The peoples and politics of the Far East
Henry Norman
THE PEOPLES AND POLITICS
OF
THE FAR EAST
THE NEW YIK
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THE PEOPLES AND POLITICS
OF
THE FAR EAST
TRAVELS AND STUDIES IN THE
BRITISH , FRENCH , SPANISH
AND PORTUGUESE COLONIES ,
SIBERIA, CHINA , JAPAN , KOREA ,
SIAM AND MALAYA
BY +
HENRY NORMAN
AUTHOR OF “ THE REAL JAPAN ”
Le
off
WITH SIXTY
ILLUSTRATIONS AND
FOUR MAPS
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
153-157 FIFTH AVENUE
1895
THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
727252 A
ASTOR , LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
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PRAESIDI SOCIISQUE HARVARDIANIS
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PREFACE .
This book is the result of nearly four years of travel
and study in the countries and colonies of which it
treats. I have described and discussed no place that
I did not visit, and in every one I remained long enough,
and was fortunate enough in learning the views and
experiences of the local authorities and best-informed
residents, to make sure at any rate that I was not
misled into mere hasty impressions. If I appear to
present some of my conclusions with excessive confidence,
this fault is to be explained, and I trust excused, first,
by my conviction of the importance to Great Britain of
the issues involved, and second, by my faith in the
accuracy and wisdom of my many informants.
The Far East presents itself to the attentive traveller
under two aspects. It is the last Wonderland of the
World ; and it is also the seed-bed of a multitude
of new political issues. I have endeavoured to reflect
in these pages this twofold quality of my subject. There
fore the record of mere travel is interwoven with that of
investigation : the incidents and the adventures of the
vii
viii PREFACE .
hour are mingled with the factors and the statistics of
the permanent problems. By this means I have hoped
to reproduce upon the reader's mind something of the
effect of the Far East upon my own . It is a picture
which is destined , either in bright colours or in sombre,
to become increasingly familiar to him in the future.
I find myself wholly unable to acknowledge here even
a small part of the help and hospitality I received , and
I can only express this general but deep obligation. To
Sir Robert Hart , Bart., however, first of all ; to Sir
>
Cecil Clementi Smith, ex -Governor of the Straits Settle
ment ; to Sir G. William Des Voeux, formerly Governor
of Hongkong ; and to Mr. F. A. Swettenham , C.M.G.,
British Resident of Perak, I have to offer my special
thanks. To my friend Mr. R. L. Morant, whose know
ledge of Siam is more intimate than that of any foreigner
living, and who at the time of my stay in Bangkok was
governor of the late Crown Prince and tutor to the
Royal children, I have to acknowledge great indebted
ness . I need hardly add that these gentlemen must not
be forcibly connected with any of my opinions. Mr. J.
Scott Keltie, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Geo
graphical Society, the Librarian of the Colonial Office,
and the Librarian of the Royal Statistical Society , >
have been good enough to give me valuable technical
assistance.
In a few instances I have reproduced here, with
considerable alterations, parts of contributions to the
PREFACE . ix
daily and periodical Press, chiefly descriptions of places
written on the spot. The greater part of the illustrations
are from my own photographs; one or two are by that
ercellent photographer A. Fong, of Hongkong, one or
. two by Mr. Chit, and one by Mr. Loftus, both of
Bangkok. The maps, which present certain geographical
facts not — so far as I know — to be found in conjunction
elsewhere, have been drawn under my own supervision.
H. N.
LONDON , December 31 , 1894 .
CONTENTS .
PAGE
PREFACE vii
THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN THE FAR EAST.
CHAP,
I. OUTPOSTS OF EMPIRE : SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG 3
II . A SCHOOL OF EMPIRE : THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS . 37
III . ANOMALIES OF EMPIRE : THE PROTECTED MALAY STATES 52
FRANCE IN THE FAR EAST .
IV . IN FRENCH INDO-CHINA : LEAVES FROM MY NOTEBOOKS 71
V. ON THE FRANCO - CHINESE FRONTIER 95
VI . A STUDY OF FRENCH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION . 103
VII. THE COST OF A FRENCH COLONY . 124
RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST .
VIII . VLADIVOSTOK : THE “ PossESSION OF THE East ” 141
IX . THE POSITION OF RUSSIA ON THE PACIFIC . 151
X. THE TRANS- SIBERIAN RAILWAY AND ITS RESULTS 159
SPAIN IN THE FAR EAST .
MANILA : THE CITY OF CIGARS , HEMP, EARTHQUAKES,
AND INTOLERANCE 169
xi
xii CONTENTS .
PORTUGAL IN THE FAR EAST .
CHAP. PAGE
XII . MACAO : THE LUSITANIAN THULE . 183
CHINA .
XIII . PEKING AND ITS INHABITANTS 195
XIV . TO THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA 211
XV . CHINESE HORRORS 219
XVI. THE IMPERIAL MARITIME CUSTOMS : SIR ROBERT
HART AND HIS WORK 231
XVII . THE GRAND SECRETARY LI . 244
XVIII . CHINA AMONG THE GREAT POWERS . 260
XIX . CONCERNING THE PEOPLE OF China 276
XX . THE FUTURE OF CHINA 297
KOREA.
XXI . ON HORSEBACK ACROSS KOREA 323
XXII . THE CITY OF SEOUL AND ITS INHABITANTS . 341
XXIII . THE QUESTION OF KOREA 356
JAPAN .
XXIV . THE JAPAN OF TO - DAY . 375
XXV . ASIA FOR THE ASIATICS ? 394
SIAM .
1
XXVI . BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE . . 407
!
XXVII. THE PRINCIPLES AND PERSONALITIES OF SIAMESE 1
GOVERNMENT 434
XXVIII . FICTIONS AND FACTS OF SIAMESE AFFAIRS . 451
XXIX . THE TRUE STORY OF FRANCE AND SIAM . 468
XXX . ENGLAND AND THE FUTURE OF SIAM 502
CONTENTS . xiii
MALAYA .
CHIP. PAGE
XXXI . THE POLITICAL POSITION OF THE NATIVE STATES . 523
XXXII. A JUNGLE JOURNEY IN UNKNOWN MALAYA . 534
XXXIII . ON A RAFT THROUGH A FORBIDDEN STATE 558
CONCLUSION.
AN EASTERN HOROSCOPE 589
INDEX 603
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
LAW IN CHINA : THE CONFESSION OF GUILT UNDER
TORTURE. (Facsimile of a drawing by a Chinese
Artist) Frontispiece
A NATIVE AT HOME, TONGKING To face page 72
A Muong BEAUTY , TONGKING 76
A GROUP OF NATIVES, TONGKING 82
How I EARNED A HUNDRED FRANCS 82
FRANCE AND CHINA : WATCHING THE FRONTIER 96
AT THE GATE OF THE FORT, MONKAY 99 100
VLADIVOSTOK 144
The Boys' BAND , MANILA 172
FRENCH PRISONERS AT Hanoi 172
THE FIRST SIGHT OF PEKING 196
The British LEGATION , PEKING 200
THE EXAMINATION CELLS, PEKING 204
THE OBSERVATORY ON THE WALL, l'EKING . 204
A STREET IN PEKING 208
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA 214
A Watch -TOWER ON THE GREAT WA’L 214
A MAGISTRATE's YAMÊN 19
220
Chixa : “ DEATH BY THE THOUSAND CUTS " 224
CHINESE JUDICIAL TORTURES 228
A PRIVATE CART, PEKING 236
THE TOP OF THE WALL , PEKING 236
THREE YELLOW JACKETS 248
THE MONGOL IN PEKING 278
A CHINESE LADY's Foot 288
THE PROTECTION OF FOREIGNERS, CANTON 288
The TsungLI YAMÎN, PEKING 298
A CHINESE SCHOOL : VICTIMS OF CONTUCIUS . 312
MY START ACROSS KOREA > 326
THE ROYAL APARTMENTS, MONASTERY OF AN-BYÖN 332
A KOREAN HOTEL 9 338
XV
xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS .
MEN AND WOMEN OF KOREA To face page 338
A GATE OF SEOUL 344
non
anh
THE OLD PALACE AND NAM -SAN , SEOUL 350
THE Consul GOING TO AN AUDIENCE , SEOUL . 350
KOREAN DANCING GIRLS : “ Love's YOUNG DREAM 354
BANGKOK : « THE VENICE OF THE EAST ” 408
THE HALLS OF AUDIENCE, BANGKOK 412
WAT CHANG , BANGKOK, FROM A PINNACLE 416
A TEMPLE ON A CANAL , BANGKOK 420
A LOVE -SCENE ON THE SIAMESE STAGE 424
A TYPICAL SIAMESE WOMAN . 99 430
At Ko- SI -CHANG : The King OF SIAM AND
,
»
THE SECOND QUEEN
,,
. 436
THE FIRST QUEEN , SIAM 9 ) 99 440
THE LATE CROWN PRINCE OF SIAM AND SOME
OF HIS BROTHERS 444
A ROYAL COURT - YARD, BANGKOK 444
AN AFTER -DINNER GROUP, BANGKOK 448
IN THE PALACE TEMPLE , BANGKOK . 454
,
THE GREAT BRONZE BUDDHA , AYUTHIA 460
WILD ELEPHANTS BEFORE THE KING , SIAN 19 464
PEKAN , THE CAPITAL OF PAHANG 536
A BELLE OF THE JUNGLE
,,
536
MY KITCHEN IN THE JUNGLE :) 9 542
A GROUP IN CAMP 542
IN THE JUNGLE : AN EARLY START . 548
MY CAMP AT KUALA LEH 552
THE LAST BRITISH OUTPOST , PERAK 99 552
NATIVE MILLS FOR CRUSHING GOLD -QUARTZ, TEMOH 556
MY RAFTS ON THE KELANTAN RIVER 9 562
SHOPS A MALAY TOWN 566
,,
A MALAY DRAMA BEFORE THE SULTAN 566
THE MAIN STREET AND ENTRANCE TO THE
ARCHITETA
SULTAN'S RESIDENCE , TRINGANU 5785
MERGU
MAPS .
THE HARBOUR OF VLADIVOSTOK Page 152
THE SETTLEMENTS AND HARBOUR OF WÖN - SAN 324
THE PROBLEMS OF INDO - CHINA To face page xv.
THE MALAY PENINSULA XV
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THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN THE FAR EAST .
2
1
CHAPTER I.
OUTPOSTS OF EMPIRE : SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG .
ANselfEnglishman writing an account of the Far East finds him
in a dilemma at the outset. If he follows his natural
inclination to describe at length the British Colonies there, their
astonishing history, their race- problems, their commercial
achievements, and their exhibition of the colonising genius of
his race ; and especially if he yields to the temptation to dwell
upon their extraordinary picturesqueness , he lays himself open
to the just criticism that these are matters already familiar to
every one of his readers. On the other hand, if he takes this
familiarity for granted, and omits them from his survey, the
brightest colour is lacking from the picture and the most potent
factor from the problem. This would obviously be the greater
evil , and therefore in my own case, risking the reproach , I pro
pose to touch upon the external aspects of the British Colonies
in the Far East just enough to convey some notion of the
physical conditions and surroundings under which our country
men there live and labour, and to write at somewhat greater
length of a few vital matters which do not present themselves
on the surface. One thing, at any rate, can never be told too
often or impressed too strongly, namely, that our Far Eastern
Colonies are not mere outlying units , each with a sentimental
and commercial connection with Great Britain, but bone of the
bone of the Empire, and flesh of its flesh .
Among the many surprises of a journey in the Far East,
one of the greatest is certainly the first sight of Shanghai.
3
4 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
I was writing below as we steamed up the Hwang-pu river,
and did not come on the deck of the Hae-an till five minutes
before she anchored. Then I could hardly believe my eyes.
There lay a magnificent European city surrounding a broad
and crowded river. True, the magnificence is only skin- deep,
so to speak, all the architectural beauty and solidity of
Shanghai being spread out along the river ; but I am speak
ing of the first sight of Shanghai, and in this respect it
is superior to New York , far ahead of San Francisco, and
almost as imposing for the moment as Liverpool itself. A
broad and beautifully kept boulevard, called of course “ The
Bund," runs round the river, with a row of well-grown trees
and a broad grass-plat at the water's edge, and this Bund
is lined on the other side from one end to the other with mer
cantile buildings second to none of their kind in the world—the
" hongs " of the great firms, and the banks ; the fine edifices of
the Masonic Hall and the Shanghai Club ; and the magni
ficent new quarters of the Imperial Customs Service. At
the upper end of the Bund a large patch of green shows the
Public Garden , where the band plays on summer evenings.
At night all Shanghai is bright with the electric light, and
its telegraph poles remind you of Chicago-I believe I counted
nearly a hundred wires on one pole opposite the Club. And
the needed touch of colour is added to the scene as you look
at it from on deck, by the gay flags of the mail steamers and
the Consular bunting floating orer the town.
The first sight of Shanghai, moreover, is only its first surprise.
As I was rolling away to the hotel the 'ricksha coolie turned
on to the right-hand side of the road. Instantly a familiar
figure stepped off the sidewalk and shook a warning finger, and
the coolie swung back again to the left side. It was a police
man - no semi-Europeanised Mongolian, languidly performing a
half - understood duty, but the genuine home article, helmet,
blue suit, silver buttons, regulation boots, truncheon and all
just “ bobby.” And his uplifted finger turned the traffic to the
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. 5
left in Shanghai precisely as it does in front of the Mansion
House . A hundred yards further on there was a flash of
scarlet in the sun, and there stood a second astonishing
figure — a six -foot copper-coloured Sikh , topped by a huge red
turban, and clad also in blue and armed with the same trun
cheon , striding solemnly by on his beat. Then came the
Chinese policeman , with his little saucer hat of red bamboo
and his white gaiters, swinging a diminutive staff — a reduced
and rather comical replica of his big English and Indian
comrades. Then as we crossed the bridge into the French
Concession there appeared the sergent de ville, absolutely
the same as you see him in the Place de l'Opéra - peaked
cap, waxed moustache, baggy red trousers, sabre , and revolver.
And beyond him again was the Frenchified Chinese police
man . In fact, Shanghai is guarded municipally by no fewer
than six distinct species of policemen-English, Sikh, Anglo
Chinese, French, Franco - Chinese, and the long-legged
mounted Sikhs on sturdy white ponies, who clank their
sabres around the outskirts of the town, and carry terror
into the turbulent Chinese quarters.
Shanghai, like so much of the Empire, was originally spolia
opima. It was captured from the Chinese on June 19, 18-12, and
opened to foreign trade in November, 1843. It is in the middle
of the coast-line of China, in the south-east corner of the province
of Kiang-su, at the junction of the rivers Hwang-pu and Woosung
(or Soochow Creek), twelve miles above the point where these
flow together into the estuary of the Yangtsze . Shanghai is
thus practically at the mouth of the great waterway of China ,
and it is the chief outlet and distributing centre for the huge
northern and central provinces. It has been called the " com
mercial metropolis of China,” since so large a percentage of
the total foreign trade of China passes through it. The native
city, which has about 125,000 inhabitants, and lies behind the
foreign city, was an important emporium of trade for centuries .
Its walls, which are three miles and a half in circumference, were
6 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
built in the sixteenth century to keep off an earlier Japanese 1
invasion. The French obtained a grant of their present Settle
ment in return for services rendered in driving out the rebels in
1853. Shanghai has been the scene of a good deal of warfare.
In 1853 the native city was captured by the rebels, who held it
for seventeen months. In 1861 , the Taiping rebels, after cap
>
turing Soochow in the previous year, advanced upon Shanghai,
but were driven back by British and Indian regiments, aided by
French marines. It was at this time that “ Chinese Gordon "
appeared upon the scene. The Imperial authorities, at their
wits' end, allowed an American adventurer to enlist a number
of more or less disreputable foreigners, and with their aid to
raise and drill a horde of natives. These passed under the com
mand of another American name Burgevine, who finally deserted
to the rebels. The Imperialists were thus left with a mutinous
and almost uncontrollable band of their own people to deal with,
little more dangerous than the rebels themselves. It was these
that Major Gordon, R.E. , was allowed to discipline and lead
against the Taipings, as the self- christened “ Ever-Victorious
Army," and it was no doubt owing to his extraordinary prowess
that the Imperial authority was re- established . Opinions differ
among students of Chinese history as to whether it would not
have been better for China had the Taipings succeeded. I came
upon many curious reminiscences of General Gordon up and
down the coast of China. He was a man of remarkable virtues
and of no less remarkable weaknesses, and the stories of him
which survive in the Far East would make very interesting
reading. I do not give them , however, because public opinion
seems to have determined that this many-sided man shall be
known under one aspect only of his life — that of hero. I will
only say that there is correspondence of his still in existence in
China, some of which I have read, which should in the interests
of history be published. His opinions of the Viceroy Li Hung.
chang, whom he greatly respected and whom he had once spent
some time in trying to shoot with his own hand, were of a par
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG . 7
ticularly striking character . The original regulations under
which Shanghai is governed were drawn up by the British
Consul in 1845. These were amended in 1854 by an agreement
between the Consul and the inhabitants ; and in 1863 the
American Settlement was amalgamated with the British . A
number of vain efforts have been made to induce the French
to join this, but although much smaller both in area, population,
and trade it has declined to do so, and remains under the
" Réglement d'Organisation Municipale de la Concession Fran
caise " of 1862. The other two nationalities have not yet suc
ceeded in agreeing with the diplomatic authorities for the revision
of the “ Council for the Foreign Community of Shanghai North
of the Yang -king - pang ” of 1870.
Modern Shanghai is thus divided , like ancient Gaul, into
three parts : the English settlement, the American settlement ,
called Hongkew, and the much smaller French “ Concession ."
Three creeks divide these communities from each other
Yang-king-pang, Soochow Creek, and Defence Creek between
the English settlement and China. One wide thoroughfare ,
called “ the Maloo," runs through Shanghai out past the
race -course and the Horse-Bazaar into the country, and along
this in the afternoon there is a stream of ponies and smart
carriages and pedestrians and bicyclists . It is the Rotten
Row of Shanghai, leading to the Bubbling Well, and the one
country drive the community possesses. But in truth there
is not much “ country ” about it, the environs of Shanghai
being flat and ugly—the nearest hill being nineteen miles
away, and covered with grave-mounds as thickly as the
battlefields round Gravelotte.
Shanghai dubbed itself long ago the “ Model Settlement.”
Then a noble English globe - trotter came along, and afterwards
described it in the House of Lords as " a sink of corruption ."
Thereupon a witty Consul suggested that in future it should be
known as the “ Model Sink.” For my own part I should not
grudge it the first title, for it is one of the best governed
8 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
places municipally — at any rate, so far as the Anglo -American
quarters are concerned – that I have ever known. The
French, as I have said, live apart under their own Municipal
Council, presided over, and even dismissed at pleasure, by
their own Consul . The English and American elected
Municipal Council consists of nine members, with an elected
chairman at its head . And a short stay in Shanghai is
sufficient to show how satisfactorily this works. The roads
are perfect, the traffic is kept under admirable direction
and control, the streets are quiet and orderly, and even the
coolies are forbidden to push their great wheelbarrows through
the foreign settlement with ungreased wheels. The third
surprise of Shanghai does not dawn upon you immediately.
It is a Republic—a community of nations, self-governed and
practically independent, for it snaps its fingers politely at the
Chinese authorities or discusses any matter with them upon
equal terms , and it does not hesitate to differ pointedly in
opinion from its own Consuls when it regards their action as
unwise or their interference as unwarranted . Over the Chinese
within its borders the Municipal Council has, however, no
jurisdiction. In the “ Maloo " there is a magistrate's Yamên,
and there the famous “ Mixed Court " sits every morning, con
sisting of the Chinese magistrate and one of the foreign Consuls
All natives charged with offences against foreigners or
foreign law are dealt with there, petty criminals being punished
in the municipal prison or the chain-gang, serious offenders, or
refugees from Chinese law, being sent into the native city.
The Chinese magistrate in the Mixed Court is, of course , a
figure -head, chiefly useful, so far as I could see, in lecturing
the prisoners while the foreigner made up his mind what
punishment to award. In criminal cases the Mixed Court
works fairly well , but in civil suits it gives rise to numerous and
bitter complaints . The population of Shanghai on December
31 , 1891 , was estimated at 4,956 foreigners (British, 1,759 ;
Japanese, 751 ; Portuguese, 542; French , 332 ; American, 450 ;
Spanish, 245 ; German, 330) , and Chinese, 175,000.
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. 9
The Republic of Shanghai has its own army , of course, com
posed of volunteer infantry, 159 strong ; artillery , with 4 guns
and 45 men ; and a smart but diminutive troop of 38 light
horse. It has also volunteer fire -brigades, and no fewer than
seven distinct postal systems of different nationalities. An
amusing fact in connection with the artillery - amusing chiefly
to any one who appreciates the red -tape which binds the military
authorities at home, is that the latter presented the Shanghai
volunteers with four excellent field-guns, and send out an
annual allowance of ammunition. No doubt they believe that
Shanghai is a British colony, whereas the fun lies in the fact
that it is simply some land leased in perpetuity from the
Emperor of China, and that it is always possible—it may
be the case to-day for all I know—that a majority of those
serving the guns are non-British subjects. But this is only for
the joke's sake. The volunteers get great praise from the official
inspector each year, and they may be called upon to protect
British lives and property at any moment. So the War Office
did a wise thing after all, in spite of the fact that the volunteers
are a “ politically anomalous ” body
The social life of Shanghai is the natural outgrowth of its
Republican institutions. It is democratic, and characterised by
a tolerant good -fellowship. Upon this point a well - known lady
was kind enough to set me right. “ In Shanghai,” she explained,
“everybody is equal. In Hongkong everybody is not equal.
There are those of us who call at Government House, and those
who do not. " After so lucid an analysis it was impossible
to err . All male Shanghai meets in the Club - one of the
most comfortable and complete in the world — before tiffin and
before dinner , to exchange news, make up dinner- parties, and
do business-all three with equal zest. And the hospitality
of Shanghai is another surprise. You might as well attempt
to give your shadow the slip as to escape from the gratuitous
good cheer of the Model Settlement. As for sport, on the
whole Shanghai is ahead of the rest of the East . It has
10 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
its charming country club, its races twice a year, its regatta,
when the Chinese authorities stop all the native traffic on the
river, its polo, its two cricket clubs, its base-ball, and its shoot
ing parties in house-boats up the Yangtsze and to the hills twenty
miles away. And on Saturday afternoons if you walk out to
the Bubbling Well about four o'clock you can see the finish of
the paper hunt and a dozen well-mounted and scrupulously
dressed jockeys come riding in to the finish and taking a rather
bad fence and ditch which has been carefully prepared with the
object of receiving half of them in the sight of their fair
friends. Finally, there are the hounds and their master. And
what matter if a slanderous tradition does fret their fair fame,
to the effect that once upon a time , discarding the deceptive
aniseed -bag, a fox was imported from Japan , and that the end
of that hunting-day was that one- half the pack ran into an
unlucky chow -dog and broke him up, and the other half chased
a Chinese boy for his life, while the master stood upon a grave.
mound winding his horn to a deserted landscape ?
The trade of Shanghaimay be roughly divided under five heads :
imports — cotton piece-goods, metals, and kerosene oil ; exports
tea and silk. The tea trade, as elsewhere in China, has fallen
off grievously of late, owing to the gradual fall in quality, and
the competition of Ceylon and Indian teas. Foreign tea -men
have made efforts of every kind to induce Chinese growers to
improve their processes of preparation, but without much result.
It is chiefly in the English market, however, that the trade has
suffered. Improvement in quality ( says the Commissioner of
Customs) is an absolute necessity, but “ China can never hope
to produce a tea which will compare with Indian according to
the only standard which now seems to be applicable in England
-the standard of strength , the capacity to colour, to a certain
point of darkness, so many gallons of water to each pound of
tea .” It seems as unlikely that the Chinese will learn to improve
their qualities as that we shall learn how to know good tea from
bad, and how to “ make ” it when we have secured it. To every
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. 11
Eastern tea -drinker the tea served at the best houses in England
would be a horror. Nobody who has not travelled in the East,
and arrived, after a day's tramp through a malarious and steam
ing jungle, at some poor Chinaman's shanty, and thankfully
drunk a dozen cups of the beverage freely offered, can know how
delicious and invigorating even the most modest tea can be.
The same cause has already produced a standstill and will soon
produce a reduction in the Chinese silk trade. Chinese silk
would be as good as any in the world if it were properly pre
pared, but it is now used only to add to other kinds ; whereas
Japanese silk, because prepared with Western methods and con
scientious intelligence, has increased its output tenfold since
Japan began to sell it to foreigners. This is the old, old story
of China, and it will probably never be altered until foreigners
contrive-- or their governments for them - to exert authority in
the Celestial Kingdom, as well as to tender advice and drive
bargains. The figures of Shanghai trade are , of course, a
striking testimony to the preponderance of British interests
and enterprise. In 1893 the number of ships entered and
cleared, both under steam and sail, was 6,317 , with a total
tonnage of 6,529,870. Of these, 3,092 were British , and their
tonnage 3,664,175 . Or, to exhibit the comparative insignifi
cance of the shipping of all other foreign nations, out of the
above grand totals British and Chinese ships together numbered
no fewer than 4,721 , with a tonnage of no less than 5,280,310 .
The total foreign trade of Shanghai for 1893 was 139,268,000
Haikwan taels, * of which Great Britain, Hongkong, and India
stand for 80,826,000, or over 58 per cent., besides trade with
* It is practically impossible to give the accurate gold equivalent of these sums.
First, because silver falls so rapidly that a calculation of exchange is obsolete before
it gets back from the printer; and second, because the purchasing power of silver
in the East has not fallen to anything like the same extent as its exchange against
gold. he average exchange of the Haikwan or Customs tael for 1893 was 3s. 11 / d . ,
and the British Consul calculates at this figure, making the total foreign trade
£27,418,388. In dealing with the figures of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs
later on I have reckoned the tael at 3s. 4d. , as a nearer approximation,
12 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
other parts of the British Empire which it is impossible to cal
culate separately. The direct trade with Great Britain, both
imports and exports, has fallen off greatly during the past twenty
years, largely because the Suez Canal has brought the southern
ports of Europe into closer communication with China. But the
trade between China and India is growing rapidly, although the
export of opium to China from Indian ports is falling steadily
and will ultimately all but disappear.
It is curious that by the “ Land Regulations,” which form
the Constitution of Shanghai, the Chinese are forbidden to
reside or hold property within the Foreign Settlements, and
yet there are 175,000 of them afloat and ashore ; and I fancy
even Shanghai itself would be astounded if it could be told
exactly what proportion of the whole property is in their hands .
There has been a good deal of talk about this, and in reply to
a “ Cassandra " who wrote to the papers that nothing could save
Shanghai but amalgamation with the Chinese, a local writer
produced some witty verses, telling how in a vision in the
twentieth century
“ I passed a lawyer's office, on the shingle
6
Was · Wang and Johnson , Barristers-at-law ';
Where'er the nations had begun to mingle,
Chinese came first, I saw .
“ A steamer passed ; a native gave the orders;
An English quartermaster held the wheel ;
The chain - gang all were white, the stalwart wardcrs
Yellow from head to heel.”
Physically, at any rate, the Chinese are undoubtedly crowd
ing out the Europeans. The wealthy Celestial keenly appre
ciates the fact that his person and his property are infinitely
securer under the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes than
under the rapacious and unrestrained rule of the representative
of the Son of Heaven . He is therefore prepared to pay what
ever may be necessary to secure a good piece of property within
which to live and trade in the foreign settlement. Whenever
such a piece comes into the market it is almost sure to be
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG . 13
knocked down to a Chinese purchaser. “ Very many retired and
expectant officials now make their homes in Shanghai, also
many merchants who have made money. As a result, the best
paying property is Chinese occupied, and of that the best is the
property on which stand the pretentious establishments which
furnish amusement to the Chinese jeunesse dorée — a class which
in pre -Taiping days counted Soochow and Hangchow earthly
paradises, and which now finds that the pleasures of those
capitals are as abundantly supplied in the Foochow Road . This
influx of Chinese has had the effect of compelling foreigners, and
especially those of small means, to seek every year dwellings
farther away from the busy centres, which the Chinese now
monopolise. The rents of foreign houses in the Settlements are
gradually rising, for as each old foreign building is pulled down
Chinese houses take its place." 泰*
Another very great and indeed vital change has come over
Shanghai of late years. Formerly business was done by real
merchants - that is, traders who bought to sell again. Those
were the days of quickly - realised and enormous fortunes — of the
merchant-princes of the Far East , whose hospitality, formerly
famous the world over, is now but a golden tradition, since
“ luxurious living is practised by old -timers rather in obedience
to ancient custom than justified by present affluence.” Now the
merchant, if not already extinct, is rapidly becoming so, and his
place taken by the commission agent. Competition and the
incalculable and ruinous fluctuations of exchange are the two
factors which have brought about this result . Both as regards
the character of business done, and the personnel of those who
do it, the change is for the worse. Little or no capital is neces
sary, as every detail of the transactions is fixed beforehand by
telegraph — the price of the goods, the freight, and the rate of
exchange. It is therefore possible to do business on a very
small margin , with the result that men under-bid one another
• Mr. R. E. Bredon's very able Report on Shanghai, Chinese Imperial Maritime
Customs, Decennial Reports , 1882–1891.
14 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
down to the last fraction , and the further result that an
unscrupulous member of the trading community is tempted to
get business of this kind by any and every means . It is obvious
that more intimate relations between the Chinese themselves
and the European markets would soon result in the elimination
of the foreign agent altogether .
Two other causes are also appearing to transform the
Shanghai of old time , and indeed all the business relations
between foreigners and Chinese. The first is the growth of
Chinese manufactures. The Chinese Cotton Cloth Mill Com
pany, the Chinese Spinning Company, the Shanghai Paper Mill
Company, the Min-li Ginning Mill Company, and the Yuen -chee
Ginning Mill Company , are all Chinese concerns, with Chinese
capital and under Chinese management, with foreign technical
assistance. The first -named of these is supposed to be financed
by the Viceroy Li Hung-chang himself. It was recently com
pletely destroyed by fire, but is being rebuilt on a much larger
scale than before . These enterprises have not yet paid much
in the way of dividend, owing probably to inexperienced direc
tion , but there is no reason to suppose that they will not be
successful in the end. And their success would probably mean
a nearly proportionate amount of European failure. The reader
will naturally ask at once why foreigners have not started such
concerns themselves. The answer is based to a great extent
upon the supineness of a recent British Minister to China. The
Chinese claim — without any justice, so far as I can make out
that the treaties give no right to foreigners to manufacture
within the treaty limits, and their claim has never met with
serious official resistance. They even go so far as to prohibit,
without a special permit, the importation of machinery on
foreign account, which is ridiculously in contradiction of plain
treaty rights. It is to be hoped that one among the innumer
able results of the present war will be the settlement of this
question in favour of Europeans. The benefits to Chinese con
sumers would be incalculable, and the whole world might well
SHANGHAI AND HONG KONG. 15
gain an enormous and unexpected advantage from the opening
of China which would almost necessarily ensue, since, as has
been truly said, * if China were only fairly open to foreign enter
prise, there is room in her vast territories and among her
millions of inhabitants for all the surplus silver of the world for
many years to come.
In connection with this probable cause of a change in the
future of Shanghai must also be mentioned the great and
increasing amount of purely Chinese capital invested, not only
in native enterprises within treaty limits, such as those I have
mentioned, but also in foreign companies, with foreign manage
ment, and known by foreign names . The China Merchants '
Steam Navigation Company, with its fine fleet, represents a
large native investment, in which the Viceroy Li is again
prominent, and it is freely said that many ships trading under
foreign flags are in reality Chinese property. Moreorer,
although this is a well-kept secret, a surprising proportion of
the deposits in foreign banks is believed to stand in Chinese
names . In view of all this extensive and constantly growing
Chinese investment in property , mortgages, shipping, manufac
turing enterprises, and banking deposits, it is inevitable that
those who thus pay the piper should claim more and more the
right to call the tune. The second cause of the change to be
anticipated is Japanese competition with European firms for the
foreign trade of China. This is a factor of the greatest future
importance, but discussion of it will come more appropriately
in a later chapter. Though Shanghai may change, however,
and indeed must change, there is no reason to despair of its
future as an outpost of British Trade. The openings for
foreigners and foreign capital may both decrease, but the bulk
of trade will increase . Mr. Commissioner Bredon says, “ I
think the future of Shanghai depends on China and the Chinese
and their interests, and that foreigners would be wise to run
with them , ” and his opinion should carry great weight. Two
* By Mr. Consul Jamieson, F. O. Reports, Annual Series, No. 1442, p. 23.
16 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
events, on the other hand, may open up for Shanghai a future
brighter than its brightest past. The Chinese railway may make
it into the link between the whole of China and the rest of the
world ; or the present war may end by throwing China open at
last, in which case the unequalled situation of Shanghai would
give it the lion's share of the enormous trade that would arise.
The first sight of Hongkong, the farthest outpost of the
British Empire and the fourth port in the world, is disappoint
ing. As you approach it from the north you enter a narrow
and unimposing pass : then you discover a couple of sugar
refineries covering the hills with smoke ; and when the city of
Victoria lies before you it is only St. John's or Vladivostok on a
larger scale. It is piled up on the steep sides of the island
without apparent purpose or cohesion ; few fine buildings
detach themselves from the mass ; there is no boulevard along
the water-front ; and the greater part of the houses and offices
in the immediate foreground, though many of them are in
reality large and costly structures, look a medley from a little
distance. In one's disappointment one remembers Mr. Howell's
caustic characterisation of the water - front of New York
that after London and Liverpool it looks as though the Ameri
cans were encamped there. The face of Hongkong is not its
fortune, and anybody merely steaming by would never guess the
marvel it grows on closer acquaintance. For a few weeks' in
vestigation transfigures this precipitous island into one of the
most astonishing spots on the earth's surface. By an inevitable
alchemy, the philosopher's stone of a few correlated facts trans
forms one's disappointment into stupefaction. Shanghai is a
surprise , but Hongkong is a revelation .
When you land at the city of Victoria (it is strange, by the
way, that almost everybody at home and half the visitors there
>
are ignorant that “ Victoria " is the name of the city and
“ Hongkong " of the island), the inevitable ' ricksha carries you
through a couple of streets, far from being beautiful or well
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG . 17
managed, but you forget this in the rush of life about you.
Messengers jostle you, 'rickshas run over your toes, chair-poles
dig you in the ribs . The hotel clerk smiles politely as he in
forms you that there has not been a vacant room for a month .
Later on your fellow -passengers envy you the little rabbit -hole
of a bedroom you have secured at the top of the Club. When
you come down again into the hall you find it crowded with
brokers of many nationalities, making notes, laughing, whisper
ing, drinking, but all just as busy as they can be. The Stock
Exchange of Hongkong was the gutter, the local Rialto ex
tending from the Club for about a hundred yards down the
Queen's Road, and it was filled with Britishers, Germans, Anglo
Indians, Chinese from Canton , Armenians from Calcutta, Parsees
from Bombay, and Jews from Baghdad, and with that peculiar
contingent known as the “ black brigade ," recognisable by the
physiognomy of Palestine and the accent of Spitalfields. And
on the Club walls and tables are a dozen printed “ Expresses,"
timed with the minute at which they were issued, and the mail
and shipping noon and afternoon “ extras " of the daily papers,
announcing the arrivals and departures of steamers, the dis
tribution of cargoes, the sales by auction , and all the multi
tudinous movements of a great commercial machine running at
high pressure. For, to apply to the Far East the expressive
nomenclature of the Far West, this colony “' just hums ” all
the time.. At least , it hummed in this way on the many occa
sions when I was there, as it will hum again , though just at
present, what with the utter reaction from over-speculation , the
general depression of trade, the fluctuations of silver, and
the paralysing effect of the plague, Victoria is a depressed
and rather unhappy place. Then the chair a friend has
sent to take you to dinner arrives, with its four coolies
uniformed in blue and white calico , and by another twist
of the kaleidoscope you find yourself , three minutes after
leaving the Club, mounting an asphalte roadway at an angle
not far short of forty - five degrees , hemmed in above and on
3
18 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
either hand by great green palms and enormous drooping ferns
with fronds yards long, among which big butterflies are playing
round long scarlet flowers. For as soon as you begin to ascend,
the streets of Hongkong might be alleys in the tropical con
servatories at Kew.
Hongkong is built in three layers. The ground floor, so to
speak, or sea-level, is the commercial part of the Colony. The
“ Praya " along the water's edge is given up to shipping, and is
altogether unworthy of the place. It is about to be changed,
however, by a magnificent undertaking, now in progress,
the so Praya Reclamation Scheme, " originated and pressed to
a successful issue by the Hon . C. P. Chater , by which the
land frontage will be pushed out 250 feet, and a depth
of twenty feet secured at all states of the tide. The next
street, parallel to it, Queen's Road, is the Broadway of Hong
kong, and all the business centres upon it. In the middle
are the Club , post-office, courts, and hotels ; then come all the
banks and offices and shops ; past these to the east are the
different barracks, and as one gradually gets further from the
centre, come the parade-ground, cricket- ground, polo-ground, and
race-course, and the wonderfully picturesque and pretty ceme
tery, the “ Happy Valley.” In the other direction you formerly
passed all the Chinese shops for foreigners and then got into
Chinatown, a quarter of very narrow streets , extremely dirty,
inconceivably crowded, and probably about as insanitary as any
place on the globe under civilised rule. I never ceased to
prophesy two things about Hongkong, one of which , the epi
demic, has come true indeed. The other waits, and as it is
rather alarmist it is perhaps better left out of print. The worst
parts of Chinatown have now been destroyed, literally at the
cannon's mouth, and in spite of every possible Chinese threat,
so that this blot on the Colony is erased . This is all on the
island of Hongkong, while across the harbour, in the British
territory of Kowloon, a new city is springing up-a splendid
frontage of wharves and warehouses ; a collection of docks, one
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG . 19
of which will take almost any ship afloat ; balf a dozen summer
houses, a little palace among them — whose splendid hospitality
is for the moment eclipsed ; and the pleasure-gardens and
kitchen -gardens of the community.
The second storey of Hongkong lies ten minutes' climb up
the steep side of the island . Here nearly everybody lives, and
lives, too, in a luxury and ease that are not suspected at home .
Here is Government House, a fine official residence in beautiful
grounds ; Headquarter House ; and the wonderful streets I have
already mentioned , although one might as properly call Windsor
a house as describe these palm-shaded walks and groves as
streets.
Finally, there is the third layer, the top storey of Hongkong,
known collectively as “ The Peak." The Peak itself is one of the
highest of the hundred bills of the island , rising precipitously
behind the city to the signal station , 1,842 feet above the sea,
where a gun and a flagstaff announce the arrival of mails and
ocean steamers . But - The Peak ” as a residential district
means all the hill -tops where cool breezes from the sea blow in
summer , where one can sleep under a blanket at night, and
where, in a word, one can spend a summer in Hongkong with a
reasonable probability of being alive at the end of it. Here
everybody who can afford it has a second house, and so many
are these fortunate people that the “ top side " of the island is
dotted all over with costly houses and bungalows; there are
two hotels, and a steam tramway runs up and down every
fifteen minutes . The fare up is thirty cents--a shilling --and
down half as much. This is startling enough , but a better
notion of the expense of life here is conveyed by the fact that
to have a second house at “ The Peak ” for the summer
you must rent it for the whole year, as it is uninhabitable in
winter, at a rental of 150 to 200 dollars a month - about a
sovereign a day all the year round for four or five months'
residence. Besides this , there is the tramway fare, the cost
of coolies to carry your chair up and down , and the expense
20 THE BRJTISH EMPIRE .
of bringing every item of domestic supplies, from coals to
cabbage, a forty -five minutes' climb uphill. But what is the
summer climate on the second storey of Hongkong which forces
people to flee from it at so much trouble and cost ? To be
frank, almost every man I asked before I had experience of it ,
described it to me by the monosyllabic appellation of the ultimate
destination of the incorrigible unrighteous.. One of the chief
summer problems of Hongkong is to determine whether the
mushrooms which grow on your boots during the night are
edible or not . The damp is indescribable. Moisture pours
down the walls ; anything left alone for a couple of days ,
clothes, boots , hats, portmanteaus - is covered with mould .
Twenty steps in the open air and you are soaked with perspira
tion . Then there are the cockroaches, to say nothing of the
agile centipede whose bite may lay you up for a month . When
the booksellers receive a case of books, the first thing they do
is to varnish them all over with a damp- resisting composition
containing corrosive sublimate . Otherwise the cockroaches
would eat them before they had time to go mouldy . If you
come home at night after dinner very tired , beware of carelessly
throwing your evening clothes over a chair, as you would at
home. If you do, the cockroaches will have destroyed them
before you wake. They must be hung up in a wardrobe with
hermetically fitting doors . It does happen , too, that men die
in summer in Hongkong between sunrise and sunset without
rhyme or reason . And the community is a pale -faced one , though
it is only right to add that it numbers probably as many athletes
and vigorous workers as any other . The place used to be known
as
" the grave of regiments ” —a stroll through “ Happy Valley "
tells you why. Now the men are not allowed outside barracks
in summer until five p.m. , and there is a regular inspection to
66
see that every man has his cholera -belt on . The " down side "
of Hongkong is damp and hot; the “ top side” is damp and cool.
That is the difference for which people are prepared to pay so
heavily. The first time I stayed at “ The Peak ” I noticed round
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG . 21
the house a number of large stoppered bottles, such as you see
in druggists' windows, prettily encased in wicker -work. On
inquiring of my host he showed me that one contained biscuits,
another cigars, another writing-paper, and so on , each hollow
stopper being filled with unslaked lime in filtering paper, to
absorb any damp that might penetrate inside. These bottles
tell the whole tale. People run over to Macao, that Lusitanian
Thule, four hours' steaming away , for Sunday, and when the
summer is proving too much for them and their thoughts begin
to run on “ Happy Valley ” and a grave there - like that of
Martha's husband in Padua, “ well-placed for cool and comfort
able rest " —they just go on board a steamer and disembark at
Nagasaki or Yokohama . Japan is the sanitarium of the Far
East.
A striking feature of Hongkong is the elegance and solidity of
its public works. Its waterworks at Tytam, on the other side
of the island, are almost picturesque , and the aqueduct which
supplies the city is the basis of a footway three miles long,
called the Bowen Road , of asphalte and cement as smooth and
solid as a billiard -table, which laughs at the tremendous down
pours of the rainy season . “ Happy Valley ” is the pride of
Hongkong, and the palm -shaded road I described above was a
dangerous and ugly ravine called " Cut-throats’ Alley ” a few
years ago. Speaking of cut-throats reminds me that Hongkong
even now is not a particularly safe place. People avoid walk
ing alone at night in one or two directions ; every Sikh
constable carries a rifle at night and several rounds of ball
cartridge, and if you hail a sampan at night to go to dinner on
board some ship in the harbour, the constable at the pier makes
a note of its number, in case you should be missing the next
day. For these sampan people used to have a pleasant habit of
suddenly dropping the mat awning on the head of a passenger,
cutting his throat in the ensuing struggle and dropping his
pillaged body overboard. The Siklis make admirable police
men , obedient, trustworthy, and brave, and are correspondingly
22 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
detested by the Chinese. If they sin at all, it is from too much
zeal, and I believe they take a keen personal pleasure in whack .
ing a Chinaman . There is a story to the effect that during an
epidemic of burglaries general orders were issued to them to
arrest all suspicious-looking people who did not halt when
challenged at night, especially if they had ladders. Next night
a Sikh on duty saw a Chinaman on the top of a ladder. Nothing
could have been clearer, so he challenged the man , who paid no
attention, and then fired and brought him down . It was the
lamplighter. Even now no Chinaman is supposed to be out
after nine p.m. without a pass.
Unlike Shanghai, which is an international republic, Hong
kong is, of course, a genuine British colony, and in no part
of the world is the colonising genius of the British race, or the
results of its free -trade policy, better shown . It was ceded to
the British in January, 1841 , as one result of the war which
broke out between Great Britain and China in 1839 , and its
cession was finally recognised by the Treaty of Nankin in 1842.
At that time its population consisted of a few thousands of
Chinese fishermen, since it was to all intents and purposes a
barren island. So far were even competent judges from fore
seeing its marvellous future, that in a valuable book on China
written by R. M. Martin in 1847, there is a chapter called
“ IIongkong, its position , prospects, character, and utter worth
lessness in every point of view to England." From the begin
ning, however, it has been the Aladdin's palace of commerce .
The island itself has an area of only twenty - nine square miles ,
and the whole colony, including a couple of little islands and
the strip of territory known as British Kowloon on the main
land exactly opposite, just over thirty- two. Kowloon constitutes
our frontier with China in the Far East . It is two and
one-third miles in length , and is guarded in a peculiar way.
The duty on opium going into China is so high that the profits
on smuggling it have always tempted the Chinese, the most
expert smugglers in the world, to evade the Customs in any
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. 23
way and at any risk. From the free port of Hongkong the
greatest danger in this respect was to be apprehended. The
Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs have a station at Kowloon,
with the business office situated, for purposes of convenience ,
within the British colony. They have a small fleet of revenue
cruisers to stop all junks and Chinese steamers, and they have
built an impassable fence of bamboo, eight feet high, between
British and Chinese territory. In this there are six gateways,
each guarded by a post of revenue officers, while on the Chinese
side there is a broad solid road ceaselessly patrolled night and
day by a Customs force, consisting of over one hundred “ braves "
armed with loaded Winchester repeating -rifles, and under the
command of six foreigners. To avoid possible frictions or
collusions, these are all of non-British nationality. It is a
curious fact, by the way, as will be seen from my photograph
of the advanced French frontier- post at Monkay, that both
England and France are separated from China by a rampart
of bamboo, that strange and accommodating plant which serves
more purposes than anything else that grows.
The situation of Hongkong has , of course, had most to do
with its unexampled progress. It is the furthest eastern
dependency of the Crown, and forms the end of the arm of
the Empire which stretches round the south of Asia. The
next step in advance northward will be forced upon us within
a very short time by both commercial and strategical con
siderations, but nothing can seriously interfere with the import
ance of Hongkong as the next station north of Singapore, from
which it is 1,400 miles. A coaling station and naval base at
least a thousand miles further north has become a necessity
if we are to hold our predominant position in the Far East,
and for this purpose Port Hamilton will certainly not do.
Hongkong is 79 miles from Canton, the greatest trading city
of China, und an excellent service of daily steamers keeps the
two in touch. Macao, of little and decreasing importance, is
40 miles away ; the Philippines are 650 ; Saigon is 900 ;
21 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
Shanghai, 824 ; Bangkok , 1,454 ; Yokohama, 1,575 ; and Vladi .
vostok , 1,670 . The former barren and almost uninhabited
island is thus the focus of the Far East to-day.
From a military and naval point of view Hongkong is one
of the most important stations in the Empire. Its docks and
machine -shops are worthy of its position, several large ships,
and countless small ones , having been built and launched from
them . The Admiralty dock is 500 feet long, 86 in breadth at
the top and 70 at the bottom , and 29 feet deep. The land
defences of the Colony consist of six divisions : Stonecutter's
Island , Belcher's Bay, Kowloon West, North Point, Kowloon
Dock , and Lyeemoon Fort. The armament of the chief of
these consists of the justly-abused 10 -inch and the admirable
9.2- inch guns. The place is probably quite impregnable from
the sea on the harbour side, but to make sure there is need to
fortify Green Island , since otherwise ships coming round the
island would not be visible from Stonecutter's or Belcher's till
they were almost in sight of the town . Any nation except our
own would have fortified this point years ago. Hongkong is
one of the few defences armed with the famous Watkins
“ position -finder ,” for which the British Government paid so
much . By this all the guns of all the chief batteries can be
aimed and fired by one man in a commanding and secure
position . With the principal entrances mined-all preparations
for which exist in the most complete and detailed manner—any
hostile fleet attacking Hongkong harbour would in all human
probability come utterly to grief. The weak point is well known
to be on the other side. In the military manoeuvres the
attacking force has got in again and again. The redoubts are
all planned , and there are plenty of machine-guns and a few
howitzers, but with the large forces of infantry possessed by
Russia in Siberia , and by France in Tongking, to say nothing
of the powerful Japanese army, it is impossible to feel quite
happy about Hongkong until its southern side is protected as
well as its harbour. Especially is this the case if the common
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG . 25
remark of naval men , that in tbe event of war the fleet would
at once put to sea and leave Hongkong to take care of itself, is
to be taken literally .
To my thinking, however, Hongkong is in more danger from
the Chinese than from any other quarter. Kowloon City is
a mass of roughs ; Canton is the most turbulent and most
foreigner -hating city in China ; 20,000 Chinese could come down
to Hongkong in a few hours ; and a strike of Chinese servants
would starve out the Colony. Before Kowloon was added to
the Colony, a Hongkong head was worth thirty dollars, and
“ braves ” used to come down to try and get them . The
99
defences have lately been increased by a regiment of Indian
troops, with a strength of 10 British officers and 1,014 natives
of all ranks, who were raised in a marvellously short time, and
have been brought to a high point of discipline and efficiency,
and besides these there is always a regiment of British troops
and a force of engineers and garrison artillery stationed there.
