July 10.
Ir will be enough for most} people, even for those who know nothing of the lawless conditions in China, that Mr. George Lansbury, Labour member for Bow and Bromley, has been' trying to get the Commander of H. M, 8, Cockchafer into trouble for his action after the mure of Mr. Hawley at Wanhsien, to enlist their sympathies for that officer. Mr. Lansbury will remembered as formerly editor of the Labour paper the "Daily Herald," about which there was fan unpleasant seandal_a few years ago, never properly cleared up, in respect of a subvention from Moscow—at a time when the, Bolsheviks were making furious efforts to excite revolution in England, His motto in life appears to be "my country always in the wrong." A few days ago his voice was raised to advocate the removal of Mr.
Justice McCardie from the Bench, for his spirited and just vindication of the unhappy and unjustly condemned Ger Dyer. Now another of his countrymen has excited his venom by daring to intervene for the upholding of Justice. It would pay the Labour party to ship Mr: Lansbury to some select portion of China; let him taste for himself the terrors of banditry and the indifference of officials; and let us then hear ie will have to say of] naval and other officers of his own nation. ly per sons of Mr. type, guilty of the crime of defending the British Empire and upholding British prestige, have a rooted objection to facts. They cramp their style.
Mr. Lansbury was properly snubbed by Mr. Frank Hodge Civil Lord of the Admiralty, who, after replying that th Cockchafer was the only war vessel on the spot and "that her commanding officer took the action. which he—considered necessary," added that the Amer-jean Commander-in-chief had thanked the British Commander for what the Cockchafer had done "which, according to the incomplete report received, had materially assisted in saving But while Mr. Lansbury, ig temporarily silenced, it is clear that other agencies are at work if possible to pull down Commander Whitehorn, and it is the more important to get a clear view of the situation, Even yet the reports of what previssly happened are _incomplete; in such cases it takes a long time to sift out all details.
The general outlines appear to be as follows. Mr. Hawley had gone over from Wanhsien to the junk anchorage, which lies the right bank' of the Yangtze opposite the city, to superintend the shifting of a cargo of wood-oil, which was to be taken down river for him by a foreign shipping firm. As everybody knows. there has been a great deal of friction between the junkmen and the steamers over the trade which the latter are alleged to) have taken from the junks; and'
unwritten agreement" has. been come to that the steamers: shall not take certain goods, among them being wood-oil. This agreement, however, does: not apply in the high water season from. June to October, when the junks cannot move. This season having begun, Mr. Hawley was perfectly within his! rights in shifting the wood-oil by steamer. The-junkmen, however, evidently thought otherwise; an altercation began, which speedily led to blows, and in the end Mr. Hawley was struck on the head with a bamboo pole and knocked into the river. "We are told that the Cockchafer did fire a blank shot over the mob of junkmen; according to the wireless message received by the American Legation in Peking, wander, under threat of ig the city, compelled the leading military' officials to follow Mr. Hawley's funeral on foot to the grave and also to execute two of the principal junkmen, To be perfectly fair, we must here digress slightly to make an admission, Speaking quite generally, there appears no doubt that the junkmen have had and still have some cause of complaint against several of the so-called foreign steamers, and the Chinese officials also' have their complaint against them. We have been told, and we believe truly, that some of these vessels act with but scant consideration for the junks and that deaths have been caused by their wash which might have been avoided. This grievance appears to have less weight now than formerly. The greatest complaint is that except for the British and American steamers, too many are ral foreign only in title, We mention no names, but there are undoubtedly Governments which ought to investigate closely the misuse for which the protection of their flags has been sold. Under that protection—opium' and arms are said to be smuggled with impunity and the foreign master of the ship is a mere tool in the hands of the compradore.
But these general admissions have nothing whatever to with the case of Mr. Hawley who, as shown, was in no way breaking the unwritten law in moving his wood-oil and was moreover preparing to send it by a vessel belonging to a perfectly reputable firm. The! special circumstances of Commander Whitehorn's action, which according to the American state-_ ment quoted in the House of! Commons, "materially assisted in saving life," have yet to be detailed but' may well imagined. But looking to the general state of China it is impossible not to endorse his evident feeling that unless justice was done on the spot it! would never be done. We have neither time nor space to recall all the examples of wrong done to foreigners in recent times and never requited. The Margary murder was one outstanding! episode in a long period of years which remains historic to this day. The murders, woundings and outrages of the past three! years are so many that even those whose business it is to Keep in touch with Chinese! affairs cannot carry them all in memory. And not a soul has ever been punished for them yet. This is the general situation with which, accentuated by an immediate "crisis, Commander Whitehorn was confronted; and inasmuch as it is ridiculous to put responsible officers on board gunboats, send them up the river to protect life. and then say that' they are to do nothing, he decided to take "the action which he considered necessary." Em: Phatically we say that he was
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.