loan of 2,000,000l. was also issued for the construction of the long-delayed trunk line from Tientsin to Pukow (opposite Nanking).

The unfortunate death of a Chinese passenger on board the s.s. Fatshan led to a boycott of the steamer and a strong manifestation of ill feeling towards Portuguese, one of whom was charged with having caused his death. Eventually the case was settled by payment of $5,200 to the passenger's relations. At Kiukiang a similar circumstance led to a temporary boycott of British steamers visiting that port.

The growth of discussion of current events which is encouraged by the attention given to newspapers, which openly assert that through them only can Chinese educate themselves properly to secure the strength and independence of their country, is likely to be encouraged by the establishment of the Provincial Assemblies, which were opened throughout China on October 14 (the 1st of the 9th moon). It remains to be seen how long these Assemblies will remain content with the small powers assigned to them under the Constitution of which they are the first out

come.

Except some disturbances in Kwangsi, where complete order is seldom maintained, China was free from any internal troubles. Her trade was good, and the Customs Revenue for the year, 35,250,000 taels, has only twice been exceeded. A valuable item in her trade was the export of beans from Manchuria and Hankow for the extraction of oil and other purposes. It is quite a new development, and is said to be likely to reach a total value of 6,000,000l. in 1910.

Of Court events, the principal was connected with the funeral ceremonies of the Emperor and Empress Dowager. The Foreign Ambassadors, appointed to present letters of condolence, were received with their suites by the Prince Regent on April 25, and on May 1 the procession, two miles long, which escorted the Emperor's coffin to the Western Mausolea, left Peking. Prince Saduaru Fushimi, who represented Japan, occupied a position next to the Prince Regent.

On November 6 the members of the diplomatic body, with the exception of Sir John N. Jordan, who was suffering from an accident, paid their last respects to the remains of the Empress Dowager, and on November 9 her funeral pageant, with even greater circumstance of pomp and honour than the Emperor's, left for her mausoleum. The cost of the Emperor's funeral was over 450,000 taels, and it is estimated that the Empress Dowager's cost considerably over 1,000,000 taels. In connection with the latter a great scandal was occasioned by photographs having been taken of it. Tuan-fang, Viceroy of the Province, was dismissed from office for having given permission for these to be taken.

In the late autumn a Naval Commission under Tsai Hsün, a brother of the late Emperor, was sent to Europe, to report

on the steps necessary to be taken for the re-establishment of a fleet. The Commission was received with great honours and the Prince was made a G.C.B. by King Edward.

IV. HONG-KONG.

Anti-opium legislation, through its effect on the finances of the Colony, was the most interesting question of the year. In March the Governor referred to Hong-Kong's efforts to abolish illicit trade and China's inability to prevent smuggling from China to Hong-Kong. The farming system was in his opinion the most effective in the prevention of smuggling. He stated that the Government proposed to reduce the quantity issued to farmers to 900 chests annually and to prohibit its sale to women and children. He announced that H.M. Government undertook to ask Parliament for a contribution to make good the loss suffered by the Colony in revenue, and he estimated that the abolition of opium divans would cost the Colony $500,000 per annum.

In April it was learnt that the Home Government agreed to modify the stringency of the measures adopted and to permit the consumption of 1,000 chests and to defer the closing of the opium divans until the end of 1910, on condition that twenty-six divans were closed forthwith. This number of divans was accordingly closed and $11,060 were paid in compensation. The tenders submitted for farming opium proved higher than was expected, but the amount to be received from H.M. Government was not learnt during the year, and the advantage to accrue from it was diminished by the fact that the contribution paid to the Imperial Government by the Colony for 1910 was raised on account of the increase in the revenue required for railway and other purposes, of which it forms a fixed proportion.

One most important result arising from the loss on the opium revenue was that the Colony, which owes to its Free Trade policy its prosperity and its position as one of the chief centres of shipping in the world, has found itself forced to institute a service to collect duties newly imposed on alcoholic liquors on importation.

The cost of construction of the Hong-Kong section of the Canton-Kowloon Railway by the end of 1909 was expected to reach $10,015,223 and to amount to $12,000,000 before it was finished. Among the many causes which have made the cost exceed its original estimate were the difficulties encountered in the construction of a tunnel, 2,404 yards in length, the cost of which was estimated at $3,000,000.

Provision for interest on the Kowloon-Canton Railway Bonds entailed an increase in the estimate of total expenditure for 1910, which was placed at $6,951,542. On the other hand the estimates included two new items: (1) receipts from the Railway, and (2) the opium contribution from the British Government, which also undertook to bear half the cost of the loss on British

postal agencies in China. The ordinary revenue was expected to exceed that of 1908 ($6,034,849) by over $100,000.

The project broached in 1908 for the establishment of a University at Hong-Kong met with wide encouragement. The Government made a free gift of a site, and generous contributions from British firms and Chinese, not only in the Colony but from Singapore and Canton, raised the total sum promised by the close of the year to over $1,100,000 and enabled work to be begun on its construction.

V. INDO-CHINA.

The administration of this Colony was severely criticised in France during the year. A recrudescence of piracy and signs of hostility to French rule, among which was an organisation at Tong-king to send young Annamese to Japan for a military education, were the principal causes for disquiet, while the cost of the administration and the ignorance of the native language among French officials provoked attack. On the other hand the Colony was able to show an increase of French imports and also of trade with Yunnan. The latter had already trebled itself between 1897 and 1906, and with the advance of the railway towards Yunnan Fu had been steadily growing. The completion of this railroad was expected by April, 1910, and a railroad from Phantiet to Saigon (189 kilometres) was opened in December.

