Omaha daily bee., 1908-09-12
OTHER LANDS THAN ouns.

| bCIuuh 10 UnNtlCAl comfort ana peace OF
mind. The promised constitution nine years
away and the probability Of reforms pre-
cedins the event. lends rainbow colors to
the hopes OF the present meeger and select
group OF Chinese editors. II will be re-
called that the Picking Gazette. the oldest
publication in the empire and in the world,
and until recently the only paper in the
empire. has become something OF a news
paper, as we'll as a medium of official de-
crees, being boosted out of the rut OF CEN
turtles by the growth OF genuine newspap-
ers on the Chinese plan. From the ons
official organ the number has grown To 900.
furnishing mental pabulum to such Of 400
WO,OO inhabitants as are capable of digest
ing It and have the price. Besides there
are a great many publications printed I'm
foreign languages at the treaty ports and
several b%i-linguals In Chinese and English.
The publishers appreciate the changes
going OH and may be credited with arous-
ing much Of the present spirit Of progress.
But official China is fearful lest the edit
tors become too important and indiscreet.
and has put forth several DEGREES cal
eulated to curb every tendency to sensa-
tional yellowism. One decree requires a
guarantee fund of SIS from each publisher
for payment of fines that may be as
SeSseu. AnottleT decree ORDERS corrections
or protests against misstatements to be
published n the next issue of the journal
making them. A third decree directs that
persons responsible for the publication of
matter Hbeling the throne or disturbing
the public peace shall be liable to impris-
onment for not less than six months. Tenn
porary suspension Is the penalty for the
divulgation of secret diplomatic lntelli-
gence. These regulations are carried out.
One newspaper owner was recently SEN
fenced to a long term Of Imprisonment for
quoting an article from a revolutionary
organ, and another was flogged to death
last year.
A number of authorities on financial con-
ditions in Asiatic countries agree that the
business men of India are the greatest
hoarders of money in the world. 1t is
estimated that there is close to 81 900, 100000
in gold hidden in the country, which Is
increased by something like 100000 an
nually. Every bit of gold that can be
spared is hidden away. Gold is the great
incentive to miserliness. and so deep
rooted is the greed for the yellow metal
that hoarders are unmoved by the periodic
famines which ravage the country and not
infrequently suffer the pangs Of starvation
oNAAN Nhhel ia" oh Nhtil "a
effort is being made by British authorities
to draw out some of the vast idle money
of the natives for the purpose of develop
ing the resources of the country. Sir
Ernst Gable. a former member of the vice.
roy of India's cabinet, says: "If the people
Of India could be persuaded to put the bulk
Of their surplus wealth into the railways,
into Irrigation works and into the develop
ment OF the industrial and commercial re-
sources of the continent there would grad
ually ensue a welding together of the mate
rial interests of the European and the
Indian. Such a bond OF union between the
rulers and the ruled would surely go far
to promote these feelings of cooperation
and loyalty which are essential II the
Indian empire is to continue to advance"
sH
The Constantinople correspondent of the
Neue Freie Presse of Vienna says thai
among the first of the many organizations
who marched to the Yildiz Kiosk to eX-
press thanks for the constitutional decree
were the burden bearers or hamalis. These
powerful, athletic Turks, for the most part
beautiful men, despite their dirty garb,
have a well-organlzed society which lays
down the laws by which they are guided
in their vocation. They come from Asiatic
Turkey. where they leave their wives while
they work industriously and honestly for
a few years, save their earnings and then
return to their homes. The bad p~svements
and the narrow, winding streets preclude
the dray in COnstantinople, and these II en-
take the place of the dray horse. On long
poles they mag be seen carrying great
bales of goods, pianos, safes and all Forts
of heavy property. They are fanatical in
their religion and thoroughly Turkish, but
It seems that they appreciate the advance
toward liberalism, and showed their abil-
ity to live up to European methods on the
day after the demonstration when they
struck for higher wages.
The charge is freely made in continental
papers that the present administrative of
Portugal is in league with the ~instigato-s
of the assassination of the late King Don
Carlos and his son and has made no eff
fort to bring them to justice. Those re-
sponsible for the cowardly crime are said
to be well known and prominent members
OF two monarchial machines, who were
driven to desperation by the activity Of
the Inflated monarch and of his premier,
Joao Franco, in abolishing the spoils iys-
tenn, and the glazing and shameless finan-
cial and administrative abuses upon which
they had until then fattened. While the
instigators of the assassination are lot at
the present moment in office, either at
court or in the cabinet, they are walking
about, free, known, and with undiminished
regard and honor at Lisbon, unmo!ested
by the government. In fact, the conditions
are only very little better than at Belgrade,
where the murderers OF KIM Alexander
and Queen Draga still figure in the en-
tourage of his successor, King Peter, Ond
high in the office Of the state.
u1
The great question that is to be settled
by the intercolonial conference in South
Africa is the question as to what form
the union shall take, whether 1t shall be a
federation, celebrating the existing colonial
boundaries, or shall be a federation SINH
lar to that of Canada and Australia. 1t Is
interesting TO note that both British and
Boer are to be found as advocates of both
plans. The majority seems to be in favor
Of federation and the retention of existing
colonial lines-a form of federation that will
be more in keeping with the precedent Of
their British colonies. The most interest
ing phase of the whole subject is that in
the short years that have elapsed since
the Boer war these diverse interests and
old-time enmities should apparently have
faded all away and left the possibility OF
such a union which will make for the