As an example, however , of the power of the Chinese, it may be
remembered that when it was found necessary to isolate and
fumigate the horrible Chinese quarters during the recent out
break of plague in the Colony, this could only be done under
the guns of the fleet, and the actual work was performed by
British volunteers . Asia — always excepting Japan-never has
been civilised and never will be , till a greater change comes
than this age is likely to see , otherwise than at the mouth
of the cannon and the point of the bayonet. At home this
statement will doubtless be regarded by many excellent people
with feelings akin to horror, but all who know the East will
know it to be trur .
This question of the relations of foreigners and Chinese
presents much the same general aspect in Hongkong as it
does in Shanghai. Here , too, the Chinese merchant is
* It is to be hoped that the permanent committee of the Sanitary Board, and
the soldiers, will receive some official recognition of their efforts, for it was chiefly
by them that the plague was eradicated.
26 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
crowding out the British middleman ; here , too, it cannot be
very long before the bulk of the real estate of the Colony is
owned by Chinese. Every day they are advancing further into
the European quarter, and Chinese merchants are among the
richest men in the community., “ In every dispute between
3
the Chinese and the Government," said a well-informed resident
to me, “ the former have come off victorious .” By and by ,
therefore, we shall have virtually a Chinese society under the
British flag, ruled by a British governor. Such is “ Empire,"
and I see no particular reason to regret the fact, even if it
were not impossible to do anything to alter it. The Empire
depends upon trade first of all, and such a community must
always form the strongest trading link between Great Britain
and China. By means of trade alone the Empire stands for
the welfare and civilisation of the greatest number, and these
are undoubtedly to be found in the direction here prophesied.
At any rate, whether we like it or not, and whether we welcome
it or oppose it, this change is inevitable . *
Besides this “ danger," however, if it be one, there is the
real danger arising from the unruly and criminal Chinese .
In spite of all denials , piracy is still rife in the waters round
Hongkong. Chinese junks are the constant victims, and the
eyes of the Colony were opened in 1890 by the piracy of the
British steamer Namoa , which was seized by her Chinese
passengers , two of her officers and a number of her crew shot,
the remaining officers and European passengers imprisoned in
the cabin , like another “ Black Hole ," for eight hours, the
captain dying there, the loot transferred into six junks which
came alongside at a signal, and then abandoned , after the
windlass had been broken , the fires drawn , the lifeboats stove
* To escape being misunderstood , let me make it quite clear that I think this
Chinese progress absolutely dependent upon British guidance and control, both
political and commercial, and ask that what precedes and follows about the Chinese
in our Colonies may be read in connection with my chapters about the Chinese
in China.
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. 27
in, and the side- lights thrown overboard .
A long time after
wards a number of men were beheaded in Kowloon for the
piracy, among them being at least one man who had been
concerned in the piracy of the Greyhound years before . Only a
few months ago disturbances broke out in Hongkong between
the members of two rival clans, the Sze Yap and the Tun Kun,
and work among many coolies was suspended for a time in
consequence, and many steamers delayed. The police were
kept very active and the military under arms, while a guerilla
warfare was carried on among the rival clans “ the combatants
watching for victims of the opposite party, and attacking them
individually in quiet places, or shooting them from the tops
of houses." Another piece of terrorism occurred when five
hundred men employed on the new reservoir were frightened
6
from their work. “ A military procession ,” said a local paper,
“ with a few small dragons in the shape of field and Maxim
guns, would probably exercise a wholesome influence upon the
Cantonese swashbucklers who now fancy they can work their
own sweet will in this British Colony." I'ongkong is . in fact,
an Arcadia for the criminals of the neighbouring province, who
first plan their outrages there and then take refuge in it when
their coup has been effected . If the hue and cry after them
becomes too hot, they commit some small offence against the
laws of the Colony, with the view to getting committed to prison
for a few months, under which circumstances they are absolutely
safe against the pursuit of detectives from their own country.
Even if they are discovered , arrested , and formally charged , the
difficulties in the way of their rendition are so great that they
have a good chance of getting off after all . For as the British
authorities know very well that torture and punishment await
all whom they give up, they are naturally chary of handing
prisoners over , notwithstanding any assurances of fair trial
that may be given, and they therefore insist that a man shall
be proved guilty prima facie before he is surrendered , with the
result that the Chinese authorities regard British law as a
28 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
means whereby their own criminals escape punishment, as
many of them undoubtedly do.
The population of Hongkong in 1893 was 238,724, of whom
the whites were 8,515 , the Indians 1,901 , and the Chinese
210,995 . This included the strength of the garrison. In addi
tion there was a boat-population of no fewer than 32,035
Chinese. The expenditure of the Colony was 1,920,523 dols .,
and its revenue 2,078,135 dols.,* the latter showing a net
decrease of 158,000 dols. and the former of 422,000 dols . The
assets of the Colony are put down at 2,417,054 dols. , and its
liabilities at 928,031 dols. Its military contribution is £ 40,000,
paid in quarterly instalments. The ascending scale of Colonial
contribution in the present state of silver may be judged from
the statement that the four quarters of 1893 were paid in the fol
lowing amounts of dollars—72,000, 72,000, 75,000 , and 77,000 ,
and that for 1894 the total will amount to 400,000 dols. , or one
fifth of the entire revenue. Hongkong being a free port there
* It is useless to attempt to translate these figures into sterling , as explained in
footnotes elsewhere. During 1893 the Mexican dollar fell from 2s. 83d . to - 2s. 3 d .,
and now stands at 2s . 1 d ., with entire uncertainty as to the future . The
Chambers of Commerce of Hongkong and Singapore have petitioned in favour of a
British dollar, and it seems clear that such aa coin should be introduced . There is
not the slightest reason for the persistence of the Mexican dollar, and many against
it, and a British dollar is the only alternative to the legalisation of the Japanese
yen , the objections to which are too obvious to mention. It is preposterous that
the Power doing beyond all comparison a prepouderance of trade with the Far East
should be dependent upon foreign coins like the Mexican dollar and Japanese yen.
A British dollar, now a rare coin , was introduced in 1866, but time was not allowed for
its general acceptance , and the Hongkong mint was closed two years later and its
machinery sold to Japan . (See Chalmers's “ History of Currency in the British
Colonies,” pp . 375 899.-
:-a work of great industry and ability .) The British dollar
should, of course, be the metallic counterpart of the familiar “ Mexican," and it
is to be hoped that among the opportunities for reform offered by the results of the
present Japanese war with China, this question may not fail of solution . As an
example of the inconvenience now prevailing I may add that when I was preparing
for the exploration of the unknown north of the Malay Peninsula , of which an
account is given in a later chapter of this book , I was indebted to the courtesy of the
Penang branch of the Chartered Bank of India , Australia and China for a supply
of the old “ pillar ” dollars which alone are accepted there, and that I had to pay
a premium of nine per cent. for them . [Since the above was in type, the coinage
of a British dollar has been sanctioned .]
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG . 29
are no custom-house statistics available, but the record of
shipping gives some idea of the trade of this astounding place.
The total shipping entered and cleared in 1893 was 14,023,866
tons, of which the British flag covered 7,732,195 tons. This is
already an extraordinary proportion , but a little investigation
shows it to be far more striking than thus appears . The non
British shipping of the Port of Hongkong remains from the
above figures at 6,291,671 tons, but of this Chinese ships carried
4,389,551 tons. Excluding Chinese ships, therefore, the British
sbipping trade of Hongkong was 7,732,195 tons, against
1,902,120 tons carried by all other foreign nations put together.
In spite of all its commercial progress, however, and its vital
position in the Empire, Hongkong is in many respects curiously
behind the civilisation of its time. One may say roughly, for
instance, that the law of the Colony to- day is the law both Com
mon and Statute — that was in force in England on April 5, 1813 .
I saw several Europeans in Hongkong gaol for debt. There is no
Married Women's Property Act in force, although this actually
exists in Chinese law. There is no copyright for British authors
under their own flag, and I saw the counters of the foreign book
sellers crowded with pirated reprints of contemporary authors.
An Englishman living in the foreign settlement at Canton
Shameen - is under one law ; an Englishman living in Hong
kong under another. Hongkong is still—or to be quite exact ,
was when I was last there—under the Bankruptcy Acts of 1819
and 1861. A petition bad been presented , signed by all the
Chinese merchants of the Colony, suggesting amendments
suitable to local circumstances , but the authorities would have
none of them, so it was referred home, and the Secretary of
State ordered the suggestions to be introduced . This was
already six years ago , and nothing had been done. The
amalgamation of Law and Equity has never been introduced in
fact , wbatever may have happened in theory.. “ Our law,” said
a leading local lawyer to me, " is antediluvian . You cannot
even get a copy of the Hongkong Ordinances — that is, of the
30 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
complete law of the Colony. If Hongkong had not been blessed
with reasonable judges, we could never have got on at all."
Hongkong has long desired a Municipality, to deal with all
local matters except such—the defences, for example—as are of
a purely Imperial nature, but this justifiable ambition bas been
snubbed again and again. A growing dissatisfaction, however,
has been shown with the system of official and unofficial
membership of the Legislative Council. The former all vote as
they are required by the Governor, and the latter are in a
minority The official members once showed some signs of
voting according to their own views , but the Governor promptly
put his foot down upon such insubordination. “ Gentlemen ,"
he said to the official members at the next Council meeting,
“ you are quite at liberty to speak and vote as you like ; but if,
holding official positions, you oppose the government, it will be
the duty of the government to inquire whether it is for its
advantage that you should continue to hold those positions.”
Official salaries , therefore, are consequent on official votes.
Among my notes about Hongkong I find this remark was
made to me : “ An official member has never made a full and
free speech on any subject since Hongkong was a Colony."
The spirit of free criticism , however, has now sprung up,
thanks chiefly to the independence and tenacity of one un
official member, the Hon . T. H. Whitehead. From the time
of bis election , five years ago , as the representative of the
Chamber of Commerce, he has refused , in spite of every species
of pressure and influence, to fall into line with the old tradition
which prescribes that the unofficial member should make a
speech, including a mild protest in extreme cases, accept with
a deferential bow the Governor's assurance that “ the honour
able member's remarks shall not fail to receive every consider
9)
ation , " and then let the matter drop. Mr. Whitehead, on the
contrary, has been unkind enough to make the lives of govern
ment officials burdens to them by his insistence upon expla
nations, justifications, facts, statistics, records and appeals to
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG . 31
the higher authorities in England. It is not supposed, to adapt
Mr. Kipling's amusing verse, to be good for the health of an
unofficial member to hustle a Colonial Governor, but Mr.
Whitehead has thriven greatly in the exercise. He holds a
position which gives him an intimate knowledge of the affairs
and finances of the Colony, and it is doing him bare justice to
say that he is on the way to revolutionise the management of
official matters . He is strongly supported by the commercial
community, whose interests he thoroughly understands, and
the Chinese gave him such farewell honours when he left the
Colony the other day for a holiday in Europe as have never
been seen there before.
Mr. Whitehead has devoted himself to exposing the weakness
and defects of the existing system of government and the
constitution of the Legislative Council, and has just brought
home a petition , signed by nearly ninety per cent. of the British
ratepayers, praying for a measure of local self-government equal
to that possessed by the smallest community at home and by
colonies abroad with not a fraction of the wealth, importance,
or experience of Hongkong. This petition explains the position
of the unofficial inhabitants of the Colony so clearly, and sets
forth their grievances so temperately, that I cannot do better
than reproduce it almost in extenso, especially as its prayer will
lave to be granted sooner or later. It runs as follows :
It is a little over fifty years since the Colony was founded on a barren rock , the
abode of a few fishermen and pirates. To-day it is a city and settlement with
upwards of a quarter of a million inhabitants ; a trade estimated at about forty
millions of pounds sterling per annum , and a revenue of some two millions of
dollars, wholly derived from internal taxation. Hongkong is a free port, throngh
which passes upwards of fourteen millions of tons of shipping per annum , and it
ranks amongst the very first in the list of the great seaports in Her Majesty's
dominions. It is the centre of enormous British interests, and is an extensive
emporium of British trade in the China seas, and, while it remains a free port, it
is destined to expand and develop, and to continue to be the centre of vast traffic
and of constant communication between Europe, the Australian Colonies, the United
States, and Canada on the one hand, and China, Japan, the Philippine Islands,
British North Borneo, Java, Indo -China, Siam, the Straits, and India on the other .
Hongkong has attained to its almost unequalled commercial position , turough
the enterprise, skill, and energy of British merchants, traders, and shipowners ;
32 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
through the labours of Her Majesty's subjects who have spent their lives and em .
ployed their capital on its shores; through the expenditure of many millions of
dollars in roads, streets, and bridges ; in buildings, public and private ; in extensive
reclamations ; in docks, piers, and wharves ; and last , but not least, in manufactures
of great and increasing value. The prosperity of the Colony can best be maintained
by the unremitting exertions and self - sacrifice of your Petitioners and the valuable
co-operation and support of the Chinese , and only by the continuance of Hongkong
as a free port.
Notwithstanding that the whole interests of your Petitioners are thus inextricably
and permanently bound up in the good administration of the Colony, in the efficiency
of its Executive, and the soundness of its finance, your Petitioners are allowed to
take only a limited part or small share in the government of the Colony, and are
not permitted to have any really effective voice in the management of its afľairs,
external or internal. Being purely a Crown Colony, it is governed by a Governor
appointed by Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, and by an Executive and a
Legislative Council. The former is composed wholly of Officers of the Crown,
nominated and appointed by the Crown ; the latter consists of seven Official
Members, selected and appointed by the Queen , and five Unofficial Members, two
of whom are nominated by certain public bodies in the Colony, while the other three
are selected by the Governor, and all are appointed by Her Majesty.
The Executive Council sits and deliberates in secret. The Legislative Council
sits with open doors, and its procedure appears to admit of full and unfettered dis
cussion, but there is virtually no true freedom of debate. Questions are considered,
and settled, and the policy to be adopted by the Government in connection there.
with is decided in the Executive Council. They are then brought before the
Legislative Council, where the Government — the Official Members being in a
majority - can secure the passing of any measure, in face of any opposition on the
part of the Unofficial Members, who are thus limited to objectiug and protesting ,
and have no power to carry any proposal which they may consider beneficial, nor
have they power to reject or even modify any measure which may in their opinion
be prejudicial to the interests of the Colony.
In the adjustment and disposal of the Colonial revenue it might be supposed
that the Unofficial representatives of the taxpayers would be allowed a potential
voice , and in form this has been conceded by the Government. But only in form ,
for in the Finance Committee , as well as in the Legislative Council, the Unofficial
Members are in a minority, and can therefore be out-voted if any real difference of
opinion arises.
Legislative Enactments are nearly always drafted by the Attorney General , are
frequently forwarded before publication in the Colony or to the Council for the
approval of the Secretary of State , and when sanctioned are introduced into the
Legislative Council, read a first, second , and third time, and passed by the votes of
the Official Members, acting in obedience to instructions, irrespective of their
personal views or private opinions.
The Legi- lation so prepared and passed emanates in some cases from persons
whose short experience of and want of actual touch with the Colony's needs, does
not qualify them to fully appreciate the measures best suited to the requirements of
the Community.
Those who have the knowledge and experience are naturally the Unofficial
Members, who have been elected and appointed as possessing these very qualifica
tions, who have passed large portions of their lives in the Colony, and who either
SHANGHAI AND HONG KONG . 33
have permanent personal interests in it, or bold prominent positions of trust which
connect them most closely with its affairs, and are therefore the more likely to have
been required to carefully study its real needs, and to have thoroughly acquainted
themselves with the methods by which these are best to be met. On the other hand
the offices occupied by the Official Members are only stepping stones in an official
career ; the occupants may be resident for a longer or a shorter period in the
Colony, and for them to form an opinion on any question which arises, different
from that decided upon by the Government in Executive Council , is to risk a con
flict with the Governor, and they are therefore compelled to vote on occasions
contrary to their convictions.
Your Petitioners humbly represent that to Malta, Cyprus, Mauritius, British
Honduras, and other Crown Colonies, more liberal forms of Government than those
enjoyed by your Petitioners have been given : unofficial seats in the Executive
Council ; unofficial majorities in the Legislative Council ; power of election of
Members of Council ; and more power and influence in the management of purely
local affairs : in none of these Colonies are the commercial and industrial interests
of the same magnitude or importance as those of Hongkong. Your Petitioners,
therefore , pray your Honourable House to grant them the same or similar privileges.
Your Petitioners fully recognise that in a Colony so peculiarly situated on the
borders of a great Oriental Empire, and with a population largely composed of
aliens whose traditional and family interests and racial sympathies largely remain
in that neighbouring Empire, special legislation and guardianship are required.
Nor are they less alive to the Imperial position of a Colony which is at once a
frontier fortress and a naval depôt, the headquarters of Her Majesty's fleet, and
the base for naval and military operations in these Far Eastern waters ; and they
are not so unpractical as to expect that unrestricted power should be given to any
local Legislature, or that the Queen's Government could ever give up the paramount
control of this important dependency. All your Petitioners claim is the common
right of Englishmen to manage their local offairs, and control the expenditure
of the Colony, where Imperial considerations are not involved.
At present your Petitioners are subject to legislation issuing from the Imperial
Parliament, and all local legislation must be subsidiary to it. Her Majesty the
Queen in Council has full and complete power and authority to make laws for the
island, and local laws must be approved and assented to by the Governor in the
name of the Queen , and are subject to disallowance by Her Majesty on the recom.
mendation of Her Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Your Petitioners recognise the necessity and propriety of the existence of these
checks and safeguards against the abuse of any power and authority exercised by
any local Legislature, and cheerfully acquiesce in their continuance and effective
exercise, but respectfully submit that, subject to these checks and safeguards, they
ought to be allowed the free election of representatives of British nationality in the
Legislative Council of the Colony ; a majority in the Council of such elected
representatives ; perfect freedom of debate for the Official Menibers, with power to
vote according to their conscientious convictions without being called to account or
endangered in their positions by their votes ; complete control in the Council over
local expenditure ; the management of local affairs ; and a consultative voice in
questions of an Imperial character.
This power to control purely local affairs is but the common
right of every Englishman, and to deny it to Hongkong—the
4
34 THE BRITISH EMPIRE ,
absolute authority of the Crown over all purely Imperial
matters being safeguarded—is without a shadow of justifica
tion. Besides being signed , as I have said, by ninety per cent.
of the British ratepayers, this petition bas the strongest
support of the entire Chinese community, who pay nine- tenths
of the whole taxation. The inhabitants of Hongkong claim
that nothing could have shown more clearly the necessity for
municipal government than the muddle made by the Govern
ment in dealing with the plague. This cost Hongkong a
million dollars, thousands of lives, many thousands of its
Chinese inhabitants, and inflicted a loss hardly calculable upon
its vast shipping interests. Much of all this, it is declared,
could have been saved by proper management. As an example
of a state of things against which the Hongkong press and the
unofficial members of Council have constantly protested , it may
be pointed out that at this most critical period of the Colony's
history it was administered by a Government most of whose
officials were “ acting " men, and many of them , therefore,
necessarily less competent than the holders of their offices
should be. “ Why is it,” asked the Daily Press, “ that so large
a number of officials can claim leave all at once ? It should
not be possible for any administration to become so depleted of
its responsible members as this Colony is at the present moment.”
Without the actual list of the “ acting officers the state of
aaffairs would not be believed. It is as follows : Acting Colonial
Secretary, Acting Chief Justice, Acting Puisne Judge, Acting
Attorney General, Acting Director of Public Works (an untried
junior) , Acting Assistant Registrar General (who was really
Acting Registrar General), Acting Clerk of Councils, Acting
Postmaster General, Acting Police Magistrate, Acting Clerk to
Magistrates, Acting Sanitary Superintendent, Acting Superin
tendent of Civil Hospitals, Acting Assessor of Rates , Acting
Registrar, and Acting Deputy Registrar. This list by itself
is enough to show that something is seriously wrong. By
appealing single-handed to the Home Government, over the
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG . 35
heads of the Governor and his officials, Mr. Whitehead has also
obtained the appointment of a Retrenchment Commission, of
which it has been truly remarked that if its recommendations
bear any resemblance to the Report just issued by a similar
Commission in the neighbouring Colony of the Straits Settle
ments, which has recommended economies to the extent of
nearly a quarter of a million dollars per annum , Hongkong will
have reason to be thankful.
Above all other considerations and criticisms, however, it is
the greatness of this outpost on the edge of the Empire that
must always finally recur to any Englishman who has studied
it. I doubt if there can be a more remarkable view in
the world than that of the city of Victoria and the ten
square miles of Hongkong harbour from “ The Peak.” At
night it is as if you had mounted above the stars and
were looking down upon them, for the riding-lights of the
ships seem suspended in an infinite gulf of darkness, while
every now and then the white beam of an electric search -light
flashes like the track of a meteor across a midnight sky. By
day, the city is spread out nearly 2,000 feet directly below you,
and only the ships' decks and their foreshortened masts are
visible, while the whole surface of the harbour is traversed
continually in all directions by fast steam-launches, making
a network of tracks like lacework upon it , as water -spiders
skim over a pool in summer-time. For Hongkong harbour,
as I have said, is the focus of the traffic of the East, though
what this means one cannot realise until one has looked down
many times into its secure blue depths and noted all that
is there—the great mail liners, the P. & 0., the Messageries
Maritimes, the North German Lloyd, the Austrian Lloyd, the
Occidental and Oriental, the Pacific Mail, and the Canadian
Pacific ; the smaller mail packets, to Tongking, to Formosa,
to Borneo, to Manila, and to Siam ; the ocean “ tramps ”
ready to get up steam at a moment's notice and carry any
thing anywhere ; the white-winged sailing-vessels resting after
36 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
their long flights; the innumerable high - sterned junks plying
to every port on the Chinese coast ; and all the mailed host of
men -of-war flying every flag under heaven, from the white ensign
of the flagship and the black eagle of its Russian rival, to the
yellow crown of the tiny Portuguese gunboat or the dragon
pennant of China. On one day, the Governor told me, no
fewer than two hundred and forty guns were fired in salutes in
the harbour. All these vessels cross and recross ceaselessly in
Hongkong harbour, living shuttles in the loom of time, bearing
the golden strand of human sympathy and co-operation between
world and world, or like the Zeitgeist in Faust, “ weaving the
garment divinity wears. I am not prepared to say that divinity
would always find itself comfortable in the garment that is woven
in Hongkong, but one thing I can affirm , and that is that a visit
to our furthest Colony makes one proud to belong to the nation
that has created it from nothing, fills the word “ Empire ”
with a new-born meaning, and crystallises around it a set of
fresh convictions and resolves .
CHAPTER II.
A SCHOOL OF EMPIRE : THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.
RE, a scene oldchronicler,“presen
the voyager saysan
SINGAPO tstotheeyeof
that has repeatedly excited the most
rapturous admiration .” The rapture probably began with the
descendant of Alexander the Great, who — the story goes - came
over from Sumatra and founded it, the first Malay settlement
on the Peninsula, exactly a century after the battle of Hastings,
naming it Singhapura, " The City of the Lion," from a lion -like
beast he saw on landing. Camoens felt the rapture, too, when
he sang
“ But on her Land's end framed see Cingapur,
Where the wide sea-road shrinks to narrow way ;
Thence curves the coast to face the Cynosure,
And lastly trends Auroraward its lay."
And diluted to the thinner consistency of a less impressionable
age, the same rapture is experienced by every traveller who
enters the harbour. But his eye soon falls from the setting of
exquisite green hills to the marvellous multi-coloured wharf of
Babel awaiting the touch of the steamer. There Malay jostles
Chinaman, Kling rubs shoulders with Javanese, Arab elbows
Seedy- boy, and Dyak stares at Bugis, all their dirty bodies
swathed either in nothing to speak of, or else in scarlet and
yellow and blue and gold . Among them a dainty English lady,
come to meet her husband or brother or lover, her eyes full of
laughter or tears, and her face flushed with anticipation, looks
37
38 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
so white and fair and frail that one marvels in pride at the
thought that she and such as she are the mothers of men who
impose the restraints and the incitements of Empire upon the
millions of these dark races of the earth.
If it is unnecessary to describe Shanghai and Hongkong,
because of the hosts of people who visit them and the super
abundance of books which discuss them, still less is it needful
to give a detailed account of Singapore. The Colony, however,
has several points of interest peculiar to itself, besides those
which it shares with other parts of the Far East, and though
a glance at the latter will suffice, the former call for considera
tion at greater length. Singapore is interesting for its remark
ably beautiful situation ; for its history, so full of vicissitudes
and bloodshed until it finally came under the administration of
Bengal in July, 1830—as an example of vicissitudes, Malacca
was captured by us from the Dutch in 1786, restored in 1801 , >
retaken in 1807 , restored in 1818, resumed for good in 1825 ;
for its geographical situation as the extreme southern limit of
continental Asia, and the “ corner " between the Far East and
the rest of the world ; for the fact that it was the first free-trade
port of modern times ; and very interesting, of course, as one
of the keystones of Imperial defence. To a casual observer,
however, Singapore does not present such striking features as
many other places. The business town is two or three miles
away from most of the private residences ; these are not in
groups but in units, each solitary in its own charming grounds ;
you cannot make a call under half an hour's drive, and until
you have learned a little Malay it is a most difficult community
in which to find your way about ; and the Club is practically
closed at seven o'clock, and if you make arrangements to dine
there, your single lighted table only emphasises the surrounding
darkness.
This evergreen island, almost on the equator, where neither
Christmas nor Midsummer Day brings much change to the
thermometer, and in whose tropical jungles the cobra and
THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS . 39
hamadryad live and a stray tiger is occasionally found, is the seat
of a large number of very ticklish problems of government, and
the visitor would be surprised indeed if he could see for a
moment, through the eyes of the Governor of the Straits Settle
ments, the variety and responsibility of the questions requiring
decision and action every day. It is a singularly complicated
problem, to begin with, to govern the city itself, with its six
thousand Europeans and Americans (including the garrison), its
four thousand Eurasians, its four thousand Javanese, its sixteen
thousand Indians, chiefly Klings (natives of India, from the
Coromandel coast) , its thirty thousand Malays, its hundred and
twenty thousand Chinese and all its mixed mass of Bengalis and
Bugis, Jawi Pekans and Boyanese and Burmese, Persians and
Arabs and Dyaks and Manilamen . These native peoples are quiet
enough when left alone, but a single unpopular ordinance is
sufficient to bring them rioting into the streets. A few years
ago Singapore was in the hands of a mob for two days — in fact,
until the government gave way — because it was decided to make
the causeways clear for passengers. The city used to be the
headquarters of several of the principal Chinese Secret Societies,
the most inscrutable and ruthless and law-upsetting organisa
tions in the world . These were suppressed by formal enactment
on the initiative of Sir Cecil Smith , four years ago, and a
“ Chinese Advisory Board ” created to deal with their legitimate
work, but it may well be doubted whether a system to which the
Chinese have an irrepressible tendency has not been made more
secret rather than extirpated. Mr. Wray, the “Protector of
Chinese, ” in his latest report, says that “ sporadic attempts are
still made, and will always be made where Chinese congregate
in large numbers, to start illegal organisations,” but he believes,
or perhaps one should say, hopes , that " secrecy is impossible
amid a heterogeneous society like ours, and incessant vigilance
and prompt action on the part of the Chinese Protectorate are
all that is necessary in such cases.” The chief societies were
the Ghee Hin, the Gbee Hok, and the Hok Hin. The former
40 THE BRITISH EMPIRE.
was the original and the most powerful one , and when it was
suppressed, after great difficulty and many disputes among its
members concerning the distribution of its property, its
membership in Singapore was thirty thousand and in Penang
forty thousand. The other two have been “ registered " and
permitted, as they are ostensibly only Chinese mutual benefit
societies. There is still not the slightest doubt, however, that
they stand between their members and the foreign law. Profes
sional bailers attend the courts to bail out any member of their
society, and they help their members in all sorts of ways to flee
from justice. A chapter, and a most romantic one too, might
be written about these societies. They have, for example, the
most elaborate system of signs for mutual recognition. One of
them bases its signs upon the numeral three. At table, a
member wishing to make himself known to any fellow -member
present places three glasses together in a certain way, or passes
a cup of tea held peculiarly with three fingers. A man fleeing
from justice and praying for refuge , puts his shoes outside
another's house, side by side, with the heels turned towards the
door . If the owner turns one shoe over on the other, the
fugitive knows he can take refuge there. In spite of the sup
pression, I fancy that Hoan Cheng Hol Beng— “ Upset Cheng,"
the present Manchu dynasty of China, “ restore Beng,” the
former dynasty - still has a magic and compelling significance in
Singapore, for these are the pass-words of the famous Triad
Society , which honeycombs China and has more than once put
the throne in terror . The Triad consists of the characters
Thien Tay Hoey— “ Heaven , Earth , Man."
To appreciate Singapore as a city of Orientals , one must
spend a day or two in the native quarters, and this is just what
the ordinary visitor fails to do . From this point of view it
is certainly one of the most astonishing.communities in the
world . To begin with , it is enormous . For days you may
wander about without ever turning on your track , through miles
upon miles of semi-native houses and shops, through crowded
THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS . 41
streets , in variegated bazaars, with all the merchandise of all
the East spread out endlessly before you . Each race has its
own quarter—there is “ Kampong Malacca,” “ Kampong Kling,"
“ Kampong Siam ," " Kampong China.” In one spot you are
dazzled with the silks of India ; in another the sarongs of Java
are spread out like aà kaleidoscope ; in another you are suffoca
ted with an indescribable mixture of Eastern scents ; in another
an appalling stench meets you, strange rainbow-like birds utter
raucous cries, and the long thin hairy arm of a gorilla is
stretched out between bamboo bars in deceptive friendliness ;
in another there is such a packed mass of boats that
you hardly know when your foot has left dry land. And all
this mixed humanity exists in order and security and sanita
tion, living and thriving and trading, simply because of the
presence of English law and under the protection of the British
flag. Remove that piece of bunting from Government House,
and all that it signifies, and the whole community would go to
pieces like a child's sand-castle when the tide rises. Its three
supports are free trade, fair taxation , and even- handed justice
among white, black, brown and yellow, and these exist in the
Far East under the British flag alone. At least, I have been
almost everywhere else without finding them . Of course, in all
this the Chinese enormously preponderate. The foolish opinion
is sometimes heard at home that this Chinese community
represents China — that it is a specimen of what China may
become , a standing bond of union between ourselves and China.
The very opposite is the case. This community has grown up
and exists precisely because it is not China—because the con
ditions of its existence are precisely the antithesis of Chinese
conditions . The Straits Chinaman would not exchange his
British nationality for anything else in the world ; he plays
cricket, football, and lawn tennis ; he has his annual athletic
sports ; the recreation ground, and indeed every open space, is
covered in the afternoons with Chinese engaged in these games ;
he goes to the Free Library and he reads the pewspaper ; be
42 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
attends a Debating Society and he carries off prizes at the
Raffles School ; he eats foreign food and imitates foreign vices.
When he has prospered he drives through the streets in a
carriage and pair with a European coachman on the box. He
knows that he is the equal of the Englishman before the law,
and considers that he is slightly superior to him in other
respects . He looks upon the Civil Service as his servants, upon
the Governor as his ruler, upon the forts as his protection, upon
the whole place as his home. A Chinaman is one of the most
influential members of the Legislative Council ,
Mr. George C. Wray, the Protector of Chinese, whom I have
already quoted above, writes as follows in his last report : “ We
have developed an ever-growing, permanent, law-abiding, Straits
born population , who are proud of being British subjects, give
their children a liberal English education, and are rapidly con
solidating themselves into a distinctive, loyal subject -race, of
whose abilities and behaviour our Government may well be
proud .” The number of these Straits-born Chinese, according
to the census of 1891, was 12,805 in Singapore, and 31,757 for
the whole Colony, and they are rapidly increasing. The
business of the European firms- and this is true of almost the
whole Far East - could not be carried on for a week without
their Chinese “ shroffs," " compradors," and clerks. Between
the census of 1881 and that of 1891 the Chinese inhabitants of
Singapore had increased from 86,766 to 121,908. During the
year 1893 there were no fewer than 144,558 Chinese immigrants
into Singapore alone, to say nothing of the 68,751 who went to
Penang, to which the same remarks apply. It is therefore not
surprising that even the lethargic Chinese Imperial Govern
ment has at last been struck with this new and strange China
growing up under a foreign flag, and that it has despatched
commissioners to inquire into the reasons why Chinese who
make money in the Straits never come back to their own land,
and bas published an invitation to its self-exiled citizens to return ,
and an order to its own officials to refrain from interfering with
THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS . 43
them when they do so. The hilarious scorn , however, with
which this invitation has been received, and the almost brutal
frankness of the reasons given in reply to the inquiries , show at
the same time the value the well-governed Chinaman sets upon
bis privileges, and his opinion of the prospects of reform - even
when backed by Imperial command—in his native land . Even
to the Chinese woman who is a prostitute in China, Singapore
is by comparison a paradise. Mr. Wray says : “ There being
no supervision or means of redress in China, women of the
lower classes better themselves by coming to a land where debt
slavery is not tolerated and where the mere act of reporting to
the nearest official means immediate freedom .” *
* It would not be fitting to discuss here the whole question of the relations of the
prostitute class to the Colonial authorities, but I must put my opinion on record
somewhere in this book. I am profoundly convinced , after much study of statistics
and careful investigation into the question in the Far East, that the action of
Parliament and the Colonial Office in over-riding the repeated requests and protests
of the highest and most responsible local authorities is so seriously wrong that the
word “ blunder " is wholly inadequate to describe it. From the point of view of
morality it is as wrong as from the point of view of administration it is improper.
The conditions of life and character are so utterly different in Europe and Asia that
any comparison between them for the purpose of justifying recent legislation is not
only impossible but absolutely ridiculous. Whut may be wise and imperative laws
for the women of Europe , may quite well be wrong in every respect for the women
of Asia. Hongkong and Singapore were in this respect two of the healthiest com.
munities in the world ; they are rapidly becoming , if indeed they are not already,
centres for the propagation and distribution of pestilence. From this the native
society and the British garrisons suffer in identical proportions. As for the fate
of the unfortunate women themselves, the pen of Dante would be required to
describe what it will soon become again . To the familiar horrors of the slave
trade, add an equal amount of other and indescribable horror, and you will have
some notion of what life will be for the thousands of Chinese women under the British
flag but without its protection. Anybody who desires to inform himself upon the
normal condition of Eastern prostitutes should pursue inquiries into the lot of the
young women who are sold into this slavery, even by the female members of the
Siamese royal family, and who pass a great part of their lives in the district of Bangkok
known as Sampeng, behind barred windows and padlocked doors , from which they
never emerge until, dead or alive, they leave the place for good. The action of
Parliament and the Colonial Office has simply condemned thousands of Chinese
women to a fate of almost unimaginable woe , from a great part of which they were
previously shielded. As the Protector of Chinese in Singapore says , to suppress
the evil altogether is utterly impossible, though it may be greatly mitigated. All
that this legislation does to afford a certain relief to the consciences of partially
informed people at home, at the cost of enormous and unnecessary suffering to
44 THE BRITISH EMPIRE.
The Straits Settlements, which were incorporated as a Crown
Colony in 1867, having previously been under the jurisdiction of
the East India Company, consist of the large island of Singapore;
the smaller island of Penang ; Malacca and Province Wellesley
on the mainland ; another strip of territory and the island of
Pangkor - together known as the Dindings ; the Cocos Islands,
and Christmas Island . The three latter call for no special
mention ; Province Wellesley is a sugar-growing district, which
may become of importance if a railway runs into the inland
side of it ; and Malacca is reposing, after its varied history
and its former prosperity as the outlet of the products of the
Peninsula, in a condition of peaceful stagnation. Its colourless
condition is well typified by its sole product-tapioca, produced
in large quantities by Chinese labour and capital . Commercially,
as the Governor bas recently said , it is “ a mere suburb of
Singapore,” and it will remain so until the Chinese develop its
strip of very fertile land, which its own Malay inhabitants are
far too lazy to do. Camoens wrote of—
“ Malacca's market grand and opulent,
Whither each Province of the long seaboard
Shall send of merchantry rich varied hoard . "
Three centuries ago Malacca was “ the great emporium of
the Eastern Archipelago ." But its walls were “ blown up
at great expense in 1807," and its history virtually ceased
long ago. There are compensations, however, for the quaint
and quiet little place , for its Resident Councillor has just
described it as " aa favourable example of a prosperous agri
cultural district, where crime is almost unknown and the
people are happy and contented .” Penang, on the contrary,
has been a discontented community lately. Singapore has
many thousands of natives in the Colonies. And it is of no use for the people who
hold a contrary opinion to denounce those who express this one, having formed it
after conscientious inquiries favoured by unusual opportunities.
Lucas : “ Historical Geography of the British Colonies," I. 107–a work of
which it wou'd be in possible to speak too highly.
THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS . 45
inevitably taken away much of the advantageous trade Penang
formerly enjoyed with the neighbouring Protected States ;
it claims that it has contributed more than its fair share
toward Colonial expenditure, and received less for its own
purposes ; and it has been refused the large amount it desired
for the erection of wharves. Much bitterness between the two
chief partners in the Colony has thus been aroused, and a
wordy war in paper and pamphlet, and even in Parliament, has
followed. The Government also declined to grant the Royal
Commission of inquiry which Penang desired. According to the
Acting Governor's annual report, however, this discussion is now
at an end. Mr. Maxwell writes : " A number of real or supposed
grievances were also ventilated , but when the chief ground of
complaint had been proved by a reference to statistics to be
without foundation , the agitation, to which some of the Penang
Chinese had somewhat blindly given their support, rapidly died
away .” It is probable that the growing influence of the Chinese,
which is even truer of Penang than of Shanghai or Hongkong,
and the great depression of trade, were as much as anything
else the causes of the discontent of Penang. Last year the
expenditure of the municipality exceeded the revenue by 17,000
dols . , and the cash balance was reduced from 24,107 to 6,860
dols. , while its municipal indebtedness is 350,000 dols. This,
however, is a very small matter compared with the fact that
the revenue of Penang, as a whole, has increased yearly since
the “ low - water mark " of 1891 by 3,000,000 dols. , and this
although no new sources of revenue have been established. And
the figures of Penang's trade, 87,603,854 dols., are the highest
for the past five years . The outlook, therefore, does not warrant
any particular depression of spirits. In regard to the question
of municipal expenditure (for all parts of the Straits Settlements
have their municipalities, unlike Hongkong, which is still in
official leading -strings), I may add that in every case, and not
>
in that of Penang alone, the expenditure last year exceeded the
revenue. With regard to Singapore, a few statistics are of much
46 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
interest. The total trade for 1893, excluding the movements of
treasure, was 260,982,169 dols . , an increase over 1892 of more
than 26,000,000 dols. In spite of this, however,, owing to the
depreciation of silver, these same figures for the two years,
translated into sterling at the average rates for each year, give
£37,135,141 for 1892, and £36,769,590 for 1893—a silver
increase of 26,000,000 dols. thus appearing as a gold decrease
of £365,551 ! It would be difficult to find a more striking
object-lesson of the position of a silver-using colony in regard
to a gold-using mother country. That the trade of Singapore
is healthy enough, apart from the question of silver, is evident
from the shipping returns, wbich were 6,944,346 tons entered
and cleared in 1893 , an increase of nearly half a million tons
over 1892.
In the finances of Singapore, however, one question far out
weighs in importance, both Imperial and Colonial , all others
that of the military contribution . Upon this matter Singapore
has been on the verge of revolt - bardly too strong an expression
to describe the bitterness aroused in the Colony by the action of
the home authorities . This is the more to be regretted since to
an outsider studying the dispute it seems eminently one which
could have been amicably settled by a compromise. When the
Straits Settlements desired to be removed from the jurisdiction
of India in 1867 , and formed into a Crown Colony, the British
Government assented on the understanding that the Colony should
bear the cost of its own defence. At this time, however, there
was a distinction made between the troops and their accommoda
tion at Singapore, Malacca , and Penang, for the defence of those
places ; and other troops and their cost and accommodation at
Singapore, for Imperial purposes — the latter being maintained
by the home Government. Up to 1890, the Colony had paid
a yearly contribution of £50,145 towards its defence, but in
that year the Secretary of State for the Colonies suddenly de
manded that the contribution be raised at once to £ 100,000 per
annum , with an addition, first, of £28,976, being one-half of the
THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS . 47
alleged loss of the Imperial Treasury by exchange on previous
payments ; and second, of an indefinite sum for further barracks.
Now here, beyond any possible doubt, the Colonial Office made
an initial blunder. Admitting that an increased contribution
was necessary, and admitting that the sum asked for was entirely
just, to send a peremptory demand that it be voted immediately
by the Legislative Council, without having extended the courtesy
of an inquiry beforehand as to the views of the Colony upon
a matter so seriously affecting its income, was an act to arouse
resentment in the most loyal community in the world . Its
instant result might have been foreseen by the least imagi
native person . The Governor of the Straits, Sir Cecil Smith ,
passed the vote as ordered. “ For my own part,” he wrote to
Lord Knutsford, “ I found myself wholly unable to conscien
tiously support the justice of all the claims which Her Majesty's
Government had made, and the same views which I held were
shared in by every member of my Council . My instructions,
however, were perfectly clear, and I had to require each member
of the Executive Council to vote against his conviction and in
suj port of the claims of Her Majesty's Government." And
in reporting the vote, he wrote : “ It is very important that I
should not omit to point out that the course which has been
followed on this occasion has placed the Executive in very
strained relations with the Legislative authority, and has tenled
to imperil good government. The constituted authorities in this
Colony have been required by Her Majesty's Government to meet
a money claim without having had an opportunity of having
their views on the justice and correctness of the claim considered .
Such a case is, so far as I am aware, wholly without precedent.”
In studying the history of British colonial administration, the
student occasionally comes across acts on the part of the mother
country which might have been inspired by some demon of mis
chief, so deliberately unfortunate do they seem. The method of
this demand is one of them .
Protests, appeals, minutes, and resolutions of public meetings,
48 THE BRITISH EMPIRE.
were of no avail, and Lord Knutsford simply replied that “ Her
Majesty's Government would have been glad if they could bave
allowed themselves to be influenced by arguments put forward
>
so temperately and so fully; " and somewhat sarcastically added
he had learnt " with satisfaction " that the Colony had included
a similar vote in the estimates for the ensuing year. For the
four years ending December 31 , 1893 , therefore, the Straits
paid a regular contribution of £100,000 a year, during which
time the Colonial revenue was further decreased by depression of
trade and dislocated by the fall of silver. Public works in the
Colony had to be abandoned, and almost imperative improve
ments postponed , and at last a loan had actually to be raised.
“ The financial arrangements," said Sir Cecil Smith to his
Legislative Council on October 15, 1891 , “ have been completely
>
upset ; and although every endeavour has been made, and is
being made, to reduce our expenditure, it has been found
necessary , in order to meet our liabilities, to dispose of all our
realisable assets-namely, the investments in gold amounting
to 1,013,762 dols., and in Indian stock amounting to 350,000
dols.” Even this state of things did not move the stony heart
of the home authorities, and the people of Singapore made one
more desperate set of appeals at the beginning of 1894 , wben
the first series of payments came to an end . In response the
Colonial Office removed £10,000 by way of solatium, and added
£20,000 for additional barrack accommodation—thus meeting
the appeals of the Colony by raising the total contribution for
the present year from £100,000 to £ 110,000 !
A little calculation shows the situation of the Straits Settle
ments to be as follows :—The revenue of the Colony for last
year was 3,706,308 dols . , an increase on 1892. Its expenditure
was 3,915,482 dols. , a decrease from 1892. Thus there was a
deficit of 209,174 dols . The military contribution is therefore
increased at a time when there is positively a financial deficit.
To see, however, how bad the case really is , we must look at
the effect of the depreciation of silver. The average Singapore
THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS . 49
exchange at sight of the Mexican dollar for 1892 was 28. 10%d . At
the moment of writing it is 28.1fd. To remit £ 100,000 to London
in sterling during 1892 would therefore have cost the Colony ( say)
700,000 dols.; to remit the same sum home to -day would cost
932,000 dols. That is, the military contribution of the Colony
has risen between 1892 and 1894 by 232,000 dols. , apart from
any act of either the British Government or the Colonial
authorities. Finally, the amount to be paid during the present
year, at the present rate of exchange, is 1,025,200 dols . - rather
more than twenty -seven and a half per cent. of the total revenue
of the Colony ! It is hardly surprising that such a state of things
" tends to imperil good government."
Yet, as I have said, the question at issue seems one which
should be settled without much difficulty on the time-honoured
principle of give and take. Everybody admits, to begin with,
that each part of the Empire ought to bear its proper share of
the defence of the whole. Unfortunately , many parts escape doing
80. Singapore, on the contrary, has always been eager to subscribe
its proportion . Lord Knutsford will remember, I am sure, how
in the famous confidential Colonial Conference of 1887 he held
up Singapore as a shining example to the lagging Australian
colonies. The Secretary of State bases his claim upon the
“ colossal trade ” of Singapore. The Colony retorts that at
least three-quarters of this trade merely passes through the
harbour on its way to other parts of the Far East, and that
therefore it is Imperial trade and not local. This is an indis
putable fact. Lord Knutsford wrote : “ The large stores of
coal which your trade requires , of themselves invite attack .”
Singapore replies, first, that this coal belongs to ship-owners in
London, and that therefore it is they who should be asked to
pay for its defence ; second, that it is used chiefly for the transit
trade aforesaid ; and third, that by common consent and the
definite statement of a Royal Commission, Singapore is an Im
perial coaling station second in importance only to the Cape
itself. And I may here remind the Colonial Office that when
5
50 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
the Russian “ scare " broke out in 1885 , the home authorities
instantly telegraphed to the Governor of Singapore asking how
much coal was there . He replied, 200,000 tons ; whereupon
they fell into a panic lest the Russians should get it and our
ships be deprived of it, and telegraphed in all directions for
ships to go and guard it. And this was the origin of Imperial
interest in the speedy and efficient arming of Singapore. The
Colonial Office has made one very misleading statement in
this controversy, namely, that the batteries of Singapore were
armed with heavier guns at the special request of one of its
own officials. But this official was, at the time of his recommen
dation, lent by the Colony to the Imperial Government, and was
therefore an Imperial officer, acting in the interests of the Empire
as a whole. Singapore is, of course, a link of the greatest value in
the armed chain of Empire. Without it, or some similar place not
far away, Great Britain could not pretend to hold her position in
the Far East. On the other hand, the Colony has been hitherto
a very flourishing one. In it, therefore, Imperial and local
interests are pretty well divided . This is exactly what the
Colony says. It has built forts (which were kept waiting a
long time for their guns) at a cost of £81,000 ; it has
paid £28,976 to recoup the Imperial Treasury for loss on ex
change ; for four years it has contributed £100,000 a year,
though its, allowance of troops has generally been below the
strength promised ; and now, though its revenue shows a deficit
and its public works and imperative improvements are at a
standstill, it offers to pay gladly one-half the cost of its defence,
say £ 70,000 a year, notwithstanding the augmentation of this sum
by the ceaseless fall of silver. If this is not a fair and indeed
a thoroughly loyal offer, then facts and figures have no value,
and the people of Singapore are right when they declare that
the home Government exacts this contribution simply because
the Colony is able to pay it , and for no other reason whatever .
Before the British Government finally refuses the appeal of the
Colony, let the authorities ask themselves what would be their
THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS . 51
feelings if the inhabitants of the Straits Settlements absolutely
refused to pay it, and requested that the forts which they them
selves bave built should be dismantled and the garrison with
drawn. This has already been suggested . When the despair
in Singapore was at its height, I asked a highly -placed official at
home if there were anything more the Colony could possibly do
or say to avert their fate. “" No," he replied, " the matter is
settled --unless, perhaps, they were to do one thing.” “ What
9
is that ? " I asked eagerly. “ Shoot the Governor," he said .
The joke was heightened by the fact that there never was a
more deservedly popular governor than Sir Cecil Smith. There
are less desperate steps than this , however, in the power of
any Colony, which would still be very disturbing to the Colonial
Office ; and while we are straining the loyalty of Hongkong in
one direction by refusing it the measure of self- government
which its neighbours possess, it is to be hoped that we shall
not strain that of Singapore too much in another direction.
Our pride in these propugnacula imperii should be too great
to permit us to treat them unfairly .
CHAPTER III.
ANOMALIES OF EMPIRE : THE PROTECTED MALAY
STATES.
N point of size the Straits Settlements are dots on the map of
INthe Malay Peninsula. One dot is Singapore ; a little way up
the coast Malacca is another ; still following the coast the Dind
ings form a third ; Penang and Province Wellesley are two more.
Around and beyond these is a vast expanse of country of which
Europe may be said to know virtually nothing. Yet the lower
part of it is the scene of a successful experiment in government
second in interest to none in the world, while of the upper part,
Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace's statement made in 1869 that “ to the
ordinary Englishman this is perhaps the least known part of the
globe "” is still literally true.* Omitting the Straits Settlements
the Malay Peninsula may be said to be divided into two parts by >
what has been aptly called “ the Siamese bunga mas line," that
is, to the north of the line lie the great Malay States whose in
dependence is only impaired by their annual offering to the
Siamese Government of the bunga mas -- " Golden Flower " -in
acknowledgment of nominal suzerainty. It is the latter which are
still as unfamiliar as the remotest parts of Africa to the foreign
explorer, and the journey I made through several of them, some
parts of which covered ground visited by no white man before,
* An admirable little handbook , edited by Capt. Foster, R.E. , and issued in 1891
9
by the Intelligence Division of the War Office, under the title “ Précis of Informa.
tion concerning the Straits Settlements and the Native States of the Malay Penin
sula , ” should be better known than it is. Its information about the native States
is very meagre, but Capt. Foster conscientiously collected all that was then
accessible. Very few Europeans have travelled there.
