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December 6, 1909.]
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RANDOM REFLECTIONS.
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. from the Upper House since Mr. GLAD- masses to be Sabbatarians at heart. Sunday grammes of several of the Provincial STONE'S Home Rule Bill. The average happens to be the day when little shooting Councils, and it is worthy of note that in attendance of Peers in the House of Lords, parties of foreigners are to be seen in the nearly every one of them mention is made of we believe, is less than thirty, out of a full country districts round about the Canton proposals dealing with debased coinage. assembly of 616, consisting of 3 Princes of delta, and the suggestion that they should be Another matter common to nearly every one the Royal Blood, 2 Archbishops, 22 Dukes, suppressed has been made to the Provincialis educational reform. Some of the pro- 28 Marquesses, 24 Earls, 40. Viscounts, 24 Council and also, we believe, to the Imperial grammes include proposals aiming at a Bishops, 334 Barons, and 16 Scottish and Government by this notoriously anti-foreign uniform system of weights and measures; 28 Irish Representative Peers. The voting Self-Government Society of Canton. The the reform of land registration; taxation on Lord LANSDOWNE'S motion showed an agitation was primarily aimed at the Portu- reform; the improvement of rivers and attendance of 425-only 35 fewer than guese of Macao, the Self-Government water courses, and similar subjects. Where voted in the division on the Home Rule Society finding it useful as a device for the Councils give their serious attention to Bill. It is not improbable that the attend- sustaining among the ignorant masses a questions of this character they are likely to ance on Monday night was even larger than hostile feeling against Portugal while futile justify their existence, but when they fritter when the Home Rule Bill was rejected, efforts were being made to delimitate the away their energies in exciting international because, as we have learnt from the recent boundaries of the Colony of Macao. Prob- jealousies, as the mischievous clique misnam- telegrams, many Peers intended to abstainably the people of Heungshan have beened the Self-Government Society bid the Can- from voting, including Lords ROSEBERY and familiar with shooting parties for upwards tonAssembly todo, they will do far more harm CROMER and the whole body of Spiritual of three centuries, and saw no cause in them than good,. It would be to the advantage Peers, most of whom were doubtless present for alarm until the Self-Government Society of all concerned if His Excellency the to hear the speeches on an occasion which recently, looking through a powerful magni- Viceroy directed the Council's attention to may or may not mark an epoch in the con- fer. discovered that they were hostile the instructions issued for their guidance stitutional history of the country. Though foreign armies. Apart altogether from the and so prevent the Assembly becoming an Radical orators will probably shout them- supremely ridiculous nature of the agitation, object of ridicule when it might indeed selves very hoarse in the coming election, the Council by complying with the behests become a great power for good in the crying Down with the House of Lords," of the Society would be bringing itself into province. we need not take too seriously Mr.disrepute by a flagrant disregard of the in- ASQUITH's prediction of a revolution. This structions of the Constitutional Reform Com- kind of talk was indulged in when the Lords missioners which were expressly designed rejected the Home Rule Bill. Lord LANS- to prevent these Assemblies meddling DOWNE's motion with regard to the Finance with affairs bearing the foreign Bill contains no, suggestion of a veto. relations of China and usurping it simply affirms the principle that the functions of the Imperial Government. The people rule. Therefore, if with no un- Council has questions of far more certain voice the country returns the importance on hand. We do not observe present Government to power with a man- that any progress has been made yet date to insist on the enactment of the with the questions which properly come financial arrangements to which they stand within the province of the Council. committed, that will settle the matter; When the Assembly was formed proposals The House of Lords is not likely to were laid before it dealing with (1) the pro- challenge the supremacy of the will of libition of gambling; (2) the reform of the the people. They have so far merely police system; (3) the reform of the pri- asserted their belief that the weight of sons; (4) elementary and technical education; opinion in the country is opposed to the and (5) changes in the fiscal system aiming Budget proposals. If the verdict of the at the abolition of the Sin Hau Kuk, and country proves this judgment to be woefully making the Provincial Treasurer alone wrong, then the hostility of the new responsible for the collection and custody of House of Commons to the Upper the revenues. Some of these measures were Chamber would doubtless be manifested suggested by the Government and others by in proposals for the amendment of the private.nembers. It is specially interesting constitution of that body. Mr. ASQUITH to Hongkong to learn that a member of the has not yet ventured to indicate that Council has recently brought forward he is prepared to adopt the view of the
a motion dealing with the debased Socialist wing of his party, that the liberties subsidiary coinage of the Canton mint. of the people can only be secured by the His total abolition of the House of Lords, and we doubt if the bulk of the party is likely to go to such a length. Some reform of the constitution of the Chamber has been advocated by many of the most distinguished members of the House of Peers, and that is as far as the Government could safely dare to go. If the refusal to pass the Budget entails any danger of revolution-as Mr. AsonITH has asserted that danger is only likely to arise if and when a majority of the House of Commons can be persuaded to decree the abolition of the Second Chamber. We decline to believe that there is any likelihood of this yet.
