August 21, 1909.]
14 hrs. 35 min. A day or two later manœuvTOS of another division took place on a plain near Tokyo, when four men were killed by heat and sixty were placed on the sick list. In this low- lying and unprotected region the temperature was 130 degrees. Other "accidents" of a similar nature have occurred, and the question which arises is whether the authorities have the slightest justification in time of peace in compelling the rank and file to undergo such painful ordeals,
CONDITIONS OF THE MARCH.
a
To do 30 miles in midsummer is not a difficult task by any means, provided the walker is well equipped for the work, but this cannot be said of the Japanese soldier. It seems strange at first thought that there should be any room for criticism after experienced authorities had deliberated upon and decided that such uniform was the best for midsummer wear. One would think that the first object of the military authorities would be the health of the men and their comfort, but both were utterly disregarded in the Osaka march and in the manœuvres. The men may have been sub- mitted to such a trial with the object of harden ing them, which indeed is the excuse that has since been put forward by the War Depart- ment, but such a process of "hardening" appears to bear
close resemblance to the bitter experiences of many of the youthful characters in the pages of Dickens, the victims of brutal masters, whose brutality was often of a refined sort and administered with much unctions moralising, Such processes do not harden but break the spirit and ruin the body. It is possible that a very small percentage of the Osaka Regiment was not harmed in a material degree by the march, but the great majority, even if they did not fall out on the way, could not be improved by such an experience.
very
Clothing and footgear are of the very first importance in a long march. The regulation boots in Japan are the ugliest and most ill- fitting things imaginable. They are heavy and a torture for summer wear. I have often been struck in Tokyo by the slipshod appearance of the soldiers, whose low-fitting boots cut just above the ankle slip up and down as the wearer walks, often displaying a heelless sock. The man who is compelled to walk in such things in this weather is to be sympathised with. Far better the native waraji, light sandals made of straw, which can be easily thrown away when worn out and replaced by new ones. The summer uniform is now of khaki, it used to be white, and this is generally very loose-fitting and of no particular style. The question whether the khaki material con- tributed to the exhaustion of the men is now under discussion, and it is possible that the authorities will revert next year to the former colour. A tight belt, of course, does not fit & man for a long walk. In addition to bayonet and rifle the troops carried 80 lbs. on the back, and as these roughly-shod and heavily-accoutred men marched through the choking dust, lying deep on the burning roadway, many fell in their tracks and were worse off than they would have been on the actual battlefield, for no Red Cross was near and they had to be" returned to Osaka, there to be medically treated.
DISCIPLINE AND MOTIVE.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
The whole subject of these endurance trials raises a very interesting question. The con- tention that the soldier should be inured in time of peace to the hardships he will experience in time of war-does this justify the reckless abuse of the men as exemplified in the recent marches and manoeuvres? History furnishes examples of great feats in war by unskilled men fired by & patriotic motive. Japanese troops fired by similar motives are good for anything, but at Osaka there was no call on the patriotism, the bravery, or the endurance of the men beyond the orders of mere regulations. No great object was to be achieved, such as to rouse the best qualities in each man's breast, and unsup- ported by this moral stimulus the men were so much less able to en lure. They know there was no reason in such great exertion, and heuce, probably, the collapse of many who might have withstood the ordeal in a time of actual war,; when everything depended upon them.
Colonel George R. Colton, who succeeded Mr. Shuster as Collector of Customs in the Philip pines, has tendered his resignation.
COMPANY PROMOTION IN
HONGKONG.
The following letter is reproduced from the Financial Times:
167
the incorporation of the intended Company either under English or Hongkong law, and the only difference between the two is that in England every prospectus issued on behalf of an incorporated or intended Company must be signed by the directors of proposed directors and filed for registration before being issued; in Hong- kong it does not require to be registered either before or after issue. The object of insisting on the registration of a prospectus is to enable the prospectus to be on record if proceedings should subsequently be taken against directors for misrepresentations, but there is no magic in registration itself. A company, therefore, does pectus is issued, although as a matter of practice not require to be incorporated before the pros- it is usual and preferable that the Company should be incorporated before application is made for public subscription. The question of the administration of Companies in China is beset with difficulties which are not likely to be solved by letters such as the one quoted. It is, of course, more than open to doubt whether the Ordinances should not be made stricter. In one respect their laxity has been officially recognized. Numerous cases have arisen in which a company registered as british does not possess a single british director; and for such concerns the British Government has refused to allow consular protection to be exercised.
