The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-13
THE HoNa-KoNG CHINESE.
Their Character After $50 Years of Contact With .Our Civilization.

Alleyne Ireland in The Outlook.
 The task of administering the affairs of Hongkong is a peculiar and difficult one. Itsmust be remembered that very nearly ninety-seven percent of the population is Chinese, and that from the extraordinary difficulty of learning the Chinese language the intercourse between the mass of the people and those who are administering their affairs is limited almost entirely to brief official interviews Fortunately, the Chnaman is, under ordinary circum- stances. law-abiding citizen with wholesome respect for established authort- ty. But the population of Hongkong Is not normal in its composition. for it con tains an undue proportion of criminals. This is due to its proximity to Canton, and to the extreme mildness of the Eng lish criminal law as compared with that of China. As an example of this we may take the punishment which would follow third or fourth conviction of petty theft in Hongkong and China re- spectively. On the mainland an end would be put Nto the offenders career either by rubbing qulcklime into his eyes or by crushing his ankle-bones so as to lame him for life; in Hongkong he would get a few months hard labor in jan. The result is that Hongkong has become d happy hunting ground for hundreds of criminals from the adjoining province of ' 'Kwanetung. and that the police force of the colony costs about Si00,0O0 a gear, or one-tenth of the total expenditure.
 But although the Chnaman Is not. gen orally speaking, given to crime, he pos sesses certain charaC teristiCs which, from the standpoint of the colonial adninis- trator. are even more difficult to deal with. Foremost among these is his abso- lute indifference to sanitary conditions of life. We are familiar with the idea of domestic animals living in some little hovel in the poorest district of Ireland and the picture is unpleasant even when we remember that during the day such animals will be out-of-doors China man. unless he is closely watched, will keep pigs in the fourth story of house in which perhaps a dozen families live beneath him: and sn that fourth story, with it's openwOrk floors, the pig will live and move and have his being until he changes his Saxon name for his French one
 Another thing which makes the Chi naman very ditticdlt to deal with is the complete organization of all classes into guilds and secret societies, backed by the solid Influence of the clan and family ties This social cohesion makes it almost impossible to protect individual interests or those of the colony when these run counter to some habit or tradition of the Chinese For instance, one of my Chinese servants commits an offense and l dis miss him. One of two things will hap pen: either I will engage in his place. un- wittinSly another member of his family, a son. brother, uncle. or cousin, or, If by some rare chance l detect the relationship and refuse t0 engage the new applicant I find 1t impossible to get a man in his place. for the union or guild to. which the dismissed servant belongs will boy colt me is the same in matters which affect the community at large. A nan 'Ns fined hy a magistrate for committing some offense against the sanitary laws; the hne Is paid hy the guild, aRd the ends of justice are defeated.
 The utter disregard of truth which is a marked trait of the Chinese character. the entire absence of any sense of