52
THE PROTECTED MALAY STATES . 53
will be found described in later chapters. It is the so-called
Protected Malay States lying between these semi-independent,
unknown regions and the flourishing British Colony discussed in
the preceding chapter, that I propose to consider here.
If the traveller from Singapore should embark on a steamer
and land at one of several ports along the coast without any
previous knowledge of the existence of the Protected States , he
would be greatly puzzled to explain his environment. He would
arrive at a perfectly appointed foreign wharf ; his landing would
be supervised by a detachment of smart Sikh and Malay police ;
he would buy a ticket exactly as at a small country station at
home, and be conveyed to the capital town by aa line of admirably
managed railway. There he would find himself in a place of
tropical picturesqueness and European administration. Man
grove and bamboo-clump, coconut palm and sago - tree, would
meet his eye on every side ; Malay in sarong and baju, Kling in loin
cloth and turban, Chinaman in the unvarying dress of his race ,
and Englishman in helmet and white duck, would rub shoulders
with him in the street ; the long-horned , slow -stepping buffalo
harnessed to a creaking waggon , and the neat pony -cart of his
native land, would pass him in alternation ; he would drive away
along streets metalled and swept in foreign fashion and lined
with buildings of Eastern material and Western shape. This,
he would say, is not a British Colony, it is not a native king
dom : what is it ? The answer would be, It is one of those
political anomalies, a Protected State of the Malay Peninsula.
Of these there are five - Perak, Selangor, Sungei Ujong and
Jelebu, Pahang, and the Negri Sembilan. Each was formerly
a Malay State or congeries of States, and is now a British
possession in all except the name. To each a British Resident
is appointed, who is nominally the adviser to a Malay ruler, but
practically administrator of the whole State , subordinate only to
the Governor of the Straits Settlements and the Secretary of
State for the Colonies. Each Protected State is theoretically
ruled by a Council of State consisting of the Sultan , his
51 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
“ adviser, " the British Resident, several of the principal chiefs
of the former, and the higher administrative officers of the
latter. This meets perhaps half a dozen times a year to give
final sanction to new laws and changes of local policy. Its
meetings, however, are merely formal, since, although the
Sultan might be consulted as a matter of courtesy upon a
new law affecting natives, it is out of his power to place any
effective opposition in the way of an ordinance drawn up by the
Resident and approved by the two superior authorities I have
mentioned. The Sultans receive a liberal allowance from the
finances of the States for their personal expenses, and their
principal officers either receive a proportionate allowance or a
salary if they perform under the British Resident any of the
duties of government. These five States have become pro
tectorates in the familiar and inevitable method of Imperial
expansion - in several cases at their own request. Perak re
ceived a Resident in 1874 in consequence of a prolonged series
of hostilities between rival groups of Chinese tin- miners, in the
course of which British interests and investments were jeopar
dised . The first Resident was Mr. JW. W. Birch, who was
treacherously murdered in the following year. The Perak War,
which followed, will be remembered by many people. Three
native officials who bad planned the murder were hanged , and
others, including Sultan Abdullah , were banished to the Sey
chelles. The protection of Selángor and Sungei Ujong dates
also from 1874, and was equally due to internecine warfare.
The large State of Pahang was for many years a thorn in the
side of these two, owing to the disorderly condition of its
inhabitants and the hostility of the Raja towards British sub
jects. This culminated in the unprovoked murder of a China
man, a British subject , in the streets of Pekan , the capital , in
1888. Whereupon the Colonial Government, at the limit of its
patience, placed the State under British protection. The fifth,
in order of time, the Negri Sembilan-two Malay words mean
ing simply " nine countries " - quarrelled among themselves to
THE PROTECTED MALAY STATES . 55
the destruction of their prosperity and begged to be taken under
British protection in 1889, which was done.
The change in the condition of each State as it was removed
from native maladministration and placed under British con
trol has been one of the most astounding spectacles in the his
tory of the British Empire. Pahang, as I shall explain later,
lags behind the rest , but the others have surpassed the
condition of even the Protected States of India, and present
most of the features of a British Colony in a population
composed entirely of Malays and Chinese. They possess
hospitals , both paying and for paupers , leper hospitals , lunatic
asylums , and dispensaries ; there is a State store , a State
factory, and even State brick - fields ; there are sanitary boards
and savings banks , fire brigades and printing offices ; water
works , roads , and railways ; post offices, telephones , and tele
graphs ; schools and police ; and vaccination , which is compulsory ,
though there is no necessity for compulsion , is performed with
“ buffalo lymph ," obtained from the Pasteur Institute in Saigon .
Order is preserved by forces of Sikhs linked with an equal
strength of Malays , and all the duties of administration are
carried out under the Resident by a mere handful of Europeans,
forming an uncovenanted civil service, directing a native staff.
The revenues have risen by almost incredible leaps ; two of the
States have large credit balances . One hundred and forty miles
of railway have been built by them, and their extraordinary
prosperity shows no sign of diminution . As Sir Andrew Clarke
has said, “ The result of our policy of adventure is one of which
England may well be proud . A country of which in 1873 there
was no map whatever , has been thrown open to the enterprise of
the world . Ages of perpetual fighting and bloodshed have ended
in complete tranquillity and contentment." All this has been
accomplished by the administrative genius of literally a score of
Englishmen .
To exhibit the condition of the Protected States at a glance
and thus save much unnecessary description, I have compiled
56 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
the following table, which shows the area, population , revenue
(with its increase) , expenditure, volume of trade (with its increase),
and the present credit or debit balance in the assets and liabili
ties of each State . With two exceptions marked below the
figures are all taken from the Residents ' reports for the
year 1893 .
ASSETS
IN IN
AREA POPULA. REVENDECREASE EXPENDI TOTAL
OREASE
AND
square TION TURE . TRADE . LIABILI.
Dollars . OVER OVER
miles . (1891 ) 1892 .
Dollars. Dollars. 1892 .
TIES .
Dollars .
PERAK 10,000 214,254 3,034,094 344,528 2,395,539 24,687,923 2,968,124 + 444,534
SELANGOR 3,500 81,592 2,765,351 629,903 | 2,605,588 19,546,459 4,092,375 +1.090,239
SUNGEI UJONG
AND JELEBU 1,660 23,602 388,976 84,972 376,562 4,304,107 622,617 195,689
( 1892)
PAHANG 10,000 57,462 83,688 83,644 278,892 672,869
-
948,700
NEGRI SEMBILAN 2,000 41,617 130,938 12,989 182,067 No returns. 257,354
From this table it will be seen that Perak ** is at the head of
the Protected States . Its area is much greater than any except
Pahang, its population is nearly three times that of any other,
and its revenue and volume of trade are much larger. Its
credit balance has been reduced chiefly by heavy and at present
unproductive expenditure in extending its railway system , of
which sixty- eight miles are now open for traffic. Perak has
been called the “ child of Penang,” but much more truly should
it be called the child of the two enlightened men who have in
turn directed its administration, first, Sir Hugh Low , and
from 1884 to 1886 , and from 1889 to the present time, Mr.
F. A. Swettenham . The former of these set Perak on the
right road, and to the foresight and administrative ability of
the latter the present happy condition of the State is largely
due. Mr. Swettenham has been connected with Perak since it
* The word perak (of which the last letter is not pronounced) in Malay means
" silver.” There is , however, no silver found in the State , and the word is supposed
to refer to the silver - like masses of tin which are its principal product.
THE PROTECTED MALAY STATES . 57
came under British influence . He was three times sent on
special missions there in 1874. He took an active combatant
part in the Perak War, and with Lieutenant Abbott and a
handful of men defended the Residency, after the assassination
of Mr. Birch in 1875 , until it was relieved by British troops sent
hastily from Singapore, for which service he was three times
mentioned in despatches. At the conclusion of the war he was
placed in charge of the Residency for a time in succession to
Mr. Birch . He is one of the two or three best Malay scholars
living, and his annual Reports are models of administrative
ability. As an example of the progress of Perak the following
passage from the report to the Resident by the magistrate of
the district of Kinta is instructive : - " The advancement of this
district is almost incredible. Ten years ago it was little more
than a vast stretch of jungle, unapproachable except by a
shallow and rapid river, and possessing not a single mile of
first - class cart-road nor a village of any importance.” During
the year, 4,492 acres of mining land were taken up, and
822 acres of agricultural land ; 15,847 acres of mining land
and 2,958 acres of agricultural land were about to be
assigned to applicants ; 29,143 acres of land had been applied
for, and fresh applications poured in every day. Mr. Swetten
ham has proposed a scheme for the irrigation of 50,000 acres of
rice- growing land, and experts lent by the Indian Government
reported favourably upon it. The First Battalion of the Perak
Sikhs, which has a strength of 685 of all arms, has attained
a high pitch of discipline and efficiency under Lieut.-Colonel
Walker, and conducted itself with great credit on several
occasions when it has had to take the field, especially in
suppressing the recent revolt in Pahang.
In Selángor, substitute for the name of Mr. Swettenham
that of Mr. W. E. Maxwell , at present Colonial Secretary
in Singapore, and the history of the State might be told
in the same words. It has a yearly trade of over twenty
millions of dollars, and possesses in its treasury or on loan to
58 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
other States balance of over a million . During the past
year no fewer than 47,773 Chinese immigrants arrived within
its borders . Its railway pays over 12 } per cent. interest , and
would have paid more , as Mr. W. H. Treacher, the present
Resident, explains, but for a deficiency of rolling stock, owing
to the traffic having increased beyond expectation, Selangor
has always been the rival of Perak in the race for the best show
of prosperity, and it is difficult to say to which the palm belongs.
The allied States of Sungei Ujong and Jelebu are administered
by an Officer -in - Charge, who reports to the Resident of Selangor.
The total number of tin - mines in these two States is 150,
covering 4,176 acres, and employing 4,000 Chinese miners , and
Sungei Ujong contains the most flourishing example of coffee
plantation in the Peninsula. This is the Linsum Estate , and
its crop in 1893, upon 210 acres, some not in full bearing, was
no less than 94,796 lbs. of clean coffee. The Negri Sembilan
occupy the district between the last-named and Malacca, and
have already attained a sufficient degree of prosperity to enable
them to pay the interest upon their loan. In these States,, as
the Resident writes, “ a population of 40,000 Malays is con
trolled by three Europeans and a few police,” the remainder of
the police being required for the Chinese coolies at work in the
mines and on the estates .
The story of Pabang, the great State which extends from the
borders of all the above to the eastern coast of the Peninsula,
is unfortunately a very different one. When it was taken under
British authority its population was reduced to almost the
lowest level by Oriental rule. Mr. Rodger, the first Resident,
described its condition prior to his arrival in 1888, in the
following words : - “ A system of taxation under which every
necessary as well as every luxury of life was heavily taxed ; law
courts in which the procedure was the merest mockery of justice,
the decisions depending solely on the relative wealth or influence
of the litigant, and where the punishments were utterly bar .
barous ; a system of debt -slavery under which not only the
THE PROTECTED MALAY STATES . 59
debtor but his wife and their most remote descendants were
condemned to hopeless bondage ; an unlimited corvée, cr
forced labour for indefinite periods, and entirely without re
muneration ; the right of the Raja to compel all female
children to pass through his harem - àa right which has
desolated almost every household in the neighbourhood of
Pekan ,-such are some of the more striking examples, although
the list is by no means exhaustive , of administrative misrule
in a State within less than twenty -four hours of Singapore, and
immediately adjoining the two Protected States of Perak and
Selangor. The condition of the Pahang ryot may be briefly
expressed by stating that he had practically no rights, whether
of person or property, not merely in his relations with the Raja,
7
but even in those with his immediate District Chief, "
The distances in the State are enormous, and no means of
communication existed, while the most promising part was that
situated a considerable distance from the sea-board, around the
headwaters of a river rendered almost unnavigable by rapids.
The Sultan , moreover, a man of violent and depraved character,
conspired secretly against the authority of the Resident while
openly professing to support him. Two revolts subsequently
broke out, each of which had to be suppressed at great expense
and by prolonged fighting, with the result of plunging the State
heavily in debt to its neighbours and the Colonial Government.
To add to its embarrassment, during the year before the
arrival of the Resident, the Sultan had given away vast tracts
of his territory in concessions to Europeans, who used them
for speculative purposes, as thousands of investors in England
have good reason to know. Enormous districts were thus shut
out from native or Chinese development, while the European
concessionnaires were endeavouring to dispose of them for pre
posterous sums. One of the first acts of the Resident was to
give notice that all concessions thus granted , which had not
been actively taken up by a certain date , would be cancelled ,
and accordingly twenty of these were annulled a short time ago .
60 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
Owing to the monsoon and the lack of harbour accommodation,
the entrance to the rivers of Pahang is closed from the sea for
nearly half a year, from about November, and the State is only
accessible by a long and difficult overland route, when some
small steamer cannot be found to take the considerable risk of
attempting to cross the bar. During 1899 the pitiful sum of
21,205 dollars was spent on public works, and the whole trade
of Pahang only amounted to 672,869 dollars. Of this the output
of gold was 9,616 ounces, and of tin 265 tons. The only road in
Pahaug is an 8 ft. bridle- path 52 miles in length , which affords
an instructive comparison with the 200 miles of good metalled
roads and the 68 miles of railway of Perak. This State is,
in fact, the “ sick man ” of the British possessions in the
Malay Peninsula . It is heavily in debt, with no prospect of
being able to discharge its liabilities, and all the money that it
can raise is expended on administration , leaving little or nothing
for the Public Works which alone would ensure its development.
Its native inhabitants have suffered so much from their past,
that even in so simple a matter as the procuring of a better
species of rice seed and planting it, Mr. Hugh Clifford, the
present Resident, says, “ they are at once so ignorant and
unenterprising that it would be futile to look to them to take the
initiative in such a matter ." Although the State has thousands
of square miles of extremely fertile land, it imports all the rice
used by the non -agricultural class. During the speculative
period of 1889 , houses were erected at Pekan , beyond any
possible need. At the present moment many of them are
deserted and are actually falling into ruin . The Sultan resides
at Pekan , therefore this is the capital, although the true centre
of the State ought to be moved , as Mr. Clifford shows, in the
very able Report from which I have already quoted , to Kuala
Lipis. In the interior are tribes of semi-wild natives, called
Sakeis and Semangs, who are treated with the greatest bar
barity by the Malays, and for whom British administration has
done nothing. There is undoubtedly great mineral wealth in
THE PROTECTED MALAY STATES . 61
Pabang, and the notorious Raub gold mines are at last actually
paying interest upon their capital. Little can be done with
this so long as the present system of administration continues.
The native of Pahang is, of course, in a vastly happier state
than he was seven or eight years ago, and the changes effected
by British rule must be looked for almost entirely, as Mr.
Clifford says, “ not in a vastly improved system of communica
tion , nor yet in a very marked advance in the material prosperity
of the State, but rather in the great improvement noticeable in
the condition of the bulk of the native population." The
fertile and stanniferous lands of Pahang are no better than
those open in Perak and Selangor, and it is therefore unreason
able to expect settlers for the former until all the latter are taken
up. Year after year like the past two or three may go by without
any improvement in Pahang, and therefore, to quote Mr. Clifford
once more, “ no one having the interests of Pahang at heart can
pretend to regard the continued adoption of the present policy
with any degree of satisfaction ." The salvation of this great
tract of the Peninsula must come, if at all, from a much wider
scheme of reform .
The present Sultan of Perak, His Highness Raja Idris ibni
almerhum Raja Iskander Shah , C.M.G. , succeeded on April 5 ,
1889 . He is the twenty-eighth of his dynasty in succession
from Merhum Tanah Abang, who was buried by the Perak
River four hundred years ago. “Before that time,” says Mr.
Swettenham, “ Perak was known as Kastan Zorian , and the
Malays of Perak had not then embraced the religion of Islam .”
His Highness is a man of attractive character and agreeable
presence ; and a conversation I had with him at Kuala Kangsa ,
where he resides, showed him to be a keen and appreciative
observer of foreign ways. He visited England in 1882 , and
told me that what most struck him was the fact that in London
there were “ ten thousand times ten thousand carriages.” The
two things that had interested him most were the making of
great guns at Woolwich, and the instrument-room at the General
62 THE BRITISH EMPIRE.
Post Office. He was also much impressed by the urbanity of
British royal personages in general, and of the Prince of Wales
in particular. “ In five minutes," he said of the latter , “ I felt
as if I had always known him . A Malay prince not worth five
cents would make a thousand times more fuss . " The Sultan
bas written a very lengthy account of his life, beginning with
the genealogy of his own family, with the object of instructing
other Malay Rajas, though , he adds, it will make them very
angry, because it says, for example, that the lavatories of
Western peoples are better than the palaces of the Malays.
“ The Malays, ” he continued , “ are like the frog under the
coconut-shell — they think there is nothing but what they can see .
But Malaya is waking up-look at Perak and Selángor.” His
Highness remembered the guidance of Sir Robert Meade, of the
Colonial Office, and desired that his respects might be presented
to him . As an example of the friendliness existing between the
protected and their protectors, I may quote Mr. Swettenham
again , who wrote in his Report for 1890 : “ As regards my
relations with His Highness, I do not think they could be more
cordial than they are," and “ His Highness's interest in the
administration is as great and intelligent as ever, and his
unvarying sympathy and good feeling are of the greatest assist
ance to me in my work .” The extent to which bygones are
bygones in the British protection of these States is sufficiently
shown by the fact that two sons of the ex -Sultan Abdullah , who
was banished for complicity in the murder of Mr. Birch , occupy
posts in the Government service on the same terms as Europeans,
and fill them faithfully and well . The Sultan himself has
recently put on record his opinion that the Residential system
has “ vastly improved the material condition and prosperity of
the Perak Malays of all classes .” One fact may be adduced in
support of this loyal admission. The Government of Perak now
pays more than 180,000 dols. a year in allowances and pensions
to Malays, whereas when the State was taken under British
protection its total revenue did not reach 80,000 dols. yearly.
THE PROTECTED MALAY STATES . 63
These figures should be interesting to the Aborigines' Protection
Society. The truth is that the British Government is the best
aborigines' protection society that has ever existed.
The State of Johor is neither aa Colony nor a Protected State
in the same sense as the preceding, but it must be mentioned
here to complete the survey of this part of the Peninsula . Johor
forms the point of the Peninsula, and contains about 9,000
square miles and 200,000 inbabitants, of whom the Chinese
outnumber the Malays by four or five The capital,
Johor Bahru , is fifteen miles from the town of Singapore , and
less than a mile from the island . Its ruler is His Highness
Abu Bakar, * G.C.M.G. , whose father was Temenggong, or Chief
of Police, to the Sultan Ali, and was placed on the throne by
the Iudian Government , when the latter was deposed in 1855 .
He succeeded in 1885, and receives a considerable annual subsidy
from the British Government , which controls the foreign relations
of the State. He will probably be the last of his line, as Johor
is understood , by the terms of his will, to pass to the British
Crown on his decease . The Sultan is a familiar figure in certain
circles in London , and he is well known to the inhabitants of
Singapore as an exceedingly genial and hospitable potentate ,
who is always ready to entertain a distinguished visitor, or lend
the use of his territory for a horse - raffle or other mild form of
dissipation not sanctioned by the laws of the Colony. But his
State offers a painful comparison with the other Malay States
under British influence . It is undeveloped , without roads,
without any modern system of administration ; it contains only
two towns , the greater part of it is virgin jungle, and it differs
from the ordinary Malay State only by the absence of actual
misrule . The Sultan , however , has rendered great services to
the Straits Government as go- between in many negotiations
with other Malay rulers , although the latter do not regard him
as an equal, on account of his far from royal birth .
Such, in its briefest form , is the remarkable history of those
• Hence “ Mr. Baker," in Brighton.
64 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
political anomalies , the Protected Malay States , down to the
present time. For the future, however, their history will have
to proceed along other lines. The experiment has been an
extremely successful one , but not much more success-possibly
only retrogression - can be looked for in the same direction . The
States have now outgrown the Residential system . While they
had yet everything Western to learn, and their affairs were on a
comparatively small scale, the personal rule of the Residents
was the best education and control they could have, though even
this would not have shown such good results if the Residents
themselves had not happened to be men of unusual ability and
courage. But now that the original Malay population is exceeded
in numbers by the Chinese settlers, that the finances deal with
millions of dollars, that to the protected areas have been added
huge tracts of country which cannot possibly pay their way for aa
long time to come, and that inter-State co-operation is therefore
absolutely necessary, I am convinced that the administration can
no longer profitably be left in the hands of half a dozen men, neces
sarily often antagonistic to one another, none of whom possesses
any higher nominal standing than that of servant to a native
ruler. While the problems were small, the Residents were left
almost unhampered in their decisions, and their rule therefore
showed all the advantages of the “ free hand.” Now, however,
they have at once both too much and too little authority. In
details their control is virtually absolute, and it is they who
must invent and propose every important policy. This will be,
of course , of a piece with their action in small matters. At
this point, however, they sink back into the position of merely
subordinate officials. First , the Governor of the Straits Settle
ments investigates the matter with much less experience and
knowledge than the Resident who has proposed it ; and if he
disapprove, there is an end at once. If he approve, the question
goes before the Secretary of State for the Colonies, with still less
ability to pronounce upon its merits--sometimes with not even
enough local knowledge to enable him to pronounce correctly
65
THE PROTECTED YALAY STATES .
the name of the place whose destinies are in his hands. The
usual conclusion is that the Resident is either overruled, or his
policy sanctioned with such conditions as deprive it of nearly all
value. As against the Governor and the Secretary of State, the
President is helpless, and all he can do is to wait two or three
years for the opportunity of pointing out in his Report how much
better it would have been if his original suggestions had been
sanctioned . The Protected States, therefore, must be governed
by a man whose position enables him to deal direct with the
Secretary of State at home, and with much more authority than
at present.
Another reason for a change is that the less flourishing
States can only be set upon their feet with borrowed capital,
and as the Colony has none to lend them, while two of
their neighbours have substantial cash balances, it is easy
see where this must come from . But Perak and Selangor
will be extremely unwilling to lend money to Pahang, unless
they are able to bring their knowledge and experience to bear
upon the spending of it, and under the present system they
would have no more control than if they lent the money to
Argentina. They might see their own savings being employed
just across their borders in a manner which they knew to be
futile, yet they could not stir a finger. In his Report for
1893 , the Resident of Perak says : “ As Perak has no direct
interest in Pahang, and could profitably spend in Perak all the
revenue likely to be raised here, financial help can only be given
by making some sacrifice. There is no security for the advances
made , beyond what can be hoped for from the future develop
ment of Pahang ; and it is therefore only reasonable that, if the
idea of advising the native rulers in the administration of the
Malay States is to be maintained, those States which now find
the means of financing Pahang should have a preponderating
voice in the expenditure of their own money, and the schemes
to which it is applied .” But if the Residents of Perak and
Selangor direct the spending of practically all the money spent
6
66 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
in Pahang, then it is they, and not the Resident of Pahang, who
control the latter State ; and why keep up the fiction of separate
control ? For this reason also, therefore, the time appears to
>
me to have come for the substitution of one head for five.
But there is a further consideration in support of this view ,
which far outweighs in importance both those I have mentioned.
It is this : the prosperity of the Protected States rests upon such
an insecure basis that having risen as brilliantly and conspicu
ously as the rocket, it may come down as rapidly and irrevocably
as the stick. It is based solely upon the products of the tin
mines. The Perak Report shows this clearly, though indirectly.
The total value of exports for 1893 was 14,499,475 dols. , and
of this no less than 11,895,465 dols. was tin and tin -ore -- 82 per
cent . The total revenue collected was 3,034,094 dols. , of which
Customs -- " that is, duty on tin " -amounted to 1,342,741 dols.;
and of course many of the other receipts are dependent upon
the tin industry. The Selángor Report puts the truth more
bluntly : “ The revenue of the State hangs directly on the
output of tin .” Now all prosperity dependent upon mining is
precarious, but that dependent upon alluvial tin -mines - and
lode -mining hardly exists-must be the most precarious of all.
It may be replied, however, that mining is a very good basis
upon which to start ; that California, for instance, owes its
present agricultural wealth to the original attractions of its gold
fields. Undoubtedly, but the Malay States are not attracting a
class of people who will develop into agriculturists. At present,,
when a tin- mine is exhausted , its neighbourhood becomes a
desert. A paragraph in the Report for Sungei Ujong illustrates
this : “ The valuable tin- mines at Titi were in part worked
out, and the mining town which sprang up there so rapidly
has begun to dwindle ." If the prosperity of these States is
to continue , it is therefore clear that something else must
be found and cultivated to take the place of mining when
this becomes less profitable or ceases altogether . This some
thing must, of course, be agriculture, and fortunately there
THE PROTECTED MALAY STATES . 67
are no more fertile lands in the world than are here open
to every comer on the best possible terms. I have given one
example of coffee -growing, and it would be easy to multiply
testimony. The manager of the Waterloo Estate in Perak
writes : “ The cultivation of coffee promises well, and where
land is judiciously selected and opened, it cannot, in my
opinion, fail to be a success.” The Officer-in - Charge of Sungei
Ujong reports : “ Liberian coffee will grow on almost any kind
of soil here. I have seen it growing on the ' spoil bank ' of an
old tin -mine, and at the present prices no form of agriculture
could be more remunerative . ” And what is true of coffee is
equally true of tea, pepper, gambier, tobacco, and rice. The
States governments have done everything in their power to
dispel the general ignorance of British settlers and planters
about Malaya, and they offer the very warmest welcome to any
who will come . Certainly no part of the Empire presents a
better field for the agricultural investment of capital and personal
efforts, yet what was said by the Resident of Perak in 1889 is
still only too true : “ Ten years ago, when almost nothing was
known of the capabilities of the Malayan soil and climate, it
seemed likely that the field just opened would attract many
experienced European planters and a considerable amount of
European capital. Now that the possibilities of agriculture
have been to a large extent proved , communications greatly
extended, and many facilities offered which did not then exist,
the State seems to have lost its attractions for the planter."
To assure the future of the Frotected States, therefore , it
seems to me imperative that they should be formed into some
kind of separate confederation — the Crown Colony of the Malay
Peninsula, for example. This would remove them from the
jurisdiction of Singapore, which now hampers and robs them ;
place them on a strong footing before the Secretary of State for
the Colonies ; enable their problems to be solved in a uniform
manner, instead of by the conflict of interests ; group their
resources so that the stronger can afford the needed help to the
68 THE BRITISH EMPIRE .
weaker in the wisest and fairest shape ; develop and advertise
their agricultural possibilities ; protect their forests ; codify their
laws, and place the administration of them under a British
judge; and finally, present a firm and permanent foundation
upon which to build when the inevitable moment comes for the
absorption of the rest of the Malay Peninsula.
FRANCE IN THE FAR EAST.
CHAPTER IV .
IN FRENCH INDO -CHINA : LEAVES FROM MY
NOTEBOOKS.
T is one of the curious and significant facts of the Far East
ITthat to get to a French possession there you must go in
either an English or a German boat, with the single exception
of the heavily subsidised Messageries Maritimes. I went to
Tongking the first time in the little Marie, hailing from
Apenrade, wherever that may be . As soon as we had crossed
the restless Gulf of Tongking and were in sight of a low-lying
green and evidently fertile country, wholly different from the
rocky and forbidding coast of China, Captain Hundewadt
hoisted the German flag, and the pilot came off. There are
two bars, one hard, which must not be touched, and the other
soft mud, upon which a ship can rush at full speed and
either get over or stick, as the case may be. We stuck .
Within gunshot of us as we lay in the mud was a large white
European house, built on the point of an elevated promontory.
It is the summer house Paul Bert built for himself, just before
death put an end to all his plans and ambitions for Tongking.
It has never been occupied, and the Government was thinking
of turning it into a sanitarium for the forces near the coast.
Once over the bars we steamed a mile or two up the river, past
half aa dozen odd-looking river gunboats, and dropped anchor off
Haiphong. The port of Tongking is now a pretty little town,
with excellent broad streets, planted with trees on each side,
with spacious warehouses and solid wharves, with one Boulevard
of extensive shops, many pleasant bungalows, and an astonishing
71
72 FRANCE .
hotel. At six o'clock its café holds a hundred people, taking
their pre-prandial drink. To see them it is difficult to realise
that you are at the other end of the earth from Paris, and there
could not be a better illustration of the saying that a Frenchman
takes France with him wherever he goes. The business part of
the town consists of several crowded streets of Chinese houses,
and the native town, which is miserable and very dirty , lies on
the other side of a narrow creek . There are three excellent news
papers, one daily, one bi-weekly, and one weekly, and almost
every characteristic of a French town, including the duel ,
which flourishes greatly in Tongking. Not a little money and
much intelligent labour have been expended to transform the
original malarious swamps into this bright and pleasing little
place, reminding one of Algiers, with its broad green and white
streets and constant sunshine. But I fear that both the labour
and the money must be looked upon as little better than wasted.
There is nothing to detain one in Haiphong. An afternoon is
enough to see it all. So next morning at eight I went on board a
big, powerful, twin-screw steamer, Le Tigre, for the trip to Hanoi,
the capital and largest town, upwards of a hundred miles up
the Red River . The navigation is extremely difficult in places,
owing to the mudbanks and sharp turns, but the twin-screw and
the Chinese pilot between them managed every twist but one.
There was no European captain, only a purser, and the China
man was apparently in sole command. A stack of Snider rifles
stood in the saloon, and a plate of half -inch iron was suspended
on each side of the pilot and the two men at the wheel, com
pletely shielding them from bullets fired from the shore. We
had a capital breakfast, and a charming French priest, in
Chinese dress and pigtail, who was returning to his inland
station in China viâ Tongking, told us string after string of
adventures and incidents of his work among the Celestials. For
hours the trip is monotonous. The banks are flat, the country
is always green and fertile, the water -buffaloes wallow in the
mud, and enormous flocks of teal rise in front every few minutes.
T
AT
N ONGKING
HOME
.,AATIVE
TIE NOWYCRK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR , LEXOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
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IN FRENCH INDO - CHINA. 73
A diversion came at one o'clock in the shape of a little post of
soldiers halfway between the seaboard and the capital. The
steamer came slowly alongside the high bank , a plank was
thrown out, and the garrison invited us on shore . They were
an officer, two non-commissioned officers, half - a -dozen privates,
and about fifty native troops. The post was a strongly stockaded
little place a hundred yards from the river, well able to keep off
any ordinary attack. But the garrison was a sorry -looking
band.. The officers were in pyjamas, and the men's old thick
blue and red French uniforms were only recognisable by their
shape, nearly all the colour having long ago departed . Their
coats were patched, their trousers torn and ragged , their
boots split. As for their faces, anæmia of the most pro
nounced character was written plainly across them . II have
never seen such a ragged and worn lot of soldiers. The arrival
of the daily steamer is the only distraction of the little force,
and they were profusely grateful for a bundle of illustrated
papers. We also gave them a little more entertainment by
running aground just opposite their post when we left.
The steamer reached Hanoi at midnight. The only hotel was
closed ; vigorous hammering at the door produced no effect
whatever, and I was beginning to contemplate the prospect of
spending the night in the street, when a jolly captain of artillery
came past, evidently fresh from a good dinner, showed me a back
way into the hotel, and even accompanied me, because, as he
explained, I probably did not yet know how to treat the natives .
Certainly if he did, I did not, although his method was simplicity
itself. We discovered six “ boys ” sleeping sounder than I ever
saw human beings sleep in my life, on a table in the dining
room. With one shove he pitched the whole lot in a heap on
the floor, and as they even then showed unmistakable symptoms
of an intention to finish their nap as they lay piled up on one
another, he fell to work on the heap with his cane so vigorously
that he soon had them scampering all over the room like a nest
of disturbed rats. “ Tas de cochons," he said, and resumed his
homeward way.
74 FRANCE .
Like almost every city of the Far East, so far as my experience
goes, Hanoi is less interesting than you expect. The foreign
town, of five or six hundred inhabitants, is little more than one
street, named, of course, after Paul Bert, and even that is dis
figured by a narrow , irregular tramway, running down the middle
and carrying military stores all day long. There is a small
lake in the centre of the city, with a curious islet and pagoda ,
that gives one pretty point of view , and the ride round the walls
of the Citadel, a square mile or so of enclosed land, is interesting
7
for once. And the “ Pont de Papier, " where the ill- fated Rivière
met his fate so wretchedly on the afternoon of May 19, 1883,
with the tiny pagoda just beyond it, where the brave Balny dis
appeared, are historically impressive if one has the whole story
of these days in mind. But Hanoi makes a poor showing as
the capital of Tongking. The Hotel Alexandre is the very
worst I ever set foot in. The monuments are second to those
of an ordinary Chinese town. The advent of the foreigner has
killed native art and handicraft, without contributing anything
to replace it. You may walk the length of the “ Rue des
Brodeurs " without finding a piece of embroidery worth carrying
bome. There is a ““ Rue des Incrusteurs," named after the
workmen who inlay mother-of-pearl into ebony, but I spent half
a day there before picking up a decent piece, and that was made
before the French were thought of. The native metal-work,
that sure test of the art-tendencies of an uncivilised people, has
vanished with their independence. Even the Governor-General
apologised for his surroundings. “ I shall be able to receive
you better, ” he said courteously, “ when you come to Saigon .”
But there is this compensation for Hanoi as compared with
Haiphong. The faster Tongking prospers, the faster will
Haiphong decay ; while Hanoi always has been the capital, and
nature has so placed it that it always will be, and the two will
prosper, if at all, together.
Of the native inhabitants, of whom Hanoi has 70,000, there
is much that might be said. After China, with its hundreds of
IN FRENCH INDO -CHINA . 75
thousands of great brown coolies, and its slim ones who will walk
all day up-hill under burdens that would break down aa European
athlete on the level, the Annamites strike the visitor as a nation of
pigmies . Their average height must be under five feet ; they are
narrow - chested and thin-legged, their mouths are always stained
a slobbering filthy red with the areca- nut and lime they chew
unceasingly, and they are stupid beyond the power of words to
tell. Whether it is in any degree due to the fault of their con
querors or not, I cannot say, but they appear to be a people
destitute of the sense of self-respect. At anyrate, the French
treat them as if they had none. The first time I went into
>
déjeuner at the hotel at Haiphong one of the “ boys " had left a
dirty plate on the little table to which the host showed me.
“ Qu'est ce que tu fais, toi ? " demanded the latter, pointing to
the plate, and smack , a box on the ears followed that you could
have heard fifty yards off. And this in the middle of a crowded
dining-room . You would no more think of striking aa Chinese
servant like that than of pulling a policeman's nose in Piccadilly.
Before aa Frenchman , an Annamite too often appears to have no
rights.
Both men and women in Tongking wear their hair long and
twisted up into a kind of chignon on the top of the head. It is
of course always lanky and jet-black . Their dress is of the most
simple. The men wear a loose jacket and short trousers, and
the women a long, straight shift reaching from neck to heels.
The Annamite man is a very poor creature, and it is only among
the upper classes that one sees occasionally a well- formed or
handsome face, with some elevation or dignity of expression.
The women are much better looking, and would often be pretty
except for the stained mouth and teeth, which renders them
horrible to a European eye. But in figure they are the most
favoured of any I have seen in the Far East, as my illustration
may go to show, and in the course of a walk in Hanoi you may
meet a dozen who are straight enough and strong enough and
shapely enough to serve as a sculptor's models. Their native
76 FRANCE .
dance is a burlesque of the Japanese, to the accompaniment of
a fiddle six feet long. The few women you see with clean
mouths and white teeth are almost sure to be the mistresses
of Europeans.
The most curious of the surface impressions of Tongking is
the language you must learn to talk with the natives. Your ear
becomes familiar with “ pidgin English ” before you have spent
a day in the East, and, pace Mr. Leland, a horrid jargon it is,
convenient, no doubt, but growing positively repulsive after a
while. But “ pidgin French ," or " petit nègre," as it is called,
comes as a complete surprise. And it is all the funnier because
of the excellent native pronunciation of French. “ Petit nègre "
is characterised, as compared with French proper, by four
features — omission of the auxiliary verbs, ignoring of gender,
employment of the infinitive for all moods and tenses, and
absence of words taken bodily from the native, like “ maskee,"
man-man,” and “ chop- chop,” in Pidgin. The one expression
which recurs again and again with an infinity of meanings is
" y -a -moyen , ” or “ y- a -pas moyen . ” And after this comes
“ fili,” for “ fini,” nearly as often. The “ You savvy ” of Pidgin
is “ Toi connaitre ? " The " My wantchee," is " Moi vouloir . "
The native servant is everywhere called by the English word
“ boy," pronounced " boi- ee,” in two syllables. And the
language is further enriched by a number of words recalling
the nursery, like " pousse- pousse,” for jinrikisha, " coupe-coupe, "
for a big knife, and so on. “ Beaucoup ” does duty for “ très ”
and " bien ," so one is constantly hearing sentences like these :
“ Moi beaucoup vouloir avoir sampan,” “ Soupe beaucoup mau
vais-moi donner vous beaucoup bambou,” and “ Toi beaucoup
imbécile.” “ Petit nègre ” is of course much younger than
Pidgin ; for one person who speaks it a hundred thousand speak
the latter ; and it is not capable of the flights of oratory to
which the accomplished speaker of Pidgin can soar. Nor will it
ever become what Pidgin has long been --- the lingua franca of
communication between vast numbers of people otherwise
!
A Muong BEAUTY, TONGKING .
TFE , /
PUBLIC PLAY
ASTOR , LEXOX AND
ONS
TILDEN FOUNDATI
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IN FRENCH INDO - CHINA. 77
acquainted with only a score different dialects and tongues. I
may add here that “ Tongking " is the same word as " Tokyo,”
meaning “Eastern Capital,” and that the former is the only
correct spelling to express the Chinese sounds. Tonquin "
and “ Tonkin ” are indefensible, either in French or English.
The northern part of the peninsula of Indo -China is Tong
king, the French territory adjoining China ; the central part is
Annam , which was formerly a long narrow strip of coast, but
by the recent Convention with Siam stretches back to the
Mekong ; and the southern end of the peninsula is Cochin
China, with Cambodia lying behind it. Of all the possessions
of France in the Far East, Cochin- China is the most imposing,
as it is also the oldest. Saigon , the capital , was first captured
by a combined French and Spanish expedition in 1859, and
held by a small garrison until 1861 , when Cochin -China was
finally taken by France. For inhabitants it had in 1891, 1,753
French , 207 other Europeans, 6,600 Annamese, and 7,600
Chinese . It is connected by a steam tramway with the
Chinese town of Cholon, three miles away, which has 40,000
inhabitants .The severe fighting which took place in and
around Saigon practically destroyed the original native town,
and the French were therefore able to rebuild it on their own
lines. The result is that the Saigon of to - day is virtually a
French town. It is laid out on the chess- board pattern familiar
to all who have visited the western towns of the United States,
and French taste has made it very attractive in appearance.
The streets are lined with rows of trees, the roads are just like
those of any European city, the public buildings are numerous
and stately, the shops have all the external appearance of the
magasins of Paris, the cafés are at every corner and are
patronised with true French conviviality, and there is a very
good reproduction of the Jardin d'Acclimation . The Palais
du Gouvernement cost twelve million francs, and except
perhaps the European-built “ Audience Halls ” of Bangkok,
is the finest edifice in the Far East. The Cathedral is
78 FRANCE .
almost equal to it, and every house is a little earthly
paradise in its trim garden . But Saigon has many draw
backs to set against these advantages. The climate is
simply appalling. Hundreds of people avoid the journey
home from Shanghai or Hongkong by the comfortable Ves
sageries Maritimes line, simply because they have once had
experience of a night passed in the river off Saigon. I have
seen a passenger fall on the deck, struck with heat-apoplesy
under a thick double awning, and I have twice paced the deck
for a whole night, fan in hand, sleep being out of the question
because of the heat and the mosquitoes. And except for the
Chinese, there is little commerce worth the name. It is a city
of fonctionnaires, and nine out of ten Frenchmen are occupied
in purveying either French luxuries or French personal services
to the official and military classes. Take away the shop-keepers,
the barbers, the tailors, the wine merchants, the tobacconists ,
and the restaurant keepers, and there would be virtually no
Frenchmen left who was not a soldier, a sailor, or a Civil
servant. Even many of the former have recently left the place.
While I was at Bangkok the foreign community learned with
pleasure that a French barber had arrived, and everybody went
to him at once, thankful to escape from the doubtful comb and
fingers of the native. He had left Saigon in despair, thinking
that even in the Siamese capital he might do better. Like other
French colonies, Saigon is the victim of protection and of the
inability of the colon to shake off the depressing conviction of
exile.
I paid a flying visit to another French colonial town, and it
left an ineffaceable impression on my mind . I was on board a
private ship sailing down the coast of Annam , when we ran
short of medicine for one of our party who was down with fever.
So we anchored off Tourane, and two of us went ashore in the
ship's boat. It was in the middle of the afternoon on a week
day, but the main street of the town was almost deserted. Not
a score natives were about, hardly a European was to be
IN FRENCH INDO - CHINA . 79
seen, except a group of officers sitting in front of a café. It was
half an hour before we could transact business at the post-office.
The whole town was a spectacle of stagnation, though it is one
of the Annamese ports described as ouverts au commerce
international.” Tourane, in fact, was a vivid commentary upon
the words of Pierre Loti about precisely this part of the Far
East- “ C'est le voile qui se tisse lentement sur les choses trop
éloignées, c'est l'anéantissement par le soleil , par la monotonie,
par l'ennui.”
Ope very pleasant reminiscence of Cochin -China I have. The
city of Saigon is situated 60 miles from the mouth of the river,
where there is the well-known light of Cape St. James.
There is a charming little hotel there, where the Saigonnais
come to seek refreshment from the dreadful heat of the town.
One of the most important stations of the Eastern Telegraph
Company is at the Cape, for there the cable between Hong
kong and Singapore touches land, * and connects with the
French cable to Tongking and the land lines to Cambodia and
Siam. It is a curious little colony at Cape St. James, a dozen
Englishmen for the service of the English cable, three or four
Frenchmen for the French cable, half - a -dozen pilots, and the
few invalid Saigonnais who come to the hotel. The electricians
get their supplies in aa launch from Saigon every Sunday morn
ing, and for the rest of the week their only communication with
the great world is by the zig-zag line which trickles interminably
out of the tiny siphon of Sir William Thompson's recorder. And
this tells them little, for even news messages come in code. The
great French mail steamers pass them twice a week , and the few
At last a direct cable connecting Hongkong, Labuan , and Singapore has
been arranged for and is now being laid. In the interests of the Empire this
means of communication, independent of foreign soil, was absolutely essential.
The next step, which ought not to be delayed a single day, should be to
separate entirely from the British office in Hongkong the foreign employés
of the Danish Great Northern Company. Their presence might conceivably
constitute an Imperial danger of great magnitude. It should not be forgotten
that the King of Denmark once took an attitude in this connection hostile to
British interests.
80 FRANCE.
other steamers which ply to Saigon for rice pick up a pilot.
The Company keep them well supplied with newspapers, and
they have an excellent billiard-table, but their life is not a
happy one. On Sundays, when the fresh supplies are in, they
feast. On Monday they feast again, for all meat must be
cooked at once. On Tuesday, cold meat. On Wednesday ,
hash . On Thursday, back to tinned meats, and by Friday
there is probably neither bread nor ice at the Cape. Then,
too, fever makes its regular round among them. Their pale
faces, scarred with prickly heat and other physical nuisances of
a damp tropical climate, are a painful reminder that our
convenient telegrams, like everything else we enjoy, mean
sacrifices on somebody's part. The staff of the Eastern Com
pany are everywhere among the most intelligent and hospitable
compatriots that the British traveller in the Far East can meet,
and the station at Cape St. James became like a home for me
for a few days. A good deal of romance is connected with this
remote pulse of the great world. Not many years ago, for
instance , the clerks used to work with loaded rifles beside them ,
and on one occasion the sleeping staff were aroused in the night
by the report of aa rifle, and on rushing out found that the night
operator had been visited by a tiger while working at his
instrument. The neighbourhood is still supposed, with more
or less scepticism by those who live there, to be infested with
tigers, and the government offers a standing reward of one
hundred francs for the destruction of one. During the few
days I spent at Cape St. James I made the acquaintance of an
Annamite hunter, named Mitt . He was a grave and sedate
man , extremely poor, and stone deaf, but his knowledge of
the jungle and its inhabitants might have rivalled that of
Mowgli himself. In the course of a long talk about shikar I
consulted him on the possibility of getting a tiger, though I had
already found that even in tiger lands tigers are not so common
as one's imagination at home pictures them. And moreover,
whenever there is a tiger there are a hundred men of his
IN FRENCH INDO - CHINA . 81
locality bent on trapping him, or poisoning him , or snaring him
with bird-lime, or, if needs must, on shooting him . My first hopes
had been set on Vladivostok. There are the woolliest tigers in
the world, and before reaching that remote spot I had been filled
with stories of how they were in the habit of coming into the
back yard for the scraps, and how men never walked abroad at
night in parties of less than a dozen, all armed to the teeth.
But once in Russian Tartary, I found the tiger was a tradition ,
and the leading merchant told me he had standing orders from
three different high officials to buy any tiger- skin that came
into the market, at almost any price. So I transferred my
hopes to Korea. Was not the tiger a sort of national emblem
of the Hermit Kingdom ? And is there not a special caste of
tiger-hunters, the very men who once gave such a thrashing to
a foreign landing-party ? In a ride across the country , there
fore, I might well hope for a chance. From sea to sea, however ,
I never caught sight of even the hunter ; only with much difficulty
did I succeed in finding and buying one poor skin , and the most
satisfactory response I could get to my earnest inquiries was
the information , “ There are two seasons in Korea : one in
which the man hunts the tiger, the other in which the tiger
hunts the man . It is now the latter ; therefore you must come
at another time." So in Northern China, so, too, in Tongking,
though there I once actually saw a tiger's footprint at the
entrance to a coal - mine. Mitt was disposed to be encouraging,
and at last he declared, “ Moi aller voir . ” So he disappeared
for a couple of days, and returned one morning with instructions
for me to be ready in the afternoon , and we started at five
o'clock, Mitt walking and running ahead and I following him on
a pony .
For a time we followed a road through the woods and then
struck off into the bush. An hour later Mitt motioned me to
dismount. A coolie waiting for us jumped into the saddle and
galloped off. We were on a small rising ground , dotted with
bushes, in the middle of a rough tangle of forest and brush
7
82 FRANCE .
wood. I looked everywhere for the mirador, and not finding it ,
I yelled an inquiry into Mitt's ear. He pointed to a tree fifty
yards away and I saw how marvellously he had concealed it.
He had chosen two slim trees growing four feet apart, behind
these he had planted two bamboos at the other corners of the
square, and then he had led two or three thickly-leaved creepers
from the ground and wound them in and around and over a
little platform and roof, till he had made a perfect nest of live
foliage . The floor was about twenty feet from the ground, and
it looked perilously fragile to hold two men . But it was a
masterpiece of hunting craft . In response to a peculiar cry
from Mitt, two natives appeared with a little black pig slung on
a pole , yelling lustily. The mirador overlooked a slight de
pression in which an oblong pond had been constructed for the
buffaloes to wallow in, as these creatures cannot work unless
they are allowed to soak themselves in water two or three times
a day. By the side of this the pig was securely fastened. The
two natives took themselves off with their pole, Mitt gave me a
“ leg up into the mirador, which shook and swayed as we
climbed gingerly in, and we arranged ourselves for our long
watch . We loaded our rifles at half-past six, and till half-past
ten we sat side by side like two stone Buddhas. Then five wild
pigs came trotting down to the water to drink, which was an
intensely welcome break in the monotony. At half-past eleven
Mitt made signs to me to go to sleep for a while and he would
watch . At half-past twelve he woke me and immediately fell
back in his turn , fast asleep. It had been moonlight, but the
moon was now hidden behind clouds . On the horizon broad
flashes of summer lightning were playing. There was a chorus
of frogs in the distance, night- birds were calling to one another,
the great lizards were making extraordinary and grotesque
noises , and it was so dark that I could no longer discern the
black patch of the pig's body on the ground twenty yards away.
This is not a book of sporting adventures, though there are
many such memories upon which I should like to dwell, so
A GROUP OF NATIVES, TONGKING.
How I EARNED A JIUNDRED FRANCS.
