THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 523, 21 February 1876, Page 3

THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.

The Singapore correspondent of the Argus,, writing on January 10th, says Strong evidence has been produced lately from European missionaries on the spot, and well acquainted with the Chinese language, to prove that Mr Margary’s murder at Yunnan was a deliberate piece of treachery on the part of the authorities of the district through which the unfortunate gentleman passed ; and what is more, a copy of the proclamation distributed along the route the Grosvenor mission of inquiry will have to traverse has been sent to the Government of India, to the effect that Messrs Grosvenor and Baber are not to be permitted to get beyond a certain point, and their bones are to lie there. There is no doubt of the truth of the statement, and of the issue and purport of the proclamation, so that, notwithstanding the knighthood conferred on our Minister at Peking, Mr Wade, he has entirely failed in the object of his mission, and we stand as it were, on verge of a war with China. There are other feathers and straws in the air also, which tell how the wind blows in the direction of war. Foreigners of all nations cannot walk the streets in the Chinese portions of Hankow, Foochow, Shanghai, or any of the treaty ports without being insulted ; by the rabble. Having procured a quantity of rifled cannon, a score or so of ironclads, ' and having some thousands of soldiers ' armed with the Snider, and some of them : drilled by Europeans, the arrogance and selfconceit of the mandarins and literati now know no bounds, and they are more anxious ' for war than peace. In this feeling they are ! joined by the rabble of the towns. The mer- : chants and middle classes, on the contrary, are in favour of peace, as they foresee that war will inevitably bring ruin for the time being on their country, for it is well known that besides the Mussulmans among the people there are others equally as disaffected towards the present dynasty, who only wait

for an opportunity to rebel. This opportunity would be afforded if a foreign war were to commence, and the knowledge of all this leads to the temporising action of the Government. It would have gladly acceded to all Wade’s demands to maintain peace, but had it done so, it would have incurred the ill-will of the bellicose party. It thus was compelled, it may be said, to make promises it does not intend to perform, and play a double-faced part throughout, connected with the Margary business, and very likely, as we see, with the usual results attending such duplicity. lam almost certain that the coming spring, when the rivers will be open in the North, will witness the commencement of a war to avenge not only the murder of Margary, and punish breaches of faith in other ways, but, I am much afraid, to avenge likewise the murders of the British agents now on their way to Yunnan. If this be so, then Burmah will have to be disarmed, and that country “Proper, or Upper, Burmah” will become British territory. The King is an obstinate old man, who has fallen among thieves in the shape of Italian and French adventures, who fill his mind with all sorts of vain-glorious ideas, and are fast leading him to destruction. He has so far alienated the goodwill of his people that he cannot leave his mud-walled palace with safety, and his own family are in arms against him. A few weeks ago he sacrificed two of his numerous sons and one of his brothers to his fears. They were accused of treason against him, and he ordered them to execution ; and as it is an inflexible law of the Burmese that none of the blood of the Royal family must be shed by the executioner, the victims were made to kneel, and were killed by blows on the nape of the neck from long silken bags filled with sand. Twenty-five of the men accused of a conspiracy to blow up the British arsenal at Rangoon have been committed for trial. Two of the lot were permitted to turn Queen’s evidence, and they have sworn that the King’s agent in Rangoon supplied them with funds, and therefore was a particeps criminis with them. The King has, besides, received with open arms the Chinese official who is accused of having ordered Margary’s murder, and who, after that deed had been accomplished, travelled the long iourney from Yunnan to Mandalay to visit the King. The latter sent him back with his acknowledgment of submission to the Suzerainty of the Emperor of China, and this fact, taken in connection with many surrounding circumstances, such as the casting of guns, drilling of troops, and the arsenal incident, to say the least, looks very suspicious, and more like war than peace. 9

The news from Japan is also of warlike preparations. The Mikado is going to fight the Coreans, and after they are polished off, his Imperial Majesty intends to ask his brother of Russia his intentions as regafds the Island of Sagahlien and other places whereon he has allowed his subjects to form settlements. Altogether, in this part of the world we are living amidst scarcely anything else but wars and rumors of wars. The Dutch are still fighting at Achin, so that both sides of the straits are in an uproar. The progress made by our broad allies is very slow, if it is sure. They seem, indeed, to be in no haste to finish the war, which must be very costly to them. They return their losses in every engagement as slight, and those of the enemy as very heavy. But we know here—everyone knows—that cholera, and dysentery, and the swamp ague and fever, have decimated every regiment sent there—that at one time, in fact, out of 4000 men in the Kraton (the fortified place they first captured) and in their camp there were in round numbers 800 in hospital from sickness such as I have described, and not from wounds. The work is very harassing t> the men, Clearing thick bamboo brakes and jungles, running causeways across pestiferous swamps, the mud of which stinks—smells is not expressive enough—most consumedly, and building bridges beneath the broiling sun of Sumatra, is employment that brings sickness and death in its train. Yet it must be said, to the credit of the Dutch soldiers, they do not grumble half so much as our own men would. A military friend who has just returned from a visit to the Kraton, declares that he never saw men so contented under disagreeables as these. He described them as “an army of Mark Tapleys.” If so, they will in the end be successful. But it will be a Pyrrhic victory, and will ruin Holland. The war has already swallowed up the million sterling of surplus the Batavian colony had produced, and now Holland, which was the only country in the world without a public debt, has to contract a loan for the purposes of the war. However, it is an ill wind that blows no one good. The Straits have profited by the war. Penang traders especially have made a good thing of it, nor have those of Singapore been far behindhand.