The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-03-21
SnciatN WashinRtnn d C.

turn to China the territory of
4 Wei-haiwei which she has had
under lease since 1898, and
the insistence by China that other spe-
cial privileges to foreign nations be
abrOgated, turns attention anew to the
foreign patches maintained in China.
These regions, which have actually
been transferred, either by lease or
cession, are not to be confused with
the so-called spheres of Influence"
which are more or less indefinite and
many of which are not recognized by
the Chinese.
What once threatened to be the
great international sport" of annex
ing parts of China began with the ar
rival of the first Europeans in the Far
East. Those who blaZed the trail
around Africa, across the stormy In
dian ocean, and up the east coast of
Asia to rich Cathay, were the Portu-
guese. For half a century they came
and went in their trading ships, but by
1877 they felt the need of station
to facilitate their commerce, and set
tied at Macao on the southern coast
of China. A region of about four
square miles was set aside for them
partly as a reward for assistance in
breaking up piracy in the nearby wa
tiers, and has been claimed by Portu-
gal ever since. Formal transfer of
this tiny fragment Of China was made
by the Chinese government in 1887.
Not only is Macao the site of the
first European claim staked out on
Cathay's coast, but it has cultural ties
with Europe closer knit than the po-
litical relationships of controverted
areas to the north. 1t contains the
oldest ruin in China that is associat-
ed with Europe, and the tamarind and
banyan shade the gardens where the
Portuguese Chaucer, Cameons, COM
posed half of the LusiadS, one of the
half dozen worlds great epics.
Inevitably, too, one associates the
location of Macao, on a peninsula jut-
ting from an island in the delta of the
Canton river west of Hong Kong, with
that colony Of Portuguese Americans
on the very tip of Cape Cod, made
famous by Joseph Lincoln.
English Obtained Hong Kong.
More than Two and half centuries
passed after the founding of Macao
before China was again called upon
in the name of commerce to give away
more of her territory. By that time
all the commercial nations of Europe,
and the United States as well, were
engaged in the remunerative China
trade. Friction arose in the early part
Of the Nineteenth century between
British traders and the Chinese, and
after a war in which Great Britain
was victorious, China, as a part of her
indemnity, in 1912 gave Great Britain
the island of Hong Kong, few miles
from Macao. This island with an
area of 80 square miles and one of
the best harbors in the world was
actually coded and became a part of
the British empire In 1860 Great
Britain leased three square miles of
territory on the mainland opposite
Hong Kong and shortly afterward this,
too, was coded.
This island became the show colony
of Great Britain in the Orient. 1t is
a world port where celebrities and
foreign war craft arrive so frequently
that the din of official salutes is al
most constantly echoing from the gran
lite peaks. 1t is next to the oldest and
in many ways the model foreign
owned community in China.
Contrary to popular belief, there is
no city of Hong Kong. That well-known
name belongs to the island and the
mainland. The city of half million
inhabitants which is the capital of the
island and the colony is officially Vic
tOria. But the name is seldom heard
To the islanders the beautiful ter
raced town is merely "the city,"
Grabs by Other Nations.
After Great Britain acquired Hong
Kong island and the patch of mainland
there was lull in the stalking out of
claims by foreign nations to Chinese
territory. What may be called China's
period of intensive land losses" be-
gan IL 1895 and extended to 1900,
with five nations participating. At
the conclusion of the Japanese Chi
nese war in 1895, Japan not only OBJ
tanned Korea, over which China
claimed a protectorate, but also the
large island of Formosa with an area
Of nearly $4,000 square miles, off the
central Chinese coast.
From that time on the political pot
boiled furiously among the nations
wishing 70 follow in Japan's footsteps,
and at one time the world was in
formed of new lease of Chinese ter
ritory nearly every month"; Germany
tried to lease Kiaochow bay on the