KK
TY Y
PUBLE ILTR
D
AN ONS
ENL DATI
TIALSDTOR ,FOUN
IN FRENCH INDO - CHINA . 83
I will only say that at two o'clock, suddenly, in perfect silence
and without the slightest warning, a big black object flashed by
the far side of the little pool. It was like the swoop past of an
owl in the starlight, like the shadow of a passing bird, utterly
noiseless and instantaneous. I fired , and a minute afterwards
a loud cough showed that the bullet had found its place. At
daylight we descended and sought everywhere on the hard
ground for footprints. The search brought us for a minute to
the edge of a stretch of tall grass. That moment came very
near being the last for one of us. While we were peering about,
the tiger suddenly sat up in the grass not ten feet away , and,
with a tremendous roar, sprang clean out into the open. He
was so near that it was out of the question to shoot. If I had
flung my rifle forward it would have fallen on him . I could see
his white teeth distinctly and the red gap of his throat. Ι
remember even at that moment wondering how he could possibly
open his mouth so wide. Mitt and I were perhaps eight yards
apart and the tiger leaped out midway between us. Instinctively
the Annamite made a wild rush away on his side and I on mine .
The tiger had evidently walked just far enough into the grass to
be hidden and had then lain down . His presence there took us
80 completely by surprise that we were helpless. If he had been
slightly less wounded than he was, it is perfectly certain that
in another instant he would have sprung upon one or the other of
us, as we had not the remotest chance of escaping by running
away. But the first spring was evidently all it could manage,
for it turned immediately and sneaked back into cover. It was
evident that the beast was no longer in fighting trim , so after
a few minutes we followed it into the grass and I despatched
it with a couple of shots. Every sportsman knows that at such
a moment one is ridiculously happy. It turned out to be a
tigress, a little under eight feet long, and very beautifully
marked . Six coolies carried her on crossed poles ; the natives
came out and “ chin -chinned ” her to Cape St. James, for the
tiger is " joss "” to them ; her skin went to Rowland Ward's; her
84 FRANCE .
claws were mounted as a necklace by a Chinese goldsmith ; her
body was eaten by the Annamites, and I had a reward of a
hundred francs from the French Government for killing an
animal nuisible. With that reward and a little addition Mitt
was able to settle down for life as a landed proprietor. Since
then I have found out a place where a dozen tigers may
certainly be shot in a week or two, but this is for another
time.
The French war with China - or the “ reprisals," as it was
called by France—has left many a memory in the Far East.
Some of these are instructive for the future, some of them should
>
be put on record for the historian, while some are too dreadful
to tell at all . Among the first -named are the advantages
attaching to the state of “ reprisals.”. During the war the
bullocks for victualling the French forces used to stand in the
streets of Hongkong. The Hongkong coolies at first refused to
work for the French , and the French mail steamers were loaded
by “ destitutes " from the Sailors' Home. Hongkong was on
the eve of a general strike of the Chinese. The coolies refused
under threats from China, but when they saw that the French
could get on without them , and that the coolies who replaced
them were getting a dollar a day, they returned to work . The
French fleet established coaling- stations in the Pescadores, and
at the anchorage of Matsu , a few miles north of the mouth of
the river Min , and at these points they were regularly supplied
with coal from a non -British firm in Hongkong. The same
firm were dealing at the same time with the Chinese govern.
ment. One curious incident of the war was narrated to me by
the chief actor in it. There was an American -built craft of five
hundred tons, named the Ping-on , sailing under the British flag.
She was sold by her owners to the Chinese government to be
delivered in Foochow , and sailed for that port with nine hundred
Chinese soldiers on board . They mutinied and refused to be
taken to Foochow , and forced the captain to take them to
Taiwan, in Formosa , which he did , receiving there the first
IN FRENCH INDO - CHINA . 85
payment of seventeen thousand dollars. There the Chinese put
another captain on board,, and in some unexplained way,
succeeded in getting her to sea still under the British flag. For
some time she ran between Amoy and Formosa, until one day,
with a full load of Chinese soldiers, she ran into the midst of
the French fleet in Rover's Channel, in the Pescadores. This
was a very curious " accident” for an experienced navigator to
make. As soon as the Chinese saw their position a number
of them jumped overboard , and the Ping-on was captured
and taken to Saigon. That there was something very wrong
about her right to fly the red ensign is proved by the fact
that the British Government took no steps whatever on her
behalf, as they did, for instance, in the case of the Waverley,
which was captured by the French and given up again . The
blockade of Formosa gave rise to many strange and painful
incidents. Before Keelung was taken, one of my informants
had seen thirty -two heads of French soldiers in the market-place,
all having either deserted or been captured at the unsuccessful
attack on Tamsui, where French troops in heavy marching
order were landed with three miles of paddy- fields between
them and the enemy, whereas a mile above the fort they might
have found an excellent landing-place. Being over their knees
in mud they were of course simply mown down by the Chinese
riflemen . For every one of these heads a reward of a hundred
taels had been paid . The foreigners in Formosa protested so
strenuously against this barbarity of the Chinese that the reward
was altered to a hundred taels for a live Frenchman , and I have
talked to the man who had thirty under his charge at one time .
They were then treated very well , most of them being ultimately
given a free passage to Amoy, and a few entering the Chinese
service, where some remain to this day. These thirty had all
deserted from the French ships , and all but two or three were
men from Elsass-Lothringen and spoke little but German .
"You may guess , " added my informant, who was a foreigner
occupying a high official position , “ how miserable they must
86 FRANCE .
have been on board , for them to desert to a place like Formosa ! "
As an example of the way the Chinese were swindled by certain
foreign purveyors, I may mention that they were supplied from
Europe with five hundred thousand rounds for Winchester rifles,
and that the whole of this ammunition was found to be worthless,
when a foreign officer examined it, and was destroyed . Another
dreadful incident of which I find all the details in my notebooks,
arose from the necessity the French found or believed themselves
to be in to shoot aa number of women in Keelung. An alarming
number of French soldiers were being reported as missing, and
it was alleged that these women had decoyed them into houses
and there made away with them in horrible ways. Twenty
women were identified and found guilty, and they were all shot.
In judging of any acts of punishment or retaliation by Europeans
against Chinese, it must never be forgotten that acts of appalling
and almost incredible barbarity are the common accompaniment
of all Chinese warfare. If it were not that the details are inde
scribable I could give a blood-curdling list of horrors that have
been described to me. And as I have more than once had a
narrow escape myself at the hands of Chinese ruffians, I speak
not altogether without personal experience.
There is one other event of the Franco-Chinese " reprisals ”
upon which public opinion, particularly in France, is ill -informed,
and which, in the interests of history, should be recognised in its
true light. I mean the engagement between the French and
Chinese fleets at the Pagoda Anchorage in the Min river, off
Foochow, on August 23, 1884. This is generally regarded as a
battle, and as Admiral Courbet's greatest achievement : in fact,
it was a massacre . M. Pierre Loti calls it " la grande gloire de
Fou -tchéou ," and all French writers follow in the same strain.
For weeks the Chinese fleet had lain at anchor, covered by the
shotted guns of the French fleet, and considering the utter and
instant cowardice shown by the Chinese when the critical
moment at last came, it can only be supposed that they were
under the impression that the French would not really attack
IN FRENCH INDO - CHINA . 87
after all.The Chinese ships numbered eleven, all of wood,
mounting forty - five guns, only a few of which were of large
calibre, and carrying 1,190 men. The French ships were nine
armoured vessels and two torpedo boats, with seventy -seven
guns and 1,830 men . The signal for the engagement was given
immediately on the arrival of the Triomphante, by the hoisting
of the red flag on the Volta at fifty - six minutes past one o'clock .
At three minutes past two all was over. Two Chinese vessels
sank in a few seconds. Two others ran ashore in attempting to
escape. Two more were so moored that their big guns could
not be fired , and they were immediately adrift in a sinking
condition. Three more were disabled at the first discharge.
One, the Yangwu, fired her stern chaser once, killing several men
on the bridge of the Volta and almost killing Admiral Courbet
himself. Before she could reload, a torpedo -boat from the Volta
reached her and she was blown to pieces within twenty - seven
seconds of the beginning of the fight. One Chinese vessel alone
may be said to have been fought. This was the little Chenwei.
" Exposed to the broadsides of the Villars and the d'Estaing,
and riddled by a terrific discharge from the heavy guns of the
Triomphante as she passed , she fought to the last. In flames
fore and aft, drifting helplessly down the stream and sinking,
she plied her guns again and again, till one of the French
torpedo boats, dashing in through the smoke, completed the
work of destruction ."" **
“ The captain reserved one loaded gun
till the last moment, and then as the battered and shot - rent
ship gave the last mournful roll, he pulled the lock-string and
sent hissing on its errand of hate the last farewell of the unfortu
nate Ching Wai .” + Though in seven minutes from the firing
of the first shot every Chinese vessel was practically disabled,
the French continued to pour in shot, shell and Hotchkiss fire,
Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs, Report of Mr. Deputy Commissioner
Carrall, which may be regarded as an official account of the engagement.
† “ The French at Foochow ," by James F. Roche and L. L. Cowen , U.S. Navy,
which confirms the above in all essential details.
88 FRANCE .
regardless of the wounded and helpless men in the crippled ships.
. The casualties on the French side were 5 killed and 15
wounded, and on the Chinese side 419 killed and 128 wounded,
and 51 missing, besides 102 killed and 22 wounded on board
war junks.” Such is the true story of the Foochow fight. Of
course war is war, and the French Marshal was right when he
said, “ Quand je fais la guerre je laisse ma philanthropie dans
les armoires de ma femme." And it is the business of a fleet to
disable the fleet of the enemy in the shortest possible time.
But with the exception of the Chenwei on one side and the
ten men on the torpedo-boat of the Volta on the other, the less
said about “ gloire " on this occasion the better. French
soldiers did cover themselves with glory when their commander
made his fatal blunder before Tamsui, and many a time in
Tongking, but Foochow belongs to another category.
I have in my notebooks the following striking story of the
death of Rivière , which I took down in these words from the
lips of the narrator, who sufficiently describes himself. It will
be remembered that Commandant Rivière, an extremely gallant
but very nervous man , ambitious of literary honours, who had
said, “ Je m'en vais par le Tonkin à l'Académie,” had been
compelled to spend nearly a year in possession of the citadel of
Hanoi, while the Chinese Black Flags came in thousands into
the town and gathered in impudent strength in the neighbour
hood. At last the reinforcements he had prayed for came, and
slight hostilities began at once . Then the Black Flag leader,
the famous Liu Jung- fu, issued his challenge to the French
commander. “ You send out teachers of religion," it said, “ to
undermine and ruin the people. You say you wish for inter
national commerce, but you merely wish to swallow up the
country . There are no bounds to your cruelty, and there is no
name for your wickedness. You trust in your strength and you
debauch our women and our youth . . . . He who issues this
proclamation has received bebest to avenge these wrongs. ...
But Hanoi is an ancient and honourable town. It is filled with
IN FRENCH INDO - CHINA. 89
honest and loyal citizens. Therefore could he not endure that
the city should be reduced to ruins, and young and old put to
the sword. Therefore do I, Liu Jung-fu, issue proclamation .
Know, ye French robbers, that I come to meet you. Rely on
your strength and rapine, and lead forth your herd of sheep and
curs to meet my army of heroes, and see who will be master.
Wai-tak-fu , an open space, I have fixed on as the field where I
shall establish my fame .” * This was stuck up one night upon
the gates of the citadel and all over the stockades, and was
followed by an attack next day. So much by way of introduc
tion : now for the story which was told to me. My informant
said : “ Rivière was at Hanoi doing nothing, in spite of the fact
that the Chinese were known to be gathering round the place.
People talked a good deal about it, and one day the challenge
6
came from Liu Jung-fu. So Rivière said, “ That's nothing but
humbug —- I'll show you. ' And next morning he went out with
four hundred men, himself in a carriage and pair, for he had
been suffering from fever. It was to be just a morning's walk
nothing else. Berthe de Villers was with him, and when they
reached the Pont de Papier he came up and said, ' Vous feriez 6
bien, Commandant, de faire fouiller ces bois.' • Vous avez
6
peur ? ' asked Rivière. " Je n'ai jamais peur,' replied Villers,
and turned to walk off, when a volley was fired from the wood .
Villers was hit in the stomach , and a quarter-master, standing
close by, in the chest. Rivière sprang out, placed Villers and
the man in the carriage and ordered it back to Hanoi at
once. The horses were turned, bolted , and carried the two men
at full gallop back to Hanoi, where they arrived locked in each
other's arms in the death-grasp. In the meantime the volleys
had continued and men had fallen by dozens and lay in heaps
along the road. Rivière rushed ahead to get a gun on the bridge
turned round so that it could be brought back, when he was
struck mortally in the side and fell. A lieutenant named
• For the whole proclamation see J. G. Scott, “ France and Tongking," 1885,
>
p. 32 , and C. B. Norman , “ Tonkin ," 1884 , p . 210.
90 FRANCE .
Jacquis ran up, and Rivière, seeing that he had made a horrible
and fatal mistake, and that he was mortally wounded, ordered
Jacquis to kill him . ' Jacquis, brûle- moi la gueule ! ' ' Je ne
veux pas, Commandant. Je vous le commande ! ' ' Je ne
peux pas, Commandant.' Then Rivière drew his revolver and
blew his brains out, and Jacquis, seeing it, did the same.
Rivière's head was carried away after the sauve qui peut, and was
only recovered a long time afterwards after much negociation.
It had been put in spirits of wine in a kerosine oil tin, and was
perfectly recognisable, whiskers and all. I slept on that tin for
several nights. Then I was a member of the committee who
drew up the procès verbal uniting the head to the body. He had
shot himself in the mouth and the bullet had come out behind
the left ear.” With regard to this story I can only say that I
repeat it exactly as it was told to me in Tongking by a thoroughly
respectable informant. Of course Rivière's sortie, the rout of
the French , the return of the defeated troops into Hanoi , the
>
distribution of wine, the consequent drunkenness of the over
strained men , the officers themselves doing sentry-go on that
“ black night” of May 19, 1883, the seizure of Rivière's head
and the subsequent surrender of it, are matters of history.
With this strange story I close my notebooks so far as souvenirs
of the war are concerned.
One of the most remarkable romances of modern Eastern his.
tory is connected with these French colonies. In the spring of
1889 there appeared at Hongkong a tall, well-built Frenchman ,
with a bushy brown beard and very long legs, who called himself
Marie David de Mayréna, and distributed visiting-cards with the
words “ S.M. le Roi des Sédangs " printed upon them . He had
had an adventurous career in the Far East, in the course of
which he had more than once displayed great personal courage
in guerilla warfare. At last his wanderings brought him to the
region of the Sedangs, a tribe inhabiting part of the Hinterland
of Annam, a region not so well known then as it has since
become. By these people he had been elected king, and of the
IN FRENCH INDO - CHINA . 91
genuineness of his election there can be no doubt whatever.
He was at first recognised by the French missionaries and
by the French authorities , and I have myself seen corre
spondence and treaties which establish his claim beyond
question. Of these treaties there were a score signed between
Mayréna and the chiefs of the different tribes ; with the
Hallongs and Braos , signed by Khen on June 3 , 1888 ; with
the confederation Banhar-Reungao , signed by Krui, President ;
with the Jiarais, signed by Ham on August 19 , 1888 , pro
mising tribute of “ un éléphant domestique dressé ” ; with the
village of Dak-Drey and half - a -dozen others, signed by Blåk ,
chief, translated and witnessed by P. Trigoyen and J. B.
Guerlach, “ missionnaires apostoliques " ; and finally, a treaty
of alliance between “ les R. P. Missionnaires et les Sédangs,"
concluded " entre Marie , roi des Sédangs , et le R. P. Vialleton ,
supérieur de la Mission des Sauvages Banhar-Reungao .” This
treaty provided that “ à partir d'aujourd'hui, toutes les tribus ou
villages qui ont reconnu ou qui reconnaîtront a l'avenir l'auto
rité du Roi des Sédangs seront les amis et alliés des villages
des Pères Missionnaires . En cas d'attaque des Missions, ils
préteront aide et secours." I should add that I give these
details not only for their romantic interest, but also because
when Mayréna was thrown over by the French authorities
and the missionaries, he was poohpoohed as a common liar,
and now that he is dead and the whole strange adventure at
an end, I take a pleasure in showing that he was not wholly an
impostor, in spite of his vanity and his follies. It should be
added in explanation of certain phrases that his French was
by no means always above reproach. To continue,, the rela
tions which had subsisted between Mayréna and the priests
are clearly shown by the following passage in the treaty,
which, like most of this strange history, is now published for
the first time so far as my knowledge goes : “ Considérant que
si nous detenons la couronne du Royaume Sédang, nous la
devons aux RR. Pères Missionnaires de la Société des Missions
92 FRANCE .
Etrangères de Paris ; que c'est grâce à leurs concours que nous
avons pu expliquer notre volonté et parcourir le Royaume
avant d'être élu ; que ce sont eux qui ont servi d'intermédiaires
entre nous et les chefs pour traduire nos pensées ” -complete
liberty to preach is granted, all religions are promised toleration ,
but that of the Roman Catholic Church is declared the official
one ; the right of refuge is given, too, in chapels, and finally
lands for a new town to be chef-lieu of the province of Kon
Trang, and to bear that name, are conceded to the R. Père
Trigoyen. This treaty is dated Kon Jéri, August 25, 1888.
The “ Constitution ” is dated July 1 , 1888, and its Article III.
reads, “ M. de Mayréna, déja élu Roi des Sédangs, portera le
titre Roi Chef Suprême," and Article V. , “ Le drapeau national
sera bleu uni avec une croix blanche à l'étoile rouge au centre.”
It was signed by thirty -seven chiefs, of whose names I copied
only the first and the last-Kon Tao Jop and Pelei Tebau .
When Mayréna first turned up in Hongkong, he was vouched
for by the French Consul and introduced by him to everybody,
including the Governor, in consequence of which his social posi
tion was sealed by an invitation to dinner at Government House.
At this time he was an astounding figure, when in his royal
attire. He wore a short scarlet jacket with enormous galons on
the cuffs, a broad blue ribbon, a magenta sash in which was
stuck a long curved sword worn across the front of the body,
white trousers with a broad gold stripe, and a white helmet with
a gold crown and three stars . He distributed broadcast the
“ Order of Marie I.," beginning with the captain of the little
Danish steamer Freyr, in return for the hoisting of his royal
standard in Haiphong harbour, and continuing with the
Governor of Hongkong, who was caused no slight embarrass
ment in getting rid of the impossible ribbon and cross. He
used notepaper with a huge gold crown and coat- of-arms upon
it, gave large orders for jewellery, and conducted himself
generally like a crowned head. I have seen a private letter he
wrote at this time, from which the following passage is perhaps
IN FRENCH INDO - CHINA. 93
worth putting on record : “Il est un ait bien certain, c'est que
entre l'Annam et le Siam il existe uu vaste pays qui a nom
Laos. ... Or, les Sédangs et les Hamongs sont (illegible ), je
parle des chefs marqués au bras et dans le dos par le roi du
Laos. La France a-t-elle quelque droit sur le Laos ? Non !
... Le Laos n'a aucune rélation avec les nations Euro
péennes." Mayréna succeeded in getting a few Hongkong
merchants to enter into an arrangement with him , by which he
conceded to them the right of developing the country of the
Sedangs, in return for certain duties upon trade and exports.
But the collapse came, of course , when the French authorities
chavged their policy and took a line of direct opposition to him .
Even the missionaries who had enabled him to secure the
treaties of which they themselves were the official witnesses,
denounced him as an impostor. He then offered himself and
his country to the British, who would naturally have nothing to
do with him , so he next tried the Germans, and was actually
indiscreet enough as to send a telegram to Berlin in open German,
offering his allegiance, forgetting that this must pass through a
French office in Saigon. Of course it was read and reported
from there and orders were issued for his arrest. He believed
that he was condemned to be shot for high treason , so he went
to Europe by the German mail steamer, a few of his acquaint
ances in Hongkong passing the bat round to pay his passage.
After he had left, the police succeeded in recovering most of the
jewellery he bad presented and failed to pay for. A man of this
stamp, however, is never very long without money , and after
spending some time in prison in Ostend for debt he next
turned up in Paris and lived there in luxury for awhile, the
French press not being quite sure what to make of him .
Finally, he returned to the Far East, settled down with one
male companion and two or three female ones on an uninhabited
island off the coast of the Malay Peninsula, where a cobra
brought his strange career to a sudden end by biting him in the
foot. All that remains of “ Marie I. , King of the Sedangs , " is
94 FRANCE .
the set of postage stamps he issued, which are among the most
prized curiosities of the philatelists. Such is the true story of
man who would be king," and it is perhaps worth telling as
an illustration of the fact that even in these late days there
may be as much romance in reality as in fiction , at least in the
wonderland of the Far East.
CHAPTER V.
ON THE FRANCO -CHINESE FRONTIER .
I WAS particularly fortunate in having the opportunity of
making a flying trip to the frontier between China and
the French possessions. This is far off the beaten track ; no
vessels go there except to carry military supplies, and no private
boat-owners could be induced to go for fear of the pirates. I
had been to see the coal mines of the Compagnie française
des Charbonnages du Tonkin ,” and the Managing Director, M.
Bavier-Chauffour, was good enough to place his steam yacht, the
Fanny, at my disposal. The trip was one of great interest , and
at the time of my visit no Englishman had been there , except
Mr. James Hart, who represented China on the Commission to
delimit the frontier .
From Hatou, where the coal mines are, we steamed due north
along the coast , entering almost at once the unique scenery of
Along Bay. For hours here we threaded our way among rocks
as thick as trees in an orchard - enormous towering hills a
thousand feet high, great boulders hanging orer sea-worn caves,
tall trembling steeples, tiny wooded rock-islets, shimmering
grottos, and an infinite number of grotesque water-carved forms
-the monk, the inkstand, the cap of liberty. All the afternoon
there was one of these within gun-shot on each side. This is
the pirates' baunt, and it is indeed a glorious thing to be a
pirate king when you can run from your pursuer into Along
Bay and disappear instantly at any point. On our way down
we came across a fleet of sampans , carrying a thousand wood
95
1
96 FRANCE .
cutters to their work, convoyed by a gunboat. The commander
hailed us, and we went on board . “ I engage you to be
cautious, ” he said ; " there is a well-armed band of pirates
reported on the coast. I would come a little way with you, but
I have just received telegraphic orders to stand by these boats.
However, keep a good look -out."
By the evening of the second day we were close to our
destination -- the mouth of the river separating Tongking and
China. It was very foggy intermittently, and the pilot was
about at the end of his knowledge. He believed us, however,
to be just off the mouth of the river. So we held a council of
war on the bridge, and decided to anchor. The word was hardly
out of our host's mouth when - scrunch , scrunch, under the keel
told us it was too late. Full speed astern, anchors laid out,
ererybody on board run backwards and forwards across the
vessel - none of these things moved us. We were high and dry,
on a falling tide . Then the fog lifted for a moment, and we saw
-
where we were — far beyond the mouth of the river, within a
quarter of a mile of the mainland of China, and in probably the
very worst spot for the very worst pirates in the whole world.
And in these seas there is only one tide in the twenty - four hours.
For twenty hours we should be on the sandbank, in two or three
hours we should walk round the launch ; never in their lives
would the pirates have had a chance at such a prize as the
Fanny; and they could come in any number from the mainland.
We tried to laugh at our bad luck , but the situation was
decidedly unpleasant. One of our party knew the country very
well, and the natives, as he speaks Annamese, but we all knew
enough to know one thing — namely, that it would never do to
be taken alive . To blow one's brains out if necessary is one
thing; to be skinned alive is another. So we made prepara
tions for our defence. No craft travels in these waters without
being armed ; and we were particularly well off. We had each
his gun , rifle, and revolver ; three Sikh guards from the mines
had their rities , and there were six Winchesters in the rack in
FRANCE
AND
CHINA
: FRONTIER
.THE
WATCHING
THE NEW YORK Y
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PUBLIC LIBRA
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ON THE FRANCO - CHINESE FRONTIER. 97
the saloon . The Chinese captain and crew could all be depended
upon ; so we posted a sentry forward , one aft, and one on the
bridge, to be relieved every two hours, with orders first to
hail and then to fire at anybody or any boat that might approach .
Then, after dinner, we laid our revolvers on the table and
commenced an all-night game—the second time in my life that
I have assisted at the unholy union of poker and pistols. Once
only were we disturbed. About two o'clock the Sikh in the
bows shouted “ Sampan ! ” In an instant we were on deck ,
and there, sure enough, was a big black boat approaching from
the sea. We waited till it was within a couple of hundred
yards—long enough to see that it was full of men, and was
being rowed in unusual silence ; then our Annamite- speaking
member shouted, “ If you don't show a light instantly we shall
shoot.” There was no answer, and still the boat came on.
He shouted again , and the rifles were at our shoulders, when
the boat showed a lantern . Then slowly it disappeared back
into the darkness.
So ended our desperate affair with the pirates. Their exis
tence is no joke, however. Numbers of native junks fall into
their hands, and a few months before I was there several
Europeans had been murdered by them, and two or three others
with sums of money in their possession, had completely dis
appeared. A fortnight previous two redoubtable pirate chiefs
were captured , two hundred men with 120 breechloaders, after
an expedition costing seven thousand dollars and a hundred
killed and wounded. At a place called Caobang they are still
formidable in the field, kept by their leaders under strict
discipline and training, and , when hard pressed, make their
escape across the frontier into China, where the mandarins help
them. And, of course, every junk that leaves the Canton river
is heavily armed with brass cannon, and every European
steamer that plies on it has an open stack of loaded rifles in
the saloon for the passengers ' use.
It is a long row up the river to the little frontier town of
8
98 FRANOE .
Monkay. This is-or rather was - a very peculiar place. It
was built half on each side of the little stream that forms the
actual frontier. Two halves had different names, the Tong
king one only being called Monkay, and the Chinese town
Trong-King. (The reason for using the past tense will be
plain presently. ) The town had no poor quarter ; its streets
were mathematically laid out ; its houses were all of brick and
stone, with richly carved and ornamented lintels and eaves ;
its inhabitants were all rich. In some way or other, this was
the outcome of the alliance of piracy and smuggling. When
the French came they did not interfere with the town on their
side of the stream, but on the top of a sugar-loaf hill, three
quarters of a mile back, they began to build a little fort, and
9
under its guns they laid out a “ citadel,” inside which to locate
the barracks, officers ' quarters, magazines, &c. Among the
first to be sent there was a civilian officer named Haitce. One
day they were attacked by a band of Chinese soldiers. They
resisted as long as possible and then fled ; some were shot , some
escaped, Haitce only was captured. He was taken back to a
house in the principal street of the model little town of Monkay,
tied down upon a table, and skinned alive.
Now , at this time, the famous Colonel Dugenne was in com
mand of the Foreign Legion in Tongking. Everybody knows
what the Foreign Legion is — almost the only force in the world
where a sound man is enlisted instantly without a question
being asked. No matter what your nationality, what your
colour, what your past, you are welcome in the Foreign Legion .
A man may even desert from the regular French army and
re-enlist, unquestioned, in this beterogeneous force. In return
for this preliminary indulgence, however, you must put up with
many inconveniences — the worst climates, the hardest work, the
front line of the attack, the forlorn hope, and the most iron
discipline. Once out of civilised parts, and there is practically
only one punishment in the Foreign Legion—the punishment
that can only be awarded once. To keep such a body of men
ON THE FRANCO - CHINESE FRONTIER. 99
in order, this is perhaps necessary , and the officers to enforce
it must be bard men-men with bodies of steel and hearts of
stone. And the hardest of them all was Colonel Dugenne.
Some day I must tell the stories I heard of his methods of
pacification in Tongking. When the authorities learned of the
outrage I have described, they understood that it was no use to
wipe it out with rose-water. So they sent Colonel Dugenne and
his " children . ” He came and looked at the place. “ Burn it,"
said he. But it wouldn't burn , being all brick and stone. “ Blow
it up , ” said Colonel Dugenne. And they did — they blew the
whole town literally to bits. Compared with Monkay, Pompeii
is in good preservation. You need an alpenstock to get through
the streets. And the house where Haitce was tortured is now
a hole in the ground twenty feet deep.
You are not long in discovering that Monkay is not like other
places. As we were rowing up, a big red pheasant was sitting
in a tree not twenty yards away. I picked up my rifle to try
and shoot its head off, as I have done with partridges in the
Maine woods. “ Don't fire here," I was told ; " the people at
the fort would think there was trouble, and probably turn out a
>
lot of men ." The Resident, M. Rustant,, walked down to meet
us and take us to the Residency. This proved to be an old
temple, or pagode, as the French call all native buildings, divided
into rooms by board partitions , and very meagrely provided with
modern furniture. Outside a six -foot moat was dug, and lined
with spikes of bamboo so thickly that a hen could hardly walk
about in it. On each side of the moat was a stockade built of
heavy bamboo, eight feet high, and sharpened to a spike at the
top. At each corner a look - out was built of sods and bamboo,
in which a sentry stood always with a loaded rifle. The front of
the Residency faced the river, where a little gun -boat lay at
anchor. The back of it looked towards the frontier, and there
fore the back entrance, with the kitchen and offices, was further
protected with thick walls of sods en échelon, to guard against
the bullets fired across at it from long range. The Resident's
727252 A
100 FRANCE .
guard consists of a hundred and twenty native militia, under two
European officers. But at night as we sat at dinner in the
cold , bare, cob-webbed , bat- tenanted central ball of the former
>
temple, the door was pushed noisily open, and a night-guard of
thirteen men and a sergeant of the Foreign Legion tramped
past our chairs to an ante-room, and grounded their arms with
a crash on the stone floor. At midnight we were awakened by
the same tramp and crash as the guard was changed. And
there is no “ show pidgin " about this : all these men and their
ball-cartridges may be needed at any minute.
Next morning we went to pay our respects to the commanding
officer, and look round . First we climbed up to the fortin on
the top of the sugar-loaf hill , where there were half- a -dozen
light guns and a small force of French artillerymen , and into
which no native is ever permitted to set foot. The frontier river
winds along like a silver thread three-quarters of aa mile off the
citadel is just below, and the half-dozen houses of the foreign
population ; and through a glass you can see the Chinese guns
and soldiers in their own fort, on a similar hill , a couple of
miles off, or less . All these guns , of course, are trained straight
at one another. And over the hills you can see the telegraph
wire connecting the furthest extremities of the Chinese Empire,
stretching down into the town , a solid and prosperous-looking
little place, like Monkay on this side before Colonel Dugenne
blew it up. The French have no telegraph , but a line of helio
graph to within a few miles of Haiphong, only allowed to be
used for official messages. Indeed, there is nobody else to use
it, although the Resident was kind enough to allow me to
receive a private message from home by its aid .
Then we walked, always with an escort, through the ruins
of the town down to the river. As we entered the street the
quick eye of the Commandant caught sight of new marks on a
blank brick wall . Climbing into the inside we discovered that
somebody from across the frontier had come, probably during
the preceding night, and actually loop -holed the wall for rifles,
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80 that they could steal across the next moonlight night and
pick off the sentries at the fort ! From the arrangements made
then and there, I fancy those gentry would get a reception to
surprise them. The river which constitutes the actual frontier
is only about forty yards wide, and can be forded at low tide.
On the French side the bank is high , while the Chinese town is
built almost down to the water's edge. As soon as we were seen
on the opposite bank the Chinese soldiery came down to the river
in crowds , in their bright yellow and red jackets, to stare at
us, and when I set up my camera they evidently became rather
nervous, thinking it a new engine of war. Indeed, the Com
mandant said, “ Don't stay there any longer than is necessary ;
it's just possible they might take a pot-shot at us.” Across this
river, of course, not a soul ventures. If a Frenchman should
try, his head would be off his shoulders, or worse, in five
minutes. With a good deal of difficulty, I bribed a Chinaman
to take a telegram across, addressed to Sir Robert Hart, in
Peking, but they refused to despatch it, and sent it back. In
fact, the relations between the French and Chinese are
about as strained as they can possibly be. The Commandant
pointed out to me a small cleared and levelled spot on the top
of a hillock, and told me its gruesome story. Two months
before my visit a block-house had stood there, garrisoned by a
sergeant and six French soldiers and eight native regulars. One
night the people at the fort suddenly heard rapid firing, and
shortly afterwards the block -house burst into flames. The night
was pitch dark, and it was no good for them to move out to the
rescue, as they did not know that there were not a thousand
Chinese, and, as the block-house was burning, their comrades
had either escaped or been killed. At daylight they marched
down and found the eight natives and five Europeans dead , the
sergeant headless and horribly and indescribably mutilated, and
one European missing-evidently carried off into China, as he
was never heard of again. No wonder that a Chinaman from
across the river who falls into French hands here gets a very
102 FRANCE .
short shrift -generally about as long as it takes to pull &
trigger. In fact, I believe any Chinaman at Monkay at night
is shot on sight. The Chinese who come across on these
murdering expeditions are not pirates at all, or “ black flags,”
or dacoits, or anything of that kind ; they are Chinese regulars,
who leave their jackets behind and resume them on their
return. And, of course , if the practice were not encouraged or
at least winked at by the Chinese officials, it could not go on.
The native troops are not very smart soldiers, but they take
kindly to the loose French discipline, and on several occasions
they have fought very well indeed. Their dress consists of
dark blue cotton knickerbockers and jacket, a little pointed
bamboo hat, and a sash . They wear no shoes ; and the only
difference between the militia or civil guards and the regulars is
that the sash and hat of the former are blue and of the latter
red. At Monkay the total strength at the time of my visit was
about seven hundred and fifty men—three hundred and fifty
Europeans and four hundred natives—not nearly enough , the
Commandant complained bitterly. Once as I stood with him
in the fort he showed me a valley miles off, and said , “ There are
five hundred pirates over there. The day after to-morrow I am
going out to say ' Bonjour ' to them .” And two days after I
got back to Hongkong, I read in the newspaper that he had
made his expedition, the Chinese had attacked his camp during
the night, and that he had been the first man shot. “ Don't
forget to send me some of your photographs, ” he had said to me
at the same time, when I was taking those which now illus
trate this chapter ; " they will be very dramatic .” A Customs
officer named Carrière was captured and carried off by pirates
last year.. Three Frenchmen , MM . Roty, Bouyer, and Droz
Fritz were captured at different times in 1892 , and kept prisoners
for many months before their surrender was effected. And in
August of the present year the Chinese made a raid at Monkay,
killed a N. Chaillet in his own house, and carried off his wife
and child . So the Franco -Chinese frontier is still a place
that “ repays careful avoidance . ”
CHAPTER VI.
A STUDY OF FRENCH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION .
SOCIETY inFrenchIndo-China is sharply divided intothree
classes, and each of the three is at daggers drawn with the
other two. They are the official, the military, and the civilian
-the Governor -General, the Colonel, and the Colonist. To the
official eye the military class is constantly endeavouring to usurp
functions to which it has no right, and the civilians are an un
reasonable body of incapable people , impossible to satisfy. The
military class are furious against the Government, represented
by the officials, for their reduced numbers, and cling all the
more tenaciously to privileges which only belonged to them
as an army of occupation ; and they desire to be allowed a free
hand to “ pacify” the country by the only means known to them
-the sword. The civilian colonist, finally, detests the military,
in the conviction that if he could only once get rid of nearly
all of them the country would “ pacify " itself fast enough by
commerce and agriculture, which it will never do so long as
it is a happy hunting- ground for crosses and promotions. And
how can he feel either respect or sympathy for the Governors
who come and go like the leaves on the trees , and who must
needs hold the helm in Hanoi with their eyes fixed on the
Quai d'Orsay ? Society in the French colonies of the Far East
is aa perpetual triangular duel.
Let me give a few of the experiences upon which this analysis
is based. The first person with whom I had any conversation
after setting foot of Tongking was a well-informed , intelligent
103
104 FRANCE .
bourgeois who had passed six years there. I began by saying
I was sorry to hear of the heavy casualties of a column then
operating in the interior, a hundred men having been lost in
one action. “ He'll arrive, all the same,” replied my acquain
tance, speaking of the officer in command. “ He wants his
third star, and what does he care if it costs him five hundred
men ? He'll get it, too, allez ! " There is the civilian's view of
the military. Now for the functionary's view, and I should not
tell this story if M. Richaud's terrible death-let me throw a
word of recollection and respect over his “ vast and wandering
grave " —had not untied my tongue. When I was at Hanoi
I asked him, on the strength of my French official letter, for
an escort of a few men to accompany me to a place one day's
march into the interior. “ Certainly,” he replied, “ with
pleasure. They shall be ready the day after to -morrow ." The
same evening I was dining with him , and when I entered the
drawing-room he took me on one side and said , “ By the way,
about that escort, I am exceedingly annoyed, but it is impos
sible . ” And answering my look of surprise, for my official letter
had been given for the very purpose of making such facilities
certain, he continued : “ The General replies that he has not
five men of whom he can dispose at this moment. Frankly , you
know, you should properly have asked him in the first place,
and not me." The Governor -General's annoyance and em-.
barrassment at having to acknowledge to a stranger this
humiliating snub were so visible that of course I dropped
the subject, and his secretary's whispered request afterwards
not to reopen it was unnecessary. But I could not help asking
him next day as we were driving whether in French colonies, as
in English, the chief civil authority was not ex officio commander
>
in -chief. He saw the point instantly and replied , “ Yes, that is
my title too,” and after a pause— “ seulement, je délégue mes
pouvoirs ." After thus being refused an escort, I was refused
permission to go alone at my own risk , so my proposed journey
was doubly impossible. At the time the General had not five
FRENCH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION. 105
men “ disponibles " there were, of course, twenty times that
number kicking their heels in barracks. The Governor had
promised the escort, therefore the General refused it. That
was the only and the universal explanation offered me. And
it was the true one.
To pass on again to the civilian colonist. Half way up the
river between Haiphong and Hanoi I noticed heaps of fresh mud
lying along the bank. “ Then you have been dredging, after
all ? " I asked. “ Hush ,” was the reply ; " we have been doing a
little of it at night, because the Administration would not allow
us to do it openly , and we stuck here every day .” Why not ?
Heaven only knows. It is siinply incredible, and therefore I will
not waste time in attempting to enumerate what “ l'Administra
tion " denies . It is, as Mephistopheles described himself to
Faust, der Geist der stets verneint. Whatever you want, though
it cost the Government not a penny, though it be a boon to
the community, though it be the opening-up of the country so
enthusiastically toasted, the authorities are absolutely certain
to refuse your request. Said a French civilian, “ Les consuls
français ne sont bons que pour vous donner tort quand vous
avez raison.” This is no joke-if you think so, stop the first
man, not a " functionary,” you meet in the street in Haiphong
and ask him. It is almost as easy to get into Parliament in
London as to get a concession of land for any purpose what
ever in Tongking, although the whole vast country is on public
offer, although the land almost throws its crops and its minerals
>
in your face, and although the inhabitants are "pirates ” by
thousands simply and solely for the employment and sustenance
which welcomed capital and encouraged enterprise alone can
farnish. This point has been urged frankly and strongly by a
French critic who is intimately acquainted with Tongking:-
" Soyez certain que si la pacification du Tonkin est si longue,
cela tient surtout à ce que nous n'avons pas su empêcher la
misère qui pousse les indigènes au brigandage. Si l'on avait
laissé le champ libre à l'esprit d'entreprise, si l'on avait appelé
106 FRANCE .
l'élément indigène, à tous les degrés de l'échelle sociale , à par
ticiper au développement de notre nouvelle colonie, la pacifica
tion serait bien avancée, sinon achevée . Au lieu de nos 15,000
hommes pourchassant des pirates, nous verrions, à l'heure qu'il
est, ces mêmes pirates employés paisiblement à des travaux
publics, car, il ne faut pas nous le dissimuler, nos ouvriers de
demain sont les pirates d'aujourd'hui, les cultivateurs d'hier,
chassés de chez eux par nos procédés belliqueux de ces dernières
années."
It is the fact, though it seems almost incredible, that after all
these years of French administration, the scores of military
expeditions , the spending of countless millions of francs, the
loss of tens of thousands of lives, Tongking is only “ pacified "
so far as the delta is concerned.. The rest of the country is not
safe from one day to another, and almost every transport of
valuables has to have a military convoy. Within the last year
a number of Europeans have been carried off and only a few
weeks ago a train was actually stopped and pillaged while but a
short distance from the capital. Mr. Consul Tremlett, whose
Report from Saigon is dated February 25, 1894, writes of Tong
king as follows : - “ The delta may be considered as being fairly
under control, but, apart from that, the province is continually
raided by so-called pirates. There are now at least three
Frenchmen in captivity of whose fate the public knows nothing;
they are no doubt being held for ransom .” One of these, an
official, was captured at Sin -gam , not 40 miles from Hanoi,
upon a line which is running several trains a day, and not a
hundred yards from aa military post . And at the close of 1893
the Courrier d'Haiphong said : “ Since two years, not a month,
not a week has passed without reports of shots exchanged,
gangs of “ pirates ' broken up, engagements more or less bloody.
The number of “ pirates ' has certainly not diminished, and their
audacity has increased .” For my own part, I should not be
surprised to hear at any time of a new outburst of “ piracy "
on a large scale, supported by the Chinese across the frontier.
FRENCH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION . 107
If the government of Tongking were administering a hostile
province which it desired to crush out of existence, it could
not do much better than follow the tactics pursued almost
without interruption since the colony was created. I have
told how it refuses privileges, and when it does give
them, what are they, too often ? Shortly before my arrival ,
1
a concession had been given for the “ Magasins Généraux "
at Haiphong, a monopoly of Custom-house examination in the
warehouses and on the wharves of one firm , to whom and
whose terms everybody was obliged to come. In vain the
whole community protested and protested. The monopoly was
granted, and Chambers of Commerce of both Haiphong and
Hanoi immediately and unanimously resigned, and the Chinese
merchants sent in a declaration that unless this additional
restriction were removed they would leave in a body. And a
single example will show the practical evil of this monopoly.
The storage of coal per ton per month cost at that time (for
comparison I employ French currency) at Hongkong (Kowloon
Godowns) 20 centimes ; at Shanghai (Jardine, Matheson & Co.)
28 centimes ; at Haiphong (Magasins Généraux) 4 francs ! One
resolution of the Chambers of Commerce was truly pathetic.
The Government consulted us, they said , and then took no notice
whatever of all our representations. It is therefore useless to
maintain an institution whose powers are purely illusory.
Please let us go.
Again, take the matter of railways. Everybody you meet in
the Far East will assure you that the jobbery in connection
with the extension of railways in Tongking passes description .
I cannot, of course, speak from personal or certain knowledge
upon this point, but the reader may be invited to consider for
a moment the scale of railway concessions now pending there.
M. de Lanessan bas sanctioned the following : To MM . Vézin
and Raveau, a line of 700 kilometres from Hanoi to Hué and
Tourane ; to MM . Soupé and Raveau, a line of 800 kilometres
from Saigon to Tourane and Hué ; to the same, a line of steam
108 FRANCE .
tramway from Hanoi to Phu-lang-thuong ; to M. Portal, who
represents the Kebao mines and a syndicate of Paris capitalists,
first, a line of 450 kilometres from Kebao, on the coast, to
Laokay, on the Chinese frontier ; second, a line from Kebao to
Langson ; third, a line from Haiphong to Sontay (one would
have supposed this to be almost a physical impossibility) ;
fourth, a line from Hanoi to Thai Nguyen ; fifth, a line from
Kebao to Monkay, on the frontier. A condition of this last set of
concessions is that all the materials for the railways shall be
supplied from France, and that the locomotives shall consume
only fuel mined in Tongking. Thus a premium is put upon
failure to begin with. The railway from Saigon to Khone,
ayain, is to cost about 16,500,000 francs for 410 kilometres, the
Colony having agreed to pay 500,000 francs per annum for it, if
the home Government will pay the remaining seven -eighths of
tlie cost. And another concession is promised for a line from
Tien-Yen, on the coast, viâ Seven Pagodas and Hanoi, to
Laokay (obviously including one of the concessions mentionel
above) , to cost 40,000,000 dollars. Now I say nothing, for I
know nothing, about jobbery in these concessions, but I am at
liberty to ask what prospect there is of any capital being
honestly put into such enterprises, and what prospect there is
of their paying their way, in view of a few facts known to every
body. Take the case of the “ Compagnie Française des Char
bonnages du Tonkin .” After the most tenacious and romantic
efforts , a concession was obtained in 1887 by M. Bavier
Chauffour to develop the coal mines of Hongay. The course of
the negociations reads like a chapter from an Oriental “ Arabian
Nights." To make an indisputable legal tender a ship was
chartered to carry 100,000 silver dollars to Tongking, where the
whole foreign population turned out armed to escort the bullock
carts carrying the twenty-five wooden cases through the streets.
Refused there, the dollars were taken on board again and carried
to the court of Annam , the ship parrowly escaping destruction
in a typhoon . Then they were brought back to Haiphong,
FRENCH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION . 109
where the authorities finally accepted them . Now this conces
sion appears to be I speak, of course, without the least claim
to expert knowledge—of the greatest value. At a place called
Campha, I have seen a “ boulder-stream " of remarkably pure
antimony, 3,000 yards long with an average thickness of 20
feet, and I have stood on a solid block of pure oxide of anti
mony weighing 16 tons. In the same concession I saw a vein of
oxide of cobalt measuring 100 yards by 500 by one yard. And
from a little further north I have seen remarkable specimens of
copper ore. Infinitely more important , however, than all these,
are the coal- fields. For years the existence of these was well
known , and many times the commanders of French gunboats,
who had been struck by the multitude of outcrops, sent bome
reports calling attention to them and to the enormous advan
tages which would accrue to France if they could be successfully
worked. The Société has spent millions of francs upon these,
it has built lines of railway, it has created a town and a
harbour, it has employed thousands of miners, it has erected
machinery, sunk shafts and driven galleries under the direction
of the most experienced engineers it could secure . I have been
over the whole of the workings twice and into every one of the
galleries, and even taken photographs of the miners at work.
So I can speak with some confidence. As regards the quantity
of coal , it is practically inexhaustible. There are millions of
tons in sight and nobody can guess how much lies below. I
have been in a score galleries, each of them in a solid seam
from 10 to 20 feet thick. At Hatou there are seven seams side
by side , aggregating 54 feet of coal . And yet these were merely
the preliminary works of prospecting. The " Marguerite Mine
at Hongay is simply a great mountain of coal.
A few years ago the French Ministries of Marine and the
Colonies sent out a distinguished mining engineer, M. E. Sarran,
on a special mission to report upon the mines of Tongking.
After tests in the laboratory, at sea, and upon briquettes, he
wrote of the Hongay coals as follows : “ Our opinion is that
110 FRANCE .
Tongking possesses an immense wealth of excellent combustible
that the navy may employ with marked advantage over all other
coals of the China seas and Australia, rivalling Anzin and
Cardiff by its extreme purity, by the absence of iron pyrites,
and by a development of heat at the very least equal to that
furnished by these coals.” These coals are selling at a first-rate
price in Hongkong to -day, they have been supplied by contract
to aa number of British lines and to the French navy, they have
been reported favourably upon by British men-of- war, and there
is no longer any possible doubt as to their value. The Société
has recently set up machinery for making briquettes , or patent
fuel, out of the coal- dust, and a preliminary order was given for
10,000 tons by the French Government for the navy. The first
two lots offered were refused as not up to the required standard,
but were accepted at a lower price, and on April 19th of this
year new trials were made in the presence of M. Jaouin,
Engineer of the Navy and Director of the Workshops. The
following were the results obtained : Weight of water vaporised
by a kilo of briquettes, 7:57 (the contract demanded 6.50, and
the first trial had given 5.698) ; ash and clinkers, 8:11 per cent.
(the contract allowed 27 per cent ., and the first trial had given
56.30 per cent.).. The Superior Commission of Examination
unanimously recommended the acceptance of the consignment.
I am not in possession of the latest returns, but the output from
the Hongay mines from January 1 to April 22, 1894, was 35,716
tons. The actual shipments during this time were 36,721 tons,
and 9,000 tons were left in stock. Of the deliveries to customers,
40 per cent. was first- class screened coal, and the rest smaller
grades. Now my reason for going thus into the details of a
single enterprise is simple. Here is a commercial undertaking
of the very best character, the results of which are proved
beyond doubt, in the French colony of Tongking, where are also
the railways I am discussing. Yet from beginning to end the
local authorities have done nothing but obstruct the Société in
every way. The whole of the capital, with trifling exceptions,
FRENCH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION. 111
has been found by two British subjects in Hongkong, Messrs.
Chater and Mody, to whom and whose money the development
of this Tongking wealth is wholly due. Again and again have
they tried to induce French capitalists to take a share of the
burden. I believe this is now about to be accomplished, but I
am speaking of the past. Moreover, the most childish restric
tions have been enforced, of which one may be given as a
specimen. No man not a French subject may be employed by
the Société in any capacity. That is , if the directors desired to
obtain a report upon the value of their property or upon the
best means of developing it, from a distinguished British or
American expert, they could not charge his fee to the accounts
of the Société , but would have to pay him out of their own
pockets as a purely private matter. Such are some of the con
ditions and history of investment in Tongking, while the country
is starving for want of capital, and “ pirates” hold possession of
the greater part of it for want of opportunity to work for wages.
I ask, therefore, what are the prospects of these tremendous
railway concessions I have enumerated, or what reason is there
to think that they are bona fide commercial investments ? The
reply is obvious.
