If the Taoyin Had His Way A. Chefoo correspondent writes on June 28:—The local Chinese press has been very perturbed over the business of quarantining the Ralph Miller. It was not the fact of the vessel's being sent across to the lee of the Island, so much as the knowledge that the passengers were kept in isolation. A perusal of the native papers would give the impression that the local 'l'aoyin is one of the most considerate of men, and that his anxiety over the quarantining of the ship's company was distressing. But those who have had dealings with him and who know what he is like, realize that he is not the compassionate lover of humanity the Chinese papers have sought to portray.
It is pretty patent to foreigners, who have been long in Chefoo, that, were there a stable government in Peking, this compassionate individual, who was willing to jeopardize the whole situation made so dangerous for Chefoo by the arrival of the Ralph Meller, and by the threatening attitude of her re-tractory passengers, when they wu: derstood that quarantine restrictions were to be enforced, would have been removed for his efforta to nullify the regulations. If the British minesweepers and submarines had not been here, the passengers would have got ashore. The Chinese gunboat did not do its duty properly, and then, when the Taoyin conceived his idiotic plan, which he would have put into practice, had not the Consuls of Great Britain and America been firm, the getting out of the quarantine regulations would have been comparatively easy, The native press is evidently prepared to support the Taoyin in any action he may take, despite the disastrous effect it might have upon the port. Yet China desires to be regarded as an enlightened country.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.