 1st inst. We note that Messrs. Samuel. people, and another member of the Go- McGregor and Co. of Shanghai, are also vrument in a burst of frankness last establishing themselves in the port, Mr. C. J. Autumn predicted that when the Govern White being in charge. Mr. W. H. Levyment proce ded to raise the money to meet partner of Messrs. Samuel, Samuel and Co. London, and Mr. D. McGregor of Shanghai, have recently paid a visit to Dalny in connection with the matter.
The Inauguration of Wor. Bro. Robert Sut- cliffe Ivy as Right Worshipful District Grand Master of Northern China F.C.. took place at the Masonic Hall, Shanghai, on the 3 th alt. Wor. Bro. T. F. Hough, D.D.G.M. of Hong. kong and South China, assisted by his officers conducted the ceremony of Installation, in the presence of a large gathering of Masons. After the ceremony, a banquet was given at the Club Concordia at which toasts appropriate to the occasion were duly honoured.
A Captain in the Japanese infantry has been dismissed from the service on proof being obtain- ed of his association with the revolutionary move- ment in China. After the war with Russia he is stated to have maintained communication with Sun Yat-sen. Sent to Hirosaki, he found himself in a position which made it very incon- venient to keep in touch with the Chinese revolutionists. In December last he returned to Tokyo on leave of absence on the pretext of illness, travelled between Shizuoka, Nagoya. and Tokyo in company with Chinese revolu tionists. Recognising the obstacles to free action whilst in the army he sent in his resign. ation. The War Office entertained suspicious of his movements and investigated the circum- stances through the Gendarmerie. Discovering that he was associated with Chinese revolu tionists, his resignation was refused and he was dismissed from the service.
In commenting upon what it terms the British annexation of the Siamese Malay States. a Haiphong newspaper Annam-Toukan-points | out that such a step had been long anticipated. The Treaty which parcelled out Siam into British and French spheres of influence render- ed such an action inevitable, and Britain is quite within her rights in bringing about the an- nexation. But our contemporary says that France must now see to strengthening her hold on the French sphere. Under the Treaty she has rights in the Siamese territory within the valley of the Mekong River, on the right bank. The Journal declares that the boundary line should be shifted so as to follow the parting which divides the feeders of the Mekong from those of the Menam and Salween rivers. This will give France territory which she requires for the commercial development of Laos, the trade of which is now in the hands of Siamese.
British, and Germaofs with Bangkok as centre. Captain A. S. Wilson, a pilot, committed suicide at Shanghai last week in the old cemetery at Pahsienyao. The circumstances of the suicide are full of pathos. The deceased, who had been married twice, and whose wives were buried in the cemetery, was seen wandering in the vicinity of their graves early in the morning. He returned to the cemetery at 1. p.m. and about 2.10 p.m. the gardener heard the report of a revolver shot. Captain Wilson had ended his life on the grave of his first wife, and it was across it that the body was found when the police arrived on the scene. No document of any kind was found on deceased's person, but it is believed that for some time past he had been depressed by financial worry. By profes- sion he was a pilot, and though he had not been employed for some time, he was offered the task of taking a vessel up to Wuhu a few days previously. This offer he refused. His first wife died in 1886; the second three years ago. Deceased was about sixty years of ago.
[May 10, 1909. burdens in the way of taxes and licences, and the duties on spirits and tobacco are increased.
