The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-12-17
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built up here The annual tonnage of
ships calling at Hongkong is greater
than any other port in the world, not
barring London nor New York. The
English were tracing in Canton more
than one hundred and fifty years ago,
and it would be useless to deny the
credit that is due them for opening up
this great market.
JOHN BULL HAS BIG HEAD
In fact they have splotched the map
of the gloDe with British red. The
world indeed owes much to John Bull
for the sweat and blood he has spent
in the tanning of wild lands and savage
peoples, but the world has never had
the chance to forget or evade this OBJ
legation. The Englishman is a prompt
collector of all that is coming to him,
and a conceited braggart about his &C
complishments. That is why he is so
ready to criticise. If a thing is not
done in the English way it is immedi-
ately pronounced a failure. Granting
that a Britisher has record as a
colonial broncho buster. it does not fol-
low that he is the beginning and the
end of all things colonial; it does not
follow that because a certain policy is
not English it is not feasible. The
English have made mistakes here and
there, even as far hack as the loss of
the American colony, or their more
recent quarrel with the Beers in South
Africa, which cost them many
pounds as the Philippines cost US dol
lars.
One of the most notable differences
between Hongkong and Manila per-
tains to wages. The American govern
ment pays eighty cents a day for
manual labor and the English govern
ment pays thfrty-after having been
here seventy years the best the Eng
1ishman will pay the poor devils who do
his drudgery is less than fifteen cents
a day in American money. The labor
ing man in Hongkong has to subsist
on less than what the average Amer
lean spends to keep a dog. The English
man wants dividends and never raises
the price of anything except his own
commodities if he can avoid it. He
has no conception of the human prin-
ciple of live and let live
KEEPING NATIVE IN HIS PLACE.
And stinginess is not the worst fault
of the EngIishman. 1t is necessary to
remain in Hongkong only few days
to see what is meant by keeping the
native in his place" 1t means that the
native has practically no rights at all,
and is cuffed right and left on the
slightest provocation. The testimony
of a Chinese against white man in
the courts does not count. Not long
ago the white boss of gang of wharf
hands kicked one of his men in the
stomach because he did not under
stand some simple order. The coolie
died from the effects of the blow and
the boss was brought into court. AL
though he acknowledged kicking the
laborer, the overseer claimed that he
did not use enough force to kill him
and that he must have died from some
other cause. The judge acquitted him,
dismissing the case with this astound-
ing piece of legal wisdom: Il find you
not guilty, but hereafter be careful how
you strike people, The editor of one
of the leading papers in Hongkong as
sured me that the rights of the China
man were respected in every way, yet
the instance I refer TO, quoting the
exact words of the judge, was taken
from the files of his paper.
The night that Mr.. Taft and his
party We're in Hongkong a torchlight
parade of the troops was given for
their amusement. Just before I en-
tered the parade ground a tall Indian
sauntered slowly down the street. He
was walking in the middle of the
thoroughfare, looking neither to the
right nor the left, yet because he tenn
porarily INSTRUCTED the path of a man
and woman in evening dress. a soldier
rushed up and dealt him a singing
blow from behind. The Indian
dropped in his tracks and was hauled
away mortally wounded. He did not
see the couple who tried to cross his
path, nor the soldier who struck him.
He was entirely innocent of any wrong |
doing and was clearly within his |
rights because he was in the middle of |
the street. The brutal assault on his |
person was unwarranted and should I
have been punished.
UNCLE SAM Is HUMANE.
On a half dozen different occasions |
in Hongkong q assure my readers
that I am not exaggera ting) 1 saw
viciously kick rickisha
coolies in the back because they did
not properly understand their orders.
While the ignorance of the coolies was