418
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
THE TRANSVAAL AND CHINESE | excessive amount of crime in the Transvaal.
prove
LABOUR.
of
K
4
such as
There are at the present time, we understand, upwards of two hundred (Daily Press, November 8th.)
Chinese in the Transvaal serving life Early next year the last of the Chinese sentences for crimes of violence. Those coolies who migrated to South Africa to who know the Chinese well can only account work in the mines will have returned for the abnormal percentage of crime on the to China, in fulfilment of the pledges ground that they are not properly under given to the electors the United stood and not properly managed by Kingdom, by the Liberal Party at the last their overseers, and we are not sure that general election. Only a couple of ship- the Imperial Government is altogether loads between three and four thousand free from blame in the matter, for the coolies now remain in South Africa to be dispatch of instructions from Downing repatriated, and while the Liberal Party Street requiring the local authorities of the will be able to go to the country next Transvaal to omit from proclamations for January in virtuous glee over a pledge the Transvaal issued for the benefit of the fulfilled, they have utterly failed to Chinese all minatory and hortatory
slavery the allegations of
on sentences,"
are always used which the mandate to repatriate was given in proclamations in China, must have con and have only succeeded in delivering siderably weakened the influence of those who a serious blow to the prosperity of a were set in authority over the coolies in Colony which, if it were permitted to South Africa. It is satisfactory to note from manage its own affairs, would continue to mortality returns submitted to Parliament flourish. It was contended by the people quite recently that in the matter of health, who raised the cry of " Chinese Slavery the Chinese in the Transvaal have had
the natives. The that no necessity existed for the importa- great advantage over tion of Chinese labour, but as the repa- death rate from all causes during the past trication has been proceeding the mine five years has been twice as great among the natives as among the Chinese. It says owners in South Africa have been periencing the greatest difficulty in finding much for the arrangements made for the the necessary labour to keep their mines Chinese by their employers that the returns open, and the situation
that some
of deaths from disease among the Chinese fifty or sixty thousand Chinese have been during the last three years has been 9, 8, and returned to China has become serious for 6 per 1,000 respectively, while among the the industry on which the prosperity of natives it was 27, 29 and 28. We cannot the Transvaal so largely depends. South doubt that native labour is more plentiful African interests, however, are not likely to in South Africa now than it was immediately receive much attention in the general after the war, but it is clear from the election which takes place in the United wails going up from the Rand that it Kingdom next January, but the matter is is still inadequate to the needs of the great almost certain to engage the serious atten-industry on which the whole prosperity of tion of the next Parliament before it is many the Transvaal depend, and the old problem months old. It will be remembered that in the Rand is therefore gradually being just prior to the introduction of Chinese constituted. labour into the Transvaal a severe crisis
now
ex-
in the mining industry had been reached owing to the scarcity of native labour, A prolongation of the state of affairs then prevailing was regarded as foreshadowing c state of bankruptcy. The Transvaal Legis-. lative Council, by 22 votes to 4, adopted a resolution requesting the Government to introduce a Draft Ordinance providing for the importation of indentured unskilled coloured labourers to supplement the labour
The of the Witwatersrand. House of Commons, after warmly discussing the matter, left it to the Transvaal to make the experiment on certain condi- tions, and at a later date rejected, by 51 votes, a proposal condemning the Ordin- ance which the Transvaal Legislature had passed. Although it has been asserted
that the Chinese as miners are
less efficient as well as more costly than the Kafirs, the statistics of
-
|
(November 13, 1909.