These huge concessions have been granted right and left,
apparently by the fiat of M. de Lanessan, while the really
essential line from Hanoi to Langson, for which trade is
actually waiting, was begun in 1889, and although the route is
an easy one and the total distance from Phu -lang -thuong to
Langson is but 72 miles, it has only reached the station of
Song -hoa, a distance of 31} miles. In addition to this, there is
the stretch between Hanoi and Phu -lang-thuong, and that
between Langson and Bi-ni or Lang.nac on the frontier, to be
built before the trade of the district of Lungchow , estimated at
3,000,000 dollars annually, can be tapped. Yet M. Étienne
officially promised to the Chamber of Deputies that the line
should be completed by the end of 1891. If the French, both
official and private, were really in earnest about their railways,
112 FRANCE .
it is evident that they would have devoted every franc and
every effort in their power to complete their one promising
line before launching out upon a score of other questionable
lines. Finally, in support of my whole argument, I may
quote the following passage from Mr. Consul Tremlett's latest
Report : “ The Saigon -Mytho railway is always in evidence ; it
cost, although constructed along a great highway, over 200,000
francs per kilometre (crossing two rivers) , or about 15,000,000
francs altogether ; it has now been in existence some seven
years , but has rendered no real service to trade."
Lest it be thought that there is exaggeration or prejudice
in these suggestions of impropriety in the administration of
French Indo-China, I will reproduce a passage from the verbatim
official report of the discussion of the national Budget of 1891
in the Chamber of Deputies. M. Étienne, Under-secretary of
State for the Colonies, was making a long and important speech
in explanation and defence of the portion of the Budget relating
to the Colonies. He was interrupted at one moment by M.
Clémenceau, and the following conversation occurred :
M. CLÉMENCEAU. While you are still upon the question of Tongking will you
be good enough to say a word to us about the exemptions from the customs daties ?
That is one of the important points of the Report of M. le Myre de Vilers. You
have forgotten to speak of it.
M. ÉTIENNE. M. Clémenceau points out to me that the Governor -General has
taken it upon himself to exempt from import duties certain classes of goods
intended for young industries in Tongking and Annam. He declares that the
Governor-General had not the right to deprive the Budget of the Protectorate of
these receipts . I reply that the Governor -General acted by virtue of the powers
which he holds from the State ; he has done what is done-I am obliged to say it
-in the other colonies. The Councils- General, when a customs tariff has been
voted and has received the sanction of the Council of State, have the right to
reduce duties without incurring remarks from any one.
M. LEYDET. In favour of private persons ?
M. ÉTIENN
NNE. Precisely.
M. CLÉMENCEAU . Then there is no law any more.
M. ÉTIENNE. It is the Constitution.
A MEMBER OF THE LEFT. It is the absence of aa. Constitution !
M. ÉTIENNE. It is thus.
M. LE COMTE DE MONTFORT. Then everything is explained !
Journal Officiel, November 28, 1890 , p. 2295.
FRENCH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION . 113
The reporter says that “ mouvements divers ” took place in the
Chamber at M. Étienne's admission . It would have been
surprising had this not been so, for it is of course obvious that
when the Council - General—that is to say, the Governor-General
-may exact customs duties from one person and exempt another
from them , the door is opened wide to every kind of political
scandal
I might fill pages with other examples of French adminis
tration and colonial methods. For example, a few months ago
the price of the dollar was fixed at 3 francs by order of the
Governor-General, at a time when the commercial price of it
was from 2.70 to 2.75 francs. Some speculators purchased
200,000 dollars at the latter price and sent them to Hanoi.
They were accepted by the Treasury there, and remitted at the
official price of 3 francs. Thus the speculators made some
55,000 francs, while the Government lost the same sum. Again ,
à Paris paper tells of a contract which was given to a local
firm to demolish a part of the old citadel of Hanoi. This is
described as a very simple operation, the cost of which would
have been met by the value of the materials accruing to the
contractor. But the contractor received 40,000 dollars for his
work, and a concession of nearly 100 hectares of land in the
town of Hanoi to boot , the value of land there being often as
much as 5 dollars the metre. Thus, adds the paper in question ,
the contractors received a present of about 400,000 dollars.
Again , the Chinese capitation tax is the subject of much natural
criticism. In one year this was farmed out for Cambodia to a
Chinaman for 72,000 dollars, though his predecessor had only
paid 32,000 dollars , and as the number of Chinese had not
increased to any great extent it is obvious that he would make
up the difference - indeed, that he was expected to make it up
by additional “ squeezes "” from his unfortunate compatriots.
There are in France a few publicists and politicians who have
made a special study of French colonisation , and the opinions
of these men are expressed with the greatest sense and modera
9
114 FRANCE .
tion. But to the ordinary French writer the colonies are &
sealed book. His equipment for discussing them consists of a
vague sentimental idea that colonies mean strength and com
merce and glory, and since he is generally actuated, as Lord
Rosebery has just said, by a profound jealousy of Great Britain,
and knows of her fame as a colonising nation, he insists that
France must be a colonising nation too. He does not stop to
reflect that everything depends upon where the colonies are and
how they are administered. In despair at the difficulty of
obtaining French official facts and figures in any instructive
shape I recently wrote to a friend at the head of one of the
most important departments of the French Foreign Office,
begging him to send me any volumes he could find on the
subject. After some searching he was good enough to forward
to me an official work bearing this description : “ Ministère des
Colonies. Protectorat de l'Annam et du Tonkin. Administration
des Douanes et Régies. Rapport Sommaire sur les Statistiques
des Douanes et le Mouvement Commercial de l'Annam et du
Tonkin en 1893.” Here at last, I thought, is what I want, and
indeed the volume contains many instructive figures to which
I shall refer later. But it is evidently intended for popular
circulation , and this is a specimen of its advice to the French
emigrant :
“ We may affirm that in the very near future this country [ Tongking) will offer &
vast field to the emigration of our compatriots who till now have sought land and
work in South America , but always under the conditions of economy mentioned
above and of determined work. In the hill country and at slight altitudes the
European can work in the fields all day long for five months of the year. For
four other months be can work three hours in the morning and as much in the
evening ; while during the three months of great heat he must take precautions at
all hours of the day, on account of the sun. Under these conditions the colonist
can take his persunal share ( contribuer personellement) in the labours of clearing
the land , planting, and teaching the natives he employs the use of French tools,
which are greatly superior to the rudimentary tools used in the country .”
It is difficult to comment upon this in fitting terms. To any..
body who knows the East no comment will be necessary , and to
those who do not hardly any words would bring home the truth,
FRENCH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION . 115
80 wildly preposterous is the suggestion that a European agricul
tural labourer should go out to work in the tropics with his
spade and hoe. If the author of this book had suggested to the
native of Tongking that he should come to Paris and seek
employment as a clerk, he would not have gone much further
astray . Yet this is the kind of thing that is offered officially to
French readers on the subject of French colonies .
In the preceding chapter I spoke in general terms of the
proportion of “ fonctionnaires," civil servants, to the French
population of Indo-China. The details of this are so astonish
ing that they would hardly be credited from the mouth of a
foreigner. I will therefore give a French official statement of
them. M. Étienne, while Under-secretary of State for the Colo
nies and speaking in defence of the Administration, made the
following remarks about the state of things in Cochin -China ::
“ What is the population of that country ? It is 1,800,000
souls. There is a French population of 1,600 inhabitants, of
whom 1,200 are 'fonctionnaires..' How is it administered ? It
has a Colonial Council : elected by whom ? By the 1,200
' fonctionnaires,' who have also a deputy. And you expect that
confusion and disorder will not reign in that country ! How ,
indeed, can you expect an administration to work smoothly,
when thanks to this system of organisation, all this world of
' fonctionnaires ' throws itself into the electoral arena, and
divides itself into two, three , or four camps, one supporting the
actual President of the Colonial Council , another the Mayor of
Saigon, another the deputy, another the candidates for deputy ?
6
... In 1887 I tried to reduce the number of the fonction
naires.' I did reduce the cost of them to the extent of 3,500,000
francs out of 9,000,000. I took that step in October, and in the
following December the Ministry of which I was a member
disappeared. Six months later, the ‘ fonctionnaires ' whom I
had diemissed had all reappeared in Cochin -China." When
this is admitted by the defenders of a system there is nothing
• Chambre des Députés, Séance du 27 Novembre, 1890.
116 FRANCE ,
left for its critics to say. In the very same year that the salaries
of the " fonctionnaires” of Cochin-China amounted to £360,000,
the sum spent upon public works in the Colony - the one expen
diture upon which the entire productive future of such a place
must depend - was £ 16,000 ! But even this pitiful figure is far
from telling the whole astounding truth . When the “ mouve
ment prolongé ” which followed his words had died away, M.
Étienne continued : “ And while public works in the present
year are only represented by £ 16,000, what do you think is the
sum allotted to the personnel of the public works department ?
It is £ 16,000— £ 16,000 worth of personnel out of £ 16,000 worth
of public works ! " That is , not a centime of work was
done. Moreover, during the years when millions of francs
were spent on public works in Cochin-China, what was
there actually done to show for it ? “ Only a few roads
round Saigon " - " routes luxueuses,” according to M. de
Lanessan elsewhere, “ pour les fonctionnaires qui vont se
promener le soir autour de Saigon . " It is fortunate in the
interests of truth that we have these facts from the lips of
responsible Ministers and ex-Ministers ; as I said, nobody would
have believed them from the mouth of a foreign critic. We owe
the revelations to a curious and amusing circumstance. There
is a cynical proverb to the effect that when mothers-in -law fall
out, we get at the family facts. And all this information arose
from a falling-out between M. Étienne and M. le Myre de Vilers.
As " rapporteur," the latter had bitterly attacked the financial
régime of the former. M. Étienne retorted that however bad
things niight be at that moment, they were much worse when
M. le Myre de Vilers was Governor of Cochin-China. M. le
Myre de Vilers protested against the expenditure for eleven
carriages for the service of the Governor. M. Étienne replied
that his critic had himself had eleven carriages and had
spent more money upon them. M. le Myre de Vilers criticised
the sum of 12,000 francs which M. Piquet was spending as
Governor in secret services. M. Étienne retorted that M. le
FRENCH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION . 117
Myre de Vilers himself had spent 15,000 francs. Finally, when
the duel had at the same time delighted and shocked the
Chamber for an hour the combatants exchanged a couple of
terrific blows, and sank exhausted. M. Étienne produced a set
of dreadful figures showing that expenditure had risen by leaps
and bounds in all directions during M. le Myre de Vilers'
tenure of office in Cochin-China. This blow his adversary made
no attempt to parry , but riposted with the proof that whereas
M. Étienne was posing as the reformer of administrative
methods, he was himself directly and personally responsible for
the extreme centralisation which had produced the very evils he
was deploring. In support of this he read two despatches from
M. Étienne to himself, ordering that every change in personnel
in the Colony should in future be submitted by him to M.
Étienne in Paris, before it was made. “ Thus,” he concluded ,
" M. the Under-secretary of State for the Colonies reserves to
himself every nomination, and M. the Governor-General has not
the right to appoint a school-master ! ” Such an effect did this
instructive duel produce upon the Chamber that the Budget was
adopted by the small majority of 85 in a total vote of 483, and
this only after the Ministry had made a series of impassioned
appeals to the memory of the thousands of Frenchmen who had
laid down their lives for their country in Indo- China.
One recent French writer and traveller, I may add, has
spoken out bluntly about Tongking. This is Prince Henri
d'Orleans, who has certainly had abundant opportunities of
seeing French colonial methods for himself. - Almost every
where,” he says , “ there exists a latent antagonism , if indeed it is
not overt, between the colonist and the Government ." And this
is his pronouncement about French colonial administration :
" It is too numerous ; it is partially composed of incapables and
of men with bad antecedents ; it is too ignorant and meddle
some ; it endeavours to raise difficulties and to check all means
of action ; for the most part born of favouritism , it endeavours
to indulge in the same practice and displeases those who
118 FRANCE .
obtain what they apply for as well as those who are passed
over . '" **
So much for the colonist and the Government impersonal.
What is his attitude towards the personal Governor-General ?
He sees him come, he watches him while he is learning the
A B C of Tongking affairs, he reads a few official decrees, he
hears a few official after-dinner speeches, eulogizing France,
Tongking and the colonist himself, and then some day a tele
gram comes and the colonist sees him go. The heads of the
colonial Government succeed each other in Saigon and Hanoi
like the figures of a shadow pantomime. M. Richaud boasted
to me with a laugh that he was tolerated longer than any of his
predecessors. His term of office had been thirteen months ! +
Before the Governor-General comes, he is unknown ; while in
the East even his public speeches are addressed to Paris ; he
returns and is forgotten . It is the merest farce of supervision,
and what wonder that the colonist sinks deeper year by year in
disgust and despair ? He has described himself in a bitter
epigram : “ le colon est un prétexte à banquets. " Instability is
the dominant characteristic of French administration in the
Far East. Does anybody seriously believe that the solid
foundations of future prosperity can ever be laid in this shifting
quicksand ? For an Englishman who cares for France it is
positively distressing to hear Frenchmen talk in Tongking.
Fifty times during my two visits was it said to me, " Ah, if only
you English had Tongking !” Matters have somewhat improved
for them lately, and a new hostility to England has sprung up,
but I seriously believe that if a secret ballot had been taken
then , a majority of the French in Tongking would have voted,
“ Around Tonkin ,” 1894 , pp. 88 and 423.
+ This is the list of Governors- General since the creation of the “ Union Indo.
chinoise " by the decree of October 17, 1887 : -M. Constans, Nov. , '87 -April, '88 ;
M. Richaud, April, '88-May, '89 ; M. Piquet, May, '89-April , '91 ; M. Bideau, April,
'91-June, '91 ; M. de Lanessan , April, '91, en congé ; M. Chavassieux, March , '94,
acting ; M. de Lanessan . Between December, 1884, and November, 1887, there
were ten Residents -General of Tongking -- an average service of about three months.
FRENCH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION . 119
in spite of their undying love of country, to hand over Indo
China to England. Then at least they would have been able
to buy and sell, manufacture and import, create and develop,
with no man to hamper them and no “ Administration ” to
forbid . As it is, the French colonist's attitude to his govern
ment is summed up in the exclamation that I heard fall from
the lips of one of them when he saw an official approaching him
on duty—“ Nom de Dieu !-voilà encore l'Administration qui
arrive ! "
But the shadows on the picture are not yet complete. First,
as to the Chinese. Nobody can advocate more strongly than I
the absolute necessity of keeping them out of a civilised settled
Western country. But it is as plain as the nose on one's face
that no colony in the Far East can dispense with them . Their
labour, their easy and willing adaptability to any job by which
money can be earned, from nursing the baby to driving the steam
engine ; their commercial insight and comparative trustworthi
ness,—these make them an ideal substratum for a new commu
nity, as Shanghai and Hongkong and Singapore and the Protected
Malay States prove to demonstration. Yet Indo - China taxes
them till they are giving up their established businesses , and
puts a price on the head of each as he comes and again as he
goes. The impôt personnel upon every Asiatic is from 7 dols . to
80 dols. ; the impôt des patentes ranges from 2 dols. to 400 dols .;
and the price of the passport without which no Asiatic can
leave French territory is 2.50 dols.
Second, the port charges. Take the little steamer I returned
in, the Freyr, 676 tons , from Randers, in Jutland. At the port
of Newcastle she had paid £4 ; at Nagasaki 70 dols.; at Yoko
bama 50 dols. ; at Hongkong 4 dols.; while to get in and out of
the port of Haiphong costs her every trip 302.40 dols . And this,
too, is only for the ship's charges, pure and simple. The char
terer must pay a dollar and a half wharfage for every ton of
cargo landed - say 750 dols. for an average cargo . Thus at a
port where common sense teaches that trade should be tempted
120 FRANCE .
and nursed in every possible way, the authorities begin by
making trade all but impossible. There can hardly be a more
needy port in the world than Haiphong, yet it is doubtful if
there is a more expensive one. The consequences are inevit
able and obvious.
Third, the enormous Customs duties of the “ Tarif général.”
These need no specifying. Saigon prospered exceedingly under
a free -trade régime, and she has been forced to give protection a
good trial. What is the position of Saigon now ? A critical, if
not a hopeless one. Yet she long ago discovered that only
one thing could save her. A unanimous report of the Chamber
of Commerce concluded with these words in big type : “ We
demand the absolute abolition of the Customs régime in Cochin
China from January 1 , 1889. " Yet is there the faintest shadow
of a coming change ? On the contrary. In one of the last
public speeches he made, at a banquet in Hanoi, M. Richaud
exclaimed, “ Renounce the chimerical hope of the return of
absolute commercial liberty ! ” The subsidised newspaper
added that this was followed by a “ triple salve d'applaudisse
ments .” The only possible comment is , that the colonists of
Hanoi who applauded that sentiment should be refused Christian
burial , for they are suicides.
Again and again have the Colonies protested against these
duties by every means at their command, and their protests have
been supported by several of the most influential writers and
administrators in France, such as M. Leroy-Beaulieu and M. le
Myre de Vilers , but almost wholly in vain. Some slight amelior
ations have been granted under the pressure of absolute necessity.
A series of modifications in the “ Tarif Général” have been
applied to Indo - China, reducing the duties on a number of
articles and abolishing them on others. And after it had
become perfectly clear that transit trade to southern China
through Tongking would not arise so long as customs duties
were levied upon goods in transit, the authorities conceded a
détaxe of 80 per cent. upon such goods. And when this was
FRENCH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION . 121
proved to be prohibitive they took off the tax altogether. Thus
what should have been dictated at the outset by an elementary
knowledge of practical economics was only conceded after a long
struggle and when it was enforced by necessity. I need hardly
say, I presume, that the tariff is constructed primarily to keep
out the manufactures of all nations except France , but in spite
of this, as I shall show later, the trade between France and
her colonies in Indo-China is a mere bagatelle , not to be com
pared for an instant with the subventions necessary to keep the
colonies going. The foreigner is regarded as an enemy, and the
most petty restrictions and partialities are adopted to handicap
him . Here is an example which I take from the London and
China Express : " On a firm whose total earnings in 1892 were
182 dollars, and in 1893 749 dollars, the resident of Annam
imposed the patente to the modest sum of 316 dollars yearly.”
At the port of Haiphong French ships pay fifty centimes per
ton , foreign ships one franc. At the “ ports ouverts au com
merce " French ships pay one cent. per ton, foreign ships ten
cents. Will it be believed by those who only know France in
Europe, and love her gallantry, her freedom from intellectual
prejudice, and her constant striving after an ideal of equality,
that France in the Far East positively bars her paying hospital
at her chief port against foreign sufferers by a differential tariff ?
Yet this is the case. In the General Hospital at Saigon foreign
seamen must pay 9} francs a day and foreign oflicers 13 francs
-charges just double what French patients of corresponding
ranks have to pay. “ I addressed the Governor upon the
subject," says the British Consul , from whose last Report I take
the fact, “ pointing out that in the hospitals of Hongkong and
Singapore no distinction was made as regards nationality, but
no reply has as yet been received.” Is it too much to say that
a nation which deliberately does this has still to learn one of the
first principles of civilisation ?
The result of any careful study of French colonial administra
tion in the Far East, as I have now perhaps shown alike from
122 FRANCE .
my own investigations and the testimony of the best French
critics both in France and on the spot, is therefore that Indo
China is grievously misgoverned . Instead of finding a helping
hand , the French colonist encounters a closed fist. The
“ functionary,” dressed in his little brief authority, has utterly
forgotten that he is the servant of the colonist, that he has
no other reason for existence except to aid and protect and
encourage his self -exiled countryman. As it is, while the
colonist is the blood of the new country , the “ functionary ” is
the leech . Day by day the cry of the French colonial civilian
goes up to heaven, “ Pas tant d'Administration ! ” Everywhere
else in the world , capital is welcomed, no matter whose pocket
it comes out of. In French colonies alone gold must be stamped
with “ liberty, equality ,and fraternity” before it is received, and
a man must be a Frenchman before he is allowed to labour with
the rest . The Revolution seems a joke when one learns in
Tongking that one of the conditions attached to a concession is
that nobody but Frenchmen shall be employed on it, and that a
sick Englishman or German must pay twice as much for his bed
in the hospital as a sick Frenchman. I do not believe there is
another country in the world which would make such a pitiful
stipulation. Does France not know what is done in her name ?
or is she not ashamed, remembering '89, to adopt such an
attitude to-day before the world ?
In conclusion I will say simply this. I believe, as every one
who has looked into the matter believes, that Tongking might
have a prosperous future under the control of a colonising
nation . But I know, as everybody who has looked into the
matter knows, that she will never reach it along the present
road. A certain permanency of appointment for the Governor
General; a relaxing of restrictions upon the colonists all round ;
a hundred times more respect paid by officials to colonial wishes
and requests ; far greater consideration for native rights and
sentiments ; the encouragement of the Chinese ; a glad welcome
to capital and enterprise from any source ; an immediate and
FRENCH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION . 123
equable reduction of the tariff; the decentralisation of autho
rity ;-these are some of the primal conditions of progress. If
they do not come, then France may prepare for the humiliation
which the very name of “ Indo-China ” will ultimately carry
with it. In the words of the editor of the Courrier d'Haiphong,
" To continue as at present means the loss of Indo-China - it
means the ruin of French influence in the Far East."
CHAPTER VII.
THE COST OF A FRENCH COLONY.
IN preceding chapters I have endeavoured by aa brief descrip
tion of the external aspects of the French colonies in the
Far East to place before the reader a picture of the results in
life and administration which have been attained in about
thirty-six years. And by my own criticisms, supported by the
testimony of distinguished French writers and speakers, I have
tried to show how completely France has misunderstood the
problem she set herself to solve, and how persistently and
wilfully her administrators have taken the wrong road. These
criticisms, however, have been for the most part in general
terms, whereas to produce an adequate effect they should be
proved to demonstration by actual facts . What one man
affirms, another may deny. Without figures a criticism may
be dismissed as largely a matter of opinion. I decided, there
fore, to collect from French official sources the figures relating
to a typical French colony ; first, concerning its cost, and
second , concerning its returns : that is, to draw up a national
balance sheet for this one national enterprise, in the form of a
debit and credit account.
If I had foreseen what this decision involved, I should not
have attempted the task at this time. I had, however, no sus
picion of the extraordinary complexities of French official
finance and the difficulties, amounting almost to impossibility,
which beset any one, not a professed statistician, who attempts
124
THE COST OF A FRENCH COLONY . 125
to disentangle the plain fact from the mountains of figures.
The French as a nation are addicted to the exact sciences, and
this national proclivity comes to its finest flower in the French
Budget. It is issued every year in a number of volumes ; it is
subdivided in the most elaborate manner ; it contains the
minutest details upon every possible point ; it is arranged on a
theoretical system so arbitrary that a lifetime would hardly be
too long to enable one to grasp its principles. If you desire to
learn the details of the movements in the potato-market, or the
duty upon areca-nut collected in Cambodia, the French Budget
with its local additions will satisfy your curiosity at once. If,
however , you desire to calculate the cost of a French colony
through a series of years , you must unite the path -finding
instincts of a Red Indian with the patience of the patriarch and
a willingness to believe that no contradiction is involved when
1,000 francs in one book appears as 1,200 in another . More
over , the French are never satisfied with their own official
statistics : they are constantly varying the form and polishing
the principle . And after prolonged investigation one is forced
to the conclusion that the body of statisticians desires to
remain a close corporation , and to construct out of its own
figures an impenetrable barrier to exclude the impertinent
independent inquirer . No sooner , for example , have you
discovered in what way a certain fact of finance is presented
during a series of years than you are brought up short at a
foot-note explaining that by a “ mouvement d'ordre " this fact
has been transferred to another portion of the Budget and
incorporated in a wholly different series of tables. One of the
most accomplished French statisticians, M. de Foville, whose
handbook is or should be upon the desk of every writer about
France, frankly admits all this. “ Nothing is more dangerous,"
he says, “ than amateur statistics, where errors swarm, and
which prove everything that one desires to prove. The only way
effectually to combat this false statistic is to put true statistics
within the reach of all-to make the truth in relation to econo
126 FRANCE .
mical and social questions very accessible in the first place, and
very intelligible in the second . But this point has not yet been
reached , especially in France. A hundred times we have heard
men , who were certainly not the first comers, express their
regret that it is so difficult to obtain exact information upon
even the most common facts of the national life." * And eren
while I was gathering the figures which follow, M. Leroy
Beaulieu , certainly the most capable of living Frenchmen in
such matters, has lifted up his voice in a complaint which
echoed my own growing despair. He says : “ Quite at the end
of the last session , at the sitting of July 24, 1894, M. Poincaré
laid upon the table the ' rectified project ' of the Budget for 1895.
This ' rectified project,' very far from being final, is the subject
of new manipulations and rectifications. Our unhappy Budgets
are retouched and altered to such an extent that it is impossible
to recognise them or to find one's way about in them .” + As an
example of this lack of finality, I may add that a French Budget,
whether national or colonial , is not closed until years after the
date of its appearance . Thus the Tongking Budget of 1891,
for example, may appear in one shape in 1890, in another in
1891 , in still another in 1892, and possibly even in a fourth in
>
1893 ,
After the above it will easily be understood that I put in
no claim for the completeness of my own figures. They are
the result of many weary days of research both in London and
in the official libraries in Paris ; and I doubt if there is a
contemporary French book of reference which I have not
examined. More than once I have been on the point of
giving up the task, but I have reflected that this would be to
leave the lesson untaught, since it is very improbable that
any Frenchman will desire in the present state of colonising
enthusiasm to become the mouthpiece of facts so unpleasant
to the majority of his fellow-countrymen. I claim only, how
• Alf.de Foville, “ La France Économique,” 1887, p. i
+ Jouria des Débats, November 3, 1894.
THE COST OF A FRENCH COLONY . 127
ever, that the following figures have been conscientiously
sought, and I present them as an attempt to answer a
question of the greatest interest, until some more skilful
investigator shall correct them. Complete and final accuracy,
I may add , will never be attained by anybody, since in not a
few instances the official figures are hopelessly self-contra
dictory . *
I have chosen Tongking as the typical French colony because
of the amount of discussion that has already raged around it,
and because the whole of its history is included within a
modern and comparatively brief period. It will be remembered
that Tongking was under the suzerainty of Annam when the
French became possessed of the latter country in 1862, the
Annamese having driven out the Chinese long before, although
China still claimed suzerainty, as she has done over every
country adjoining her vast empire. The explorations of Senez,
Harmand, Dupuis, and, above all, of Francis Garnier, the most
gallant and devoted explorer France has ever had, filled up the
interval until 1873, the year of what has been called the first
Tongking expedition . Garnier seized the delta of Tongking in
the winter of 1873, declared the Red River open to commerce,
and was killed in an ambush on December 21st. The fol
lowing years were remarkable chiefly for the explorations of
M. de Kergaradec — a naval lieutenant and French Consul at
Hanoi-and those of a rapidly increasing number of French
officers and travellers. Up to 1882 nothing further had been
accomplished, except theoretical work. In March, 1882 , Rivière
was despatched to Tongking with two ships and four hundred
men to bring the anomalous situation to an end. He fought
several actions against the Black Flags, but his force was too
small to enable him to do anything of importance, and he
* “ Comme nous l'avons fait remarquer dans notre précédente edition de cet
ouvrage, nos documents stati jues coloniaux officiels se contredisent sans cesse.”
-Leroy - Beaulieu , " De la Colonisation chez les peuples modernes,” Paris, 1891
p. 557 , note ,
128 FRANCE .
remained for nearly a year virtually a prisoner in the citadel
of Hanoi. At last the French Government, under the famous
ministry of Jules Ferry, voted credits and reinforcements, and
as soon as these arrived Rivière attacked and was killed in the
sortie of May 19, 1883, under circumstances which I have pre
viously described . When this news reached France, a wave of
colonial and military enthusiasm broke over the country, and
the Chamber and the Senate unanimously voted a credito
5,300,000 francs, and a powerful expedition was despatched
under General Bouët and Admiral Courbet.
At this moment, therefore, the history of Tongking may be
said to begin, and the calculation of its cost accordingly
commences here, although of course not a little money had
been previously spent in the country. For the next four years
French treasure and French lives were spent with so lavish a
hand that at last France became thoroughly alarmed at the
outlook ; and after General Negrier bad attacked and captured
Langson in defiance of orders, had been driven out by the Chinese
and mortally wounded , and Colonel Herbinger had lost control
of himself and retreated precipitately in the most discreditable
manner , public opinion turned against Tongking, and the Ferry
Ministry succumbed to an onslaught by M. Clémenceau on
March 30, 1885. This first chapter of the financial history of
Tongking presents the following figures :
Francs .
1883 14,858,900
1884 73,250,368
1885 115,694,4157
1886 65,998,696
269,802,379
In four years, therefore, France had spent, at the most
moderate computation that could be made, nearly two hundred
* These figures are taken from M. Jules Ferry, “ Le Tonkin et la Mère-Patrie,"
1890, p. 386 , a source in which they are not likely to be found exaggerated.
+ In 1885 and 1886 the credits voted were 164,385,512 and 75,203,901 franos
respectively, but I have taken the sums described as actually spent.
THE COST OF A FRENCH COLONY . 129
and seventy millions of francs. The preliminaries of peace
with China were signed at Paris on April 4, 1885 .
For the second chapter, from 1887 to the estimated Budget
of 1894, I have collected the figures from the national Budget
of each year. They present the following results :
From France . From Cochin -China . Totals.
Francs. Francs . Francs.
1887 30,000,000+ 11,000,000 41,000,000
1888 19,800,000 11,000,000 30,800,000
1889 15,615,000 11,000,000 26,615,000
1890 12,450,000 11,000,000 23,450,000
1891 10,450,000 11,000,000 21,450,000
1892 10,450,000 8.000.000 18,450,000
1893 24,450,000 5,000,000 29,450,000
1894 24,450,000 4,700,000 29,150,000
147,665,000 72,700,000 220,365,000
Thus, during the eight years which have followed the estab
lishment of peace and the final passing of Tongking under
French dominion , France has spent over two hundred and
twenty millions of francs. We therefore arrive at the following
first estimate of the cost of Tongking :
Francs .
1883-1886 269,802,379
1887-1894 220,365,000
Total 490,167,379
I am prepared to show, however, that even this enormous
figure is a long way short of the fact. The French official
* Inclusive of the subvention for the Tongking submarine cable.
† In round numbers- from Jules Ferry .
In the Budget, Service Colonial," for 1888, this figure appears as only
1,727,000 francs, but as M. Étienne said in the Chamber of Deputies when pre
senting the Budget of 1891, “ Nous avons demandé , en effet, 11 millions à la
Cochin -Chine en 1887, et nous avons dû, en 1888, en 1889, et en 1890, lui réclamer
la même somme, ” I have made 1888 no exception to this regular credit. The
difference probably appears in some other part of the Budget, where it has escaped
my search .
10
130 FRANCE .
figures for the Budget of the Protectorate of Annam and Tong.
king, from 1887 to 1891 , are the following :
“ SITUATION DES RECETTES ET DES DÉPENSES DU BUDGET DU
PROTECTORAT DE L'ANNAM ET DU TONKIN ." *
BUDGET DE RECETTES. DÉPENSES.
Francs. Francs ,
Ordinaires . Estraordinaires. Ordinaires . Extraordinaires
1887 11,377,1011 58,266,566 11,392,485 58,251,185
69,643,670 69,613,670
1888 13,572,132 37,297,210 10,292,093 40,577,249
50,809,312 50,809,312
1889 15,445,626 37,007,534 12,905,562 39,517.598
52,453,160 52,453,160
1890 15,297,415 32,269,398 17,775,176 29.791,637
47,566,813 47,566,813
1891 18,814,721 24,765,079 16,594,789 26,985,012
43,579,801 43,579,801
These budgets, it will be noticed, balance in a manner to
provoke the most sceptical examination. A little investigation
shows that the system of subdivision into “ Recettes ordinaires,"
9
“ Recettes extraordinaires, ” “ Dépenses ordinaires, " and " De
penses extraordinaires, ” is misleading in the extreme. The
“ ordinary receipts ” mean simply and properly enough the
revenue raised locally. The " ordinary expenditure " similarly
* Every figure in this table and in that which immediately follows it was vers
courteously furnished to me by the Ministère des Colonies, for which I beg here to
return my best thanks. I have aliered the arrangement of the figures, to display
them more instructively, but all the sums and the theoretical form of the budgets
are absolutely official. I have ventured to omit the centimes.
+ These budgets appear originally in dollars. Up to and including 1892 the
dollar is reckoned at 4 francs, in 1893 at 3.33 francs, and in 1894 at 3 francs. All
these gold -prices of the dollar, it is perhaps needless to say, were in excess of the
facts of exchange.
THE COST OF A FRENCH COLONY . 131
means the cost of the civil administration of the country. The
" extraordinary receipts " mean neither more nor less than the
exact sum necessary to make up the deficit in the “ ordinary
receipts,” plus the cost to the mother country of the military
*
and naval operations.* I do not say that this system was
adopted for the purpose of throwing dust in the eyes of the
casual inquirer, but it could not fail to have this effect. At any
rate in 1891 the French statisticians no longer felt equal to
presenting the annual results in this preposterous form . At
this point, therefore, a change was introduced into the form
of the budget of the Protectorate of Annam and Tongking.
Beginning with the year 1892, the budget was reduced to the
resources derived from local revenues alone, the French govern
ment having decided to include the military expenditure in the
general budget of the “ metropolis.” Those are the words of
the official explanation. For the next two years, therefore, the
budgets of Annam and Tongking assume this pleasing shape :
BUDGET DE EXCÉDANT DES RECETTES SUR LES
RECETTES. DÉPENSES. DÉPENSES .
Francs. Francs. Francs.
1892 20,820,680 | 19,385,035 1,435,645
1893 19,531,450 | 18,040,098 491,352
The results thus became more attractive than ever : the
revenues of the colony showing an actual excess over its
expenditure . I need hardly point out that in these two years
no account whatever is taken in the local budget of the vastly
preponderating part of the expenses . To get at the facts, there
fore, we must place these budgets from 1887 to 1893 in a
different form . The expenditure is obviously both “ ordinary ”
* " Les ressources extraordinaires proviennent de subventions de la métropole et
de la Cochin -Chine, et de remboursements effectués par le Ministre de la Guerre
pour les dépenses normales de ses troupes.” — “ Organisation des Colonies françaises
et des Pays de Protectorat,” par E. Petit, Paris , 1894, p . 607.
132 FRANCE .
and “ extraordinary ” added together, while the real and only
actual revenue is the " ordinary ” one. We thus get the
following results :
BUDGET OF EXPENDITURE . REVENUE. DEFICIT.
1887 69,643,670 11,377,104 58,206,566
1888 50,869,342 13,572,132 37,297,210
1889 52,453,160 15,445,626 37,007,534
1890 47,566,813 15,297,415 32,269,398
1891 43,579,801 18,814,721 24,765,080
1892 37,835,035 * 20,820,680+ 17,014,355
1893 47,490,098* 18,531,4507 28,958,648
Total deficit 235,578,791frcs .
Instead of the cost of Tongking from 1887 to 1894 being
220,365,000 francs, we find, therefore, that from 1887 to 1893
it reached 235,578,791 francs. The conclusion arrived at above
therefore takes the following corrected shape : :
Francs.
1883–1886 269,802,379
1887-1893 1 235,578,791
Total 505,381,170
* These totals are arrived at, in the absence of the complete budget for these
years, which has been suppressed, by adding together the "dépenses ordinaires,"
the 66" subventions " from France and from Cochin-China, and the subsidy for the
cable. Theoretically they should be quite accurate, but I am convinced they are
under the mark , though I cannot trace any other figures .
† These official figures are obviously based upon the revenues as they were
reckoned in 1893 to have been . But in the official Annuaire de l'Indo- Chine for
1894 the revenues are revised to be for 1892, 4,792,502 dols., and for 1893, 5,509,543
dols . These sums, multiplied respectively by 4 and by 3.33, the official (though
incorrect) rates of exchange into francs, give 19,170,008 and 18,346,778 francs.
These are therefore the latest figures. I have, however, adhered to those
furnished me officially. As in the case of Singapore (see p. 46), the revenue of
Tongking for these years, when given in dollars, shows an increase , and when
given in francs a decrease. But it is important to bear in mind that the same
injustice does not arise in the French as in the British colony, for all the customs
duties of Tongking are collected in francs, and have therefore to be translated
into dollars for the purposes of the budget, whereas in Singapore they are alike
collected and expressed in dollars. In Tongking, accordingly, every fall in the
price of the dollar tends pro tanto to inflate the revenue as expressed in terms of
silver dollars ; in Singapore it makes no difference.
THE COST OF A FRENCH COLONY . 133
To this must be added the subsidies to Tongking from France
and Cochin-China for 1894, namely, 29,150,000 francs — as
shown above . The conclusion, therefore, at which I have
finally arrived is that from 1883, when the history of Tongking
began, down to the latest accessible official statistics, the cost of
Tongking to France has reached the colossal figure of 534,531,170
francs, or £21,381,247, a yearly average of 44,544,264 francs,
or £1,781,770.* Or, to put the fact in a popular form , the
satisfaction of including " le Tonkin " among the possessions
of his country has cost the French taxpayer 122,039 francs
£ 4,881 - a day, Sundays included , for every day that he has had
it. It may safely be foretold that when at length he comes to
realise this fact he will be surprised, and his surprise will
manifest itself in a striking manner .
So much for the debit side of the account. Let us now
compare it as briefly as possible with what Tongking has to
show on the other side of the ledger. This is, after all , the
point of real importance. It does not matter what France has
spent upon Tongking, if she has thereby secured an adequate
return in trade. At the present moment, too, the balance-sheet
of Tongking is of more interest than ever as an example of
French colonisation, since France has just voted 65,000,000
francs to repeat the experiment in Madagascar, under similar
conditions of native opposition and problematical results. The
following table exhibits the foreign trade of Tongking from
1883 to 1892, inclusive, the figures for 1893 not having yet
been published .
* I am aware, for reasons unnecessary to give at length, that a number of items
have escaped me. Though I cannot trace them with sufficient uniformity to
include them, the following extracts will show I am not wrong in asserting that
the above falls short of the actual total :
" Le budget du service colonial est donc une portion du budget métropolitain , ou
budget général de l'État, appliquée aux colonies, mais il ne correspond pas à la
totalité des dépenses des services compris dans le budget de l'Etat et executés aux
colonies ; les dépenses du 4service marine ' relèvent, en effet, du budget des dépenses
de la marine . " “ Le budget de la guerre ( 1893] participe pour 1 million aux
dépenses militaires du Tonkin .' ' Organisation des Colonies françaises et des
Pays de Protectorat,” par E. Petit, Paris, 1894, pp. 490 and 531.
134 FRANCE .
FOREIGN TRADE OF TONGKING, 1883-1892.*
IMPORTS . EXPORTS.
From France and From Foreign To France and To Foreign
French Colonies. Countries . French Colonies. Countries.
Francs. Francs . Francs . Francs.
1883 405.606 2,922,601 619,987 3,440,359
1884 2,015,763 7,126,304 79,483 541,147
1885 3,421,610 14,667,087 49,713 593,287
1856 4,654,829 18,220,173 65,206 605,879
1887 7,328,127 20,824,664 82,175 335,476
1883 6,521,408 17,479,220 164,228 6,586,848
1899 6,574,572 17,170,312 477,444 10,161,564
1830 8,907,638 11,836,984 1,700,052 5,321,564
1891 9,604,491 15,554,409 583,518 11,146,254
1892 9,504,926 18,927,846 420,221 10,315,629
The figures of the above table present the following sum
marised totals :
TOTAL FOREIGN TRADE OF TONGKING, 1883–1892.
France and French
Colonies . Foreign Countries. Totals.
Francs. Francs . Francs .
IMPORTS from 58,939,020 144,789,600 203,728,620
EXPORTS to ...
4,272,027 49,048,007 53,320,034
TOTALS 63,211,047 193,837.607 257,048,654
* The figures for 1883 are taken from “ Le Régime Commercial de l'Indo - Chine
française,” Paris, 1894. Those for the following years from the “ Rapport général
sur les statistiques des douanes pour 1892,” Hanoi, 1893. There is good reason to
believe the latter to be inaccurate in the direction of exaggeration, and indeed in
one or two cases I have proved them to be so . But after many vain attempts to
secure a set of accurate and uniform figures I have been obliged to fall back upon
these as they stand . The variations of figures in different French official and semi
official publications would be incredible to any one who has not attempted to
reconcile them. In the above table the figures of coasting trade, and the trade
between the different members of the Union of French Indo - China , are, of course,
not included.
THE COST OF A FRENCH COLONY . 135
From this it may be seen at a glance what effect the " tarif
général” has had upon the development of trade between
France and French Colonies on the one hand, and Tongking
on the other. This tariff was forced upon Indo- China in spite,
as I have already said, of her vehement and unceasing
protests, and in defiance of the prophecies of every enlightened
French economist. Its intention was, of course, to exclude
foreign products from Tongking, and to make of the colony a
great market for French domestic and colonial products . Its
result has been that French imports were comparatively little
more in 1892 than they were in 1887 ; while foreign imports
are more than in 1886 and comparatively little below 1887 .
And that the total trade between France and her other colonies,
and Tongking, has amounted in ten years to the pitiſul sum of
63 millions of francs, or £2.520,000 ; while the total foreign
trade during the same time has been nearly 194 millions of
francs, or £ 7,760,000 . That is to say, the high protective
system has been the most disastrous failure, or, as M. Leroy
Beaulieu says , " the application to Indo- China of a general
Customs tariff is a colossal error.”
In the debate in the Chamber of Deputies, to which I have
already frequently referred, M. Armand Porteu said : “ The
French Colonies together contain a population of 20 to 24
millions of inhabitants . Now let us see what they cost and
what they bring in . Our French Colonies cost us yearly 70
millions of francs : 53 millions inscribed in the colonial budget,
12 millions in the budget of the navy, and 5 millions in the
budget of post and telegraphs. . . . Their total commerce is
410 millions per annum . Of that sum the share of France
by sale and purchase is 170 millions, and our importations
into the Colonies reach only 70 millions. You thus spend
70 millions in order to dispose of 70 millions' worth of goods.
That is the result of your Colonial system. I ask you if it
is not grievous." From the figures I have here given with
reference to one colony, I can leave the statement of M.
136 FRANCE .
Porteu far behind. Excluding the deficit of 1893, namely,
28,958,648 francs, the total cost of this colony to the mother
country to 1892 inclusive has been 476,422,522 francs, and
the total French trade with it during the same period has
only amounted to 63,211,017 francs. Or, to afford a com
plete parallel to the figures given by M. Porteu, France has
spent, 476 millions of francs upon Tongking in order to dispose
of 59 million francs ' worth of French products.*
One final lesson remains to be drawn. Regarded from the
ordinary point of view of the political economist, the above
figures present the following result :
Francs.
...
TOTAL IMPORTS ... 203,728,620
...
...
TOTAL EXPORTS ... 53,320,034
Balance of Trade against Tongking 150,408,586
A blacker result than this from the conventional point of view
could hardly be imagined ; but these last figures point another
moral even more unmistakable. To quote M. Leroy- Beaulieu
again : “ We are practising a systematic exploitation of the
public funds for the profit of a thousand or so persons. ...
What is needed is the suppression of a Colonial Council which
only represents a handful of furnishers and functionaries."
That remark hits the last nail upon the head.
As a matter of sober fact, in conclusion, the French
colonisation of Tongking - and Tongking is only one ex.
ample of a truth which every other French colony would
illustrate to a greater or less degree - has amounted to this :
France has taken possession of a country ; she has des
patched to it an army of soldiers and a second army of
* This general statement, as I wish to make quite clear, is not an absolutely
accurate one, since the details of expenditure given in the above tables refer for
the most part to Annam and Tongking, while the figures of trade refer almost
exclusively to Tongking alone . But the share of Annam in both cost and returns
is of course a very minor factor in comparison with that of Tongking.
THE COST OF A FRENCH COLONY . 137
functionaries ; a handful of dealers has followed to supply
these with the necessaries and luxuries of life ; the dealers
have purchased these necessaries and luxuries from France
(the foreign imports being chiefly for native consumption ),
as the Customs tariff prevents them from buying cheaper
elsewhere ; these purchases have practically constituted the
trade of France with the Colony. Castra faciunt; coloniam
appellant.
RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST .
CHAPTER VIII.
VLADIVOSTOK : “ THE POSSESSION OF THE EAST.”
HE Russian Government and the geographical situation of
THE
Russian Tartary have succeeded between them in keeping
their Pacific stronghold well out of the world, and ten thousand
miles nearer to it in body bring you little or no nearer to it in
knowledge. “ Going to Vladivostok ? Dear me ! ” people said
just as naturally at Nagasaki, a hundred yards from the vessel
which was getting up steam to go there, as they did in London
on the other side of the world. But the journey is easy enough
to make. From Yokohama the magnificent steamers of the
great Japanese steamship line, the Nippon Yusen Kaisha, take
you southward along the coast to Kobe, the pleasantest foreign
settlement in Japan ; then to Shimonoseki, famous for its foreign
bombardment in 1865, and now strongly and skilfully fortified
with coast batteries of the latest design, armed with heavy
howitzers of Japanese manufacture — most efficient weapons ;
then through the Inland Sea, ranking high among the “ show
scenery ” of the East, and drop you at Nagasaki. From Yoko
hama to Nagasaki is 692 miles ; from Nagasaki to Vladivostok
is 659 more . At noon next day the Takachiho steams out into
the Korean Straits ; during the night she passes Port Hamilton
a long way off, those bare islands of which the world talked
for a year, and about which , too, opinions are as divided in the
East as at home, the truth probably being that England did
very well to give them up, since they would have been quite
untenable in the event of a bombardment ; and on the follow
141
142 RUSSIA .
ing afternoon she drops anchor at Fusan , the treaty port and
Japanese settlement on the south coast of Korea. Then came
a revelation of head-gear among the white-robed Koreans, &
chat with the Commissioner of Customs, and an afternoon
with a hammerless companion, resulting in three brace of
pheasants, a snipe, and a small deer ; and off again . For
twenty-four hours we steamed along a rocky, desolate, and
forbidding coast, and next morning the anchor dropped again
in the splendid harbour of Wönsan (Gensan ), the western
Treaty Port, alongside the big white French ironclad, the
flagship Turenne. Soon a smart petty officer came up the
gangway bearing a courteous invitation to Captain Walker
and myself to dine with “ M. le Contre - Amiral Layrle, com
mandant en chef la division navale de l'extrême Orient," and
that night on board the Turenne a dozen merry guests, all very
far from home, the flashing of many wax candles over silver
plate and glittering glass, the skill of a decorated French cook ,
the witchery of old Burgundy, and the strains of Offenbach
and Suppé, all combined to dispel the thought that we were
lying off the uninhabited Port Lazareff, in the wild and lonely
seas of the Hermit Kingdom . But at midnight our anchor
was heaved again , and at daylight next day but one the heim
was suddenly put over to starboard opposite a break in the
high wall of cliffs, the man in the chains took up his
monotonous cry, and we swept round into the harbour of
Vladivostok -- the proudly -named “ Possession of the East."
An old -fashioned theologian would say that Providence had
intended this place to be made impregnable. The harbour is
shaped, speaking roughly, like the Greek capital r. It has two
entrances, one at the south -east corner, the other in the middle
of the west side, both narrow deep-water channels, the latter,
indeed , being only a few hundred feet wide. The Eastern
entrance is the one used for traffic, the other being dangerous
on account of currents and sandbanks. As you steam straight
north up the long leg of the T , you notice first an ex.
VLADIVOSTOK . 143
tensive beach on the right, then several large bays open out in
succession , and you pass through a narrow opening between
Capes Novosilsky and Nazimoff, and leave the western entrance
on the left. The hills around are densely wooded , and all
the defences visible so far have been extensive earthworks
building on your right, and loads of bricks for them lying on the
shores below . Now, however, as the ship passes Cape Goldobin
you discover a large two- storied battery from which six black
muzzles look down. What may be behind the earthworks of the
upper storey you cannot tell , but the guns below are visibly
6 - inch breech-loaders. They constitute only an inner line of
defence for the interior of the harbour, but they would , of
course , make it very hot for a ship in the harbour with their
plunging fire at short range, but Vladivostok is defended by
altogether different weapons, however dreadful these may look
to the captain of peaceful merchant vessels . Soon after pass
ing Fort Goldobin , a sharp turn to the right, almost at a
right angle , brings you into the harbour, which then stretches
out due east in a straight line , upwards of two miles long
and half аa mile wide. This is the Eastern Bosphorus, and the
“ Golden Horn " of the Pacific.