I wonder if Kipling would have revised his famous utterance on the subject of muddied oafs during interport cricket week. The “muddied and flannelled fools had he been in Hongkong
oaf's"
were certainly not as apparent as in some English crowds-there was only one spectator who called attention to himself, and he was a visitor who had probably been looking on the wine when it was red-and as for the "flan- nelled fools," he would be a brave man, or rather of the men on the field. They were all keen a rash man, who would apply the term to any commercial or professional men, and showed themselves as belonging to that type beloved of the good amateur sport who knows how to "play the game."
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If anything were needed to illustrate the sporting instincts of the community, it was supplied by the large numbers which daily classes were represented, from His Excellency found their way to the Cricket Ground. All
the Governor down to the schoolboy and the open-eyed wondering Chinese "kid:" At the same time, it occurred to that there must have been quite a number of assistants dodging work, showing that human nature is much the
in Hongkong as in England.
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same
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one
Hongkong emerges as champions of the in- terport triangular contest and Shanghai takes the wooden spoon.
Talking of cricket reminds me of the par- graph I read the other day anent ladies in cricket clubs. Down in Penang a proposition Cricket Club that ladies be allowed the full was submitted at the annual meeting of the
use of the upper floor of the Club. with the exception of the men's card-room and the Secretary's room, and the resolution was opposed by one gentleman on the ground that the Club was a refuge from domesticity. Married men with worrying spouses or teething babies will naturally sympathise with this argument, but it seems as if the days when men can isolate themselves in their clubs are departing. Occasionally ladies are admitted on sufferance to certain hitherto ex- clusively masculine resorts, but Americans are showing the way by taking their wives nightly to their clubs and seeking amusement jointly, instead of the husband pursuing his selfish inclinations. It is interesting to note that the
proposal is that all the 10-cent coins should be called in and reminted of equal intrinsic value with the Hongkong ten cent coin. Our inquiries g go to show that the Hongkong ten-cent coin is far more popular in Canton than the coin of the Chinese mint, because these small coins are weighed rather than counted when paid away in large quantities, and it is therefore to the advantage of the payer that his collections should be in the heavier coin. We have heard it stated, indeed, that Hongkong coin is probably represented by as much as eighty per cent. of the ten-cent coins circulating in Canton. If this is approximately correct, the statement has an interesting bearing on the vexed question as to what amount of Hongkong subsidiary coin would be likely to return to the Colony in the event of the Government deciding to call it in, with the object of issuing a new and distinctive (Daily Press, December 4th.)
coinage. So long as the coins issued from The Self-Government Society of Canton is the Canton mint are of smaller intrinsic still actively engaged in fomenting trouble. value, there would
seem to be little Its latest effort takes the form of an en- likelihood of the Colony being flooded deavour to nobble the Provincial Council | with its
own coinage, But this is of Kwangtung which is asked by this a degression. It will be interesting to learn mischievous society to consider as how the proposal now before the Provincial matter of urgent public importance, Council at Canton is finally dealt with, In view of St. Andrew's Day, when, Scotsmen whether foreigners should be allowed to though at the present rate at which the
meet to tell each other and their favoured guests shoot birds on Sundays! It is not that the Council is progressing with its business we
that they are the salt of the earth, local Scots inauguration of the new measure of local may have to wait a very long time for the the first annual report of the Carnegie Hero will probably thank me for calling attention to self-government has revealed the Chinese decision. We have seen the business pro- / Fund, which shows that the average number of
THE CANTON SELF-GOVERNMENT
SOCIETY.
+
a
resolution to admit ladies to the Penang Cricket Club was carried, and we now expect the members of that institution to be the most refined in the East.
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