184
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
possible, the consumption of opium in all places where the Colonial Office had rule.
Mr. Verney expressed dissatisfaction with the statement which he understood the Under- Secretary to have made that it was intended to create a Government monopoly in opium in the Federated Malay States. He commended to the Government as worthy of imitation the action of the Siamese Government in extirpating gambling dens which had been a Government monopoly in Siam and had yielded a large revenue, and of the Japanese Government in taking drastic means to exclude opium from their country to the immense advantage of its people.
THE QUESTION OF RAILWAY STATIONS.
THE TIENTSIN-PUKOW LINE.
On the occasion of the retirement of Li-Te- Shun, the director of the Northern part of the Tientsin-Pukow Railway, it was asserted that he had endeavoured to cause the railway station at Tientsin to be constructed in the neighbourhood of the German settlement and that he had received large sums of money as u bribe for that purpose from the Deutsch- Asiatische Bank connected with that company.
We have been asked to state that, although it was a question at the beginning of the nogotiations of constructing the station partly. on German, partly on English territory, never- theless, during the course of the whole negoti ations, which were conducted with full publicity neither from the German nor from the English side were offers or promises of any kind made to the Chinese negotiators nor to any other Chinese officials.
In the further course of negotiations, the Chinese Government, quite according to European custom and with full publicity
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demanded from both of the concessions. .a subsidy towards the expenses of building the railway, which subsidy was quoted at such a high figure that negotiations had to be given up as hopeless.
When finally the site for the projected station was selected at a spot far removed from the European settlements (which caused these settlements to take no further interest in the matter) a Chinese syndicate, knowing how matters stood, bought up large quantities of
-
that
The Chinese Government on the 13th. inst. sent a reply which the Japanese Government thought justified them in assuming China was fully prepared to recognize the im- mediate necessity of reconstructing the Antung- Mukden line and that she desired to render all necessary co-operation in carrying out the
The undertaking.
Japanese Government thereupon, in consideration of the friendly re- lations between China and Japan, instructed, Mr. T. Koike, Japanese consul-general at Muk- den, to sign a memorandum with H. E. Viceroy Hai Liang, and accordingly on the 19th inst. a memorandum to the following effect was signed.
1. The same gauge as that of the Teking Mukden railway shall be adopted.
2. Foth Japan and China shall recognize and approve the whole line as already surveyed and agreed to by the commissioners of both Governments, but the location of that portion of the line. from Chen-Hsiangtung to Mukden shall remain to be decided by mutual conference
between the two countries.
3. On and from the date when the memoran-
dum is signed, negotiations for the purchase of land and for the adjustment of all other details
shall be instituted
signing of memorandum, that is to say, from 4 From that time, the day following, the the day after the negotiations above mentioned are instituted, the work of the reconstruction shall be accelerated.
5. hina shall instruct the local officials along the line to give every facility regarding the execution of the work.
THE HEALTH OF WEIHAIWEI.
[August 30, 1909.
AMARAL AND MESQUITA.
1849-1909.
[Byja Portuguese Contributor.] Sixty years ago two memorable events took place in Macao. Une Was the cowardly assassination of the then Governor, João Maris Ferreira de Amaral, on the 22nd August, 1849, and the other the heroic attack and the taking of Pak-sa-leang fortress by Lieutenant Mesquita with 36 soldiers under his command-on the 25th August, 1849,
de Amaral landed at Macao to assume the History tells us that when Governor Ferreira Governorship on the 21st April, 1846, he made a solemn oath to emancipate the Colony from the yoke of the mandarins, and he fulfilled this row at the cost of his life. The fiscal adminis tration of the Colony was at the time controlled by the mandarins. Custom houses were established within the city, Customs dues were collected and paid to the Imperial Government, a Chinese tribunal tried and condemned Chinese
subjects, the prefect and sub-prefect of Heung- shan and hiusan respectively exercised certain powers over the mandarins residing in Macao, and all sorts of abuses were tolerated within the
Portuguese territory to the great detriment of
the nation.
