Hongkong, Sept. 21.
If there were any in' Hongkong, six weeks ago, who expected this to be a stirring place during time of war, they must be greatly disappointed. The Colony is never very lively place—it has not one-fourth of the spirit and gaiety of Shanghai, for example—and always wears a very sedate air as though it were fearful of compromising itself by over much merriment, but just at present it is duller and drabber than ever. Every other man (it appears to the eyo) is dressed soldier-fashion, though they are only very earnest: volunteers, and this lends a greyness to the streets which is not usually present at this season of the year. Even the newspapers are as dull ditch-water so far as local news is concerned. That, to be sure, is not: their fault, for the censorship is very' keen and close. That may be good business, or it may not; one may be permitted to doubt the wisdom of concealing every bit of news which is not wholly favourable, the more
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.