The Chamber of Commerce met on the 28rd November, Present: Hon. P. Ryrie, Chairman; Mr. A. Zimmern, Vico-Chairman; Messrs, Sassoon, Davis, Arthur, Melchers, Buxey, Crichton, Karberg, Behre, Boyd, Francis, Vogel, Greig, G. Sharp, Vickers, Berwick, Morgan, Belilios, Hel: and and Lemann:
The Cuatraan opened the meeting as follows; Gentlemen,—You have the report of the proceedings of your Committes during the past half year before you. It is not, 88 you will observe, a very voluminous one, in fact it is seldom that we have been able to present such an imposing report as our sister Chamber at Shanghai. The interval Which has elapsed since our last general meeting has been marked by two events "hich will occupy prominent places in history, down to the end of time—I allude to {he atrocious massnere of Europeans which ack place at Pientsin on 21st June last, the terrible war between France and germany which commenced in July, and "hich, for all we know to the contrary, is still going on. I would refer first to the Tien-sin massacre, as being the event which atest concerns us, and seeing that we ye at this moment in our midst the very man, Chung How, Governor of Chili, and principal Mandarin at Tienisin, who was there in his Yamun ai the time, and actually within hearing of the shrieks of those unfortunate ladies who were being murdered and subjected to torture, and indignities of such a nature as only fiends could invent or perpstrate—well, this man, who I believe has been for nian years past avowing himself a friend of foreigners, sat down calmly in his Yamun with his six hundred armed soldiers within call, and did nothing towards preventing the tragedy which was proceeding within a few yards of him. (Applause.) He is now in our Colony, on his way to Europe, with the ostensible object, as Count Rochechouart puts it, of clearing himself and his Government, if he can. don't think there is any necessity for this Chamber to follow the example of the Shanghai Chamber, and address especial letter to the Committee of the London Merchants, which has been so vehemently protested against by Mr. Hanbury as charging a man with complicity in a murder, of which he has been declared innocent by the French Authorities after investigating the facts. Gentlemen, I think we do not require to go so far as the Shanghai Chamber. The London Committee are well able to judge for themselves, and from what I know of some of them, think we may feel pretty certain of the conclusion they will come to. It will be sullicient for us to freshen their memory as regards th facts, and warn them against putting faith in the statements of this man, who I und stand possesses in an eminent degree that plausibility and suavity of manner which are more or less the birthright of every Chinese. In my opinion we have done this sufficiently in our report, but if any member is desirous of making' special resolution, conveying the opinion of this Chamber anner in which Chung in the event of his visiting England, I shall be happy to put it to the meeting. Tt has been said that this Chamber might have, at an earlier date than the present, taken some action in regard to the Tentein 'Blasencre; but "I inay montion; that the matter was entertained by your Comunittee, but in the uncertainty which prevailed, and even still prevails, in regard to the steps which will be taken' by the English, French, American, and other Governments, your Conmittee knew from past experience how little would have been gained by addressing our Charge d'Afiaires at Pekin. The reply would have no doubt been a strictly diplomatic one—making reference to instructions from the Foreign Office, and most probably I ig US more mystified than ever as to what course was likely to be pursued. Our friends at home, however, possessing the advantage of being able to go at once to the fountain-head, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, waited, as a deputation, on that functionary, and have received certain assuranees of protection to lives and property of British subjects at the ports, which are far satisfactory; and this action on the part of our London friends seems to have roused th Government and the people at home to the fact that something more than talking and despatch writing is necessary for the protection of life and property in China. As regards the terrible war now raging in Europe, it may be said that, it being an event of such magnitude engrossing the attention of the entire civilised world, it is hardly within the province of this Chamber to refer to it, but I think that it would not he out place for us to express our sympathies with our German and French friends, in the suffering which this war must entail on their respective countries, and to advance a hope that England, America, and the other great powers will continue to maintain an attitude of strict neutrality, as the only one likely to bring the war fo a speedy termination. (Applause.) I now-come to a matter still more nearly concerning this Chamber; it is the expedition of Mr. Moss. You have his report before you, and I think you will agree with me that it contains a fair amount of interesting commercial information. It is only to be regretted that he was prevented from carrying out the entire programme of his journey. Mr. Moss has given us, in his report, some patticalars of the' trade between this Colony and Pak-hoi, and on this subject I have afew remarks' to make. This trade has, since Mr. Moss's return, been entirely destroyed by the action taken by the Canton Customs. It appears that an attempt was made to establish a custom house there some months ayo, when a disturbance arose, and a Chinese official came by his death. Upon this a force of gunboats, some of them the Vicervy's, and some of them said to belong to the Imperial Maritime Customs, were despatched to make a hostile demonstration. In these gunboats were Englishmen, employes of the foreign Inspectorate. Now it is to this going with an armed expedition, and for a hostile purpose, against Chinese traders, that this Chamber should most vehemently enter its protest. I have from the commencement been a warm supporter of the foreign Inspectorate in its proper place, that is, exercising its functions at the treaty ports; and several of its officers are my personal friends, and men of whom I have the highest esteem. Still the institution was set on foot by Lord Olym to supervise the proper collection of maritime dues on goods imported into the treaty ports in foreign ships, and not that its officers should go on these filibustering expeditions, thus travelling out of their sphere, to enable some Chinese mandarin to get a heavier squeeze out of Chinese traders. This system is liable to ead to incalculable amount of mischief, not only to the trade of ge er) but by getting the name of an Englishman to be detested ly the trading classes. We are enough already by the mandarin and literary classes, and up to this time our safety in troubled times in China has been mainly aving to the friendly fueling of the trading classes; and we are now, through the action of these Englishmen, in danger of forfeiting this. Therefore, I think it is the duty of the Chamber to bring the action of these gunboats prominently before the Home Government, and ascertain whether they sanction such proceedings on the part of men who are likely, in the event of dangerous times arriving, to be the first to claim British protection. In conclusion, with regard to Mr. Moss's expedition, seeing that this Chamber is well satisfied with the information he has obtained so far, and that the abandonment of his researches must be a cause of much disappointment to Mr. Moss, I would suggest that the Chamber present him with what remains of his personal outfit, and a sum of §250 out of the expedition fund. Inow proceed, gentlemen, to move the adoption of your Committee's report, and the accounts furnished.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.