Since the work on the fortifications ceased, the community here has been much exercised as to the meaning of so sudden a decision of the Home Government, and many looked forward with curiosity—some, perhaps, with anxiety—to the last English mail, by which letters explaining this incomprehensible move were expected. Such expectations were disappointed. Apparently no explanation whatever of the momentous cablegram, stopping all military works, has come to hand. Persistent native rumours, that the territory and harbour were to pass into the hands of another Great Power, are noteworthy merely as indicative of the extent to which our prestige in the Far East has fallen, and of how Germany's has increased, and increased—it may safely be assumed—at England's expense. Of course, much of this is due to the fact that Great Britain's hands are tied, and the Power that has the greatest commercial interests at stake in China will continue to play second or third fiddle till the South African war is brought to its conclusion. OF the foreign community here the minority, who considered the cession of our new acquisition to another power-ror its retrocession to China—as a possibility, is very small. Unless as a nation we wish to stultify ourselves in the eyes of the Chinese, we shall stay hero as long as Germany holds Tsingtao, and Russia the Linotang Peninsula, and) that is, we may suppose, for ever. If proof were needed that the Salisbury' Government, having once assumed the responsibility, have no intention of backing out, it might be found in "The Weihaiwei Order in Council, 1901," just published in the Colony. A copy of this document I have before me bears the Commissioner's stamp with the date of issue here—"6th Sept., 1901." And from the inscription on the front page we learn that it was issued "at the Court of St. James's, the 24th day of July, 1901." At that particular meeting of the Privy Council such well-known personages as Viscount Cromer, Lord Milner, and Mr. Cecil Rhodes were present among others, and the limits of the Order are the Tsland of Liu: kung, all the islands in the Bay of Weib: wei, and a belt of land 10 English miles wide along the entire coast line of the Bay of Weihaiwei.
(It will be remembered that the boundary was fixed and stones erected to mark the same about 18 months ago, and that in connection with the progress of the Boundary Commission the Colony experienced its first and only outburst of Boxerism, which met with sharp, stern, and most of fects al treatment at the bands of our local Regiment.)
The Order in Council is a document necessarily technical and legal in character, but it has a few points of general interest.
The Commissioner's Office and Powers. ate clearly set forth.
He is " appointed by commission under His Majesty's Sign Manual and Seal." When from any cause he is unable to act and no substitute is appointed by the Crown, then the powers granted to him shall be vested "in the Senor Military Officer for the time being in command of His Majesty's forces...." The Commissioner has the right to dispose of any lands which may lawfully be at the disposal of the Crown. He may pardon a criminal, or reduce the punishment inflict ted on any offender. He is responsible to the Crown, or to "a Secretary of State" acting for His Majesty. He may suse pend an official from the exercise of his office "until His Majesty's pleasure therein shall be made known."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.