It will be noticed that the Viceroy openly avows that he put an excessive
lekin on kerosene in order to diminish its importation.
Malice against the United States plainly appears in this production. The
injuries done by kerosene are said to be greater than those done by opium.
Our treaty of 1881 is invoked, and a parallel instituted to show that
kerosene can be excluded.
The ignorance displayed in this article is only equaled by its evident
hostility to foreigners. The Viceroy seems to think that a treaty with the
United States would be all sufficient to exclude coal-oil. If he had pursued
a little further his opium analogy, he would have seen that, although our
treaty prohibits our people from engaging in the opium business, the
business in its magnitude is not at all affected, it is simply done by the
citizens of other countries. So it will be with kerosene.
In point of fact citizens of the United States are slightly engaged in the
import of kerosene. At Tientsin the trade is in Chinese hands exclusively.
At Shanghai very little, comparatively, is handled by Americans. The China
and Japan Trading Company is the only American house engaged in importing
kerosene to any extent. Germans and Englishmen and perhaps others handle
kerosene. It might be agreeable for them that the business was prohibited to
Americans, but China would be injured rather than benefited by the
prohibition.
Kerosene comes also from Batoum.
My present impression is that I will not bring this matter to the attention
of the Yamên but will await their action. I do not anticipate that any
notice will be taken of this stupid memorial.
I shall discuss this subject and some others with the Viceroy in Canton this
spring.
[Inclosure in No. 586.]
kerosene oil
[Joint memorial by the viceroy of the Two Kuang and the
governor of Canton setting forth the fatal hurtfillness of kerosene oil,
and praying that its importation may be prohibited.]
We respectfully submit a report made to us by the Tiughai magistrate,
Cliang Wen-tsung. On the 18th of the 9th moon, a kerosene lamp, bursting
in an upstairs room in the Yang-shing paper-shop, on the Yang-ho-kuang
street, Swatow, the conflagration spread to the neighboring houses, and
although the local official deputy magistrate, Shih Kan, was promptly on
the spot, with the soldiers under his command, they were unable to put
it out until the next day, owing to the high wind prevailing at the
time, and the fact that kerosene was stored in all the shops in the
neighborhood; over four hundred families, great and small, being burnt
out.
We also submit a similar report by the Taotai of the Chaochow, Kiatong,
and Hinchowintendancy of Te-tai.
We further submit a report from General Tao-ting Sheng, commanding at
Yang-cheong—the Bogue—that on the night of the first day of the 10th
moon, the river steamer Wahyeung was burnt to the
water’s edge off Shachiao, outside the Bogue, by the explosion of a
kerosene lamp in the passenger’s saloon, and notwithstanding the efforts
of the garrison of the forts and the sailors of the fleet to save them,
by which some seventy or eighty lives were saved, the rest of the
passengers aud crew, numbering some seven or eight hundred persons, were
either burned or drowned.
On receipt of telegraphic news of this disaster the Shan-kou office was
directed at once to send an officer down to the spot to see what was to
be done and to collect the corpses and see to their proper burial, the
benevolent society being instructed to provide coffins for their
reception.
The fire on this occasion was so rapid and so fierce that nothing could
be done to stop it, and not only was the vessel burnt, but over seven
hundred lives were sacrificed at the same time. Language is insufficient
to describe the horror of the scene; disfigured bodies floating on the
river and cumbering the bank.
[Page 268]
On inquiring into the subject, we find that kerosene is chiefly imported
from America, and that in consequence of its cheapness it has come into
general consumption. It is highly inflammable, and unless the greatest
care is taken destructive fires constantly result from its use. It
appears further that in a dry climate, like that of Canton, the danger
of fire is very great, and that last winter scarcely a day passed
without one, nine-tenths of the number being traceable to kerosene,
notably the great fire in November last, outside the south gate in which
over 1,000 families were burned out and over $10,000,000 worth of
property was consumed.
We must attribute, therefore, the daily increasing frequency of these
disasters to the increasing consumption of kerosene, since the
introduction of which incalculable injury has been done to Chinese life
and property in this province alone, to say nothing of the other coast
and riverine provinces.
It may even be said that the injury done to China by kerosene is more
grave than that done by opium, for although opium is indeed a poison,
its action is slow, whereas with kerosene, which is found everywhere, if
it once catches fire it spreads the more you try to put it out; in a
moment the neighborhood is in a blaze and life and property are
constantly destroyed.
It is also a matter of importance, although in a less degree, that since
the development of the kerosene consumption the native industry in
pea-nut, colza, and bean oil has day by day declined.
Having this in view we last year instructed the various lekin stations to
impose heavy additional duties on kerosene, hoping by increasing its
cost to diminish its consumption, which led to the American minister
addressing the Tsung-li Yamên, who called on us for a report, which we
made confidentially in May last.
We would submit that by the treaties foreign merchants are forbidden to
deal in sulphur or saltpetre, as these concern the military
organization, or in rice or beans, as these affect the food supply of
the people, and that there is precedent therefore for articles
prohibiting foreigners trading (even in) Chinese produce they should not
therefore setting forth as they do, that they are friendly States,
insist, in order to profit themselves, on harming us and introducing
foreign produce shown to be so highly injurious to the welfare of the
people.
We would submit, also, that, as by the supplementary treaty with America
made in 1881, provision was made to limit Chinese emigration to that
country and prevent its increase, as the competition of Chinese labor
was found to be objectional; therefore, that, if they can prohibit our
going there because Chinese labor is injurious to their interests, we
have an equal right to prohibit the importation of kerosene when it is
injurious to us. The law that nations have a right to protect their own
interests and prevent injury being done their people applies to both
countries alike if there be any justice; and when either Government acts
on this principle no objection can be raised by the other. We request
therefore that the Tsung-li Yamên may be instructed, quoting the
precedent of the supplementary treaty, and on the ground of the injury
done to this province, to arrange with the American minister for the
institution of regulations in the matter and also that secret
instructions may be given his excellency, Chang Yen Hoon, the minister
at Washington, to make strong representations to the foreign office
there on the subject, to the end that in future foreign merchants may
not be allowed to import kerosene or that they may only be allowed to do
so in limited quantities, or that, as has been done with opium, special
tariff rules may be established putting kerosene out of the category of
ordinary merchandise and leaving it to China to tax it as it
pleases.
If this be done in a few years the import will diminish, calamities will
largely decrease, and native trade will greatly benefit.
Having in view the importance of care for interests of the people, and
trusting to prevent the recurrence of the calamity of fires, we, Chang
Chih Tung, viceroy of Canton, and Wu-Ta-ching, governor of Canton,
humbly submit this memorial, praying that Her Majesty the Empress and
His Majesty the Emperor may be graciously pleased to cast their sacred
glance thereon.