did
not
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Governor Ferreira de Amaral soon put a stop to all these abuses. He ordered the Customs stations to, be at once removed and refused to allow anythinese tribunal within the city. The Chinese mandarins had no alternative but to retire to Chinese territory. They Their meekly obey, however. first attempt at resistance was to arrange & boycott by the passenger junks, which was In view of the alarmist rumours that have immediately suppressed by the energy of the apparently reached Shanghai of ailments among Governor, and things went on with apparent the children staying here, I made some investi-smoothness until a certain number of desperadoes. gations to-day. Among forty-three children of paid for by the mandarins, one day ambushed whom I obtained news, there have been five
the Governor while riding across the Pagoda cases of dysentery altogether, three serious of Passaleas, and decapitated him, carrying and two slight, a very small percentage when away the head to the mandarins as proof of
The Weihaiwei correspondent of the N, C.- Daily News writing on Aug. 20th says:
one
remembers the number of delicate and
saro
their
now
sickly children included in the forty-three who are sent up North "to lives, and the majority of whom are looking plump and rosy. in spite of the high temperature and rain that we have had to put
with this year. of a delicate infant who arrived, I am told, in a One death his occurred, that Tery sickly condition. I am informed that there is no reason to suppose that the hotels of Wei- haiwei are in any way responsible for the
up near the pot chosen, as a speculation. land The German and English communities were neither directly now indirectly concerned in this matter.
THE ANTUNG-MUKDEN RAILWAY QUE TION.
RECENT NEGOTIATIONS.
Mr. Ijuin. Japanese Minister to China, on the 6th inst. notified the Chinese Government
disease.
I also hear of two children who are ill, one in Half Moon Bay of dysentery, and one in Port Edward of enteritis, and I believe a
case of scarlet fever has just developed on the
Island.
I gathered these details from the Officer of ealth, Dr. Muat, and from the manageress of one of the principal hotels, the sanitary condi- tions of which are approved by the Officer of Health. As an extra measure of precaution distilled water only is now supplied at this hotel. In addition to Dr. Muat, I know of two doctors staying here, one on the mainl:ud and one on the island, to say nothing of the naval service for his Majesty's ships.
PUBLIC WORK IN THE PHILIPPINES.
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that the work of reconstructing the Autung Mukden railway line would be forthwith under- taken.
To this intimation the Chinese Government replied, on the 7th. inst., stating that China did not insist upon her objections regarding the change of the existing gange or to such rectification of the line as was found to be technically necessary. The reply also ex- pressed a desire that the question of the recetification of the line might be submitted to the Commissioners to be appointed by the two countries. Mr. Ijuin on the 10th. inst., in
Concerning the military improvements at persiance of instructions from the Japanese Corregidor, olonel Bellinger informed a San i Government, addressed a Note to the Chinese Francisco newspaper reporter :-
When the Government pointing out that the proposed warehouses are finished they will have a capacity change in the location of the line was not for a two years' supply, and ultimately the only confined to what was absolutely necess- Government expects to have a post there to the ary from technical considerations, but it was, strength of twenty coast artillery companies." in fact, ba sed on the result of the joint survey This, of course, is some distance in the future, already made by the Commissioners of
as the appropriations have just been made for both Governments. The Note added that un-
the beginning of the construction of these der these circumstances there would be no
buildings. The sum of $850,000 has been necessity for dispatching joint commissioners appropriated as a starter toward a warehouse, for the purpose of repeating surveys which had officers quarters and barracks for the men, already been completed, and consequently that | $600,000 of which will be utilized toward the it was desirable that the Chinese Government. quarters, the other $250,000 to go toward the in view of the urgent necessity for speedy re-depot." construction of the line, should at once approve of that portion of the line which has been already surveyed and agreed upon by the Commissioners of both Governments.
olonel Bellinger was the guest of honour at a farewell luncheon by the Chamber of on- merce, San Francisco, recently before return- ing to the Philippines.
their claim to remuneration.
Calling out
As soon as the news of the assassination of the Governor reached the city and the warding was given that an invasion of the Chinese was cont. mplated immediately, the brave Lieutenant Mesquita went to the Headquarters and asked permission to attack the fortress of Pak-Sa- leang, which was held by 400 Chinese soldiers with 18 guns and surrounded by about 2,000 natives with some artillery. The Council, admiring the courage of the young lieutenant, gave him permission to march. to his comrades—“ Follow me.who wish to die! only 36 soldiers stepped forward. They marched courageously towards the fort, delivered their attack and the enemy, regarding the soldiers as devils, fied in all directions, abandoning- guns ammunition and all other impediments. Mes- quita planted the national ensign, and the victors expressed their joy in cheers. To-day (the 25th August) completes the 60th anniversary of this victory of Pak-Sa-leang. memory of this brave soldier and his comrades
be honoured!
Let the
Lient. Mesquita and his 36 brate comrades were all born in Macao. Only one of them is still alive, r. Luiz Marine do Rozario, who is still residing at Macao and is nearing the eightieth year of his age.
THE WASHERMAN.
Gaunt and scraggy Lean and raggy! In his bag he Dips to find Shirts and sockses," Ladies' "Frockses,” Nothing shocks his Native mind! By the water
(With his daughter, Where he's wrought a Thousand rents, There he swings 'em, Wrings 'em, flings 'em! And he brings em One month hence!
- Foochow Echo
f
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