SPECTATOR SUMMARY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 108, 8 May 1909, Page 12

SPECTATOR SUMMARY.

HOME AND FOREIGN NOTES. (For the week ending 13th March.) RAILWAY ABUSES IN CHINA. The Pekin correspondent of The Times sent to Tuesday's paper a- serious statement as to the way in which British money is used in Chinese railway construction. A loan for the Shanghai-Hang-Chau-Ning-Po Railway, amounting to £1,500,000, was issued, in London last year, and according to Sic contract the work was to be finished within three years, the Imperial Chinese Government was to have entire control of it* the materials were to be obtained by tender, and, other thing being equal, British goods were to ha,ve the prefertence. "Every important stipulation of the loancontract," says the correspondent, "has been viola-ted." The rails are of obsolete type and are placed on soft sleepers, the bridges are unsafe and eight different kinds of rollingstock are used, because every director has exercised his right to choose material. Out of the £1,500,000 loan, only £355,000 remains in Britain for buying material. The balance Las been placed at the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, and the constructors of the railway seem to be free to draw upon Ehis fund as they wish. The correspondent suggest* that the Government should warn British investors against lending money for •Chinese railways except under proper conditions. Already negotiations have been begun for a loan for the Canton-Hang-Kau Railway. The Pekin correspondent is a careful observer and accurate write*, and we have no doubt that he has the best reasons for uttering his warning. At the same time, "»ve should point out that the Chinese Government makes itself responsible for the railway loans. A GIFT RETURNED. The letter on "Indian Anarchism in England" published in The Times of 20t<h February, 1909, in whiph the writer, Mr. ICrishnavarma. the present editor of the Indian Sociologist, defended resort to political murder, has had a very natural and proper sequel. Mr. Krishnava^ma, who is an M.A. of Balliol College, endowed a Herbert Spencer lectureship at Oxford in 1904, and a petition signed by a hundred and nine members of Convocation, including the Warden of AD Souls, the Master of Balliol, tho President of Trinity, the Provost of Worcester, the Rector of Exeter, and Professors Dicey, Firth, and Oman, has beeo addressed to the Hebdomadal Council asking, that tie lectureship may be abolished/ and the money returned to its founder! That is the right coarse. Oxford cannot accept aid from such a source. "DAYLIGHT SAVING. " On Friday week in the House of Commons Mr. Dobson moved the second reading of his Daylight Saving Bill, which practically embodies Mr. Wille-tt's well-known proposal. The Bill provides that from the third Sunday in April until tho third Sunday in September local time shall be one hour in advance of Greenwich mean time in Great Britain and of Dublin mean time in Ireland. The object, of course, is to obtain longer hours of leisure while there is still daylight after the working day. The scheme wins more support as time passes. The Times, • for example, has abandoned its opposition, and now agrees to the proposal in principle. Mr. Dobson explained that he had the support of the City Corporation and many Chambers of Commerce. It was also pointed out in the debate that some of the chief railway companies approved the Bill, and that the Post Office raised no serious objections. Mr. Holt, who served on the recent committee, moved the rejection of the Bill, declaring that it would make us the laughing-stock of Europe. ' Mr. Oourthope said that all agricultural organisations strongly disapproved of the plan. Agriculturists would be grossly inconvenienced. The Government attitude was one of benevolent neutrality, but Mr. Churchill blessed the Bill on his own behalf. Eventually the Bill was referred to a Select Committee" PORTUGAL AND THE SLAVE TRADE. In the. House of Commons on Thursday, Sir" Edward Grey, in answer to a series of questions addressed to him by Mr. Le,venton Harris, admitted that there were Treaties in force between this country and Portugal by which PortugaJ bound herself to put an end to slavery in her colonies, and that in 1838 Lord Melbourne stated to Portugal that England would no longer refrain from taking effectual measures for preventing slavery in Portuguese territory. The system in force upon the cocoa plantations of San Thome and Principe was, said Sir Edward Grey, "described as contract labour." The latest statistics showed that the mortality among the labourers in San Thome was 3.1 per cent, and in Principe about 11.7 per cent. "I have not advised any firms as to where they should buy cocoa." lmtilly, pressed by Mr. Harris to say whether he did not consider there was slavery in the islands, Sir Edward Grey replied that the places named were not British territories, and that we were not responsible for the system described as contract laboui. It had been frequently stated, however, that the system was not satisfactory. It was now under the consideration of the Portuguese Government. "We have from time to time been in communication with them with regard to introducing such reforms as would remove reproach from the system." UNDER A BAN. We fully appreciate the difficulty ot Sir Edward's position, and syrnpath ; s-e with him in his evident feeling that it is useless for the British Government to bark unless they are prepared to bite. At the same time, we cannot help wishing that he had been able to show, what we are sure he must feel, a some-.v.iat stronger sense of indignation in regard to the horrors of the slave-raiding and slave-trading on the mainland, which is distinctly the most infamous part of this infamous system. We publish with great satisfaction in our issue of to- day" a letter from the English agent of the eminent firm of Suchard pointing out that they have for some time ceased to use slave-grown cocoa, and also a letter from a correspondent staking that the Co-operative Wholesale Society have placed a ban upon slave-grown cocoa. We cannot doubt that other cocoa firms in this <^untry who have not already done so will soon s-ee their way to follow suit, and that the public reprobation of slavery, thus enforced by definite aid direct action, will have the effect of putting an end to the abominable system of labour which now prevails in the islands — a system which is the c'iiecl cause of slave-raiding and slave-trading on the mainland. Trustworthy infornntion shows that. there is nothing to prpvent the introduction of properly paid free labour in the place of slavery on the cocoa plantations.

Tlip world .protects its throat and chest With medicine that stands the tesf ; The people's fail Ii in undisturbed — The couch or cold that can't be curbed Or wholly cured cannot bo found ; And though the chilly winds resound Throughout the land, all aro epeuro— Who puicluuo Woods' Gr«*t Peppermint Cure.-=~Ady.t.