564-
FAR EASTERN TELEGRAMS.
REPORTED OBSTRUCTION OF
JAPANESE.
Tokyo, June 23rd. The Foreign Office has received a report from the Japanese Consul at Hankow relating to the obstruction of Japanese trading in the interior, due, it is alleged, to the unwarrantable interference of the German Consul at Hankow on behalf of his nationals.
FEOM THE “CHUNG NGOI BAN PO. ]
PROPOSED CHINESE TAX ON CIGARETTES.
Peking. June 24th. The Ministry of Finance recommends the imposition of a heavy likin tax on cigarettes instead of raising the likin tax on salt which is already very heavy.
A VICEROY DISMISSED.
Peking, June 24th. An Edict has been issued dismissing Sing Wan, the Viceroy of Kansu Provinces.
and
ILLNESS OF A VICEROY.
Shensi
Peking, June 24th. The Viceroy of Chili (the successor of Yuan Shih Kai) is dangerously ill.
HAIPHONG TO PARIS IN 20 DAYS.
The President of the Chamber of Commerce at Hanoi has addressed to the Governor-General of Indo-China a letter suggesting a steamship line between Haiphong, Hongkong and Shang hai. The Avenir du Tonkin learns that the proposal is that three 16-knot steamers of 1,500 tons shall be placed on the run, the line to receive an annual subvention of about 1,20 0,000 francs. A. steamship service to Shanghai, it is pointed out, would give passengers the option of three routes to Europe-(1) Via Vladiwostock in 24 days; (2) via Hankow and Peking, 25 days; via Dalny 22 days. But our contemporary suggests that Dalny and not Shanghai should be the terminus, and that the postal subvention should not be less than 1,500,000 francs. It is pointed out that the movement of traffic between Hongkong and Shanghai is nil, and speed being the great desideratum it would be inadvisable for the steamers of the line to take in cargo or discharge Shanghai cargo at Hongkong. It would probably mean a loss of two days in the transit of the mails. By a fast service to Dalny the mails could reach Paris in 20 days, from Haiphong to Dalny 8 days, from Dalny to
Paris 12.
CHINA'S LOST RIGHTS.
The Waiwupu has reported to the Throne items enumerating China's lost rights which ought to be restored gradually, of which the important ones are as follow:-
1-Judicial Rights.-At present Consular jurisdiction is still in existence in China, and Mixed Courts are still in various open ports and towns.
2.-Tariffs.-Foreign countries have their own tariffs decided by themselves, but in China only tariffs agreed with foreign powers are levied. Thus it is impossible to increase the items and amounts of tariffs of China's own accord.
3.-Postal Service.-In China there are many foreign post offices in various ports, which fact is an infringement of China's rights of adminis-
tration of communications.
4.-Monetary.-In foreign countries no foreign money is allowed to be used, but in China there are many foreign moneys in circula- tion which influence China's finance a great deal.
Besides these there are many others such as right of policing, the right of land ownership, mining, transportation on land and water, the right of trade in the interior, etc.—The Eastern Times.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
SHIPPING NOTES.
The Great Northern Co.'s steamer Dakota, which struck a reef off Shirahama, Japan, in May, 1907, and later sank, is being salved by men employed under Mr. Yamashina, a marine engineer of Tokyo.
for the statement that on account of the anti- The Japanese newspaper Nippon is authority Japanese boycott in South China since the Tatsu-maru affair last year, the Nippon Yu en Kaisha and the Toyo Kisen Kaisha have lost about Y 700,000 and Y 800,000 in freights respectively.
At Yokohama the hearing has been com- menced of an action brought by the Tokyo Marine Insurance Company, Yaesucho, Tokyo, against the Compagnie des Messageries Mari. times, claiming the payment of Y.79,020 for the sinking of the steamer Iburi-maru, of the Hokkaido Coal-mining and Steamship Company, in collision with the steamer Sydney, of the defendant Company, on January 24th this year in the mouth of Tokyo Bay. The steamer Iburi. maru was insured with the plaintiff Company for Y.80.000 for one year. The sum of Y.79,020 is the balance of this amount, after deducting the proceeds from the auction sale of the Iburi-maru.
SHANGHAI TRADE.
Messrs. Ilbert and Co.'s Piece Goods Market Report says:-
[June 26, 1909. “
CORRESPONDENCE.