The town of Vladivostok extends nearly the entire length of
the north side of the harbour, and in configuration it rather
resembles St. John's, Newfoundland , the houses beginning at
the water's edge and gradually thinning out as the hills behind
get steeper. They are of all sorts, from the log -cabin and
Chinese shanty to the neat wooden cottage in its little garden
and the handsome brick business house of several storeys. Over
all rises the cathedral-the one thing in Vladivostok that
remains unfinished for want of money. The anchorage is
80 admirable that the Takachiho (now, alas ! at the bottom of
the sea, off Tsushima) , a vessel 327 feet long, lies within
a stone's throw of the wharves, and the same anchorage exists
all round. Directly in front are three little parallel streets
constituting the Chinese bazaar. On the west is the Chinese
144 RUSSIA.
and Korean town of wooden shanties ; behind are five or six
blocks of fine brick buildings forming the winter barracks, while
straight away ahead is a broad street soon disappearing over the
dusty hill , to become two miles away the great Siberian post
road. The main street runs parallel with the harbour, and on
this are the chief stores and many of the private houses. A
quarter of a mile along it to the east is the Governor's residence,
buried in a square mass of foliage - the gardens where a first-rate
band plays regularly and the society of Vladivostok comes to
walk and to gossip. Further on, always between the water and
the street, is the “ Staff," the Governor's official head-quarters,
a large handsome building, and further still, a mile or
from where we lie, a tall chimney marks the situation of the
“ Port,” as the Russians call it, a score or more of storehouses
and machine shops forming the Navy Yard or Arsenal. This
extends along the shore for a quarter of a mile, and the torpedo
boats and small ships of the Siberian Squadron lie alongside,
with a confiscated American fishing- sloop, while the ironclads
and gunboats are anchored a little further off. On the opposite
shore of the harbour there are no buildings of any kind, except
an iron storehouse deep in the woods here and there, isolated
presumably on account of inflammable or explosive contents.
On the summits of the two high hills behind the town are two
stations for the fire - watch .
The streets of Vladivostok are gay enough . Civilian costume
is the exception, almost every figure being either a soldier or
a Chinaman .. The rank and file have none of the smartness
of European troops. Their uniforms are rough and simple
—white blouse and cap, long black boots and belt—they are
evidently expected to last a long time, and their wearers
do a lot of hard manual work. If not exactly dirty, therefore,
the soldiers look very unkempt. The officers also, and their
clothes, have the hardened appearance of active service, but
their flowing cloaks make them picturesque. Blue and white
Chinamen, sombre-suited Japanese, and shrouded Koreans,
TO AN
FO ON
VLADIV
, OSTOK
TURI duera
TIALSDEN FOUN; Dar
感
VLADIVOSTOK . 145
with marvellous hats of cardboard and bamboo fibre, variegate
the scene . An element of picturesqueness
and noise is added
by the droschky -drivers in their long scarlet blouses and black
" zouave ” waistcoats , their long unpolished boots, and their
filowing hair. They congregate at the corners, and dash up and
down the main street at a gallop, their whips cracking like
pistol-shots.
The chief hotel of Vladivostok is at a pastrycook's shop,
so I remained in my comfortable quarters on board , and after
breakfast I went on shore to present my semi-official introduc
tion - an imposing -looking document, a foot square, with the
Russian Eagle on the back - to the Military Governor, Rear
Admiral Ermolaiew . His Excellency received me with the
utmost courtesy, but his efforts to conceal his vast surprise at
my visit were in vain. He read the letter—a long one-then
he looked at me ; then he read it again and looked again .
“ Yes, " he said , finally, " anything I can do for you, of course,
but what on earth do you want to see at Vladivostok ? " I
modestly replied that, with His Excellency's permission, I
wanted to see everything. “ But what ? ” As I had only been
an hour in the place, however, I was not in a position to specify
a
my desires in detail . “ But what shall I do ? ” To dictate to
a Russian Military Governor was naturally repugnant to me,
and as Admiral Ermolaiew's French - the only language in
which we could communicate---was of a rudimentary character,
the conversation was rapidly approaching an embarrassing
dead-lock . Suddenly, with an explosive "" Ah !” the Governor
sprang from his chair and disappeared , returning in a minute
with his wife, a most attractive and energetic lady, charming
even at that early hour of the morning. Madame Ermolaiew
spoke French perfectly : with the native tact of a Russian she
straightened matters in a moment, and five minutes later I was
bowed out between the salutes of a bluejacket and a sentry,
with the Governor's card in my pocket bearing a written
permission to go almost anywhere and see almost anything,
11
146 RUSSIA .
and with an appointment to meet an officer the next morning
at eleven, who would act as cicerone. I was slightly out of
breath , it is true, at the speed of the interview, but naturally
very grateful for the distinguished courtesy.
Vladivostok is a purely military town — technically, a
" fortress.”” That is , not only does it owe its existence to
strategic and military considerations , but even after it has
been thus created no other interests or enterprises have grown
up around it. In this case trade has not followed the flag:
the place is just Russia's one stronghold and naval base on
the Pacific, and nothing else. Its imports consist of the
supplies for the military and naval population and those who
minister to them ; its only export at present is a little sea
weed . Two other industries might be developed here, how
ever, and these are well worth the attention of energetic
men with some capital. Siberia contains vast forests of the
finest and largest timber, and a very important export trade
in this could easily be cultivated . And the authorities find
great difficulty in supplying themselves with fresh meat.
Cattle are imported regularly from Korea, but the supply is
poor and uncertain , while Siberia is probably as well suited in
many parts for cattle-raising as Western Canada . I believe,
moreover , that the Russian authorities would materially help
the right man to introduce this. At present , however , all its
commerce is a tribute to the God of Battles . A Russian store
has just closed , and the two great stores, magnificent stone
and brick buildings, employing scores of clerks and sales
men, where you can buy absolutely everything , from a pound
of butter to a piano - are owned by Germans , the one by
Messrs. Kunst and Albers, the other by Mr. Langelütje.
There is also the smaller general store of Mr. Hagemann ,
almost the only English resident . The population of the place
when I was there was about 15,000, of whom 5,000 were
Chinese , 2,000 Russian civilians , and 6,000 troops and blue
jackets ashore. But the strength of the troops has no doubt
been considerably raised lately.
VLADIVOSTOK . 147
The Chinese and Koreans are under very strict regulations ,
being only allowed to reside in their own quarter, and any
found in the street after nine o'clock at night are arrested and
locked up. This was found necessary to prevent disturbance.
The Koreans, I should add, have an intense hatred for the
Russians, due largely, no doubt, to the harshness with which
they are treated. There are large numbers of them in the
immediate neighbourhood , and they are always in a state of
discontent bordering upon revolt. Whenever they can get
hold of a Russian by himself, they are very apt to murder
him out of hand. Of course, their power is but that of the
mosquito on the elephant, but if Russia were engaged in
hostilities they might well prove an annoying thorn in her side.
Probably 2,000 Chinese labourers are employed in the arsenal
alone, and they fill the streets when they come streaming
out from work, and all the harbour- front population, boatmen ,
cargo-handlers, &c. , are Chinese or Koreans. The stores
employ many Chinese ; they are patrolled all night by Chinese
watchmen , and the only domestic servants are Chinamen or
Japanese women . Many of the Chinese come in the spring,
when the harbour opens, and leave again, mostly for Chefoo,
in the late autumn when it closes. There has been some talk
about putting a prohibitory tax upon poor John Chinaman here
too, but it will come to nothing ; he is indispensable.
Life in this corner of Russian Tartary is lively enough,
especially in winter. Communication with the outside world
is easy by mail and telegraph. Letters come by sea (very few
go overland) from San Francisco in four weeks , and telegrams
to European Russia are ridiculously cheap. During the
summer there are the constant festivities attending the arrival
of foreign men -of-war. All the Russian officers, too, are fond
of society, and there is a first -rate band. In winter it is of
course dreadfully cold, and a frozen stick of milk is left at
the door in the morning, and the beef is kept frozen in a tub,
and chopped out as wanted. But from Christmas onwards for
118 RUSSIA .
a couple of months there is a ceaseless round of social gaiety.
Excellent pheasant and duck - shooting is to be had over the
surrounding bays and hills, and large deer abound in an
island a day's sail to the south . This, however, is strictly
preserved as an Imperial reserve, and Russian game-keepers
are stationed there, and periodically murdered by Korean
marauders. The famous thick -coated Northern tigers are
sometimes to be found by seeking. One of the traditions of
Vladivostok, and a true one, too, tells how a young fellow
named Chudjakow was out shooting one day, when a tiger
met him . He fired and killed it. Scarcely had it fallen,
however, when a second walked out of the woods . He fired
again, hitting this one, which turned tail and disappeared. A
moment later a tiger appeared again from the same place.
He fired for the third time, supposing this to be the same
animal, and wounded it slightly. Before he could reload,
however, it was upon him , and he was fighting it for his life.
His rifle was useless, and he had only a long hunting-knife.
As he did not return at night his father and friends organised
a search -party , and at last found him unconscious between the
paws of the dead tiger. A little way off lay the body of the
first, and just inside the wood they found the second , which
had died of its wounds . The days are gone by when the
houses at Vladivostok were barricaded against the great cats,
which used to come into the back yards at night to revel in the
family slops put for them, and when men did not venture out
after dark except five or six together, all armed ; but I have
seen one of the tigers thus shot by Chudjakow, and a photograph
of the young man himself and the three skins.
Everything in Vladivostok is made subservient to military
interests, and there is no pretence to the contrary . As is
the case in all “ fortresses " no civil rights exist, and the
merchants can be required to leave at twenty- four hours’
notice, without any explanation being given. The Mayor is
merely the vehicle of the Governor's will. The neighbourhood
VLADIVOSTOK . 149
of every fortified point is strictly guarded by sentries, whom no
civilian ever passes. The local weekly newspaper, the Vladivostok,
with a circulation of 450 copies, is edited (excellently so far as
geographical, ethnological, and other non -contentious informa
tion is concerned ) by a member of the Staff, and the Governor
himself is the Censor. In return for this, however, it receives
an official subsidy of 2,000 roubles a year . The police, who
are supposed to know everything that passes and the move
ments of every one, resident or stranger, are of course the
Governor's pawns, under the command of a military officer.
No foreign consuls are allowed to reside at Vladivostok, the
only foreign representative being a Japanese called Commis
sioner of Trade, or some such non -political title. Most
foreign newspapers and books are forbidden, as in European
Russia, and at the only bookseller's in town I could not
buy a single volume in any foreign language, except a few
French works of world -famous innocence, used everywhere
as school reading books ; and inquisitiveness or gossip on the
part of the foreign population about local naval or military
affairs is sternly discouraged , and trespassers against this
unwritten law soon learn very distinctly that they will be more
comfortable if they obey it. I ran up against this before I had
been in Vladivostok four hours. My first day there I was lunch
ing at a foreign house, and happened, naturally and quite inno
cently, to put some question or other about the batteries. “ That
is a matter, " I was immediately told by my host, “ that we inake
a point of knowing nothing about. We find that ignorance on
such subjects is the only way to get along pleasantly with our
Russian friends. Besides, it is none of our business, any way .
We are here as traders, not as possible combatants.” So I
put no more questions of that kind. The regulations against
publicity have recently been made much more severe . It is
now forbidden to ascend the neighbouring hills, and patrol
1
parties are frequently sent to scour the surrounding country,
their orders being to deal promptly with any investigator,
le
150 RUSSIA .
The many Russian officers that I met and talked with, told
me of course just as little as they liked, and the sources
of information were therefore distressingly conspicuous by
their absence. I must add, however, that the authorities put
no ridiculous restrictions or professions of violent secrecy in
my way. I was immediately told that I could not inspect
the batteries or fortifications from within—a permission I
should never have dreamed of asking ; but several places
where no Englishman had ever been before—the whole of the
Navy Yard and Arsenal , for instance - were thrown open to me ;
the Governor's card took me almost everywhere ; I had a written
permission to take photographs, with certain specified exceptions
a permission unfortunately nullified to a great extent by
rain ; I was immediately introduced at the Naval Club ; and
finally the Governor's Adjutant lent me his own boat. As
I thus sped across the harbour of this Russian stronghold, in
a Russian official's barge, pulled by six lusty Russian blue
jackets, with a Russian rear- admiral's flag trailing behind
me, it struck me as a decidedly unique position for an English
journalist, and as an interesting commentary upon the suspicion
and unfriendliness that are so freely attributed to the Russians
in some quarters.
CHAPTER IX .
THE POSITION OF RUSSIA ON THE PACIFIC .
VLADIVOSTOK is of great interest to the rest of the civilised
world , and chiefly , of course, to England , the United
States , and Japan , as the Powers with most at stake in the
Pacific, for exactly the same reasons that it is of importance to
Russia, namely , as the one great naval stronghold and base
from which Russian ironclads could issue in time of war to
fall upon their enemies in the Pacific, and to which they could
return for supplies , for repairs, or for refuge. Is it a great
stronghold ? Could it defy a hostile fleet ? Is it provided
with the necessaries of an efficient naval base ? Does it , as
its name declares , confer upon those who hold it “ the posses
sion of the East ” ?
The last so-called “ scare showed exactly what would be
done at Vladivostok in case of war. The lights on Skrypleff
Island in the east entrance and near Pospaloff Point to guide
ships through the west entrance were extinguished ; the west
entrance was completely blocked from Larioneff Point to Cape
Tokareffski with contact mines (one of these got adrift and
blew up a Russian fishing - vessel some time afterwards) ; the
narrow passage from Cape Novosilsky to Cape Nazimoff was
blocked with contact and electric mines, except a channel
fifty feet wide under the former, and a gunboat lay near by
to stop merchant vessels and send an officer on board to
pilot them through ; while preparations were made to remove
all the civilian inhabitants to a sheltered valley some distance
151
152 RUSSIA .
inland . Supposing now that these precautions were all
carried out to-day, could a fairly powerful fleet reduce the
place ? We will say for the sake of argument, to begin
with , that the Russian fleet is out of the way. Until a few
years ago, what were the defences of Vladivostok ? The inner
ends of both channels were commanded and their mine- fields
protected by Fort Goldobin , and this was armed with a
number of 6-inch breechloading guns of Russian manufacture.
Its upper part was only, I believe , a battery of mortars . In the
centre of the long narrow strip of land forming the western side
of the harbour were two powerful batteries, each containing, I
believe, two breechloading Krupp guns, probably about 27 - ton
guns, throwing a shell of 516 lb. , and these were the heaviest
guns with which Vladivostok was armed. Further to the north
was another battery, formed, I believe, of two 8-inch breech
loading cannon , two more of the same Krupps, and four rifled
mortars. These two batteries are designed to protect the weak
point of Vladivostok-the shelling of the town and arsenal over
the land . That was all. The answer was therefore easy.
Vladivostok , in the absence of men -of-war to protect it, could
undoubtedly have been taken, and if the last " scare ” had
become a struggle, there can be little doubt that the British
fleet would have first shelled the town and then forced an
entrance to the harbour. For the town could have been shelled
easily at 8,000 yards, while the bombarding ships constantly
moving would present a poor target for the Krupp guns at
nearly 4,000 yards ; the men fighting the inner forts would have
been terribly exposed ; while removing or exploding mines which
are not well protected by batteries is a comparatively easy matter
nowadays. If defending ships had been present they would
have added to the difficulty by exactly their own strength.
But after an attack made a few years ago, Vladivostok would
certainly not be the “ possession of the East ” -it would be
the possession of the enemy .
The truth of the foregoing assertion can be almost proved, as
RUSSIA ON THE PACIFIC . 153
you prove a sum in division by another in multiplication, by the
fact, hardly yet appreciated , that the Russian Government has
been adding to the defences of Vladivostok in every respect and
on the most lavish scale. An estimate was passed by the
TOWN
ARSENAL
BARRACKS
ODDOCK
Scale - 3 Inches to I Mile
Batteries..... O
Goldobin Point
Cape Tokarefyski
Larionoff Point Cape Nazımofy Petroclus
Bay
at
Nov Bay Cape Novosilsky
ik Basarghinc
& Island
SKRYPLEFF
Paris ISLAND
Bay
KANTOR
THE HARBOUR OF VLADIVOSTOK . *
Governor -General of Eastern Siberia, and submitted to St.
Petersburg for approval, for strengthening Vladivostok by
engineering work alone at an expense of no less than 6,000,000
roubles. The Arsenal is being greatly enlarge by both new
• It should hardly be necessary to explain that I do not present this sketch -map
as anything even remotely resembling a map for naval or military purposes. It is
merely a reduction from the Admiralty chart, with such additions as are of general
interest and my eyes and information enabled me to add . Nor is my account of
the place intended to serve naval or military ends in the slightest degree . The
British authorities, at any rate, as is well known by experts, stand in no need of
information about Vladivostok . They have plenty of it from a very different
source .
154 RUSSIA .
buildings and new machinery ; an addition to the great floating
Stanfield dock is just finishing ; all along the harbour side
of the west arm are rows of fine new barracks ; and several
new forts were already half finished when I was there, of a
size and arrangement far in advance of anything existing
previously. One of these forts, just to the north of Cape
Tokareffski, will command both entrances to the harbour and
ships in position to shell the town ; another of great size will
command the mine- field with which Novik Bay, from which
Fort Goldobin and part of the town could be bombarded, is
to be protected ; and two or three others, including one on
Skrypleff Island, will command the harbour and its approaches
from the east . It is only reasonable to suppose that these,
which should all be complete by this time, are armed with guns
of the latest pattern and great power. If the Government
sanctions the engineers' estimate recently submitted , batteries
will also be placed on some of the large islands south of the
harbour, an extremely important situation. By this time,
therefore, it is not too much to say that Vladivostok is im
pregnable from the sea . The Russians admit that the Chinese
town can always be destroyed from the sea, but I believe
they estimate that they can burn this and rebuild it for
24,000 roubles. They deny, however, that the town proper and
the Arsenal are open to shell fire from beyond the west
batteries, but I cannot agree to this, as with my field -glass I
have distinctly seen the church over the southernmost of the
two west land batteries , within bombarding distance. This,
however, is of comparatively small moment, for all war stores
would of course be removed to a place of perfect security,
and Vladivostok would be little weaker as a naval stronghold
after the town had been destroyed than before. Moreover, it
is an accepted military and naval maxim that under modern
conditions ships stand practically no chance whatever against
well- equipped and well- handled coast batteries, and that it is
little short of suicidal for a fleet to attempt to reduce a fortress
RUSSIA ON THE PACIFIC. 155
by bombardment alone. In case of war an enemy would
probably try to find the Russian Fleet and blockade it some
where, for if the ships were once destroyed or captured,
Vladivostok would cease to be worth attacking. It should be
clear, however, from the foregoing, that the Russian authorities
are determined on no half measures . They have got Vladivo
stok and they mean to keep it, and it is doubtful if there is
at present any army and fleet in the whole East strong enough
even to try to take it away from them.
The new restrictive regulations so much discussed and so
severely criticised in naval circles , by which only two ships of
any foreign fleet are allowed to anchor in Vladivostok Harbour
at one time, were officially stated to have been made in accord
ance with similar regulations by other Powers. But they were
really the result of one particular incident. On August 21 ,
1886, the British squadron on its summer cruise north reached
Vladivostok while all the Russian vessels happened to be away,
and our eight ships entered in a thick fog, and were not
discovered by the Russians on shore until they were dropping
anchor in faultless order in the inner harbour. It was a most
brilliant piece of seamanship — the Russians themselves would
never have attempted it—but it was surely most indiscreet, as
the consequences soon showed . For naturally enough the
Russian authorities were thrown into a panic, and said to
themselves that an enemy might do this very thing a short
time before war was suddenly declared , when Russia on the
Pacific would be at his mercy. Therefore, rather than risk
multiplying unpleasantness by prohibiting the entry of foreign
vessels from time to time as circumstances might seem to re
quire, they decided to cut off the danger once for all. It was
natural and explicable enough on the part of the Russians, but
it is an innovation far from welcome to the greater part of any
foreign fleet, which must remain knocking about outside at gun
practice or steam tactics , while the flagship and one other vessel
are comfortably anchored and politely entertained within . The
156 RUSSIA ,
Russians, by the way, do not seem to navigate their own waters
very well, for a gunboat had gone aground near Vladivostok
just before my visit ; a foreign merchant- captain told me that
he had once steamed after two other gunboats on the coast to
warn them they were running into shallow water ; and the Vitiaz
was totally lost a short time ago and actually in Port Lazareff
--the very harbour which Russia is supposed to have selected
for her base on the Korean coast .
The impression made by the rank and file of the land forces
at Vladivostok is that of soldiers who have been on active service
for six months, long enough to have grown careless about the
polishing of leather and steel and the details of personal care
which go to make up the much admired “ smartness " of crack
regiments. Their clothes are solid and coarse , their boots are
unblacked, and their weapons look as if they had seen several
campaigns. The men themselves are hardy enough, but they
appear to be extremely poor and far from happy. It is
certainly very astonishing to see soldiers in uniform hawking
wild flowers at street.corners, as I did in Vladivostok itself.
They are mostly much younger than troops with us, and they
are evidently drawn from the lower classes of a farming popula
tion. Their winter barracks are spacious and handsome build
ings, but their summer barracks, several miles inland by the
shore of a beautiful part of the Amur Bay, are rather ram
shackle, and if the truth is to be told , much dirtier than
Tommy Atkins would be satisfied to live in . But I spent a
jolly evening with them when I rode out with my military
guide , and shared their palatable if frugal supper of black
bread , potato soup, and kvass—a — a kind of thin bitter beer.
The detachment I visited was under the command of a
lieutenant who looked fifteen , and was certainly not twenty.
They would make good rough fighting material - Kanonen
futter as the Germans cynically call it-all the better for
war work in this far-off hard country because they do not
know what it is to be petted or pampered in time of peace. In
RUSSIA ON THE PACIFIC . 157
fact, peace means perhaps more hard work for them than war,
for they are employed on building fortifications, making bricks,
and several other occupations that are not included in the
military curriculum elsewhere, very much like common
labourers. The following estimate of their numbers at Vladi
vostok is not far from the mark : two battalions of infantry,
2,000 ; artillery , 350 ; sappers, 250 ; total , on peace footing,
2,600 men . This is doubtless much smaller than is generally
supposed, but the tendency is to distribute the forces all over
this part of Eastern Siberia, and only to collect a large number
at Vladivostok in times of danger. Probably 30,000 men could
be concentrated here in a short time.
The officers, on the whole, struck me as a fine body of men,
dignified, devoted, and intelligent. But they must suffer
intellectually from being cut off by the strict Russian censor
ship laws from the information which circulates so freely else
where . The growing importance, by the way, of this stronghold
in Russian Tartary, is shown by the fact that officers are no
longer liberally pensioned for short service here and elsewhere
on the Siberian coast. Officers used to elect to serve in Siberia,
and after ten years' service were entitled to retire upon half- pay,
and after twenty years ' service upon full-pay. For service in
European Russia, on the other hand, retirement upon full -pay
comes only after thirty - five years' service. Full- pay in Russia,
however, does not mean the same as elsewhere. A Russian
officer's total military income is made up of three parts, pay
proper, lodging allowance, and table-money, in the proportion
that a total income of say over 3,000 roubles a year, a lieu
tenant's pay, would mean only 1,400 roubles of pay proper.
Half -pay for him , therefore, after ten years in Siberia would be
700 roubles, and full pay 1,400 roubles. These liberal terms
of pension naturally made service in Siberia popular, but the
whole system of naval pension was altered a year ago , and the
above only applies now to officers who entered the navy before
1887. An occasional officer there speaks a little English ,
158 RUSSIA .
several speak French, and almost all speak more or less German.
To Lieutenant Vladimir Maximoff, “ flag - officer to the Com.
mander of the port,” in whose charge I was placed , and who
combined the maximum of courtesy and hospitality with an
irreducible minimum of information, I owe very hearty thanks.
As for the naval and military hospitality of Vladivostok , it was
generous and constant, and as everybody was familiar with the
Biercomment of German student-life, it was also both formal and
hilarious.
I made one peculiarly interesting discovery. It is universally
believed that Vladivostok is a closed port for four months out
of the twelve-isolated by impassable ice from about December
17th to April 17th . And this is regarded as the sole ex.
planation of Russia's Drang nach Süden , her necessity to
press gradually southward for an open port in Korea or
below it. Such is not the case . A man -of-war — and there
fore a dozen-can be got in or out of Vladivostok Harbour
in case of urgent need at any time of year. There is an
American ice-breaking machine, which on a trial trip broke
a channel through the thickest part of the ice, one hundred feet
long and six fathoms wide, at a pace which would take it out
beyond Goldobin Point, where the ice is naturally more or less
broken, in three or four days. Moreover Patroclus Bay, and
especially the bay further to the south -east, are practicable bays
all the year round. At any rate two American ships came up
there unaided a few winters ago. Indeed the authorities are
considering whether they will not make this the mercantile
terminus of the railway.
In conclusion, I may add that the Amur peninsula is fine
wooded country for at least thirty miles, with small rivers
running east and west, and one or two good roads . The west
side presents to the eye a succession of sandy beaches, whilst
the east side ends abruptly for the most part in precipitous
cliffs .
CHAPTER X.
THE TRANS - SIBERIAN RAILWAY AND ITS RESULTS.
the relations of Russia and the Far East, one matter far
In outweighs in importance all others put together — the
Trans- Siberian Railway. It is my conviction that this
colossal enterprise is destined to alter the map of that part
of the world at no very distant date. To Englishmen it is
therefore of the first interest, for if I am right they will
shortly be called upon to decide one point of the utmost
moment in connection with it.
The absorption of " Siberia ” —that is, the whole of Russia's
Asiatic possessions with the exception of Transcaucasia, the
Transcaspian territory, and Turkestan - occupying an area of
not far from 5,000,000 square miles, has proceeded, now
quickly, now slowly, but without interruption, ever since the
traders of Novgorod began to raid the Finnish Yugra tribe
in the twelfth century , for the valuable furs they secured .
For centuries the conquest proceeded , through the efforts of
hunters and fishermen , the ransackers of mounds, and the
mere raiders, their advances being gradually recognised from
time to time by the Government. After a while, expedition
after expedition added huge territories in a more formal
manner . An important date is 1581 , when Yermak , a Don
Cossack , entering the service of the immensely wealthy Stro
ganov family, who ruled and practically owned the Ural district,
defeated the Tartar Khan, Kuchum , and sent his lieutenant ,
loaded with furs, back to Moscow to “ humbly salute the
159
160 RUSSIA .
Lord Ivan Vaselivich the Terrible , with the acquisition of a
new Siberian Kingdom .” Slowly but surely Russian settlers
and soldiers pressed eastwards , and the eighteenth century was
distinguished by a number of remarkable exploring expeditions.
One by one, every territory was absorbed , the final great achieve
ment, the annexation of the whole Amur district, coming in
1854. All the territory on the American Continent was ceded
to the United States in 1867 , and the Kurile Islands were
exchanged with Japan for Sakhalin in 1875. At that date
Siberia practically took its present shape.
It is an interesting fact that the first person to lay before the
Russian Government a proposal for the Trans- Siberian railway
was an Englishman . He was an engineer named Dull , and his
plan was to construct a tramway, on which horses should supply
the motive power, from Nisbni-Novgorod, through Kazan and
Perm to one of the Siberian ports. It is not surprising that the
Russian Government passed over in silence so fantastic a scheme,
unsupported by any estimates. Simultaneously with this pro
posal , Count Mouraviev, afterwards Governor-General of Siberia,
proposed to unite De Castries Bay in the Tartar Straits with
Sofiisk on the Amur by a carriage road which could be after
wards converted into a railway .** The surveys for this road
were actually made in 1857 , but nothing came of the proposal.
In the same year an American named Collins petitioned the
Government for a concession to found a company to unite
Irkutsk and Chita . Next, three more Englishmen , Messrs.
Morrison , Horn, and Sleigh offered to build a railway from
Moscow to the Pacific shore of Siberia, but asked for such privi
leges in connection with it, as in the opinion of the Russian
Government would have led to the concentration of the whole
trade of Siberia in the hands of foreigners for a long period . In
the same year, 1858, a Russian named Sofronov proposed a line
* Most of the facts here given are taken from a volume published last year by
the Russian Department of Trade and Manufactures. I have also drawn slightly
from an interesting article by Mr. Frederic Hobart, in the Engineering Magazine
for June, 1893.
THE TRANS - SIBERIAN RAILWAY . 161
through the Kirghiz steppes to Peking, and four years later
another Russian named Kokorev conceived the idea (based
upon the schemes of a Government mining official named
Rashet) of uniting the basins of the Volga and the Obi. His
scheme, however, although favourably received, was soon after
wards abandoned for that of Colonel Bogdanovich , who was
despatched in 1866 to inquire into the famine of two years
before. He sent the following telegram to the Minister of the
Interior : “ After removing all difficulties in the provisioning of
the governments of Perm and Viatka, and investigating the
local conditions, I am of opinion that the only sure means of
preventing famine in the Ural country in the future, is the
building of a railway from the governments of the interior to
Ekaterinburg and thence to Tiumen.. Such a line, being subse
quently continued through Siberia to the Chinese frontier , would
acquire a great importance both strategical and for international
trade .” Two years later many surveys were carried out in con
nection with this plan. A third scheme starting, like the two
previous ones, from Perm, but ending near Kurgan on the river
Tobol, was planned by a trader named Liubimov in 1869.
These three schemes were carefully investigated, and it was
decided to build a line 463 miles long to join Kama and the
Tobol. A Special Commission decided that it was impossible to
make the line serve as a link in the chain of the great Siberian
railway of the future without sacrificing the mining interests of
the Ural district. The idea of the through route was therefore
relegated to the future. Surveys, however, continued , and in
1875 it was at length decided to build the first section of a line
to approach the Pacific from Nishni-Novgorod , but viâ Kazan
and Ekaterinburg to Tiumen. In 1878, the Ural railway was
opened, and two years later the Imperial order was given to
continue it to Tiumen .
For some time afterwards preference was given to the plan of
crossing Siberia by a route which should utilise the vast stretches
of water-communication, joining these by means of railways.
12
162 RUSSIA .
The obvious advantage of this scheme was the enormous saving
of cost.In detail it was to proceed from Tiumen, by the Tura,
Tobol, Irtish and Obi rivers, to Tomsk ; then by rail to Irkutsk ;
thence by the Angara river, and across Lake Baikal ; thence by
rail to the head of the Amur and down it for 1,600 miles ; thence
by rail to Vladivostok. One fatal objection caused the abandon
ment of this scheme-namely, that in winter the eleven hundred
miles of railway from Tomsk to Irkutsk would be isolated, for it
would begin at one frozen river and end at another. Therefore,
after much discussion , and in spite of the greatly increased cost,
an all-rail line was decided upon in 1891 at the instigation of
the Tsar himself. The railway from Samara to Cheliabinsk had
been completed in the meantime, and the Siberian railway was
to begin at the latter place. On May 17, 1891 , the Tsarevich,
being at Vladivostok at the conclusion of his tour in the Far
East , formally announced by the will of the Tsar that the Grand
Siberian Railway should be built, and inaugurated the Usuri
section. To take charge of the enterprise the “ Siberian Railway
Committee " was formed at St. Petersburg, and the Tsarevich
appointed president.
The entire railway is divided into seven sections. First, the
Western Siberian Section , from Cheliabinsk to the river Obi, an
easy section, through an agricultural country, ending at Pochi
tanka, whence a branch line of 82 miles will connect it with
Tomsk ; 1,328 versts, at an estimated cost of 47,361,479 roubles.
Second, the Central Siberian Section , from Obi to Irkutsk, a
difficult and tortuous section, through a mountainous and
mineral country and across many rivers ; 1,754 versts, at a cost
of 73,272,898 roubles. Third , the Baikal Circuit, round the
southern end of the “ Lake of Death ,” from Irkutsk to Mysovsk
pier, the shortest and most difficult section, with the heaviest
grades and the sharpest curves, and a tunnel 12,500 feet long
at the height of 770 feet above the lake ; 292 versts, at a cost of
22,310,820 roubles, which is likely to be much exceeded. Fourth
the Trans-Baikal Section, from Mysovsk to Stretensk, the most
THE TRANS - SIBERIAN RAILWAY . 163
rich in minerals and containing the highest point of the whole
line, the Shoidak Pass, 3,700 feet ; 1,009 versts, at a cost of
53,309,817 roubles. Fifth , the Amur Section, from Stretensk to
Khabarovka, the longest, easiest, and most promising section,
through the “ Garden of Siberia ," the valleys being fertile and
well-watered , and abounding in timber, and the climate milder
than elsewhere ; 2,000 versts, at a cost of 117,555,835 roubles.
Sixth , the North Usuri Section, from Khabarovka to Grafsk,
347 versts, cost 18,738,682 roubles. Seventh , the South Usuri
Section, from Grafsk to Vladivostok, along the valley of the
Usuri, through coal-bearing and mineral country ; 382 versts,
cost 17,661,051 roubles. Total length , 7,112 versts ; total
estimated cost, 350,210,482 roubles. The Grand Siberian
Railway may therefore be thus summarised :
SECTION . ROUTE. MILES. Cost .
1 Western Siberian Cheliabinsk - Obi 880 5,120,159
2 Central Siberian Obi - Irkutsk 1 , 162 7,921,394
3 Baikal Circuit Irkutsk - Mysovsk 193 2,111,980
Trans - Baikal Mysovsk - Stretensk 668 5,763,223
Amur Stretensk - Khabarovka 1,325 12,708,738
North Usuri Khabarovka - Grafsk 229 2.025,803
7 South Usuri Grafsk - Vladivostok 253 1,909,302
Total ... 4,713 £ 37,860,592 *
According to the latest news, progress is being made on all
the sections. From Vladivostok to Spasskoye 150 miles of
railway have been open to traffic since last June, and 41 miles
from Grafsk station are ready. The second telegraph line is
ready for a distance of 30 miles, and 36 station- houses and
other buildings have been erected. Between Cheliabinsk and
Omsk 61 miles of line are ready, and 116 station-houses and
buildings completed. Nearly 9,650 tons of rails have been
supplied , 270,000 sleepers, 587 tons of fastenings, 190 tons
of water-pipes, and two reservoirs. The survey has been
The discrepancies in the additions are due to the fact that the decimals are
omitted from the senarate items. Exchange : £ 10 = 92 } roubles.
164 RUSSIA .
completed between Omsk and the Obi for 94 miles, and over
21,000 cubic fathoms of earthworks have been made. On the
Central Section between the Obi and Krassnoyarsk much
forest has been cut down , 25,000 cubic fathoms of earthworks
made, and five stations built. The manufacturers have
supplied 260 tons of iron for the bridge across the Tom,
2,200 tons of rails and 700 tons of fastenings, 200,000 sleepers
have been laid, and 6,000 telegraph poles erected. Thirteen
miles of the line and 25 of the telegraph are ready.* All
this amounts, of course, to but a small fraction of the whole,
but it shows that the work is actively proceeding. The great
trial of strength will not come until the line is finished and
the Russian government is face to face with the financial
problem of maintaining it and the army of men it will require.
It is likely enough that the Siberian Railway may not be
finished either for the money or by the date calculated upon,
which is 1904. Nothing, however, unless the Russian Empire
should be plunged into war, will prevent its completion early in
the next century. When Moscow and the Pacific are in railway
connection, and to some extent even before that, the effect upon
Russia's domestic and foreign relations must be enormous. The
vast extent of Siberia thus opened up, its agricultural possibili.
ties, its mineral certainties, the great variety of its other natural
products, and the opportunities it will offer to colonisation, will
inaugurate a new epoch in the history of Russia . But the rest
of the world is more concerned with the alteration it will bring
into the relations of Russia with other countries . This will be
startling. The railway will not be built as a commercial, but
as a political enterprise. It will not pay its expenses for a long
time to come, and the through traffic will be insignificant for a
century. Portions of it will soon be paying for themselves, but
as a whole the Siberian Railway is to be regarded as a long step
forward politically. The interesting question therefore is, in
what direction ? The Transcaspian Railway is at Samarcand,
• The Times, October 19, 1894 , Vienna correspondence.
THE TRANS - SIBERIAN RAILWAY . 165
and will soon be at Tashkend and Khokand, approaching the
western frontier of China. The Siberian Railway skirts the
northern and eastern frontiers of China practically from Irkutsk
all the way to Vladivostok . A branch line will at once be built
along the Selenga river, 75 miles, from Verkhne-Udinsk to
Kiakhta, thus securing the whole Russo - Chinese trade at once.
Before long, therefore, speaking in general terms, the entire
northern half of China will be completely surrounded by Russian
railways. Given the supineness of China and the energy of
Russia, and it is not difficult to forecast the results . In the
second place, the ability of Russia to convey any number of
European troops to a port on the Pacific, will give her an
enormous advantage over any of her European rivals there.
With a powerful Pacific fleet and a sufficient number of trans
ports she will be able to descend almost irresistibly upon any
part of the Far East except Japan, which has little to fear
from any invader. Unless England secures a further and
firmer foothold, at least a thousand miles north of Hongkong,
she will not be in a position to dispute with Russia any step
that the latter may choose to take. China is threatened
territorially, Great Britain is menaced commercially, but
always excepting Japan—the Siberian Railway will place the
whole of the Far East almost at the mercy of Russia, unless
England casts off her confidence and indifference.
Finally, there is the question of the Russian port on the Pacific.
Can anybody believe for a moment that Russia will build the
longest railway in the world , stretching five thousand miles
from the furthest edge of her European possessions, and will
spend upwards of forty millions sterling upon it, for it to
end in a harbour that is frozen solid during five months of
the year ? Nothing could be more unlikely. Except for some
European cataclysm which will set back all Russian schen es
for a century, it is certain (except in the case of one possible
eventuality which I describe later) that the terminus of the
Siberian Railway will be in Korea. And in Korea it will be at
166 RUSSIA .
Wön- san, or Port Lazareff, as she prefers to call it. This is a
splendid harbour, easily fortifiable, open all the year, surrounded
by a country offering many facilities for development. Such
a port is absolutely essential to Russia, and who shall blame
her for trying to secure it ? At any rate, as soon as the South
Usuri Section is joined to the rest of the finished Siberian
Railway, Russia's moment will have come. First the piece
of Manchuria which projects like a wedge into her territory
will become bers by one means or another, enabling her greatly
to shorten and straighten the railway, and then she will simply
take such part of Korea as may suit her. If this be only the
district of Wön - san, to begin with , the subsequent absorption
of the whole of the Korean peninsula may follow . She
will then be in possession of a good land route, across the
Yalu river, straight to the heart of China at all seasons of the
year, and her position in the Far East will be upassailable.
Whatever else may be thought of the prospects of the Far
East, however, let the fact that Russia intends to go to
Korea be regarded as certain . My own views of the inter
national question springing out of the Siberian Railway and
this fact, particularly in so far as it concerns the future of
Great Britain , will be found in subsequent chapters upon the
question of Korea and the future of Japan.
SPAIN IN THE FAR EAST.
CHAPTER XI.
MANILA : THE CITY OF CIGARS, HEMP, EARTHQUAKES
AND INTOLERANCE .
THE passage from Hongkong to the two thousand islands
which constitute the Philippine group is usually accounted
the worst in the China seas. It is a sort of sailing sideways,
through cross-currents of very deep seas , and into the favourite
hatching-place and haunt of the dreadful typhoon . Moreover,
Manila is not the easiest place in the world to find . Its position
is wrong on the charts, so my skipper assured me, and he would
not find it unless he knew better himself. It is, too , one of the
most earthquaky places in the world.. When a British scientific
and surveying expedition came some years ago to the Philippines,
and wished among other things to determine the precise latitude
and longitude once for all, although it waited for a couple of
weeks the islands were never steady enough to afford a satis
factory base for the instruments . The earthquake season was
on, and they were wobbling about the whole time ! This may
be a " yarn,” but it is a fact that the seismographs of the
Observatory are in a state of perpetual motion . For myself,
however, Manila will always be remembered as the place where
for the first time I had my pockets publicly and officially
searched. As soon as we anchored, a guard of soldiers came
on board and assisted the custom -house officials in minutely
examining everything in our baggage. When this was over I
was stopped at the head of the gangway by the lieutenant in
command and courteously informed that before I could land he
169
170 SPAIN .
must be permitted to see what I had in my pockets. When it
came to my pocket- book he turned it over, separating every
piece of paper in it . A bystander informed me that all this was
to prevent the introduction of Mexican dollars, on which there is
a premium , and which are prohibited of a date later than 1877,
and a pamphlet attacking the priests, recently published in
Hongkong. I tried to square accounts with this officer by
hinting that I had copies of the forbidden pamphlet in my
boots, but like the Prig, he only " answered with a silent
smile ."
In the most conspicuous spot in Manila stands a statue to
Magellan, who discovered the Philippine Islands in his famous
first circumnavigation of the globe in 1521, and whose lieutenant,
Legaspi , founded the city fifty years later. Then came Manila's
golden days. It was the goal of the galleon - imagination - stirring
name—that made its romantic voyages from Spain , deep loaded
with treasure ; that named the coast California — fit godfather
for the golden harvest of '49 -before even a foot was set on it ;
whose captain earned forty thousand dollars by his trip, and
pilot twenty thousand1 ; whose treasure chests yielded up a total
of a million dollars to Drake alone ; out of whose overflowing
stores one victorious British cruiser sailed into the port of
London with damask sails and silken rigging. The galleons are
gone, the wars of which they were the constant prey are as
forgotten as the men who fought them , and “ the most for
tunately situated city in the world , " as La Pérouse called it, is
far off in its lonely ocean, days distant from any of the great
routes of commerce , almost unheeded by the world in which it
was once so renowned, unvisited even by the ubiquitous globe
trotter. Yet there is something in the aspect of Manila sugges
tive of romance—something more picturesque than other places
show. The first thing I saw was a native drifting down the
river fast asleep on a heap of coconuts. Then the streets are
dazzling with their "flowers of fire"-large trees ablaze with
scarlet blossoms. The olive -skinned mestizas, half -caste descen
THE CITY OF MANILA. 171
dants of emigrated Spaniard and native Indian , step daintily
along on bare feet encased in chinelas, embroidered heel-less
slippers, with gay fluttering garments of jusi, a woven mixture
of silk and pine-fibre, their loose jet-black hair reaching some
times almost to the ground-one woman was pointed out to me
whose hair was said to be eighty inches long—and their deep
dark eyes passing over you in languid surprise. The native
men are a community which has forgotten to tuck its shirt into
its trousers. Their costume consists of a pair of white trousers
and an elaborately pleated and starched shirt, with the tails left
flying about. Every one is smoking a cheroot, and every other
one has a game-cock under his arm , a constant companion and
chief treasure, and sometimes chief source of income too, until
the deadly spur on the heel of the stronger or pluckier rival
turns all its pride and brilliance into a shapeless heap of blood
and feathers in the dust, while a thousand voices execrate its
memory.
The City of Manila consists of two parts : the Spanish walled
city, called the parish of Intra Muros, and the general settlement
outside . The former is crowded with Spanish houses, the
streets being so narrow that in many of them two carriages can
not pass each other ; their overhanging upper storeys make a
perpetual twilight ; the inhabitants go out but little, and the
whole place leaves upon you an impression of darkness, of
silence, of semi-stagnation. Outside the walls are the wharves,
all the warehouses and business offices, the hotels, many large
residences of the wealthy half-caste population , and as the city
gradually merges in the country, the charming river - side
bungalows of the foreign residents, the Club, the racecourse,
and so on , till you reach the squalid but picturesque outlying
native villages. Inside the city you cannot take a hundred steps
without coming upon striking evidence of the earthquakes.
Here is &a church half broken down by the convulsion of such a
year ; there are the grass-grown ruins of the Government Palace
destroyed by another historic outburst ; in the great Cathedral
172 SPAIN .
itself the lofty roof of the transept is split and cracked in an
alarming fashion. On the shore of the bay there is an extensive
and well laid - out boulevard or embankment, called the Luneta,
where all fashionable Manila walks or drives in the evening to
the music of the military band . Behind this are the forts,
moss-covered antiquities of masonry, armed with rusty and
harmless pieces which might have come from the gun-deck of
some old galleon. The military authorities, however, make up
in strictness of regulation what they lack in effectiveness of
armament, for the foreign tennis-club was refused permission to
play upon a piece of land within hypothetical range of these
guns on the ground that it was " within the military zone," and
I myself was told, though with great courtesy, by H. E. the
Captain -General, that he must refuse me permission to take any
photographs in which a part of the fortifications appeared. It
was, of course, only for their ancient picturesqueness that I
wished to photograph them—a mop vigorously twirled would be
as effective for defence. In one fort at another place there are
two decent modern guns, nearly surrounded by brittle masonry,
and of these I purchased a large and excellent photograph taken
from inside and showing every detail ! Manila, however, if the
information is of interest to anybody, could be reduced with ease
by a couple of gunboats .
*
The history of Manila has been well divided * into four epochs:
1. The Chinese period ; 2. The Spanish and Mexican period of
monopoly before the introduction of steam traffic ; 3. The
period of open commerce with British predominance, which
commences simultaneously with the age of steam ; 4. The
period from the opening of the Suez Canal until the pre
sent time. The Chinese were the original traders with the
Philippine Islands, doing business always from their junks
to the shore. They were persecuted and massacred , but
returned in ever increasing numbers. Legaspi encouraged
them , and their numbers at the beginning of the seventeenth
By Mr. Consul Stigand , in a very interesting Report, F. O., No. 1391.
THE Boys' BAND, MANILA.
FRENCH PRISONERS AT Hanoi.
1
THE CITY OF MANILA . 173
century have been estimated at thirty thousand. When the
British occupied Manila in the course of one of the wars with
Spain, the Chinese revenged themselves by joining the invaders ,
in return for which, as soon as our ships had left, a general
massacre of Chinese was ordered and carried out , and so late as
1820, says Mr. Stigand, another massacre of Chinese and
foreigners took place. At the present day there are one hundred
thousand Chinese in the Archipelago, of whom forty thousand
are settled in Manila, where they occupy the chief shops and
do almost all the artisans' work. The second period was that
of purely Spanish commerce , from 1571 to the beginning of this
century. The Philippines were a dependence of Mexico, com
munication was forbidden except through Acapulco, from which
port the State galleons, termed Naos de Acapulco, made their
annual voyages, laden with the treasure which has rendered
their name one of the most picturesque words in history. They
were four -deckers, of about 1,500 tons, and strongly armed . In
times of war they were, as everybody knows, the easy and
greatly-sought prey of the enemy's ships. One of them , the
Pilar, captured by Anson , was a prize worth a million and half
dollars. At last foreign enemies pressed them so hard that
after the Philippines had been without a State galleon for six
years, they were discarded, and a commercial company, largely
financed by the King of Spain himself, was formed in 1765 ,
and to it was conceded the exclusive privilege of trading
between Spain and the Archipelago, except for the direct
traffic between Manila and Acapulco. This monopoly in its
turn came to an end in 1834 , and from that time the Philip
pines have been , according to Spanish ideas , open to com
merce . The opening of the Suez Canal brought Manila within
thirty-two days' steam of Barcelona, and, as Mr. Stigand avers ,
doubled the importance of the commerce of the Philippine
Islands, which now reaches the yearly sum of fifty million
dollars.
The two principal banks, and the principal firms
in Manila, are all British, and of the ships that entered and
174 SPAIN .
cleared from the port during 1893, amounting to 240 in all, 139
were British and 53 Spanish. But for the excessive port dues and
the bad harbour accommodation which compels cargoes to be
1
carried in lighters to ships lying off the Bay, foreign trade with
Manila would undoubtedly be greater than it is. The one
railway in the islands, from Manila to Dagupan, which has just
been completed by the building of a bridge over the Rio Grande
river, has also been constructed chiefly with British capital, on
which it promises ultimately to pay a good return . The fall of
silver has hit it very hard, however, since the Government
subsidy which, at par of exchange, would be £85,000, is only
£ 53,000 at the present rate . Japanese enterprise is likely to
make itself felt before long here as elsewhere, since Mr.
Nakamura, formerly Japanese Consul, is announced to be on
the point of establishing a trading company in Manila, with
a capital of half a million dollars.
Considered as a contemporary community, Manila is an
interesting example of the social product of the Roman Catholic
Church when unrestrained by any outside influence. Here the
Church has free sway, uninterrupted by alien faith, undeterred
by secular criticism. All is in the hands of the priests. The
great monasteries, with their high barred windows, shelter the
power, the wealth , the knowledge of the community. The
Dominicans, with their Archbishop, the Augustinians,, the
Recoletanos, and the Franciscans, divide the people among them,
their influence being in the order I have named them. Wise in
the knowledge of that which they have created, their own wealth
is invested in foreign banks, chiefly in Hongkong, though that of
the Dominicans, richest of all, is entrusted to the Agra Bank.
The people are plunged in superstition, and their principal
professed interest in life (after cock -fighting) is the elaborate
religious procession for which every feast-day offers a pretext.
The two newspapers are parodies of the modern press, ignorant
of news, devoid of opinion save the priests’, devoted in equal
parts to homily and twaddle. The port, for its exasperating
THE CITY OF MANILA . 175
restrictions and obstructions, is said by agents and captains to
be the most disagreeable in the world to enter or leave. The
civil authority itself is in many respects subject to the religious :
during the chief religious festivals nobody but the Arch
bishop is permitted to ride in a carriage . A large part of the
real estate of the city is in the possession of the religious
orders. If you would prosper, it is absolutely indispensable
that you should be on good terms with the priests . Their
suspicion and disfavour mean ruin. The personal liberty of
the common man may almost be said to be in their keeping.
It is hardly necessary to add that the people as a whole are idle
and dissipated, and that most of the trade is in the hands of
the foreign houses. Altogether, Manila, distant as it is from
other communities, with little intercourse to enlighten it, and
few visitors to criticise or report, is a remarkable and instruc
tive example of the free natural development of “ age-reared
priestcraft and its shapes of woe.”
