The Press WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1903. A COMING CHANGE IN CHINA.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11511, 18 February 1903, Page 6

The Press WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1903. A COMING CHANGE IN CHINA.

I The news we chronicled on Monday that the Marquis of Lansdowne has agreed to the Chinese Maritime Customs being controlled by an International Commission when Sir Robert Hart retires is not surprising, although none the less disappointing to the British people. Our cable message stated that the British Minister had yielded in the matter to Russian pressure, but whether that was actually the case or not, it is most unlikely that he would have consented to a Commission, unless he had felt convinced that Sir Robert Hart could not, in any event, be succeeded by another British InspectorGeneral; and this is where the element of disappointment comes in. Sir Robert Hart has always been strictly loyal to hisChinese employers.. He has also been careful to preserve in his very able service the due proportional representation of all the chief countries trading with China. The service is quite cosmopolitan. Ger- r mans, Frenchmen, Russian* and Americans hold high office in it side by side with British subjects. As a matter of fact some, of the ablest of the Customs officers are rot British. But all the same, Sir Robert Hart has never forgotten that he is a British subject, and the mere fact that he is the absolute autocrat of the service ' v. aided British prestige in the Far Bast. The Irisp«toTate-General has been in British hands ever since its institution, Sir Robert Hart having succeeded another British subject, Mr Horatio Lay, in 1863. For forty years he has devoted himself-to the arduous duties of his post, and, aa he has now reached the ripe age of sixty-eight, his retirement may come at any moment. The trying experiences he underwent during the siege of the Legations must have helped to age him. It is far from improbable that fear of the service passing cut of British hands has been one of the rrotivee prompting him to remain in office, since it is well known that his refusal of the post of British Minister in 1885 was largely influenced by anxiety as to his probable successor in the Customs. It may safely be said that then is not a man in the service capable of doing all that Sir Robert has been doing. He has grown with the service, and has a thorough mastery, not only of its requirements, but also of native politics. It is more than probable, too, that the best of bis lieutenants woulsV be found to be a German. This may have helped to bring Lord Lansdowne to an acquiescence'in the Russian proposal for an International Commission.

Even the present "I-G.," with all his knowledge and capacity, must have found his task sA late almost more than he could carry out. New functions have bees added to bis already onerous office. The Chinese Imperial Postal system has been attached to the Maritime Customs, and the recent peace settlement lias brought other branches of the revenue under its management. These accessions of work are likely to continue if China advances along progressive lines of development. The Maritime Customs is the only strictly Imperial service in the piovinces. It is directly responsible to the Imperial Government in Pekin, and, consequently, must form the nucleus of administration for such new projects as emanate from the central authorities of the EmpireIt is, moreover, honest and reliable—quite an exceptional characteristic in any branch of the Chinese public service—and this encourages the Court to extend the scope of its operations. There are, consequently, sound reasons, apart altogether from international jealousies, for sot entrusting all these varied activities to the sole control of a single man. On the other band, much of the present efficiency of tha Customs service is directly due to the benevolent despotism of its Argus-eyed dictator, and a Commission might lade the decision sod constancy of purpose which have made bis ruts sosmcceasfuL From the intamationsi point

of view also, the Commission would . doubtediy have permanent drawbacks, tiffiWm though it would, at least temporarily, the otherwise inevitable disputes over appointment of a new Inspecto^GeneraV National differenoes and quarrels be imparted into the service, and the ntn ■ '■"fil fulness of the Commission might be largely neutralised by the fact that each Conuais. ~'t\% aioner would consider Jaimself, before all' ~V$ things, the representative of his own coua->'-st' try rather than the servant of the Chinese ' .*M nation. The Maritime Customs, with ihl allied and subsidiary departments, it fag-' fined to play no mean part in the futura.de.'. i>« velopment of China, and any event affecting '. }j£v its constitution and fitness must be of in-* M terest to the worlds of politics, finance and ''££ commerce. From the British standpoint )% a Commission would certainlybe preferable to a foreign Inspector-General, but such a cimnge would seem to mark a relative lost of British prestige in the Far East, and we ~M must, therefore, hope that Sir Robert Hart '*$& may still enjoy the health and strength to 'f~ continue yet a little longer bis great work," &j| at least until some of the most pressing ol <*£,'J the Far Eastern problems Lave been solved, '(i*