520
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND Petersburg, and returns to Peking in Janu- maintenance it would be folly to build a ary, when the results of their investigations Fleet, and the sooner that is recognised will be embodied in a report to be sub- and accepted the better for China. mitted to the PRINCE REGENT. Contrary We have previously expressed the belief to announcements recently published in the that this determination to develop her American Press, the Commission has no Navy will perhaps do more than anything authority to place definite orders for war- else to compel recognition of the imperative hips. Admiral SAH, when questioned on need of a scheme of financial reform which this point in London, disposed of the report shall comprehend the annual compilation of by saying" We have no such authority. a National Budget. Not much progress Eventually there is little doubt that such will be made with the naval plans of the orders will be placed over here, but not for Government before that is done, and, in any at least three or four years, and until our case, it is unlikely, we think, that China will
commence with finances are in a stronger condition and we
the big shipbuilding some of the have completed the first portion of our programme mentioned in plans." We very much doubt whether there Chinese newspapers. Before China goes is at present anything like a correct apprecia-in for Dreadnoughts she will need
cruisers tion by the Government, at Peking of the more
as and destroyers a financial problem associated with the creation training squadron, and the larger units of an Imperial Navy. Many plans have can be added later when she has trained recently been discussed in China for raising sufficient men to man them. In this con- the necessary funds, and the latest contribu- nection it is interesting to note that there tion we have seen is the following :- No is no inclination to seek foreign help in the plan has yet been definitely adopted. The traming of the Navy" think we can most effective seemed to be to resume the get along by ourselves,” Admiral San sale of official ranks, but as this was forbid- answered when questioned on this sub- den by Edict, a reward of patents of nobility ject in London-which will perhaps be to be granted in return for contributions regarded as one more reason why the world was deemed better. The Ministry of Finance should not be alarmed by the talk of China's has proposed to obtain sanction to institute plans of naval development, a system of five grades of nobility, to he conferred on officials of the 2nd or 3rd Grade, or of higher rank, who may subscribe certain amounts to the Navy Fund." If that is the Chinese Government's iden of the best financial system that can be devised to create and maintain an Im- perial Navy, they would be well advised to at once renounce the idea of a creat ing a navy.
Well-informed writers on the London Press know what value to put upon the labours of the Commission. "The first criticism one is inclined to make of the visit of the Chinese Imperial Commissioners," says one commentator. "is that no navy can hope to be anything but a shocking waste of money unless it is based on a sound financial system, capable of meeting not merely the first cost, but all of the demands which minister to its efficient maintenance.". The writer goes on to refer to railway finance in China, and then gives the warning that it is far more difficult to keep to the straight path in naval matters. The Japanese experience of a
created without corruption is almost unique. Sailors know very well how easy it is to provide all the appearance of a navy, and yet the money may, through the inability of statesmen to visualise the very different demands of war from peace, be as good as thrown into the
sea.
navy
When told he would command the Spanish fleet if war broke out with the United States, CERVERA replied: "In that case I shall accept, knowing, however, that I am going to a Trafalgar." And how can that disaster be avoided?" he was asked. By allowing me," he replied, "to expend beforehand. 50,000 tons of coal in evolutions and 10,000 projectiles in target practice. Otherwise we shall go to a Trafal-
gar.
威家
Remember what I say.' Something similar has been written regarding the un- preparedness of the Russian Fleet which suffered annihilation at the hands of Japan. But the writer we have quoted says: "It may be that all this has been foreseen." If it has, we are afraid it has been seen but dimly by the Government at Peking. Many of the schemes, including the now most favoured, for providing the necessary funds are so ludicrously inadequate and unsatis- factory that one would scarcely expect to Until hear of them except in comic opera. China has a sound financial system on which the proposed Navy can depend for its
*
one
JAPANESE IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STA - ES,
[December 20, 1909, civilization, but on the other hand, the black and yellow races are impervious to this influence and do not unite with the white population. This difficulty is very different as it regards the negro population and the yellow races, as the former do not belong to any outside nation of such importance or power that any complaints as to their being deprived of full civil rights will be If the negros were still in Africa a made. good exclusion law would meet the difficulty, even if the Republic of Liberia were and " offended at it, this would not very much trouble the United States."