Of the six characteristics of Manila - tobacco, hemp, earth
quakes, cock -fighting, priestcraft and orchids—the first two are
known to all the world. Manila cigars and Manila hemp are
household words, the yearly product of the former reaching the
colossal total of nearly 140,000,000, besides tobacco, and of the
latter 80,000 tons, of which Great Britain takes considerably
more than half. Orchid -hunters come here year after year,
travel far into the virgin forests of the interior, and emerge
again after months of absence, if fever and the native Tagalos
spare them, with a few baskets full of strange flowers which
they carry home with infinite precaution and sell for a king's
ransom . I was told of one collector who sold a plant for £500.
Tobacco is of course the staple industry, and a morning spent
in a tobacco factory is extremely interesting. Through the
kindness of Messrs. Smith, Bell & Co., the leading business
house in Manila , I visited the most important of these, “ La
Flor de la Isabella ," and followed the tobacco from its arrival
in the bale, through the seasoning -room , to the wetting and
176 SPAIN.
sorting-tubs, on the benches where it is rolled into cigars, past
the selecting-table where its colour and quality are decided by
a lightning expert, through the drying -room , and at last into
the gaily-labelled cedar box. Manila tobacco is considered here
to be superior to any in the world , except the famous “ Vuelta
Abajo ” of Cuba, and millions of Manila cigars are sold as
Havanas. In fact, the two styles, Manila and Cuban, the
former with the end cut blunt off and parallel sides, are
turned out in almost equal quantities. Five colours are dis
tinguished for sale, Maduro, Colorado Maduro, Colorado,
Colorado claro, and Claro, although the expert at the selecting.
table divides his heap into thirty different colours. The filling
of a cigar is called tripa, or tripe, the wrapper capa, or overcoat .
London takes assorted colours, while the dark brands are sent
to Spain, the light ones to New York , and the straight cheroots
to India . From this factory a million and a half cigars are
shipped every month to one London firm alone. The figures of
tobacco-making
- are astounding. At “ La Flor de la Isabella ,"
and this is only one of a score of factories in Manila, 4,000
people are employed , their hours of labour being eight, from
7 to 12 and from 2 to 5 o'clock. And from the huge “ Im
periales” to the tiny “ Coquetas ” and the twisted “ Culebras,"
4,000,000 in Manila style and 1,500,000 in Cuban style are
made menthly. But cigarette-making caps the climax. The
tobacco leaves are cut into hebra or thread, which we call
“ long-cut," and the whole process of making is done by a
single machine. I saw nine of these hard at work, and each
turns out twelve thousand in a day. It is a simple sum :
9 X 12,000 X 30 X 12, say 38,000,000 cigarettes a year from
one factory. And yet,
“ There is poison , they say, in thy kisses,
O pale cigarette ! ”
Or, from the other point of view, what an altar for Mr. Lowell's
worship of -
THE CITY OF MANILA . 177
“the kind nymph to Bacchus born
By Morpheus' daughter, she that seems
Gifted upon her natal morn
By him with fire, by her with dreams."
The great cockpit of Manila at the “ Fiesta del Pueblo ” is
one of the most remarkable spectacles in the world. Imagine a
huge circus with an arena raised to the height of the faces of
those standing; behind them tier upon tier gradually rising ;
above the arena, which is enclosed with fine wire netting, the
red draped box of the farmer — the leading Chinaman of
Manila , named Señor Palanca ; and a packed audience of four
thousand people . Squatting on the earthen floor of the ring,
inside the wire netting, are the habitués, half Chinese and half
Jlestizos, while the officials walk about-the juez de justicia or
9)
referee, the sentenciador or umpire, the casador, " go-between ”
or betting-master, and several others. Then two men enter
the ring, each carrying a bird whose spur is shielded for the
moment in a leather scabbard . One wears his hat-he is the
owner of the challenging bird-called llamado ; the other,
hatless, is the outsider or dejado, who takes up the challenge.
An official calls out the sum for which the challenger's owner
backs it, and how much is still lacking to make up the sum.
Then comes the most extraordinary scene of all . The moment
the words are out of his mouth , it rains dollars in the ring.
From those inside, from those who are within throwing distance,
apparently from everywhere, dollars pour in, without method,
without ownership, without a bargain, so far as one can judge
amid the deafening clamour. When the sums on the birds are
equal the betting master shouts Casada ! “ matched,” literally
" married," the farmer from his box on high yells Larga !
" loose them ,” and the fight begins. Sometimes it lasts ten
minutes, sometimes only a second, the first shock leaving one
bird a mangled corpse . No need to describe it -- every one knows
how a cock fights, and that it is the very gamest and pluckiest
thing that lives. The fight over , the betting -master goes round
13
178 SPAIN .
handing money back recklessly, so it seems, to anybody who
holds out a hand. I asked Señor Palanca how betting could
possibly be carried on like this. He replied that each one asks
for or takes the sum that belongs to him . But if anybody
should put out his hand for another's money ? He gave me to
understand that it was never done, and that if anybody were
detected doing so he would probably have a dozen knives in his
body on the spot. In a short time I had witnessed 105 cock
fights, and I shall never willingly see another. The entry of
the two brilliant birds ; the final adjustment of the long razor
edged spurs ; the frantic betting ; the rain of silver ; the irrita
tion of the birds, held up to pull a few feathers out of each
other in turn ; their stealthy approach ; the dead silence ; the
sudden double spring and mad beating of wings ; the fall of
one or perhaps both, the gay plumage drenched in blood , and
perhaps a wing half- severed and hanging down ; the mad yells ;
the winning bird carried carefully away, the loser picked up
like carrion and flung away with a curse ; the distribution of
money ; the instant appearance of another pair—the ceaseless
spectacle was an obsession of horror. The authorities make
a large revenue from the cockpit. For this and one other,
Señor Palanca pays 68,600 dollars a year, and there are five
other farmers.
Two other reminiscences may conclude my sketch of Manila.
One is that a hundred people were dying every day of cholera
while I was there, and several times my guide pushed me
hastily back against the wall as we threaded our way along the
narrow streets, and stuffed his camphorated handkerchief in
his mouth, muttering “ Colerico ! ” as a couple of men passed
bearing on their shoulders a long object wrapped in a sheet
and slung between two poles— the latest case going to the
hospital. One of the Chinese firemen died of cholera on board
the steamer three hours before we sailed. The other reminis
cence is that the thermometer stood at 1050 in the shade, as I
saw, and at 1600 in the sun, as I was told.
THE CITY OF MANILA . 179
The Philippine Islands are the only Spanish possession in
the Far East. Indeed, only a part of them can properly be
said to be in Spanish possession at all , as the natives of many
of the islands have never been brought under Spanish rule.
At this moment hostilities are proceeding in the almost un
known island of Mindanao, with uncertain results as yet.
Although mining has always been a failure, there is undoubt
edly vast wealth in the tropical forests of the Philippines, but
it will hardly be developed under the present régime. In spite
of her growing feet of first-class cruisers at home, Spain is
without influence in the Far East outside her own immediate
territories, and she will play little or no part in shaping its
destinies.
.
PORTUGAL IN THE FAR EAST.
CHAPTER XII.
MACAO : THE LUSITANIAN THULE .
THERE the carcase is, there also will the eagles be gathered
WHERE
together. " China is the great carcase of Asia, and round
her the eagles of Europe and America press and jostle one
another. England is entrenched at Hongkong, and many a fat
slice has she carried away. And now she is stretching out
another claw through Thibet. America has half of Shanghai,
and to and from San Francisco the bird of prey passes regularly
in his flight. France is trying hard to carry off her share of the
carcase through Tongking, and Port Arthur in the north brought
huge sums to a French syndicate. Herr Krupp has secured
Germany's chief plunder, and the Yamên of Li Hung-chang
at Tientsin is a nest of commercial intrigue on behalf of the
Fatherland , And Russia is laying a heavy paw upon China
from the north . All this is natural enough , and so far as
England and America are concerned it is the inevitable flow
of trade in the channels of least resistance. But among the
birds around this Asiatic carcase there is a beetle ; among the
birds of prey there is a parasite. The extreme south-east corner
of China is the scene of the dying struggles of a mongrel
fragment of a once intrepid and famous race — a fragment
drawing its meagre sustenance with more difficulty every day.
The hand of Vasco da Gama would have wavered upon the helm
as he rounded the Cape of Good Hope, of all the men in Europe
" the first that ever burst into the silent seas ” of the East, if he
could have foreseen to what a wretched pass and laughing-stock
183
184 PORTUGAL,
his countrymen there would come after less than four hundred
years. The daughter of a King of Portugal was at Hongkong a
few years ago. She went, of course, to visit her own people
and stand under her own flag at Macao . But a glimpse was
too much for her, and she left within twelve hours.
Yet Macao (what is the relation of its name, one wonders, to
the Piccadilly game over which Beau Brummel used to preside ,
doubtless with much profit to himself, at Watier's ?) is not such
a bad place, at first sight. Its bay is a perfect crescent. Around
this runs a broad boulevard , called the Praya Grande, shadowed
with fine old arching banyan trees. At each horn the Portuguese
flag waves over a little fort. Behind the town, green wooded
hills rise like an amphitheatre, and among the houses &
picturesque old building sticks up here and there - the
cathedral, the barracks, the military hospital, the older Fort
Monte. The whitewashed houses with their green blinds and
wide shady porticoes and verandas, from which dark eyes look
idly down upon you as you pass, recall many a little Italian and
Spanish town. A couple of yacht-like Portuguese gunboats lie
at anchor in the river beyond the bay. On Sundays and
Thursdays the band plays in the public gardens, and surely
nowhere in the world do the buglers linger so long over the
reveille and the retreat as they do here every day. To the busy
broker or merchant of Hongkong, who runs over here in the
summer from Saturday to Monday, after a week of hard work
and perspiration, coining dollars in a Turkish bath , Macao is a
tiny haven of rest, where the street is free from the detestable
ceaseless chatter of Chinamen , where the air is fresh and the
hills green , and where a little " flutter " at fan -tan is a miniature
and amusing substitute for the daily struggle with exchanges
and settlements and short sales .
And Macao has its glorious past, too. After they had
rounded the Cape the Portuguese occupied a great part of the
coast of India, sent an Embassy to the Emperor of China, and
occupied Ningpo. There one night 1,200 of them were
THE COLONY OF MACAO . 185
murdered . So they resettled a place called Chinchew, where
the same fate overtook them. Nothing daunted, they came
further south, and after helping the Chinese to destroy hordes
of pirates were permitted to settle in peace on a small peninsula
near the mouth of one of the two river approaches to Canton.
Here Macao was founded in 1557, and up to 1848 the Portuguese
paid a yearly rental of 500 dollars in presents or money. In
1582 when the Crown of Portugal passed to Spain , Macao
followed suit. When it went back again in 1640 in the person
of John IV. of Portugal, Macao again changed its flag and made
" a great donation ” to the new king. At this time it was
described as a melhor ê mas prospero columna que os Portu
gueyes tem em todo o Oriente " —the best and most prosperous
colony that the Portuguese possess in all the East. Then its
population was 19,500. By 1830 it had dwindled to 4,628, of
so mixed a blood that only 90 persons were registered as of pure
Portuguese descent. To-day it holds 63,500 Chinese, 4,476 so
called Portuguese, and 78 others—in all 68,086. What is the
explanation of this sudden enormous multiplication of its
population ? Like Satan, Macao was “ by merit raised to
that bad eminence." It won back its ancient prosperity by
offering its houses and its traders as the last refuge in the East
to that hell upon earth, the legalised coolie traffic. When
Hongkong stopped this for ever under the British flag by the
Chinese Passengers Act of 1854, Macao opened eager and
unscrupulous arms to the “ labour agents,” and for nearly
twenty years, when public opinion became too strong for
even this mongrel and far-away community, the little city
flourished, its inhabitants made fortunes, the Praya Grande
was crowded every evening by a gay and gaudy throng, the
streets were beautified , the cathedral was rebuilt, and the
Portuguese colony became famous throughout the East for
its elaborate religious processions and its eloquent priests.
And during these twenty years uncounted thousands of coolies
were decoyed, entrapped , stolen , and pirated to Macao, kept
186 PORTUGAL .
prisoners in the gloomy " barracoons, " whose grated windows
are still everywhere visible, theoretically certified as voluntary
contract labourers by an infamous profit-sharing procurador, and
then shipped to toil, and starve, and rot, and die in mines and
fields and plantations everywhere, literally “'from China to
Peru ." As a single specimen of the traffic it is commonly
affirmed that of 4,000 coolies sent to the foul guano-pits of
the Chincha Islands, not a single soul returned. Altogether
500,000 Chinese were exported viâ Macao, before the traffic
was finally extinguished in 1875. There has been lately a
semi-surreptitious attempt to revive the trade. A company
was formed to supply a million Chinese to South America ,
and a ship called the Tetartos actually carried 300 “ free
labourers ” to Brazil in October of last year, concerning
whose destination and fate there is still great uncertainty.
And it has been rumoured that a new and influential coolie
emigration “ ring ” is being planned , but fortunately public
opinion and Chinese official opposition may be counted upon
to thwart its efforts .
A retribution has fallen upon Macao—it seems as though the
curses of the murdered coolies have come back to it. Not a& soul
walks the beautiful Praya ; the harbour is silting up so fast, from
the detritus brought down by the Pearl and West rivers, between
which Macao is situated, that in a few years there will not be as
many feet of water in it ; even the Chinese are leaving it — the
last of rats to quit a sinking ship ; its miserable inhabitants,
interbred from Chinese, Portuguese, Malay, Indian, and unknown
human jetsam to such an extent that the few Portuguese troops
here regard the Chinaman as socially superior to the “ Mestiços,"
have fallen into utter apathy ; they hardly show themselves out
of doors, they subsist on monies furnished to them by their
pluckier relatives in foreign employ in Hongkong and elsewhere,
and the military band in the public gardens plays to a score of
loafers. There is no manufacture, no social life, and almost no
trade since the smuggling of opium has been stopped by Sir
THE COLONY OF MACAO. 187
Robert Hart's recent treaty, giving Macao in perpetuity to
the Portuguese on the condition that its Customs should be
virtually controlled by his staff.
Another illegitimate source of income was lost to Macao in
1885. The most intense interest is taken in China—an interest
comparable only to that of the great sporting events of the year
with us — in the official literary and military examinations in
Peking, and upon the results of these every other man in China
desires to have a wager . A lottery to this end, called the
Wei-sing Lottery, has existed for a long time. The Chinese
Government have made more or less sincere efforts to put it
down ; indeed, in 1874 the Emperor went so far as to cashier
the Governor-General Ying Han for sanctioning its establish
ment in Canton. The authorities of Macao, of course, saw the
possibilities of an enormous profit herein. They therefore
farmed out the lottery to a Chinaman , who smuggled the
tickets from Portuguese into Chinese territory, and who paid
them 353,000 dollars a year for the privilege. Against this the
Chinese were powerless, so in 1885, in self-defence, they con
sented to the Wei-sing in China, with the result that the sum
the monopolist was able to pay the government of Macao fell
instantly to 36,000 dollars. Trade is going the way of the coolie
traffic, the opium-smuggling and the lottery revenue , but the
peculiar genius of Macao is not yet at an end . According to the
British Vice- Consul, a new source of income has been invented
in what is called “ lie " tea , the legitimate tea trade having
almost completely fallen off. Mr. Joly writes : “ This term
sufficiently explains its quality, for there is no doubt that the
mixture could only be called tea in its correct acceptation
through a considerable sacrifice of truth. These teas are
manufactured from exhausted tea-leaves , which are dried ,
re - fired , and mixed with a certain proportion of genuine tea
and of seeds and dust. Most of this preparation proceeds to
6
Hamburg , where no ' Adulteration Act ' is in force ; but a
good deal of mystery enshrouds its ultimate fate, for there are
188 PORTUGAL .
various versions as to its disposal, some parties averring that
it is consumed by the lower classes, others that it is sold to
ships, and others that a quantity of it probably leaks into
England as well. From what I can gather, some of this lie ‘ '
tea is often packed in chests labelled best Congou,' and
shipped to India for the lower classes . But tastes differ, just
as the tea sent to France and the Continent generally is a
mere conglomeration of stalks and twigs, and to all appearances
no tea at all.” Macao, however, is practically being wiped out
of existence by Hongkong, with its enormously greater capital,
enterprise and freedom of trade. So far from attempting to
meet this competition, the Macanese authorities go blindly
along the old road of commercial restriction , the port dues at
Macao being exactly three times what they are at Hongkong.
In 1854 the Abbé Huc wrote as follows : “ Aujourd'hui Macao
n'est guère plus qu'un souvenir ; l'établissement anglais de
Hongkong lui a donné le coup mortel ; il ne lui reste de son
antique prospérité que de belles maisons sans locataires, et dans
quelques années, peut-être, les pavires européens, en passant
devant la presqu'île où fut cette fière et riche colonie portugaise,
ne verront plus qu'un rocher nu , désolé, tristement battu par
les vagues, et où le pêcheur chinois viendra faire sécher ses
)
noirs filets. " Although this prophecy is not yet wholly fulfilled,
each year brings its realisation nearer. One peculiar source of
revenue, however, remains — the sale of postage-stamps. When
ever Macao desires a lift for its treasury it is able to secure it
by abandoning one set of stamps and issuing another, when
philatelists from all over the world eagerly add it to their
inflated collections . Our consul declares that he has “ endless
applications from different countries for stamps of this colony ."
Portugal doles out to Macao a yearly pittance, and its other
chief source of revenue is the 150,000 dollars it draws annually
from its gaming -tables. For, as I have said, whenever one
wickedness was stopped in Macao it was quick to find another,
and to -day it is the only place in the Far East where you can
THE COLONY OF MACAO . 189
play fan -tan under a foreign flag. But its history is almost
closed, the days of its disappearing trade and its decomposing
population are numbered , and unless a Cement Company which
has been started on a small island leased from the bishop , or
the establishment of bonded warehouses, as suggested by the
Chinese Customs, should bring back a semblance of prosperity,
this " gem of the orient earth and open sea ” will have dis
appeared like other places and peoples which were, sinned too
much , and are not.
One classic memory, however, may save Macao from oblivion .
It was here that the exiled Camoens composed the greater part
of his Lusiads. On one of the hillsides overlooking the bay is an
extensive old shrubbery, where narrow paths twist in and out
among gnarled and ancient trees, and where half - a -dozen
enormous boulders heaped together form a natural archway or
grotto-the Gruta de Camoēs. Camoens was appointed Provedor
dos defuntos e ausentes -- Commissary for the Defunct and the
Absent - in Macao, and is supposed to have come here every day
to work at his great task. The place, which is now known as
" Camoens' Garden ," belongs to a family named Marques, and
by them a remarkably fine bronze bust of the half-blind poet ,
inscribed “ Luiz de Camoes, Nasceo 1524, Morreo 1580," was
placed in the arch in 1840, upon a pedestal bearing six cantos
of the Lusiads, while tributes to him in half- a - dozen languages
are engraved upon stone tablets placed around . There is
a fine sonnet of Tasso's and various verses in Portuguese and
Spanish, while Sir John Bowring's exaggeration is unfortunately
conspicuous :
“ Gem of the orient earth and open sea ,
Macao, that in thy lap and on thy breast
Has gathered beauties all the loveliest
On which the sun smiles in his majesty ; "
and so on . One degree worse in style, though a thousand times
truer are some wonderful Latin verses perpetrated by a Mr.
David , who laments
190 PORTUGAL.
“ Sed jam vetustas aut manus impia
Prostravit, eheu ! Triste silentium
Regnare nunc solum videtur
Per scopulos, virides et umbras ! "
Among all, however, the sincerest seems to me to be some
quaint lines in French, said to have been written by the com
mander of a French man - of -war which visited Macao in 1827,
and ingeniously dedicated as follows :
“ Au Grand Luis de Camoens, Portugais d'origine Castillane,
Soldat religieux, voyageur et poète exilé,
L'humble Louis de Rienzi, Français d'origine Romaine,
Voyageur religieux, soldat et poète expatrié.”
This poet too was doleful, for apostrophising Camoens he
says :
66
• Agité plus que toi, je fuyai dans les champs,
Et le monde, et mon cæur, l'envie et les tyrans . ”
What the Macanese of to -day think of Camoens may be
judged from the fact that I tried in vain to borrow or buy in
Macao a copy of the Lusiads, to see what are the stanzas
engraved on the pedestal, the chiselling having become illegible.
Camoens himself was shipwrecked off Malacca on his way home
when pardoned , and swam ashore with the manuscript of the
Lusiads, losing everything else. Curiously enough, by the way,
on leaving the grotto and turning into the old half-deserted
cemetery I came across an old -fashioned granite monument,
with this inscription : “ Sacred to the Memory of the Right
Hon . Lord Henry John Spencer Churchill, 4th son of George
5th Duke of Marlborough, Captain of H.B.M.S. Druid, and
Senior Officer in the China Seas . Departed this life in Macao
roads, 2nd June, 1840. This monument is erected by His
Officers and Petty Officers in testimony of their Esteem and
Affection .”
Finally, Macao, as I have said, is the Monaco of the East,
THE COLONY OF MACAO . 191
and from its gaming-tables its impecunious government reaps
150,000 dollars a year, the price said to be paid by the syndi
cate of Chinese proprietors for the monopoly. The game is a
peculiarly Chinese one, well fitted to afford full scope to the
multitude of refinements and hypothetical elaborations with
which the Chinaman, the greatest gambler on earth, loves to
surround his favourite vice . It is played on a mat-covered
table, with a small square of sheet lead and a heap of artificial
gilded “ cash ."
.” On one side stands the croupier, on the adjoin
ing side sits the dealer, and between them , a little to the rear, is
the desk and treasury of the cashier. The sides of the leaden
square are called one, two, three, and four. The dealer takes
up from the heap as many “ cash " as he can grasp with both
hands and places them apart upon the table. Then the
players, who sit and stand round the other two sides of the
table, make their bets, that is, they place at either side of the
square any sum from 50 cents to 500 dollars, or at either
corner any sum up to 1,500 dollars. When all have done ,
the dealer slowly counts the heap out in fours, and the last
remaining four or three or two or one, as the case may be, is
the winning number. Those who have placed their money at
the corresponding side of the square, which is called playing fan,
are paid three to one ; those who have staked at the corner,
covering two numbers or playing tan, are paid even money if
either number wins. From all winnings the bank deducts eight
per cent. Besides the above ways, there are many other of
infinite complication , scored with buttons and cards and ivory
counters, which nobody except a Celestial can possibly under
stand . But they play with the greatest eagerness, the coolie
who works a week to save his dollar, the shopkeeper who
calmly stakes his watch and chain if he is short of ready money
and the well- to - do merchant, who watches the game for half an
hour to judge of the chances and then lays down his hundred
dollar bill and walks imperturbably away whatever the result may
be. Of course everybody asks, cannot the dealer after years of
192 PORTUGAL .
practice take up a fixed number of “cash ” according to the
sums staked upon the table ? It seems probable, but I have
watched him for a long time and I am convinced that if he could
it would in nearly all cases be impracticable, for many sufficient
reasons . A few years ago it was common enough to see a
thousand dollars on the table for a single deal, when the
Hongkong brokers were rich, and came over on Saturday nights.
Conspicuous in Macao are the following lines by S. de Passos,
chiselled in marble over an arch :
“ Nacão que dormes, do sepulchro a borda ,
Ergue-te , surge , como outr' ora , ovante !
Teu genio antigo, teu valor recorda,
E aprende n'elle a caminhar avante ! "
But the appeal comes too late. Portugal had her Eastern
glory, as she had also what Richard Burton called her “ mani
fold villainies." Her share in the politics of the Far East is gone
for ever, and Macao is not even an inspiring monument to its
memory .
.
CHINA.
14
CHAPTER XIII.
PEKING AND ITS INHABITANTS.
As soon as you are safely on Chinese soil at Tientsin you
begin to ask how far it is to Peking and how you can get
there. You are told eighty miles by road , and a hundred and
twenty by river, and that there are three methods of travel open
to you — cart, horseback, and boat. I chose the second, hired
a couple of ponies and a mafoo (groom ), and thankfully left the
noisy, narrow, and nasty streets of the native city of Tientsin
behind me at seven o'clock one bright Sunday morning. Then
forty miles of jog-trot and canter along a narrow path across a
landscape of dry mud, and a night at a Chinese inn—a series of
small cold, bare guest-rooms surrounded by a hollow square of
stalls. To bed at eight, up again at three in order that the cart
which carries the baggage and bedding and food might start
and reach Peking before the gates are closed at five o'clock.
A trip to Peking is good for two moments of interest and
satisfaction — two real sensations of traveller's delight. The
first is at first sight of the walls of the great city, after the
second dull ride of forty miles. You enter through a gate of
no proportions or pretensions, you ride for a quarter of an hour
among hovels and pigs, and then suddenly on climbing a bank
a striking sight bursts upon you . A great tower of many storeys
forms the corner of a mighty wall ; from each of its storeys
& score cannon -mouths yawn ; for a mile or more the wall
stretches in a perfectly straight line, pierced with a thousand
embrasures, supported by a hundred buttresses. Then you halt
195
196 CHINA .
your pony and sit and try to realise that another of the desires
of your life is gratified ; that you are at last really and truly
before the walls of the city that was old centuries before the
wolf and the woodpecker found Romulus and Remus ; in the
wonderland of Marco Polo, father of travellers ; on the ere
of exploring the very capital and heart of the Celestial Empire.
This is the first of your two precious moments. When you ride
on you discover that the cannon -mouths are just black and
white rings painted on boards , and the swindle — fortunately you
do not know it then - is your whole visit to Peking in a nutshell.
The place is a gigantic disappointment .
Although the temptation is great to write marvels about a
place one has come so far to see—to play Polo, so to speak,
on one's own account—the truth is that Peking is not worth the
trip. It is worth coming to study, but not to see. The nose
is the only sense appealed to by the capital of China . It is not
half as picturesque a place as Seoul, nor a quarter as interest
ing as San Francisco . Moreover, you cannot see nearly as
much of it to -day as you could a few years ago. One by one
thie show -places have been closed to foreigners , and the Marble
Bridge, the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven —to mention
only the first that come to mind--are now hermetically closed
against the barbarian, and neither rank nor money nor impu
dence can force an entrance . Even the ascents to the top of
the wall--the only place where a foreigner can walk in comfort
and decency -are now barred , and you must find a bribable
sentry . And if by reason of strength or luck you do get into
one of the forbidden spots you are very likely to have a narrow
escape —as I had at the Great Llama Temple - of never getting
out again.
The history of Peking is to be read in the walls which
surround it in ruin or in preservation, and if you trace them
within and without the city (I did not) they will show you
where lay the “ Nanking ” of the Khitan Tartars in 986 ; how
the famous “ Golden Horde "” of Kin Tartars laid out their
1
I
1 FIRST
THE
PEKING
OF
.SIGHT
THE į K
PUBLE inti i
wir ?'
AST RIM
N
E
TILD
R
PEKING AND ITS INHABITANTS . 197
capital of Chung-tu in 1151 ; what Genghiz Khan and his
Mongols thought a great city should be in 1215 ; how the
immortal Khublai Khan constructed Khanbalik , “ the city of
the Khan,” a century later_Polo calls it Cambaluc ; and much
more interesting history down to the advent of the present
Manchus in 1644. And it is the walls, in excellent preserva
tion, that mark the divisions of the Peking of to -day - first,
the so- called “ Chinese " or Outer City, more properly the
Southern City ; adjoining it the Inner or “ Tartar City,"
properly called Northern ; inside this the “ Imperial City ,”
and inside this again, like the inmost pill -box in a nest, the
"Forbidden City ," the actual Imperial residence itself. The
ethnological distinctions of Chinese and Tartar are practically
effaced ; the only distinction for the flying visitor is that the
shops are in the Chinese City, while most of the temples , public
buildings, and “ sights,” together with all the foreign residences,
are in the Tartar City, and that the wall of the latter is much
the larger and more massive structure. The ground - plan of
Peking is supposed to represent a human body, the palace being
the heart, but it is better described as being laid out on the
chess-board plan of American cities west of Chicago. There
are two great streets which intersect at a central point, and from
all parts of these other streets, lanes and alleys run in straight
lines. Every corner in Peking seems to be a right angle ; there
are no winding thoroughfares. The houses are all very low with
flat roofs, and I did not see a single first-class Chinese dwelling-.
house in the whole city. But it is the streets of Peking that
strike the observer first, and fade last from his recollection.
Whether wide or narrow, dark alley or main artery, they are
entirely unpaved—the native alluvial soil and the native sewage
form every Pekingese pathway. From this state of things spring
sereral curious consequences. The roads are so uneven , the
holes in them so numerous and deep, the ridges so high and
steep, that no vehicle with springs can navigate half a mile.
The only conveyance, therefore, is the famous Peking cart, an
198 CHINA .
enormously strong and heavy square two -wheeled, covered
vehicle, drawn by a mule, the passenger squatting tailor- fashion
inside and the driver sitting on the shaft. If you go out to
dinner or your wife goes to church, this is practically your
only vehicle, as there are very few chairs in Peking. But to
be rolled about and jolted in one of these is simple torture,
and if you do not hold on closely to the hand -rails inside you
run no little risk of having your brains dashed out. After a
good shower of rain in Peking you cannot set foot out of doors ;
the mud is often three feet deep, and the centre of the street
sometimes a couple of feet higher than the sides. But on the
other hand, if no rain comes there is the dust, and a Peking
dust-storm , once experienced, is a dreadful memory for ever.
After a drought the dust is ankle-deep, every night at sunset it
is watered with the liquid sewage of the city, and so it has come
to be composed of dried pulverised earth and dried pulverised
filth in about equal proportions. And when the storm comes
you are blinded and choked by it ; it penetrates your clothing
to the skin ; windows and doors and curtains and covers do not
stop it for an instant ; people say it even finds its way into
air-tight boxes. So whether the barometer indicates “ rain "
or " fair, ” you are equally badly off. The Secretary of the
British Legation says in his latest Report : “ The foreign com
munity started a roads' committee with the praiseworthy desire
of cleansing and levelling the foul streets immediately around
the legations and Customs residences. A water - cart was pur
chased and created no small sensation among the populace on
its first appearance ; but only a torrent of rain suffices to lay
the deep dust of Peking, and the efforts to remove the filth of
the roads have proved inadequate and almost abortive.” Few
European travellers, he adds, have visited Peking during the
past three years .
To learn what the Chinaman really thinks about the foreigner,
you must go to Peking : no other city in China will serve so
well. And the discovery will be far from flattering to your
PEKING AND ITS INHABITANTS . 199
national pride. Peking is the only place I have ever visited
where the mere fact of being a foreigner, a stranger in speech,
dress, and manners, did not of itself secure one a certain amount
of consideration, or at any rate make one the object of useful in
terest.. Here the precise opposite is the case. The " foreign devil ”
is despised at sight - not merely hated, but regarded with sincere
and profound contempt. " If the Tsungli Yamên were abolished.”
said a Peking diplomat to me, “our lives would not be safe here
for twenty -four hours . The people just refrain from actually
molesting us because they have learned that they will be very
severely punished if they do.” At home we cherish the belief
that we are welcome in China, that the Chinese are pleased to
learn of our Western civilisation, that they are gradually and
gladly assimilating our habits and views, and that the wall of
prejudice is slowly breaking down. It would hardly be pos
sible to be more grossly and painfully mistaken. The people to
a man detest and despise us (I am speaking, of course, of the
real Chinese, not of the anglicised Chinese of Hongkong and
elsewhere, who are but a drop in the ocean of Celestial
humanity) ; and as for the rulers, it will not be far from the
truth to say that the better they know us, the less they like us.
Let us say that you start out in the morning for a prowl in
Peking. What are your relations with the people you meet ?
First of all, of course , they crowd round you whenever you
stop, and in a minute you are the centre of a mass of solid
humanity, which is eating horrible stuff, which is covered with
vermin , which smells worse than words can tell, and which is
quite likely to have small-pox about it. As for taking a photo
graph in the streets, it is out of the question. The only way I
could manage this was to place my camera on the edge of a
bridge, where they could not get in front of the lens, and then I
was in imminent danger of being pushed into the canal, as the
bridges have no rail or parapet. The crowd jostles you, feels
your clothes with its dirty hands, pokes its nose in your face,
keeping up all the time (I was generally with a friend who
200 CHINA .
understood Chinese) a string of insulting and obscene remarks,
with accompanying roars of laughter. By and by the novelty
and fun of this wear off, and you get first impatient and then
infuriated. But beware, above all things, of striking or even
laying a finger on one of these dirty wretches . That would be
probably a fatal mistake. They will do nothing but talk and
push ; but if you should hit one of them, you would be more
than likely not to get away alive, or at least without bad injuries.
But suppose that you walk steadily and imperturbably on ?
The pedestrian you meet treats you with much less considera
tion than one of his own countrymen ; the children run to the
door to cry “ Kueidzu ! " - " devil !” — at you. They have other
indescribable and worse ways of insulting you. Wben a member
of a foreign legation was riding underneath the wall, a brick was
dropped upon him from the top. It just missed his head and
struck the horse behind the saddle. The Chinese children,
again, have an original way of amusing themselves at the
expense of the foreign devils. A child will provide itself with
a big fire -cracker, and then sit patiently at the door till he sees
you in the distance coming along on your pony. Then he will
run out, drop the cracker in the road, light the slow -match with
a fire -stick, and retire to a safe place to watch events. With
devilish precocity he generally manages to cause it to explode
just under your pony's nose ; and if you are lucky enough to
keep your seat and pull up a mile or so in the direction you do
not wish to go, he doubtless considers that his experiment has only
been a moderate success. If you should break your neck and
be left there dead in the road, that would confer imperishable
lustre upon his family and neighbourhood. When this has
happened to you once or twice, you learn to jog about the
Celestial City with short reins and your knees stuck well into
your saddle, ready for developments at any moment. I was
told that Lady Walsham's chair was actually stopped in the
open street and she herself grossly insulted , that a member of
our Consular service was nearly killed outside the Llama temple,
6.
12
,PEKING
LEGATION
BRITISH
.THE
PEKING AND ITS INHABITANTS . 201
and that there are few foreigners who have not had some un
pleasant experience or other. No doubt it is sometimes the
foreigner's own fault, but a life -member of the Aborigines
Protection Society would fail to get on smoothly at all times .
The foreign legations in Peking are in a street near the chief
gate of the Tartar City, known among the foreigners as
“' Legation Street.” It is half a mile long, either mud or dust,
as level as a chopping sea , with here and there its monotony of
blank walls or dirty native houses broken by a strong gateway
with a couple of stone lions in front. These are the legations;
and inside the gate you find pleasant gardens and generally
spacious and comfortable foreign houses, sometimes built ad hoc
and sometimes converted to their present use from Chinese
temples. So long as you are the stranger within the gates, you
are extremely well off ; but as soon as the porter shuts them
behind you—well, the residents in Peking say it is a charming
place, but for my part I can only believe in their veracity at the
expense of their taste. I would rather live in Seven Dials or
Five Points . When your guide says, “ This is Legation Street,"
you laugh , it is so dirty, so miserable, with its horrible crowd of
dogs and pigs and filthy children . But when you have lived in
it for a few days you laugh no more : you count the hours till
you can get away.
What, however, about the “ sights ” of Peking ? To
be truthful is to declare frankly that there are almost
none. Much the finest building that I saw-indeed, the only
one not in positive dirt and decay-is the entrance pavilion
in the grounds of the British Legation, shown in my illus
tration . That is a massive wooden roof, richly carved and
gorgeously coloured, supported upon many columns corre
spondingly decorated. One day I was riding with a member
of the Russian Legation, and he said , “ By the way, wouldn't
you like to see the Imperial Chinese War Office ? ” " Very
much indeed," I replied enthusiastically, supposing it to be
something splendid . So we turned into a wretched by-street,
202 CHINA .
and steered our ponies round the mud-holes and the heaps of gar
bage till we reached it-a broken -down, weather- stained, rotting
structure, with a waving field of weeds on the roof, and a guard
lounging at the door one degree more dirty and dilapidated than
the place itself. And all the other offices of State —— the Board
of Rites, the Board of Punishments, the Astronomical Board,
and the rest-- are facsimiles of the Board of War. Professor
Douglas says, in the Encyclopædia Britannica, that the halls of
the palace, " for the magnificence of their proportions and bar
baric splendour, are probably not to be surpassed anywhere."
Whatever may be his authority for this statement - I thought no
foreigner had ever had an opportunityof examining them - nothing
else in Peking suggests any magnificence and splendour. The
yellow - roofed buildings of the palace are closely walled in , and
no foreign foot passes the threshold of the “ Forbidden
City" ; but I have looked at them through my glass from the
top of the highest building in the neighbourhood, and they
appear commonplace enough. And when the Emperor recently
quitted the palace in great pomp, and after him came the
solemn procession of the Records, an experienced eye- witness
said of the latter, " Like everything Chinese, it was disappoint
ing, tawdry , and sordid , " and added, “ It is safe to conjecture
that the Emperor's own retinue, could it be seen , would reveal a
similar state of affairs." The Temple of Heaven, with its semi
circular marble altar and bright blue dome, as you look down
upon it from the wall, seems to be in good preservation , and &
really impressive and beautiful structure ; but not a single other
place or thing did I see that suggested the " gorgeous East " in
the remotest degree.
Of interesting places, however, there are certainly a few
in Peking . First among these comes the wall itself. It is built
of large bricks , filled in with sand, and is fifty feet high , sixty
feet wide at the base, and forty feet at the top. Peking, seen
from the wall, is a stretch of flat roofs, more than half hidden in
foliage, from which here and there a tower or a pagoda or high
PEKING AND ITS INHABITANTS . 203
roofed temple projects. Not a trace of the actual dirt and dis
comfort and squalor is visible ; the air is fresh, the smells are
absent, and the Celestial capital is at its best. A walk of a
mile along the top brings you to the famous Observatory, and
the marvellous bronzes of the Jesuit Father Verbiest, who
made and erected them in 1668. Below the wall, in a shady
garden , are the much older ones which Marco Polo saw, less
accurate astronomically, but even more beautiful for their grace
and delicacy, and linking one's imagination closely with the
romantic past ; for this great globe and sextant and armillary
zodiacal sphere were constructed in 1279 by the astronomer of
Khublai Khan. Either the climate or their own intrinsic excel
lence has preserved them so well that every line and bit of
tracery is as perfect to our eyes as it was to those of the great
Khan himself.
Then there is the Examination Hall. The Government of
China is a vast system of competitive examination tempered by
bribery, and this Kao Ch’ang is its focus. It is aa miniature city,
with one wide artery down the middle, hundreds of parallel
streets running from this on both sides, each street mathematic
ally subdivided into houses, a big semblance of a palace at one
end of the main street, and little elevated watch-towers here and
there. But the palace is merely the examiners' hall, the streets
are three feet wide, and one side of them is a blank wall, the
towers are for the “ proctors ” to spy upon cribbing, and the
houses are perfectly plain brick cells measuring 38 inches by 50.
In the enclosure there are no fewer than fourteen thousand of
these. After emerging successfully from a competitive examina
tion in the capital of his own province, the Chinese aspirant
comes to Peking to compete for the second degree. He is put
into one of these cells, two boards are given him for a seat and
& table, and there he remains day and night for fourteen days.
Every cell is full, an army of cooks and coolies waits upon the
scholars, and any one caught cribbing or communicating with
his neighbour is visited with the severest punishment. The
204 CHINA .
condition of the place when all these would-be literati are thus
cooped up for a fortnight, with Chinese ideas of sanitation, may
be imagined, and it is not surprising to learn that many die.
But what joy for the successful ones ! They are received in
procession at the gates of their native town, and everybody
hastens to congratulate their parents upon having given such a
son to the world. By and by there is another examination in
which the already twice successful compete against each other,
thousands again flock to Peking, and the winners are honoured
by the Son of Heaven himself, and their names inscribed for ever
upon marble tablets. Better still, they are provided with Govern.
ment posts, and this is the reward of their efforts. But the
subject-matter of their examination is simply and solely the
letter- perfect knowledge of the works of Confucius, the history
of China, and the art of composition and character-forming as
practised by the great masters of old. In the works of the
masters, argue the Chinese, is all wisdom ; he who knows these
works best is therefore the wisest man ; whatever needs doing,
the wisest man can do it best. So the successful literati are sent
all over the country to be magistrates and generals and com
manders of ships and engineers and everything else haphazard,
without the slightest acquaintance of any kind with their subject,
densely and marvellously ignorant and impenetrably conceited.
An idea of the part this Examination Hall plays in the con
temporary life of China may be gained from the fact that in
June, 1894 , no fewer than 6,896 candidates presented themselves
in Peking, of whom 320 were successful, including the son of a
well-known Formosa millionaire, who was promptly made
Assistant Imperial High Commissioner of Agriculture in
Formosa. The Marquis Tsêng was one of the great Chinamen
of the present day who did not enter public life by this triple
portal to invincible incompetence.
The shrine of the Master himself is really an impressive spot.
The great hall and its columns are of bare wood , the floor is of
plain stone, and do adornment mars the supreme solemnity of
THE EXAMINATION CELLS, PEKING.
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PEKING AND ITS INHABITANTS. 205
the place. In the middle, upon a square altar, stands a small
tablet of red lacquer, upon which is written in Chinese and
Manchu, “ The tablet of the soul of the most holy ancestral
teacher Confucius." Up the marble terrace to this hall the
Emperor comes to worship twice a year, and the Chinese do
really hold this place in some veneration , for when I offered its
miserable guardian five dollars to let me photograph it, he re
pulsed the offer with much scorn . Yet five dollars would have
been a small fortune for him .
One experience .of Celestial sight-seeing I am not likely to
forget, and should be very unwilling to repeat. Among the
places of interest in Peking the Yung Ho Kung, the Great
Llamaserai or Llama Temple, ranks very high. It is a monas
tery of Mongol Buddhism or Shamanism , and contains over a
thousand Mongol and Thibetan monks ruled over by a “ Living
Buddha ." No foreigner, however, had been in it for several
years, as the inmates are a rough and lawless lot, practically
beyond the control of the Chinese authorities, and the last party
that entered it was rudely handled. It is regarded as all the
more sacred, too, because an Emperor was born in one of its
temples before they were given to the Llamas. When I spoke
of going there both my mafoo and “ boy ” told me that
strangers could no longer get in, the former adding that he had
accompanied different employers there six times without success .
A friend in Peking, however, told me that one of the priests,
called the Pai Llama, whatever that may mean, had come to
him a few weeks before to borrow five dollars, and had said as
an inducement that if he or any of his friends wanted to see the
Llamaserai he would take them over it himself without a fee.
So my friend gave me his big red Chinese card with the Pai
Llama's name on it as an introduction , and a member of the
Legation, who spoke Chinese, was good enough to go with me,
as he was equally anxious to see the place. It is on the out
skirts of Peking, nearly an hour's ride from Legation Street, and
we passed in through two or three gates from the street without
206 CHINA .
any difficulty. Then some boy-neophytes or acolytes — we knew
them from their shaven heads — ran ahead of us and warned the
priests, who shut the doors. After a quarter of an hour's
colloquy we bribed the doorkeeper to tell the Pai Llama, and
by and by the latter appeared, a small dirty individual, who
succeeded with much difficulty in persuading the others to open
the gates and let us step just inside. Then he immediately
disappeared and we saw him no more. After another half-hour
of bargaining we agreed to pay them a certain moderate sum to
show us the four chief sights of the Temple. The first of these
was the great Buddha, a wooden image 70 feet high , richly
ornamented and clothed , holding an enormous lotus in each
hand, and with the traditional jewel on his breast. In each
section of his huge gold crown sat a small Buddha, as perfect
and as much ornamented as the great one. His toe measured
21 inches. On each side of him hung a huge scroll 75 feet
long, bearing Chinese characters, and a series of galleries,
reached by several flights of stairs, surrounded him. The
expression of his great bronze face was singularly lofty, and I
was seized with a great desire to photograph him. The crowd
of monks was outside the locked door, one only entering with
us, so I hinted to him that if he permitted me to take a photo
graph a dollar might be forthcoming. The dollar interested
him , but he had no idea what a photograph was. After a while
my companion succeeded in explaining what the Chinese call
the " shadow - picture, " and then he would not hear of it, declar
ing that the whole temple would instantly fall down if such a
thing were attempted. I offered two dollars, three , four, five,
ten, and then, my eagerness increasing with the difficulty,
twenty. At last he said that for twenty dollars he would agree
to smuggle me in next morning to do it, as if any of the other
priests knew, there would be trouble. So we passed on to the
other sights — two magnificent bronze lions, and a wonderful
bronze urn ; many temples filled with strange idols, hung with
thousands of silk hangings, and laid with Thibetan carpets ; all
PEKING AND ITS INHABITANTS . 207
sorts of bronze and enamel altar utensils, presented by different.
emperors, among them two elephants in cloisonné, said to be
the best specimens of such work in China ; and the great hall,
with its prayer-benches for all the monks, where they worship
every afternoon at five.In a couple of hours we had seen
everything, and came out again into the central courtyard.
Here were already a hundred or more monks waiting for us, all
with their heads shaven like billiard-balls , and on the whole a
set of as thorough -paced blackguards as could be imagined ;
filthy, vermin -covered, bloated, scrofulous, and with the marks
of nameless vices stamped clearly on many of their faces. “ I
shall be glad when we are out of this,” I remarked, and my
companion heartily assented. But easier said than done. They
crowded round us with brutal inquisitiveness, pulled us about,
shouted to us, and laughed grossly as half-rational gorillas
might do. My companion said to them that we were very
much pleased with our visit, and we slowly edged toward the
door . But there seemed to be a sort of tacit conspiracy
to crowd us in any other direction . They did not actually
oppose us, but somehow we could not get there. It was as
though they did not like to let us get away , yet were conscious
that they had no excuse for detaining us. After a quarter
of an hour of this we began to get annoyed . Just then we all
came to a sort of tunnel gate in a wall, leading from one court
to another, my companion and one crowd first, I and another
crowd afterwards, and my “ boy " and a third crowd last. As
I was passing, a man whom I took from his dress to be a sort
of doorkeeper sprang out and addressed me volubly. Not
understanding him I took no notice, when he grasped my arm
to detain me . I shook him off and was passing on when
suddenly he seized me by the collar with both hands and flung
me violently back against the wall. At such a moment one
does not reflect upon consequences , and I did what anybody else
would have done. The moment his grasp quitted my collar I
struck him. He recovered himself, and the misunderstanding
208 CHINA .
was about to be prolonged vigorously on both sides when a very
old priest in a fine yellow robe emerged from a doorway and
began to play the peacemaker with many smiles, holding us
each by the hand . A second's reflection showed me the
extreme folly of getting into a quarrel in such a place, so I
responded effusively to the venerable Llama's overtures, and,
>
calling my “ boy, ” bade him explain that if the priest bad
anything to say to us we should be very glad to hear it, but that
if he laid a finger on us he would get into trouble. As we were
two, and they were upwards of two hundred by this time , I have
wondered since that the ludicrous side of this did not strike
them . However, as I followed up the remark with a few small
coins, nobody cared to impugn the logic.
As soon as I overtook my companion I saw from the move
ment of the crowd that something was wrong, and when I forced
my way into the middle it was evidently a much more serious
affair than mine. A young brute of a monk had approached
him from behind and suddenly and violently kicked him .
In return he had received a good cut across the face from a
riding-whip The monk was foaming with rage, and rapidly
stripping off all bis upper clothing with a most unmistakable
intention . Already he was nearly half-naked, and although
perhaps a trifle fat, still an ugly customer to handle . “ He
struck me with his whip ! ” he exclaimed, pointing to the mark
on his face , and then followed a string of remarks levelled at us.
“ What does he say ? " I asked . “ He says we sha'n't get out
alive." Just then a monk shouted something which the others
eagerly echoed, and a dozen of them instantly ran and shut the
great gates of the courtyard.
There was no doubt whatever that we were in a very tight
place. We were in the centre of probably the most dangerous
place in Peking, on the outskirts of the city, a quarter of a mile
from the street, with half a dozen closed gates between us and
it, and completely at the mercy of two hundred savage Mongols
and Thibetans, who had vowed to have our lives . There were a
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thousand of them within call, they acknowledge no Chinese
authority whatever, the Chinese Government would be ex
tremely loath to interfere with them for fear of provoking
trouble in Thibet, and if they had just knocked us on the head
and hid our bodies in one of their temple dens , we should very
probably never have been heard of again. Clearly the only thing
to do was to get out of the place at any cost. Then I called my
" boy ,” wbo was yelling and struggling to keep possession of my
two cameras, and told him to ask quietly the best- looking of the
monks for how much they would consent to let us go out. All
this took but half a minute to do, and as soon as the crowd
heard the question the pugilistic gentleman was squelched by
common consent. “ Fifty dollars ” was the conclusion arrived
at after several minutes ' discussion . “ Tell them we have not so
much money with us, but they can come and get it from my
house to-morrow morning.” But they were much too wary to
fall into such a palpable trap. To bring the story to an end,
however, at last my “ boy " made a bargain with them, and we
were fleeced of several dollars at each gate that they could
manage to lead us through before we reached the street and
our horses. I got through the gate all right, and my
" boy ” was following when several of the monks precipitated
themselves on him and sent him flying head first into
the middle of the street , while the broken camera, tripod,
and bag of double-backs landed each in a separate mud
hole .