CHAPTER VII.

AFRICA (WITH MALTA).

I. SOUTH AFRICA.

THE year 1909 is memorable in the annals of the Continent for the passage through the Imperial Parliament of an Act to constitute the Union of South Africa. (For the debates, see pp. 176-179, 193-195.) The Bill as introduced was an agreed Bill as between the Imperial Government and the Governments of the four Colonies, the Cape, Natal, the Orange River Colony, and the Transvaal. The British Parliament did but register the compact between the respective Governments. The Act therefore is the Act the South African Colonies wanted, not an Act shaped for them in whole or in part against their wishes by the Imperial Power. Indeed, in its treatment of the "colour-bar and of the conditions on which native territories can be taken over by the Union, it ran counter to the wishes of many members of both Houses of the Imperial Parliament.

The Act is the expression of a fundamental principle of British policy towards the Dominions, viz., of full self-government, under the Crown, in a form desired by the Colonies themselves, and under conditions to which the Colonies had

previously agreed. That such a principle should now be in operation over a region of Empire so lately the scene of racial war and distracted by rival interests, political and commercial, emphasises the dramatic change that has occurred since the Peace of Vereeniging in 1902, and may justly be regarded as one of the triumphs of modern statesmanship, equally creditable to the Imperial Government and to Boer and British in South Africa.

The preamble of the Act sets forth that it is desirable that the several British Colonies in South Africa should be united in one Government in a legislative Union under the Crown, with provincial legislatures for local affairs, and that the Union shall have power eventually to incorporate such parts of South Africa as are outside the four Colonies. The Executive Government of the Union is vested in the King and shall be administered by His Majesty in person or by a Governor-General appointed by the King, at an annual salary provided by the Union of 10,000l. The Governor-General is to act by the advice of an Executive Council, who will hold office during his pleasure. From this Council the Governor-General may appoint not more than ten persons to administer the departments of State, these persons to be the King's Ministers of State for the Union, subject to membership of either House of Parliament. The Governor-General is to have the appointment and removal of all public officers of the Union, and in him is vested the Command-in-Chief of the Union naval and military forces. Pretoria is to be the seat of Government, but Cape Town the seat of the Union Parliament. The legislative power of the Union is vested in a Parliament consisting of the King, a Senate and a House of Assembly. It is to sit at least once in every year. The Senate, for the next ten years, is to consist of eight Senators, nominated by the Governor-General and eight elected by each of the four provinces of the Union. Four of the eight nominated Senators are to be chosen "on the ground mainly of their thorough acquaintance, by reason of their official experience or otherwise, with the reasonable wants and wishes of the coloured races in South Africa." The elected Senators are to be elected at a special sitting of the existing four Colonial Legislatures, both Houses sitting together. The Senators, nominated or elected, are to hold their seats for ten years. A Senator must be (a) not less than thirty years of age; (b) qualified as a voter in his province; (c) have resided for five years within the Union; (d) be "a British subject of European descent," and (e) if elected must be the registered owner of immovable property within the Union of the value of not less than 500l. A President is to be chosen. All questions are to be determined by a majority of votes; the presiding Senator, however, is to have and exercise a casting vote in the case of an equality of votes. The House of Assembly is to be directly elected in the following present proportion: Cape, 57; Natal, 17; Transvaal, 36; Orange Free

Uor M

State, 17. This is on the basis of the 1904 census of "European male adults," by whom the franchise is to be exercised. This census gave a male adult population (twenty-one years), exclusive of the regular Army, as follows: Cape, 167,546; Natal, 34,784; Transvaal, 106,493; Orange Free State, 41,014. A five-yearly census is to be taken, and the number of members of the Union Assembly from the several provinces is then to be increased proportionately to the increase in the number of voters. The quota of the Union is to be obtained by dividing the total number of European male adults in the Union by the total number of the members of the Assembly as now constituted. But the total membership is not to exceed 150 within the next ten years. Parliament may by law prescribe the qualifications of voters for the House of Assembly, but "no such law shall disqualify any person in the province of the Cape of Good Hope who, under the laws existing . . . is, or may become, capable of being registered as a voter... by reason of his race or colour only, unless the Bill be passed by both Houses of Parliament sitting together, and at the third reading be agreed to by not less than two-thirds of the total number of members of both Houses." In other words, the Cape native now qualified to vote may continue to do so, unless and until the native qualification in the province is struck out by a law passed by a two-thirds majority of both Houses sitting together.

The Act provides that all the polls shall be taken on the same day, and that the constituencies shall each return one member. The qualifications of a member of the Union House of Assembly are: (a) he must be registered as a voter; (b) must have been resident for five years within the Union; (c) must be "a British subject of European descent." The House of Assembly is to continue for five years, but may be dissolved sooner by the Governor-General. Thirty members are to form a quorum. A Speaker is to be chosen, and he will have a casting vote. Every member of either House is to swear an oath or make an affirmation of allegiance to the King, his heirs and successors. Each Senator and member of the House of Assembly is to receive an allowance of 400l. a year, 31. to be deducted for each day on which he is absent in a session. There are the usual disabilities against criminals, insolvents and persons of unsound mind. The Parliament is to have "full power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Union." Money Bills are to originate only in the House of Assembly, and the Senate may not amend any Bills so far as they impose taxation or appropriate revenue or moneys for the service of the Government, and may not amend any Bill so as to increase any proposed charges or burdens on the people. The House of Assembly is not to impose any tax or appropriate any revenue except on the recommendation of the GovernorGeneral by message during the session. In the event of disagreement between the two Houses on Bills, the House of Assembly