In respect to the number of the Asiatic immigrants in the United States, which is estimated at about 140,000, it is pointed out that though this appears a small matter as compared with the 80 million inhabitants of the country, it must not, in judging of its effects, be considered in reference to the total population of the United States, but as fit bears upon the comparatively still sparse. populations of California and Oregon, where the Asiatic immigrants are concentrated and to which they have more easy access by sea than the Americans from the East have by land. The difficulty of the Asiatic immigra tion question in the United States is not les- sened by the undoubted fact, to which atten- tion is forcibly directed, that, say what people will, Asiatic labour is greatly required there. As Mr. KLEIN puts it: "They may not be liked, but after all they are wanted.' This is recognised by those who are opposed to them in the United States, and is the cause which, induces the Chinese and Japanese to leave their own countries and to be willing Draconian" conditions of to submit to labour in a foreign land. They do not leave their native countries by caprice, but by necessity and because they cannot find means of subsistence in them.
•
(Daily Press December 17th.) A very interesting article is published in the Revue des deux Mondes from the pen of Mr. FELIX KLEIN, in which he deals with the relations between Japan and the United States, more especially in connection with the immigration question, which not long since attracted so much attention, but also in respect to the general relations of the two While taking a
As to the chances of the difficulty which he countries as to the Pacific. very moderate view of the causes which are has fairly pointed out becoming mitigated as likely to lead to friction between these two tinie goes on, Mr. KLEIN speaks with the nations, Mr. KLEIN is by no means inclined
reserve that is to be expected in dealing to lessen their gravity or to ignore unpleas-with so intricate a matter. On the whole, ant facts, either in the past or in the not however, he considers, that the good sense of very distant future. He recognises fully both parties may safely be relied upon to the acuteness of the feeling which was evok- avert the possibility of any resort to force ed in Japan by the exclusion of Asiatics for, at all events, some years to come.. from the schools in San Francisco, but, on Neither party is desirous of going to ex- the other hand, gives full weight to the tremes; and, as before observed, Japan and
which has always the United States have always been upon. general friendliness subsisted between the two countries, and terms of mutual friendship and confidence. which it may be reasonably hoped will go Under such circumstances, it may fairly be far in the future, as it did on that par-hoped that the good sense of both parties over suchi will find some means of coming to an under- ticular occasion, to smoothe
At the same standing that may be satisfactory to both difficulties as may arise. time, he does not disguise that this question, sides, and will diminish the acuteness of the though it may be put aside for a time, is position which has for some time past been one of which it is very difficult to see a felt. There is no doubt that not only as complete solution. He points out that in regards the immigration question, but in the United States the Asiatic question is respect to trade interests, there is a likeli- one which is not likely, unless some radical hood for some years to come of there being change takes place in the views of the considerable rivalry between the Western people, to be capable of modification. It States and Japan. But it is not to be differs in an essential way from the negro overlooked that if there are some things in question, to which some sort of solution, which they must of necessity be rivals there though by no means a perfect one, has been
are also very many in which they have common interests, and by careful manage-, found. Upon this point Mr. KLEIN remarks that it would be an error to suppose that ment and wise diplomacy, it may be reason- the opposition to the Yellow races is merely ably hoped that the latter will prevail. the prejudice of one particular class. The With respect to the ultimate solution of the idea of the United States is to form, from difficulties pointed out, Mr. KLEIN throws very divergent elements, a people who will out a suggestion, which, at first sight, seems possess a unity, and as a whole will govern somewhat Utopian; but which is still itself, without distinction of fortune, trade, worthy of some consideration. He thinks Everything which goes counter it possible that the Japanese may be con- or origin. to such a unification and cannot be assimi-verted to Christianity, and may so far change lated, compromises the working of the their moral and social ideas that the barrier whole the health of the body politic-and between them and the white races will be should therefore be eliminated." As experi- removed, and that they then be welcomed ence proves, the different white races who in the United States in the same way as adopt America as their country do assimilate strangers from all other parts are welcomed. themselves in an extraordinary way to her He even goes so far as to throw out the idea
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