Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-27
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 81, 1889.

M. Richaud boasted to me with laugh
that be was tolerated longer than any OF his
predecessors. His term of office. was IL
monthsl Before the Governor General
comes he is unknown; while in the East
even his public speeches are addressed to
Paris; he returns and is forgotten. 1t is the
merest farce of supervision, and what won-
der that the colonist sinks deeper year by
year in disgust and despair. He has de-
scribed himself in bitter epigram: lie
colon est un pretexte banquets." lnsta-
bility is the dominant characteristic of
French administration in the East Does
ANYBODY seriously believe that the solid
foundations of future prosperity can ever
be laid in this shifting quicksand2
PRoHIBITIvE WHARFAGE.
But the shadows on the picture are not
vet complete. First, as to the Chinese.
Nobody dislikes the Chinese more than 1
do, and nobody can advocate more strongly
than I the absolute necessity of keeping
them out of civilized settled country.
But it is as plain as the nose on ones face
that no colony in the Far East can dispense
with them. Their labor, their easy and
willing adaptability to any job which
money can be earned, from nursing the baby
to driving the steam engine; their CONNER
cial insight and reliability-these make
them an ideal substratum for new commu-
nifty. Yet Tongking taxes them till they
are giving up their established businesses,
and puts price on the head of each as he
comes and again as he goes.
Second, the port charges. Take the little
steamer 1 returned in, the Freyr, 676 tons,
from Randers in Jutland. At the port of
Newcastle she paid "a; at Nagasaki $40; at
Yokohama $50; at Hongkong 81; while to
get in and out Of the port of Haiphong costs
her every trip 1902 40. And this, too, is
only the ships charges, pure and simple.
The charterer must pay 81 80 wharfage for
every ton of cargo landed-say $3.50 for an
average cargo. Thus at port where COM
mon sense would tell that trade should be
tempted and nursed in every possible way,
they begin by making trade all but impossi-
BILE. There can hardly be more needy port
in the world than Haiphong, yet it is doubt
full if there is q more expensive one. The
consequences are obvious. A year and q
halt ago there were six steamers plying
from Hongkong; to-day there are three.
Last of all come the enormous customs
duties of the ridiculous "Tarif general"
These need no specifying. Saigon has given
of Saigon now? A critical, if not hopeless
one. And she has discovered that only one
thing can save her. The unanimous report
of the Chamber of Commerce, published in
August last, concludes with these words in
big type: "We demand the absolute aboli-
tion of the customs regime in Cochin China
from January 1, 1885," France has gained
nothing Figures show this indisputably)
and will gain nothing by her "Tarif gen.
eral," while she will lose her colonies
through it by and by. Yet is there the faint
est shadow of coming changer On the
contrary. In one of the last public speeches
he made, at banquet in Hanoi, NJ. Richaud
exclaimed: "Renounce the chimerical hope
OF the return of absolute commercial lib
ertyl" The subsidized newspaper adds that
this was followed by triple salve dap
plaudissements. do not believe it. Or.if it
is true, then the colonists of Hanoi should
be refused Christian burial, for they sresui-
eides
Sufficient for the Tongking Of to-day is
the evil thereof. HENRY NORMAN.