Sir,-As you are aware, the Hongkong Com pany Ordinances were framed to afford facilities for the registration and working of companies wishing to trade under the limited liability laws. As a 'general rale these ordinances follow the English Company Acts, but owing to lack of supervision on the part of the Hongkong Govern ment various abuses have crept in, and unscrupu- lous persons have not been slow to take advantage of the loose administration of the ordinances, especially when these companies operate outside actual British territory. 4ompanies registered in Hongkong, but working in China, can be brought under the jurisdiction of the British Supreme Court at Shanghai, but the Court has no jurisdiction whatever over persons of other nationalities who may commit all sorts of offences against the Hongkong Ordinances without being brought to book. Of course these persons can be charged in their own Consular. Courts, but when they 'claim protection of some small South American State in nine cases out of ten they escape punishment. There are num- bers of companies trading here which are regis- tered in Hongkong, but all the directors, managers and capital are of foreign origin, and OUR PHILIPPINES EXPERIMENT: ' in case of default persons making contracts with such concerns have no redress.
No doubt the question is a difficult one, and one can understand the reluctance of the Hongkong Government to take action, but what is to be said of the authorities who openly permit the Company Acts being broken? We have here a Crown Advocate, who, in a sense, occupies the place of the public prosecutor at home. The English Company laws do not permit of a company inviting public subscriptions until it has registered at Somerset House its memorandum and articles of associa- tion and filed with the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies a copy of the prospectus. Practically the same regulations are in force in Hongkong, but in a prospectus published here to-day public subscriptions were being invited for a company before it had been registered. The promoters are prominent British subjects and no action whatever is being taken. Is it to be wondered at that foreigners defy the Hongkong Ordinances when British subjects of standing do so? In this case the company will be registered only if the flotation is successful.
In addressing this letter to you I do so in the hope that the publicity accorded to it in your widely-read paper will induce the authorities to put a stop to a state of affairs which is fast degenerating into a scandal.-I
etc.,
am,
A BRITISH MANUFACTUER. Shanghai, June 19.
13
AMERICA'S MISSION AND ITS FRUITS.
from The following is taken
the San Francisco Chronicle:--
į
Last year there were imported into the Philip- pines goods to the value of about $29,000,000, of which we supplied, in addition to what was imported for our Army and other Americans, to the amount of about $5,000,000. Assuming that in what we sold there was a profit of 20 per cent., our gross income from the Philippines experiment last year was $1,000,000. Our gross outgo is difficult to compute. It would be made- up of about one-third the pay of our Army, one- third the expenses of our Navy, the entire cost of the transport service and the entire difference between the cost of maintaining troops in Philippines and here, and whatever we may expend for lighthouses, harhours and forti- fications in those islands-certainly $100,000,000. The question is whether it pays in money, which it evidently does not and is not likely to, and whether, regardless of profit, we are engaged in a holy mission which we are bound to pursue in the name of civilization and humanity.
1
If we are prosecuting a "mission, it is pertinent to inquire who sent us. if it be said that it is" the Lord," the demand for evidence cannot be supplied. If it be said that it is, the inner consciousness of the American people, the... answer is that the American people are greatly." divided on the subject. The two-thirds vote in the Senate which ratified the treaty which gave us the Philippines--by one or two votes obtained by Colonel William J. Bryan-probably indicat ed very closely the division of sentiment atí that time. At the present time, after ten years of trial, it is improbable that as a new proposi tion the annexation of the Philippines would come near getting even a majority vote in Congress or before the people.
letter, says: -The difficulties of this subject are, The N.-C. Daily News, commenting on the perhaps, better illustrated by the letter than its writer may have quite realized. In the first place he calls attention quite correctly but in a very extravagant manner to the difficulty of bringing non-British directors of companies registered under the Hongkong Ordinances who against the Ordinances. But when he passes on do not reside in Hongkong to book for offences to say that "practically the same regulations never liked: us, and like us now not so As for the Filipinos themselves, they have (as in England) are in force in Hongkong," well as before acquaintance. The millions he entirely misrepresents the actual state and odd of them who have any education of affairs. The English Companies Act of 1862 nearly all desire independence Treamably was considerably modified by the Companies that they may exploit with more satisfac Act of 1900, which was passed for the purpose of preventing the issue of fraudulent pros
tion and profit the eight or nine millions pectuses, and contains stringent provisions as
of their countrymen, who have no education and who some hold to be eternally and irrevocably. to the steps to be taken by Companies propos predestined to exploitation by somebody As ing to invite public subscription. These pro for those uneducated millions, they do not seem Hongkong Company Ordinances, which are
been incorporated in the to care except that they hate Americans because-
Americans despise them. As to what we are based on the English Company Act of 1862, doing there, we are doubtless touching thể and the result is that Company law under Filipinos to desire things which cost money the Hongkong Ordinance is less strict than which they must work harder than before to get. under the English Acts. The specific instance Thus far there is no evidence that we have to which the writer alludes as a violation of the increased their happiness and contentment Hongkong Ordinance is not a violation of the thereby. Upon the whole are the Philippines Hongkong Ordinance, nor would it be a violation worth while? Are Americans worth while to of the English Company Acts. There is the Filipinos? Just what is “humanity". nothing illegal in issuing a prospectus before I whatever that is➡gaining by our odenpation ? -
visions have never
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