The Budget proposals are in short a direct attack on Capital. So far as the increased tax on motors is con- cerned, we fancy that would be widely approved if the proceeds found their way into the treasuries of the local governments who, ac motor cars have come into general use, have had to increase their expenditure on the maintenance of the public highways. But it is not for this that the increased toll is demanded by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It is doubt- less a popular thing to propose a system of democratic finance such as Mr. LLOYD GEORGE has invited the House of Com- the expected deficit they would be described mons to adopt; but in practice people LS a sct of thieves and plunderers. These are far too apt to find that what is called two declarations indicated pretty clearly taxing the capitalist usually ends in taxing the nature of the proposals the Chancellor the labourer, for the rich man, though of the Exchequer would embody in his he may groan and declare that he is Budget statement. Ever since then there being robbed, generally manages to shift has been a settled conviction in the public the burden on to other shoulders. There mind that the Government were relying on can be no doubt whatever in the minds of some drastic method of graduated taxation, all thoughtful men that legislation of this and the telegraphic summary of the character is likely 10 do incalculable injury Budget statement which we publish to the country, and is certain to retard that this morning shows the inference to have improvement in trade which is the only been perfectly correct. The Budget has been solution of the problems of poverty and framed on the lines of what Mr. LLOYD-nd unemployment which the Government
EORGE would call "true, democratic profess to be so anxious to sòlve. nance. In the case of earned income- not exceeding £500 there is to be some abatement of the tax in respect of every hild under sixteen years of ave who
• maintained out of that income; and there is to be no increase in the income tax However it is going to he brought about, on earned incomes not exceeding £3,000-igns are not wanting that China is ripen. per annum; but incomes above that amounting for a revolution, the greatest that has as are to be charged an extr 2 in the yet happened in any Asiatic country. (making 1s 2d in all), while in the case of incomes exceeling £5 000 per annum it is proposed to impose what is called a
(6 super
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of 6d in the £, so we take it that the man earning over £5,000 a year will have to pay income tax at the rate of 1s. 8d. in be £. Then, in addition, there is to be a re-adjustment" of the death and succession Juties to provide another four millions, or about 20 per cent more than they do no. And it is quite in accordance with Mr. LLOYD GEORGE's ideas of democrati finance that motors should be made
to
bear a much heavier tax than they bear now. Four-wheel motors not exceed ng one ton pay a license fee of two guineas, while motors not exceeding five tous pay a fee of five guineas. It is proposed that the scale of taxa'ion on these vehicles shall in future range from two to forty guineas! During the last two or three years there has been a great development of this traffic in England. According to the latest statistics to which we are able to refer there were in Great Britain at the end of 1907, 61,617 motor cars used for touring purposes, and 4,124 used for commercial purposes, while the number of motor cycles in use Was 53,877. As compared with the returns for 1906, the percentage of increase in the case of touring was 34; and in that of commercial cars 52. With increase of competition in this industry and consequent cheapening of cost, we may suppose that the number of such vehicles in use at the present time shows a substantial increase
on
cars
the figures we have quoted. The motorist is still further attacked by the proposal to place a tax of 3d per gallon on petrol, the fuel he uses. Then we have the taxation of unearned increments in the value of urban land, as well as a tax on undeveloped urban land. The Licensed Victuallers are required to bear increased
A COMING REVOLUTION IN
CHINA.
(Daily Press, May 3rd.)
Whether it will be bloodless, or be accom- panied with those scenes of rapine and disorder which have bitherto made changes of government in China a hyeword amongst the nations of the world, is hidden in the womb of futurity; but, as happened in Turkey the other day, the chances seem to indicate that the powers of re-action are so strong and so united hat it seems impossible to bring about any single one of the reforms acknowledged to be nerded for the continuance of the Empire without an appeal to arms. As usually happens before revolutions come to a head, the main trouble in China is financial; and the discovery of the enormous hoard amassed by the late EMPRESS DOWAGER, and veritably wrung from the tears of the nation, is not unlikely to quicken the outside demand for some radical change in the methods of imperial government; and this is likely enough to drive the reactionary party, still physically strong, into overt action on the first symptom of a real intention to put the views of the reforming party, which curiously enough has its head quarters in the preseat Regency, into practice.
We mentioned lately an instance of the and determination of the re-actionary power party to permit no interference with what it has come to consider as its vested rights, in the case of the likin forcibly levied on goods being conveyed by the Shanghai-Nanking Railway, which has resulted in the almost complete annihilation of the incipient goods traffic of the line. This action, evidently of prior intent, has brought the reactionary party into direct opposition to the Regency; and we find the latter proposing to take up the scheme foreshadowed in Sir JAMES MACKAY's abortive Convention, of raising the duties all round, and paying them direct to Peking; and it is doubtless in connection with this not altogether satis
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