But the Board has promised to provide towards the initial cost of the naval pro- gramme a sum of of five million taels, and to require the Provinces to provide between thirteen millions, of which our them neighbouring provinces of Kwangtung and Kwangsi provide four-two millions each- and the remaining provinces much smaller contributions, in three cases only a lakh each. This is some evidence of the intention of China to improve her defences. At the same time a big scheme of army reorganisation appears to be in progress, the object of the scheme being the creation of an army consist- ing of no fewer than 37 divisions, sub-divided into 444 battalions, 111 squadrons of cavalry, 380 batteries, 37 battalions of engineers, and the same number of army trains. By. the year 1912 it is hoped to have an army of 14,000 officers and 380,000 men, and by 1920, it is expected to have 1,200,000 men en-. rolled. It looks magnificent on paper, but seeing that the Chinese Government finds that it is already experiencing the greatest difficulty in making ends meet, the schemes are not likely, we fancy, to mature as soon as their authors rashly predict. Yet when the only obstacle, is want of funds we cannot be too confident in our predictions of failure, it is really astonishing what the for provinces are able to do in the way of finding funds when Peking applies the The Provincial revenues are remark- screw. ably elastic. One prediction, however, can be made with the utmost confidence, namely, that these increasing demands upon
the Provinces must accelerate the scheme of financial reorganisation which is recognised by the Government to be necessary. Given a thorough reform of her fiscal system, China could easily provide for these naval and military schemes. ROBERT HART a few years ago estimated the possible revenue from a reform of the Land Tax alone at 400 million taels on the basis
Sír
CHINA S NAVAL AND MILITARY of ten tael cents per mow, and, as Mr. MORSE
PLANS.
has remarked, a good illustration of the obscurity which veils the finances of China is furnished by the difference between the reported collection, Tls. 26,000,000, the almost proveable actual collection, Tls. 102,000,000, and the possible collection esti- mated by high authorities at Tls. 375,000,000 to Tls. 400,000,000. When Sir ROBERT HART made his computation it was with the view of indicating to the Chinese Govern- inent how funds' could be provided for an adequate defensive force. His scheme in- cluded the creation of three naval squadrons, the Northern, Southern and Central, each to consist of ten big ships battleships and cruisers, 10 second-class cruisers, 10 torpedo- 50 torpedo-boats. boat destroyers, and Nothing has been heard of that scheme since it was submitted in 1904.
Half
(Daily Press, November 9th.) The recent departure from China of Prince TSAI HSUN accompanied by Admiral SA and Sir CHEN-TUNG LIANG CHENG as a Naval Commission to study the naval affairs of foreign countries seems to have raised very high expectations in shipbuilding circles both in Europe and America, but it is not clear from any of the official announcements that have been made in Peking that the purchasing of a fleet or shiploads of ammu nition forms any part of the commission. The Prince is merely directed to study the provisions made by other countries for the defence of their territory, trade and com- merce, with, of course, the ultimate prospect of China reorganising her naval defences on
a dozen torpedo boats and four river the lines which the Government, with the gunboats have been built for China during best suited to the needs and circumstances would seem to be sheer folly for the Chinese of China. It is true that after the inspec- Government to embark on any big scheine of tion the Commissioners made of China's naval expansion before placing the finances of the Empire on a better footing, so that present naval defences they presented to the Throne some proposals for dock accom-
it may be seen from a properly compiled modation, gun factories and naval schools national budget what the carefully estimated at a total estimated cost of five million taels, expenditure on the defences will amount to and recommended the purchase of one battle-each year, and what revenue can be allocated ship, three second-class and three third-class for the purpose. It is very probable that cruisers, two torpedo-boats and two training meanwhile the recommendations of the ships, at an estimated cost of sixteen million Naval Commission will keep company with taels, and the Commissioners estimated that
pigeon-hole. another two million taels would be needed those of Sir ROBERT HART, in a musty annually for maintenance-altogether
In some recent garrison orders at Singapore twenty-three million taels. But when the scheme was brought to the notice of the it is stated The Royal Engineers are in Board of Finance, that much-dunned De-possession of an efficacious white ant extermina- "We for, and on being applied to by C. O's. will make partment of the Government replied : have no funds in the Imperial treasury, and the necessary arrangements for applying it.' and Provincial treasuries are also empty." Hongkong could do with some of it.
the output of gold during the time the advice of the Commission, may deem to be the past two years; and that is all. Indeed it Chinese have been employed in the mines show an immense improvement on previous figures. In 1903 the output was twelve millions, in 1904 it was sixteen millions, in 1905 nearly twenty-one millions; and in 1907, nearly twenty-seven millions and a half.
We have not the statistics for last year, but news has for some time past been coming from the Witwatersrand that the output is falling off owing to scarcity of labour, and notwithstanding that much time-saving machinery seems to have been
introduced into the mines while the
repatriation of Chinese labour has been proceeding.
It cannot be said that the introduc- tion of the Chinese into the Transvaal has produced the evils anticipated, but. it has to be confessed that Chinese immigrants have been responsible for an
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