A MACAO GRIEVANCE,
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS."]
oom-
Macao, 23rd June, 1909. SIR, Your Macao correspondent, in menting lately upon the present stringency in both the Municipal and Colonial coffers here, suggested as a panacea that the number of useless officials might be reduced. There is, of course, a lot to be said in favour of this but there is another channel proposition, through which a good deal of the Colony's money runs to waste, and which, I think, ought to be checked. I refer to the enormous sums of money spent yearly in passages for officials, both civil and military, caused by constant trans- ferences and by trips bome by order of the Medical Board.
This form of home leave has been greatly abused. it has been remarked that no matter how depleted the Colonial coffers may be, there is always money for these little trips home. It would be interesting if statistics could be procured of the money spent in this way, say, during the last ten years. It would be safe to put it down to half a million dollars at least. Recently a subordinate official, drawing about $100 a month, went home with his family, whose passages cost the Colony something like $5,000! Now, don't you think, Mr. Editor, this is sheer waste of public money? Could not the post he occupied be filled locally with advantage to the Colony?
Undoubtedly the system of Medical Board leave is responsible for a good deal of unneces- sary expenditure of public funds and opens the door to all sorts of abuses. A nostalgio official feels like taking a trip home. He asks to be submitted to a Medical Board, and if he is influential enough, it is ten to one he gets a trip home at the expense of the Colony. This sort of thing is scandalous and ought to be stopped in future. It is not an uncommon thing for healthy-looking officials to go home on leave of the Medical Board, to avoid premature death! Therefore I say, both from the point of view of public morality and for the sake of our dilapidated finances, this kind of leave ought to be either suppressed or considerably modified.
There has been an improvement noticeable in our market during the week, the beneficial rains which have fallen having put a little heart into buyers for several important outlets, so that altogether a fair volume of sales and resales have taken place. Clearances also, which have been fair, will probably be brisker when the weather clears and admits of the freer movement of cargo. The rapid upward movement of American Cotton has enhanced goods in producing centres to a level which prevents this market from becoming a purchaser for the time being, although the rise in prices quoted is for the main part far from commensurate with the advance in that of cotton since the early part of the spring, and must be upon a very unremunerative scale from the point of view of manufacturers, whose chief difficulty at present appears to be to get work enough to keep going. Whether American cotton can be maintained at its present high level when the
I understand your Hongkong officials also go influence of the new crop begins to be felt, onome pretty often, but then they go at their own the market, is a problem that can only be
expense. answered by the question as to whether the "out
Here the passages of officials and their families are always defrayed by the Colonial of sight" cotton of the last crop is consumed or Treasury-Yours, &c. only hold "out of sight" for speculative reasons.
The improved agriculture prospects have stimulated the yarn market, Bombay spinnings being firm, while local spinnings have been in good request.
The high prices for which the natives have been able to sell their cotton this year is stated to have resulted in a considerable increase up country in the area of ground put under cotton cultivation for next season, but locally a counter
attraction to farmers has been to sow beans in greater quantity than usual, for which the demand for export that had its initative last season has stimulated the value.
PIRATICAL ATTACK NEAR MACAO.
Our Macao correspondent writes:-
Last Thursday might the Macao police received a signal that Colowan was being at tacked by pirates. A posse of police, in charge of a sergeant, was dispatched, but it was remark- ed that the officer in charge at Colowan returned and stayed the night at Macao! The gunboat Rio Ima did not proceed to the scene of the conflict until ten o'clock on Saturday morning. There's activity for you!
"The harbour police on Friday morning
OMEGA FROM THADEUS' DELTA.
GERMANY IN CHINA.
FORTIFYING KIAOCHAU.
On
The work of fortifying Kiaochau, says B Berlin dispatch dated the 31st alt., is being carried out very effectively, and Germany has land side of the peninsula. Hitherto on the now begun to fortify the Protectorate from the southern and eastern approaches enormous marine defence works have been thrown up in the farm of redoubts and coast batteries. | the northern coastline the shallow waters would not allow an enemy's warships to get near the shore, and there the defence works have been only very small. As the Germans hold Kiao- chau by a lease, which will not expire until 1997, it is clear that these new fortifications are intended to show other people that Germany means to resist any attack from the land side
as well as from the sea. At all events, the work referred to has attracted a great deal of atten- tion in official circles in Peking.
A report on the French Budget for the year
seized a couple of junks with large quantities 1898 by the Councillor of H.M. Embassy of arms and ammunition on board. Two days previously two junks similarly laden were seized in Praya Grande Bảy
Great numbers of pirates are about just now, and the police are making daily arrests,
It appears that an attempt was made to capture Colowan."
at Paris shows that the contribution of Indo-China was £546,000. The Chinese indem-
nity figured for £444 868. Amongst the sub- ventions granted to navigation companies a sum of £238,253 is set down for the Indo-China and Japan service.
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