That afternoon as I was mending my camera the “ boy ”
came in with the tea. “ Master ? " “ Well ? " “ I no go
Llama Temple any more - belong velly bad man ! ” And I did
not keep my appointment next morning to photograph the big
Buddha furtively.
Above all other characteristics of Peking one thing stands out
in horrible prominence. Not to mention it would be wilfully to
omit the most striking feature of the place. I mean its filth .
It is the most horribly and indescribably filthy place that can be
15
210 CHINA .
imagined. Indeed imagination must fall far short of the fact.
Some of the daily sights of the pedestrian in Peking could
hardly be more than hinted at by one man to another in the
disinfecting atmosphere of a smoking -room . There is no sewer
or cesspool, public or private, but the street ; the dog, the pig,
and the fowl - in a sickening succession - are the scavengers ;
every now and then you pass a man who goes along tossing the
most loathsome of the refuse into an open-work basket on his
back ; the smells are simply awful; the city is one colossal and
uncleansed cloaca . As I have said above, the first of the
two moments of delight vouchsafed to every visitor to the
Celestial capital is at his first sight of it. The second is when
he turns his back, hoping it may be for ever, upon - the
body and soul-stinking town” (the words are Coleridge's) of
Peking .
CHAPTER XIV .
TO THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA.
HE
THE first time I met a camel -train near Peking I reined up
my pony and feasted my eyes upon it. And although I
saw hundreds afterwards, I found them just as amusing as
ever. The two -humped or Bactrian camels of Northern China
are much bigger than those we know at home, and I have seen
few sights so picturesque as a string of them approaching
over these brown plains. A score are fastened together by a
cord attaching the nose of one to the tail of the other ; a bell , a
couple of feet long, is hung round the neck of the last, to warn
the driver in front by its ceasing if the line breaks anywhere ; a
medley of bales and boxes and clothing is slung on their backs ;
ruddy -faced Mongols, dressed in scarlet and yellow, with orna
ments of gold and silver in profusion, sit up aloft and smile at
you as you pass ; the great shaggy beasts step softly along,
ingeniously out of step, lifting their sponge-like feet and dropping
them again with perfect and unvarying deliberation, the whole
train moving with the silence of a dream , broken only by the
jang -jang of the solitary bell. Their big brown eyes look you
straight in the face, and there is something pathetic and reproach
ful in their glance. All day long, one street of Peking is filled
with these picturesque processions, gaunt, wretched creatures
with worn - out coats and covered with coal-dust, carrying sacks
of coal from the Western Hills into Peking ; and far finer
and better-kept animals bearing tea away up into the North.
During all my stay in Peking I longed for the moment when I
211
212 CHINA.
too should ride away at dawn toward Mongolia, in the worn
tracks of these strange beasts and their merry masters..
My pony was a little creature not much bigger than a dog,
with a white coat as long and thick as a Polar bear's. The
mafoo had bought him a few days before from a Mongol for
twenty taels, and he had never had a foreign saddle and bridle
on till I mounted him. Therefore the all-day ride was not so
monotonous as usual , and for the first five miles it was even
exciting. We started at day break and the sun was well above
us before we got outside the two gates of Peking. Then the
mafoo took the lead. Once in the open country we were on a
great alluvial plain , dotted with mud houses, broken up by
irregular patches of verdure and cultivation, laced in all direc
tions by dozens of bridle-paths, and ending on our left in the
dim outline of the Western Hills, the summer sanitarium of
Peking. We plunged into the labyrinth of roads, and the mafoo
threaded his way among them without a moment's hesitation.
Afterwards I found that he had been over them forty - six times
before, but for my own part I could see hardly any signs by
which to distinguish one from another. Till eleven o'clock we
trotted steadily on, reaching then a small town called Sha-ho,
where we stopped an hour for rest and tiffin . Here already
foreigners are scarce and I was the centre of much curiosity,
keen and inquisitive, but quite good-natured . Crossing a river
over two very old broad flat bridges of white marble, built
curiously at an obtuse angle to each other, we emerged again
into the plain . This grew more and more uneven as we
advanced, till at last we were riding along a narrow path on the
sloping stony bank of a dry water - course . The stones grew
bigger and more numerous, till they could no longer be safely
negociated, and then my guide struck up to the right, and an
hour's detour across country, with half a mile of such bad going
at the end that I got off and led my pony, brought us at three
o'clock to the fortified city of Nan-k'ou, thirty miles from
Peking, our resting place for the night.
TO THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA . 213
Nan-k'ou is a very interesting little place . Its wall is in
ruins, but that only makes it the more picturesque. On the
hills right and left of the entrance to the pass which the city
is supposed to guard, are two sprightly little towers ; a dozen
others are just visible dotted about the chain of hills around it.
Its one broad street, paved once with great blocks of stone, now
worn away and upset till a pony can hardly make his way at all
over their slippery rolling surface , is crowded with traffic of men
and beasts, and every fifty yards a wide arched doorway leads
into a spacious inn-yard. This street is part of the great com
mercial highway between China and all her neighbours of the
North . Through it a constant stream of camels and ponies and
donkeys and even laden coolies passes, bringing Mongol produce
to Peking, and taking brick- tea back from Tientsin to Kiakhta
on the Russian frontier. And through this street this stream
has passed for who knows how many years - thousands, at any
rate .
I strolled along it and turned into one of the gateways. But
I had only just time to step aside when a drove of at least a
hundred ponies suddenly stampeded through it and galloped
headlong through the street, whinnying and kicking up their
heels in delight at being free. Just outside the city they drank
greedily at a little stream , and then rolled over and over each
other in the dirt. But such a spectacle of cruelty to animals as
was afforded by the state of their backs I have never seen . Not
one of them was without a large raw wound on each side, and
half them had horrible, deep , bleeding, festering sores bigger
than two hands. The sight was sickening, and nothing what
ever was done for them except that afterwards I saw a coolie
beating the insides of the rough pack -saddles with a stick to
keep the blood -soaked places from getting quite hard. Each
pony had carried two bales of tea , as hard as blocks of granite.
I tried the weight of one and found I could just raise it off the
ground . Therefore the ponies were shockingly overloaded .
The camels require so much space for themselves and their
214 CHINA.
burdens that they have special caravanserais. Their saddles,
with the loads deposited on each side, are arranged in regular
rows, like game after a battue, and the animals betake them
selves to a trough which runs all round the yard, squeezing close
together. The yard of a caravanserai at feeding -time therefore
exhibits a complete circular horizon of camels' tails. When
they have eaten they sink down and very deliberately chew the
cud. It is just as well to keep on good terms with a camel , for
when he is standing up he can swing his hind leg like a pendulum
in an arc of about twenty feet and therefore deliver aa kick which
would break in the door of a San Francisco gambling.den ;
while when he is lying down he can always spare a couple of
gallons of cud to spit at an enemy. I saw a Mongol driver to
whom this had happened , and the sight was unpleasant and
instructive. Several hundred camels shared the hospitality of
Nan-k'ou with me that night.
Next morning we embarked upon little white donkeys, the pass
being impracticable for ponies. This road in its glory is said to
have been paved with great smooth granite blocks ; now in the
valley it is a broken mass of rough stones in a river bed, through
which a shallow stream runs ; while during the ascent and at
the height of the pass it is a bad mountain road obstructed by
great masses of rock . A couple of hours' riding and walking
brought us to another walled town called Chu-yung-kuan, famous
for a heavy arched stone gateway, the whole inside of which is
covered with sculptures in low relief and a Buddhist inscription
in six languages — Chinese, Thibetan, Mongol, Sanscrit, and two
others that I could not get any one to identify. From the other
side of this gateway the pass of Nan-k'ou is spread out before
you , a brown, barren, rock-strewn, gloomy valley, rising and
narrowing till it disappears in the hills, through which an endless
file of brown camels is slowly passing, filling the air with the
dust of their feet and the clangour of their bells. For an hour or
more we jogged on . Then when the pass had become wearisome
and I was thousands of miles away in thought, my mafoo rode
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA.
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TO THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA . 215
up beside me and silently pointed to the hill-top on the right. I
strained my eyes, and there, sure enough, the sky -line far away
was broken by the crenellated outline of the Great Wall itself.
“ This ,” said Marco Polo when he saw it, “ is the country of
Gog and Magog.”
The Great Wall of China is, after all, only a wall. And it
was built with the same object as every other wall—to keep
people from coming where they were not wanted. Mr. Toole's
famous account of it is as historically accurate as any. “ The
most important building in China," he is accustomed to say,
" is the Chinese Wall , built to keep the Tartars out. It was
built at such an enormous expense that the Chinese never got
over it. But the Tartars did. And the way they accomplished
this feat was as follows : one went first and t'other went arter . "
It differs from other walls in only two respects , its age and its
size. It was built by the great Emperor Chi Hwang-ti, who
came to the throne in B.o. 221 , to keep back the Mongolian
hordes, and was called by him the “ Red Fort.” The origina
wall is 1,400 miles long and stretches from far Kansu to Shan
hai -kwan on the gulf of Pe-chih - li, the present terminus of
China's solitary railway - from Tientsin. This wall,, however,
is neither so well built nor so large as that which I am de
scribing, the latter being a five -hundred mile erection, dating
from several hundred years later. It is, however, an integral
part - and the most impressive -— of the “ Great Wall. ” Besides
its age it enjoys the reputation of being the only work of human
hands on the globe visible from the moon . The Chinese name
for it is Wan -li -ch'ang -ch'êng, “ the rampart ten thousand li
long." And the gate on this highway is called Pa -ta -ling and is
about fifty miles north-west of Peking and 2,000 feet above the
sea. Beyond it lies Mongolia .
Half an hour after this first glimpse I stood upon the wall
itself. The gateway is a large double one , with a square tower
upon it, pierced with oblong openings for cannon , of which a
dozen old ones lie in a heap, showing that at one time the road
216 CHINA .
was seriously defended at this point. A rough stairway leads to
the top, which is about twenty feet wide, with a crenellated
parapet on each side, and you can walk along it as far as you
can see , with here and there a scramble where it has fallen in a
little. On the whole it is in excellent repair , having of course
been mended and rebuilt many times. Every half -mile or so is
a little square tower of two storeys. The wall itself varies &
good deal in height according to the nature of the ground,
averaging probably about forty feet. On one side Mongolia, as
you see it , is a vast undulating brown plain ; on the other side
China is a perfect sea of brown hills in all directions, and across
these stretches the Great Wall. On the hill -top, through the
valleys, up and down the sides it twists in an unbroken line,
exactly like a huge earth-worm suddenly turned to stone. For
many miles it is visible in both directions, and when you can do
longer trace its entire length you can still discover it topping
the hills one after another into the remote distance. And as
you reflect that it is built of bricks, in almost inaccessible
places, through uninhabited countries ; that each brick must
have been transported on a man's shoulders enormous distances ;
and that it extends for 2,000 miles, or one-twelfth of the circum
ference of the globe, you begin to realise that you are looking
upon the most colossal achievement of human hands. The
bricks are so big and heavy that I had to hire a little donkey to
carry off two of them . This is the only piece of vandalism
to which I plead guilty during years of tempting Eastern
travel , but the temptation was irresistible and “ they never will
be missed ” Nowadays, of course , the wall serves no defensive
purpose whatever, and is not guarded in any way . Not aa soul
lives within miles of it at most points, and it is but a landmark
for the Mongols ' camel-trains, a stupendous monument to the
past of China, and an evidence of Celestial greatness and
enterprise gone never to return .
After taking a dozen photographs, several of which are
here reproduced , and reflecting how comical now were the
TO THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA . 217
learned arguments produced in England a few years ago to
prove that there was no such thing
no such as a Great Wall of
thing as
China, I turned back to Nan-k'ou, reaching there at night.
fall. Next morning before daylight we started for the tombs
of the great Ming dynasty, thirteen miles away, and as
famous in China as the wall itself. These lie in a pleasant
green valley surrounded with an almost complete circle of high
wooded hills - an ideal spot for an emperor's grave. There are
thirteen of them, called the Shih -san -ling, disposed in the shape
of aa crescent, but the crescent is so extepsive that only four or
five of them can be seen at once . I visited the largest, the tomb
of Yung-le, who brought his court bither in 1411. A square of
perhaps two hundred yards across the face is surrounded with a
high wall of plain red brick . The side of the hill forms the
fourth side, and the entrance is through a pair of ordinary wooden
doors. When you enter, the spectacle is not at all striking.
There are a few little pavilions on either side of you , each
covering a carved stone tortoise or an inscribed tablet, and in
front a long low temple-shaped building with an approach of
steps and balustrades in carved white marble. Inside is gloom ,
through which you faintly discern the magnificent outlines of
thirty-two enormous wooden columns, each a solid log of hewn
and polished teak twelve feet round and thirty-two feet high .
Where they came from - unless it was from Burmah - or how
hey were conveyed hither, nobody knows, but their grandeur is
ndisputable. In the centre, upon a sort of stone table, stands
plain tablet of red lacquer, a couple of feet high and
foot wide, bearing the posthumous title of Yung-le, “ The
Irfect ancestor and literary Emperor." But the ancestor him .
sf is not here. Passing out behind the great columns and
azin crossing the garden, at the edge of the hillside there is a
80l square tower of brick and granite, supporting a kind of
obgk. The sarcophagus itself is deep in the hill, and upon
thebelisk a long inscription narrates the deeds and extols the
virts of the long-departed Ming. On the whole, however,
218 CHINA .
China disappoints you here once more, as everywhere and
always. The situation is finely chosen for the last resting -place
of immortal emperors, but man's handiwork rather weakens
than enliances the effects of nature. There is no suggestion, for
instance, of the solemnity of that cathedral aisle
" Where the warriors in the gloom
Watch o'er Maximilian's tomb ; "
and there is nothing to arrest the hasty footstep lest even " the
hushed tread "
“ Should burst the bands of the dreamless sleep
That holds the mighty dead ."
As you ride away you pass through an avenue of stone carvings,
where pairs of knights and courtiers, with camels and elephants
-beasts fit to follow their master into the shadow - world
glare at you from each side. They are enormous, being some
fifteen feet high and carved out of a solid block of stone ; and
wonderful, for you cannot imagine how they were transported.
But they are utterly dwarfed by the hills around them , and
soon your only recollection of them is that your pony positively
refused to pass between them and ended by bolting with you.
And I may as well give my little Polar bear of a pony credit for
the way in which he trotted back to Peking so as to get ther
before the gates closed , in all forty miles in four hours, wit
three-quarters of an hour for rest and food . I have knop
costlier horseflesh make poorer progress. And when we pt
back again at last to Tientsin my mafoo sold him to the ju .
keeper for twice what he had paid for him .
CHAPTER XV .
CHINESE HORRORS.
10 understand contemporary China it is absolutely necessary
Tºto undergo, either personally or by proxy, some very un
pleasant experiences. This must be my excuse for the following
chapter. China is claiming her place among the nations of the
world. The question, What shall that place be ? can only be
answered by those who know what China is. I have looked
upon men being cruelly tortured ; I have stood in the shambles
where human beings are slaughtered like pigs ; my boots have
dripped with the blood of my fellow - creatures ;-repulsive as all
this is, it is one of the most significant and instructive aspects
of the real China, as opposed to the China of native professions
and foreign imagination, and therefore it must be frankly
described .
It was in Canton , a colossal human ant-hill, an endless
labyrinth of streets a dozen feet wide and a score high, crowded
from daylight to dark with a double stream of men and women,
exactly like the double stream between an ant-bill and a carcase.
All this mass of humanity was presided over for years by H.E.
Chang Chi-tung, now Viceroy of the Hu Kuang provinces, the
most independent and foreigner -hating Viceroy in China, and
therefore it may be imagined what is the temper of the
populace, especially as the Cantonese are the most turbulent
people of the Flowery Kingdom.
During the day the streets of Canton are in semi-obscurity,
as they are closed in at the top by broad strips of cloth and long
219
220 CHINA.
advertising streamers ; but at night they are as black as Tar
tarus . Public safety and order are supposed to be preserved by
occasional posts of soldiers, with a collection of weapons and
instruments of torture hung up outside to strike terror into the
evilly-disposed. But, as may be imagined, crime of every kind
is rife in Canton , and so bad is the reputation of the place that
very often a servant from another part of China, travelling with
his master, will rather forfeit his situation than accompany him
there . And where the crime is, there is the punishment too .
It by no means follows in China that the person punished is the
criminal, but there is enough legal cruelty in Canton to glut an
Alva. Respect for the presence of an occasional foreigner causes
a good deal of it to be hid, and the spectacle of a man hung up
in a cage to starve to death in public is therefore not seen there
as it is in other parts.
The magistrate sat in his Yamên dispensing justice. He was
a benevolent-looking man of perhaps forty, with an intellectual
forehead and the conventional enormous pair of spectacles. He
glanced up at us as we entered, visibly annoyed at the intrusion
and hardly returning our salutation. But as we were under the
wing of a consul for whom Chinese officialism has no terrors
whatever, a fact of which the Cantonese authorities have bad
repeated experience, we made ourselves quite at home. There
was little of the pomp of Western law in the scene before us.
The magistrate's own chair, draped with red cloth covered with
inscriptions in large characters, was almost the only piece of
official apparatus, and behind it were grouped half- a -dozen of
the big red presentation umbrellas of which every Chinese
official is so proud . Before him was a large open space and a
motley crowd , in which the most conspicuous figures were the
filthy ruffians in red bats, known as “ Yamên-runners," whose
business is to clear a way before their master in the streets
and do anything else that he wishes, down to the administration
of torture. The magistrate himself sat perfectly silent, writing
busily, while several persons before him gabbled all at the same
重
VITA
MAGISTRATE'S
.A
YAMÊN
THE NEW YOR
PUBLIC LLIURE
ASTOR , LT ""
TILDEN FUNT1
R
CHINESE HORRORS . 221
time. These were presumably the plaintiff, the defendant, and
the policemen . After a while the magistrate interrupted one of
the speakers with a monosyllable spoken in a low tone without
even raising his head , but its effect was magical. The crowd
fell back, and one of the little group in front of the chair
wrung his hands and heaved a theatrical sigh. Before we could
realise what had happened , several pairs of very willing bands
were helping him to let down his trousers, and when this was
accomplished to the satisfaction of everybody he laid himself
face downwards on the floor. Then one of the “ runners ”
stepped forward with the bamboo, a strip of this toughest of
plants three feet long, two inches wide, and half an inch thick.
Squatting by the side of the victim and holding the bamboo
perfectly horizontal close to the flesh, he began to rain light
blows on the man's buttocks. At first the performance looked
like a farce, the blows were so light and the receiver of them so
indifferent. But as the shower of taps continued with monoto
nous persistence I bethought me of the old torture of driving a
man mad by letting a drop of water fall every minute on his
shaved head. After a few more minutes of the dactylic rap
tap -tap, rap-tap-tap, a deep groan broke from the prisoner's
lips. I walked over to look at him and saw that his flesh was
blue under the flogging. Then it became congested with blood,
and whereas at first he had lain quiet of his own accord, now a
dozen men were holding him tight. The crowd gazed at him
with broad grins on their faces, breaking out from time to time
into a suppressed “ Hi-yah, ” as he writhed in special pain or
cried out in agony. And all this time the ceaseless shower of
blows continued, the man who wielded the bamboo putting not
a particle more or less force into the last stroke than into the
first. At length the magistrate dropped another word and the
torture stopped as suddenly as it had begun, the prisoner was
lifted to his feet and led across the court to lean against the
wall . For obvious reasons he could not be " accommodated
with a chair."
222 CHINA .
The next person to be called up was a policeman. The
magistrate put a question or two to him and listened patiently
for a while to his rambling and effusive replies. Then as before
the fatal monosyllable dropped from his lips. With the greatest
promptitude the policeman prepared himself, assumed the
regulation attitude, and the flagellation began again. But I
noticed that the blows sounded altogether different from before,
much sharper and shriller, like wood falling upon wood, rather
than wood falling upon flesh . So I drew near to examine .
Sure enough, there was a vital difference. The policeman had
attached a small piece of wood to his leg by means of wax, and
on this the blows fell, taking no more effect upon his person
than if they had been delivered on the sole of his boot. The
fraud was perfectly transparent - everybody in the room ,
including the magistrate himself, must have known what was
happening Thus another peculiarity of Chinese justice is
evidently that the punishment of an ordinary offender is one
thing, while that of an erring official is quite another. I
learned that the policeman was ordered to be bambooed for
not bringing in a prisoner whom the magistrate had ordered
him to produce . When the sham punishment was over he
jumped briskly to his feet, adjusted his clothing, and resumed
his duties about the court.
While we had been watching the process of " eating bamboo,"
far different punishments were going on in another part of the
court-room unnoticed by us . The bamboo is not so very far
removed from still existent civilised deterrent methods, but
what was now before us recalled the most brutal ages. In one
corner a man had been tied hand and foot on a small bench the
length of his back , in such a manner that his body was bent as
far back as it could possibly be stretched in the form of a circle,
his back resting on the flat seat of the bench , and his arms and
legs fastened to the four legs. Then the whole affair, man and
bench , had been tilted forward till it rested upon two feet and
upon the man's two knees, almost falling over- almost, but not
CHINESE HORRORS . 223
quite. This, as well as the bambooing and other tortures,
is illustrated in the native drawings here produced. The
position of the miserable wretch was as grotesque as it was
exquisitely painful; his hands and feet were blue, his eyes
protruded, his mouth gasped convulsively like that of a dying
fish , and he had evidently been in that position so long
that he was on the eve of losing consciousness. And he was
apparently forgotten. A few boys stood gazing at him open
mouthed , but nobody else paid any more attention to him than
if he had been a piece of furniture. This was enough for my
companions, and they left the room. But how is the Western
world to know what the Celestial Empire really is unless people
are willing to see and hear of its innumerable horrors ? The
utterly mistaken notion of China which is so wide-spread at
home is due in great part to this very unwillingness to look
straight in the face what aa French writer has so well called the
&6
“ rotten East."
In another corner an unfortunate creature was undergoing
the punishment called “ kneeling on chains.” A thin strong
cord had been fastened to his thumbs and great toes and passed
over a hook in an upright post. Then by pulling it sufficiently
he was of course lifted off the ground, his knees being the
lowest part of his body. Under them a small chain, with
sharp-edged links, had next been coiled in a circle as a natty
sailor coils a rope on the deck. The cord had then been
slackened till the whole weight of the man rested upon his
knees, and his knees rested upon the chain. The process seems
simple, but the result is awful. And this man had been under
going a prolonged course of torture. Amongst other things,
his ankle-bones had been battered with a piece of wood shaped
like a child's cricket bat. His tortures ended for the moment
while we were looking at him . Two attendants loosened the
cord, and he fell in a heap. They rolled him off the chain
and set him on his feet. The moment they let go he sank
like a half - filled sack. So they stretched him out on the floor
224 CHINA.
and each one of them rubbed one of his knees vigorously for a
couple of minutes. But it was no use, he was utterly incapable
of even standing, and had to be dragged away. As we passed
out , a woman was before the magistrate, giving evidence. Her
testimony, however, was either not true enough or not prompt
enough, in the official's opinion, for he had recourse to the
truth - compeller.” This is a little instrument reserved exclu
sively for the fair sex, shaped exactly like the thick sole of a
slipper, split at the sole part and fastened at the heel. With
this the witness received a slap across the mouth which rang
out like a pistol- shot. A glance at the frontispiece of this
volume, which is a facsimile of a native drawing professing to
be a perfectly truthful representation of a common method
of torturing women , will show that this woman was more
fortunate than many of her sex in China.
It is only fair to add that the Chinese have a sort of rational
theory of tortuie, although they are far from adhering to it.
By Chinese law po prisoner can be punished until he has con
fessed his guilt. Therefore they first prove him guilty and then
torture him until he confesses the accuracy of their verdict.
The more you reflect on this logic the more surprising it
becomes. To assist in its comprehension I procured, by the
aid of the Consul and a few dollars, a complete set of
instruments of torture - light bamboo, heavy bamboo, ankle
smasher, mouth - slapper, thumb- squeezer, and sundry others.
9
“ Mandarins, ” says Professor Douglas, - “ whose minds have
grown callous to the sufferings of their fellow - creatures, are
always ready to believe that the instruments of torture at their
disposal are insufficient for their purposes. Unhappily, it is
always easy to inflict pain ; and in almost every yamun through
out the Empire an infinite variety of instruments of torture is
in constant use."
One Chinese punishment, of which I am fortunately able to
give a striking picture, deserves particular attention. This is
ling -chi, or death by the “ thousand cuts." It is otherwise
1 Cuts
THOUSAND
BYTHE
."CHINA
:“DEATH
CHINESE HORRORS . 225
known as death by the “slow process or by the " slicing
process. ” It is supposed to be reserved for culprits who com
mit triple murder and for parricides, but the penal code is no
doubt as elastic in this as in other respects. Here is a specimen
'announcement of ling-chi, from the official Pekin Gazette :
" Ma Pei-yao, Governor of Kuangsi , reports a triple poisoning case in his pro
Fince. A woman having been beaten by her husband on account of her slovenly
habits , took counsel with an old herb woman , and by her direction picked some
poisonous herb on the mountain , with which she successively poisoned her husband ,
father- in - law, and brother-in -law . She has been executed by the slow process. –
Rescript : Let the Board of Punishments take note.”
The criminal is fastened to a rough cross, and the executioner ,
armed with a sharp knife, begins by grasping handfuls from the
flesby parts of the body, such as the thighs and the breasts, and
slicing them off. After this he removes the joints and the
excrescences of the body one by one—the nose and ears, fingers
and toes. Then the limbs are cut off piecemeal at the wrists
and the ankles, the elbows and knees, the shoulders and hips .
Finally, the victim is stabbed to the heart and his head cut off.
Of course, unless the process is very rapidly carried out , the
man is dead before it is completed, but if he has any friends
who are able to bribe the executioner he is either drugged
beforehand with opium, or else the stab to the heart is surrep
titiously given after the first few strokes . It would be easy to
quote from the Pekin Gazette dozens of instances of the infliction
of this penalty, and these would probably be but a fraction of
the occasions on which it is practised. I believe it has only
been witnessed once by a foreigner, as the Chinese have a
great and not unnatural objection to the presence of foreigners
on such occasions. The photograph here produced is no doubt
the only one ever taken. A few words of explanation concerning
it are therefore desirable. The British captain of a river steamer
plying between Hongkong and Canton strolled one day into
the native city with a small hand-camera which he had just
purchased. Observing a crowd in the street, he made his way
through it and discovered the remains of a man who had been
16
226 CHINA .
executed by the ling -chi. As his camera was a very small one ,
he was able to point it at the spectacle and snap the shutter
without attracting attention , as the bystanders would never
have allowed a formal photograph to be taken . On his return
to Hongkong he placed his camera in the hands of an
experienced photographer , who developed the negative and
made from it an enlargement of which this illustration is a
copy . It is thus a unique and absolutely genuine illustration
of contemporary Chinese life . The susceptible reader will
doubtless be grateful to me for having caused the edge of
this picture to be perforated .
It is, however, the last act of the drama of Chinese justice
that is the great revelation. I am inclined to think that nobody
can claim to have an adequate and accurate appreciation of
Chinese character who has not witnessed a Chinese execution.
This is not difficult to do at Canton, or even at Kowloon , on the
other side of Hongkong harbour, for the Canton river swarms
with pirates, and when these gentry are caught they generally
get short shrift. A few bambooings to begin with, then several
months in prison-and it is not necessary to explain what a
Chinese prison is — with little to eat and a stiff course of torture,
and then one fine morning a short sharp shock ” at the execu
tion-ground. If the reader cares to accompany me further I
will try to place the scene before him.
The execution is fixed for half-past four, so at four the guide
comes for us at Shameen , the foreign quarter of Canton , and
our chairs carry us rapidly through the noisy alleys of the native
city. Until we get close to the spot there is no sign of anything
unusual. There suddenly we run into a jammed crowd at the
end of a long and particularly narrow street. The chair coolies,
however, plunge straight into it and it gives way before us till
we are brought up by a huge pair of wooden gates guarded by a
little group of soldiers. To hear these men talk you would
suppose that they would die then and there rather than let you
pass, but the production of a couple of ten-cent pieces works a
CHINESE HORRORS . 227
miracle and they open the gates for us, vainly trying to stop the
rush of natives that follows and carries us before it right into
the middle of the open space. It is a bare piece of ground, fifty
yards long by a dozen wide, between two houses, whose blank
walls hem it in on three sides . To-day it is the execution
ground ; yesterday and to-morrow the drying -ground of a potter
who lives there. There is no platform , no roped -off space ,
nothing but this bare bit of dirty ground so crowded with
Chinese that we are forced into the middle, not more than four
feet from whatever is to take place. It is useless to try to get
further off – here we are and here we must stop.
Suddenly the gates are thrown open again, and welcomed by
a howl of delight from the crowd, a strange and ghastly pro
cession comes tumbling in . First a few ragamuffin soldiers,
making a fine pretence of clearing the way. Then a file of
coolies carrying the victims in small shallow baskets slung to
bamboo poles. As soon as each pair reaches the middle of the
space they stoop and pitch their living burden out and run off.
The prisoners are chained hand and foot and are perfectly help
less. The executioner stands by and points out where each load is
to be dumped. He is dressed exactly like any other coolie
present, without any badge of office whatever. The condemned
men have each a long folded piece of paper in a slit bamboo
stuck into his pigtail; upon this is written his crime and
the warrant of execution . One after another they arrive and
are slung out. Will the procession never end ? how many can
there be ? this is perhaps more than we bargained for. At last
over the heads of the crowd we see the hats of two petty man
darins, and behind them the gates are shut. The tale of men is
fifteen , and the executioner has arranged them in two rows,
about two yards apart and all facing one way. All except one
seem perfectly callous, and he had probably been drugged with
opium, a last privilege which a prisoner's friends can always
obtain by bribery. They exchange remarks, some of them
evidently chaff, with the spectators, and one man was carried in
228 CHINA .
singing and kept up his strain almost to the last. The execu
tioners—there are now two of them -- step forward . The
younger tucks up his trousers and sleeves and deliberately
selects a sword from several lying close by, while the other, an
older man , collects the strips of paper into a sheaf and lays them
on one side. Then he places himself behind the front man of
the nearest row and takes him by the shoulders. The younger
man walks forward and stands at the left of the kneeling man.
The fatal moment has come. There is an instant's hush and
every man in the two rows of condemned men behind twists
his head up and cranes his neck to see. I will not attempt to
describe the emotions of such a moment — the horror, the awful
repulsion, the wish that you had never come, the sickening fear
that you will be splashed with the blood , and yet the helpless
fascination that keeps your eyes glued to every detail. The knife
is raised . It is a short broad-bladed, two- handed sword, widest
at the point, weighted at the back and evidently as sharp as a
razor.
For a second it is poised in the air, as the executioner takes
aim. Then it falls. There is no great apparent effort. It
simply falls, and moreover seems to fall slowly. But when it
comes to the man's neck it does not stop, it keeps falling. With
ghastly slowness it passes right through the flesh and you are
only recalled from your momentary stupor when the head
springs forward and rolls over and over, while for a fraction of a
second two dazzling jets of scarlet blood burst out and fall in a
graceful curve to the ground . Then the great rush of blood
comes and floods the spot. As soon as the blow has fallen the
second executioner pitches the body forward with a “ Hough ! ”
It tumbles in a shapeless heap, and from every throat goes up &a
loud “ Ho ! ” expressive of pleasure and approval of the stroke .
But there is no pause, the executioner steps over the corpse to
the front man in the second rank, the knife rises again, it falls,
another head rolls away, another double burst of blood follows,
the headless body is shoved forward, the assistant shouts
参會
Shtyps
CHINESE JUDICIAL TORTURES, ( From Vatire Drawings. )
T.
PU3
ASTOR , LÉ ! ONS
TILDEN FOUNDATI
L
CHINESE HORRORS . 229
“ Hough ! ” and the crowd shouts “ Ho ! ” Two men are dead .
Then the headsman steps back to the second man of the front
row and the operation is repeated.
Two things strike you : the brutal matter -of-factness of the
whole performance, and the extraordinary ease with which a
human head can be chopped off. As a whole it is precisely like
a drove of pigs driven into the shambles and stuck ; and in
detail it is—or seems—no more difficult than splitting a turnip
with a hoe or lopping off a thistle with a cane. Chop, chop,
chop — the heads roll off one after the other in as many seconds.
When the seventh man is reached, either because the knife is
blunted or the executioner misses his blow, the neck is only cut
half through. But still he does not stop. He comes quickly
back, takes another knife, passes on to the next man, and only
comes back to finish the wretched seventh when all the other
heads are lying in bloody pools in front of the shoulders which
carried them a few moments before. And every man has
watched the death of all those in front of him with a horrid
animal - like curiosity, and then bent his own neck to the knife .
The place is ankle -deep in blood, the spectators are yelling with
delight and frenzy, the heads are like bowls on a green, the
horrible headless bodies are lying all about in ghastly grotesque
attitudes, the executioner is scarlet to the knees and his hands
are dripping. Take my word for it that by this time you are
feeling very sick.
Fortunately you are not detained long. The moment the last
head is off, the crowd is gone with a rush , except a score of
orchids who begin skylarking with the bodies and pushing each
other into the blood. The bodies are thrown into a pond and
the heads are plastered up in big earthenware jars and stacked
up with those already round the wall of this potter's field . I
had a few minutes' conversation with the executioner afterwards.
Decapitation, he told me, was not the occupation of his family ;
it was only a perquisite. But the business is not what it was.
Formerly he used to get two dollars a head for all he cut off ;
230 CHINA .
now he only gets fifty cents. It is hardly worth while chopping
men's heads off at that rate . But then it doesn't take very long.
Would I buy his sword ? Certainly. Nine dollars. It hangs
on my wall to-day, a valuable antidote to much that I read about
the advancing civilisation of China.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE IMPERIAL MARITIME CUSTOMS : SIR ROBERT
HART AND HIS WORK .
THE ““ I. G.” These letters, meaningless at home, call up
instantly in the mind of every foreigner in China a very
distinct and striking image — they are as familiar in the Far
East as “ H.R.H.” is at home. For the image is that of the
benevolent despot whose outstretched hand unites or severs the
Celestial Kingdom and the outside barbarian world ; through
whose fingers five hundred millions of dollars have run into the
coffers of the Son of Heaven, and never one of them stuck ; to
whom the proudest Chinamen turn for advice in difficulty or
danger when other helpers fail ; who has staved off a war by
writing a telegram ; who has declined with thanks the proffered
dignity of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of
Her Britannic Majesty ; who has ringed China round with an
administrative commercial organisation the whole world cannot
surpass ; who, finally, born to struggle for the poet's bays, has
laboured late and early all his life over dollars and duties, with
diplomatic nut, which other people have failed to crack, thrown
>
to him now and then for relaxation . The “ I. G. ” signifies a
person and a post : the former is Sir Robert Hart, Bart. ,
G.C.M.G. , the latter is Inspector -General of the Imperial
Chinese Maritime Customs. And the transcendence of the
Customs Service in China may possibly be judged from
the story that a Commissioner once took personal affront
and quitted the sacred edifice when a missionary implored
231
232 CHINA .
the Almighty to "“ deliver this people from their wicked
customs."
After the above, it is hardly necessary to say that Sir Robert
Hart is by far the most interesting and influential foreigner in
China. To begin with , his power is enormous. The Chinese
language, so far as his own field is concerned, is much the
same as English to him, and with the Tsungli Yamên he has
the influence which thirty years of close dealing with Chinese
officials gives him , backed by the proud boast that they have
never had reason to regret taking his advice. Then he handles
the service he has created from nothing, to one which employs
over 3,500 people, presides over an annual foreign trade of
£ 44,000,000, collects £ 3,600,000 a year , clears 30,000,000 tons
of shipping annually, and lights 1,800 miles of coast, exactly
as an engineer handles a machine he has constructed —just
as tenderly and just as firmly. And yet very few of the men
whose livelihood and prospects are absolutely and at every
moment in his hands, without the possibility of appeal, would
willingly see anybody else in his place. The mere irresponsi
bility of the " I. G." would ruin most men. Yet Sir Robert
owes all his success to his free band. Does he learn of an old
friend or schoolmate fallen upon evil times ? “ Send your boy
to me, ” he telegraphs, and the youngster's future depends then
only upon his own ability and industry. When there was a
particularly bad piece of work to be done by one of his sub
ordinates in delimiting the new Tongking-Chinese frontier
months of lonely labour, in savagery and solitude, with never
a breath to draw that might not bring fever with it — whom did
he send ? His brother. Yet his avowal of nepotism is
refreshingly frank. “ I have never, ” he says, " advanced a
worse man over a better, yet if promotion is due to one of two
men of equal deserts, and one of them is of my own flesh and
blood, it would be simply unnatural to pass him over . ” More
than once already he has brought out the son of some companion
of his boyhood, seen him grow up in the service from student to
THE CHINESE MARITIME CUSTOMS . 233
Commissioner, save his competency and retire, leaving his
benefactor and chief still working the same number of hours
every day at his desk. But he rules with a despotism that a
Tsar might envy . Any subordinate proved to have dis
credited the service in any way, is instantly dismissed.
His secretary and representative in England, Mr. James
Duncan Campbell, C.M.G.,> who has already distinguished
himself in diplomacy on behalf of China and his chief at
Paris and Lisbon, is absolutely impersonal in putting all
applicants through their preliminary examination ; but recog
nising how often even a limited competition of the broad and
practical kind established for the Customs fails to " place " the
man who will really be fittest for the work, it is part of Sir
Robert's plan to allow Mr. Campbell occasionally to select from
the unplaced competitors an individual who seems to him a
desirable recruit, as promising and possessing qualities that
indicate all-round fitness. So the benevolent despotism works .
Sir Robert Hart left the Consular Service for the Customs
it was barely in existence then-in 1859, and in 1863 he became
Inspector-General. And during the thirty -five years that have
intervened he has been home twice, once for twelve months and
once for six - that is, he has had in his whole lifetime less
holiday than one of his subordinates gets every five years. He
has never been to the Western Hills, a few miles away, to which
all the foreigners in Peking retreat in summer, and he has never
even seen the Great Wall, two days' journey distant. But
" next spring," he says, he is certainly going home. “ Poch,” say
people in the Customs Service, when you tell them this ; " he
has been going home in the spring' for the last fifteen years.”
As for the services he has rendered to China, to England, and to
the world, the statesmen of Europe know them very well, and it
would take a volume to tell them to others . Besides the creation
of the Customs Service itself, which will be his immortality, to
take the latest example, it was he alone who concluded the
treaty of 1885 between France and China. All negotiations
234 CHINA .
had failed and matters looked very black and threatening.
Then, as usual, the Ministers of the Tsungli Yamên came
to Sir Robert. He agreed to take up the task on his two
invariable conditions—that he should have a free hand , and
that his connection with the affair should be kept a profound
secret till he either succeeded or failed. Then negociations
began by telegraph in cipher between his “ den ” in Peking
and his representative in Paris, and very awkward ones they
were , Month after month they proceeded, and at last, when
80,000 taels had been spent in telegrams , Mr. Campbell,
who conducted the negociations at the Paris end of the line,
was able to report to his chief that a settlement had been
reached , and that the Protocol was ready for signature. The
“ I. G.'s ” reply (March 31st) was characteristic : “ Signez
sans délai, mais ne signez pas premier Avril ” ! The treaty
was signed on April 4th . Then Sir Robert got into his
cart and went to the Tsungli Yamên. The Ministers were
there and he sat down to a cup of tea with them . By
and by he remarked, with the apparent indifference of the
Oriental diplomat, “ It is exactly nine months to-day since
you placed the negociations with France in my hands."
“ And the child is born ! ” instantly cried one of the
Ministers, seeing the point and delighted at the truly Chinese
way of conveying the information . And the curious part of the
business was that all this time a special French envoy had been
residing at Tientsin, chafing at the slow progress he was making,
and not having the least idea that other negociations had been
on foot until he received word from home that he might return,
as all was arranged. He was so angry that he would not speak
to Sir Robert . After sending the last telegram settling the
French business, Sir Robert went to the funeral service of Sir
Harry Parkes, the British Minister, who had just died. As he
entered the chapel of the Legation, Mr. O'Connor, the British
chargé d'affaires, handed him the translation of a telegrain
which had just arrived. It was a despatch from Lord
THE CHINESE MARITIME CUSTOMS . 235
Granville offering him the post of British Minister to China.
He accepted , after much hesitation, and his appointment
received the Queen's signature on May 3, 1885. At his own
request the matter was kept secret at home while arrange
ments were making for the succession to his position as head of
the Customs Service. Meanwhile a Conservative Government
succeeded to office in England and telegrams from the Foreign
Office kept asking, “ May we not publish the appointment ? ”
Sir Robert had seen, however, by this time that the Customs
Service would suffer severely if he left it at that time, and this
was more to him than any other honour in the world. He
therefore telegraphed, “ Must I keep it ? ” and Lord Salisbury
replying in very complimentary terms that he was free to do
exactly as he thought best , he finally declined—the Empress of
China, who was at that time exercising the Imperial function,
as his official reply truly but perhaps inadequately explained,
preferring that he should remain .
I have said that the statesmen of Europe are well aware
of Sir Robert Hart's services, and the proof of this is that
there are few civilians so decorated as he. In England a
Conservative Government made him a C.M.G. , and a Liberal
one added the K.C.M.G. , and later the G.C.M.G. and
Baronetcy. Sweden made him a Chevalier of the Order of
Gustavus Vasa ; Belgium, a Commander of the Order of Leo
pold ; France, a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour ; Italy,
a Grand Officer of the Crown of Italy ; Austria sent him the
Grand Cross of the Order of Francis Joseph ; America has
presented him with several medals of Republican appreciation ;
Portugal has decorated him with the Military Order of Christ ;
the Emperor of China has conferred upon him the coveted
peacock's feather and the Order of the Double Dragon , and has
ennobled his ancestors ; and his friends at Belfast - his native
place — will no doubt be much interested to learn that he is, by
direct gift from the Pope - nothing less than sub annulo pisca
toris — a Commander of the Papal Order of Pius IX. As for
236 CHINA.
knowledge of China and the Chinese, there is no one living who
can compare with him, and I learned more of the inner working
of Celestial affairs during the fortnight that I had the honour of
being his guest, than a lifetime of simple residence could have
afforded.
The “ I. G.” and Sir Robert Hart, however, are two very
different people. “ I was calling upon Lady Hart one day,”
said a lady to me, " and as I wished to speak with Sir Robert I
was shown into his office. I found the ‘ I. G. ' there. Oh , it
was terrible – I covered my face and fled ! " The distinction
is indeed admitted by himself. He is not Jekyll and Hyde,
but he is certainly post and person. The secret by which he
has accomplished so much is an extraordinary devotion to
method-most extraordinary of all for an Irishman . This is a
subject on which he is far from averse to giving good advice to
men younger than himself, and on which , too, he establishes an
immediate entente cordiale with his guests. “Your early tea,"
he says, “ will be brought to you when you ring your bell
please ring it once only, holding the button pressed while you
can count three. Then will it be convenient to you to tiffin at
twelve sharp ? Because if not, I will tiffin myself at twelve
sharp and order your tiffin to be served at any hour you like.
I ride from three to five-there is always a mount for you if you
wish it. Dinner at half-past seven sharp, and I must ask you
>
always to excuse me at eleven . " The consequence is that every
thing runs like clockwork in Sir Robert's household, and a guest
is perfectly at home from the start. But the above methodity
is nothing, in comparison. In the dining room there is a big
wicker chair, always covered with a rug, so that you cannot sit
down in it. In that chair the master of the house has had his
tea every afternoon for thirty years. Upon a shelf stands a large
blue and white cup. Out of that he has drunk his tea for thirty
years.. And by employing the odd moments that his " boy "
who is punctuality itself — has kept him waiting each day in that
chair for that cup, he has managed during the last year or two
A PRIVATE CART, PEKING .
THE TOP OF THE WALL, PEKING.
ASTOR , LENOX AND
S
TILDEN FOUNDATION
A
THE CHINESE MARITIME CUSTOMS . 237
to read the whole of Lucan's Pharsalia ! Of course he has kept
a diary since he could hold a pen. To test his preciseness I
made a point of standing each day behind my door, watch in
hand, till the clock struck twelve or half-past seven. Then I
walked into the central hall from my own side of the house.
Sure enough the door opened opposite me and my host walked
in from the other. It was like watching for a transit of Venus,
or waiting for the apostles to come out of the clock at Strasburg
at noon . And as I find I have not said a word of his outer man
I may conclude these personalities by saying that he is of
medium height and slight build , rather bald, with a kind ,
thoughtful, and humorous face, a low voice, a shy and punc
tilious manner ; that he is a most entertaining companion, a
teller of countless good stories, fond of fun and merry company ,
devoted to children, a player of the violin and 'cello, and a
host whose care and thoughtfulness for his guests are feminine
in their insight and famous in their execution . Sir Robert
Hart's remarkable personality has played, and may yet play, so
great a part in the politics of the Far East that I need hardly
apologise for giving these details in illustration of it.
And what, in a word, is this Customs Service ? It is first
and foremost the collection of all their Maritime Customs at
the twenty -four trading ports, reaching nearly 22,000,000 taels
last year, their chief source of national income, which the
Chinese bave confided to the hands of one foreigner, leaving
him absolutely free in his action and unhampered by any
colleague .
In passing round the coasts of China you frequently see a
smart little cruiser flying the yellow flag, with perhaps a minia
ture steel turret and a couple of quick - firing guns on board ; or
in a swift launch passing you will notice the Chinese crew and
foreign skipper in dapper uniforms, and a ten -barrelled Norden
feldt projecting over the bow. These are the Customs fleet,
watching the coast for smugglers, and ready at a moment's
notice to fetch back some outgoing junk that disobeys the
238 CHINA .
waving of the red flag signal to heave -to and be examined. The
duty on opium is so high that smuggling is extremely profitable,
and therefore the Customs officers are proportionally keen in
discovering and preventing it. Along the coast, too, in the
neighbourhood of Hongkong and the Treaty Ports you will see
little stations, consisting of a house or two, a few boats, and a
look-out. These are also the Customs, and all the lighthouses
are in the same hands. Indeed, Sir Robert Hart has already
established the “ Customs Post ” between the Treaty Ports, and
he very nearly gave China an Imperial Post Office and an
Imperial silver coinage as well. The relations between Sir
Robert Hart and the Chinese Government exhibit the most
extraordinary example of confidence in individual integrity that
I have ever heard of. The “ I. G.” fixes the total cost of the
service, the Tsungli Yamên hands it over to him without a
word, and all money collected is paid directly by the merchants
into the Chinese bank. A little while ago the grant was
1,300,000 taels annually (a “ Haikwan " or Customs tael is the
official monetary standard in China, a Mexican dollar and balf,
in 1893 about 3s. 11 /d. ) , but an envious Chinaman , whom
I will not name, approached the Ministers at the Yamên with
a secret offer to do it for 500,000 taels less. The Yamên quietly
informed Sir Robert of the attempt to cut him out. His action
was characteristic . He replied that the annual sum had been
inadequate for some years, and that he, on the other hand,
must ask them to raise it by 400,000 taels, which they accord
ingly did ! With this 1,700,000 taels a year Sir Robert does
exactly what he likes, his own remuneration being fixed, paying
to others the salaries he considers just, according to the con
ditions he has established . The pay of a student when he enters
the service to learn Chinese is 900 taels a year, and this rises to
8,000 taels, more or less, the pay of a full Commissioner. Instead
of a promise of pension, which Sir Robert felt that he could
not be certain the Chinese would keep when he should be gone,
he pays a bonus of one year's pay for seven years' service to the
THE CHINESE MARITIME CUSTOMS . 239
Indoor Staff, for ten years' service to the Outdoor Staff, and
for twelve years' service to the Chinese Staff. But this bonus
may be withheld at his pleasure (he has never yet withheld it) ,
and it therefore does not form part of a dead man's estate
a thoughtful provision for widows and children. The Indoor
Staff get two years' leave after every seven years' service , and the
Outdoor one year after every ten, both on half -pay. As may be
expected , the personnel of so attractive a service is of a very high
class, comprising all nationalities, and to be “ in the Customs”
confers social standing throughout the Far East. He is a
fortunate father, in these days, who can see his son safely
started on so pleasant, so well-paid, so assured a road of
livelihood, though in exile.
The establishment of the Chinese Customs takes us back to
one of the most interesting chapters in the story of the opening
of China. The theoretic basis upon which the collection of
duties had previously stood, left, like so many other Chinese
theories, little to desire, but actual practice corresponded only
remotely with it. The native tariffs were “ minute and precise,”
the duties leviable amounting to about 10 per cent. ad valorem,
but the rule was for each district to be assessed , so to speak , at
à certain figure, which it was obliged to remit, anything over
that sum remaining the personal profit of the collecting officer .
This naturally resulted in a “ dicker ” between the merchant
and the Customs, the latter demanding as much , and the former
paying as little, as possible . In an official memorandum upon
the subject Sir Robert Hart wrote as follows:: “• The paltriness
of the amount to be answered for, the absence of the supervision
of superiors, and the generally subordinate nature of the work
to be performed, have all tended to produce such utter laxity
and irregularity that the Tariff rates have become dead letters
except in that they represent the maximum collectable on any
one article ; the additional exemption from all question as to
extra and unreported collection has encouraged, if not originated,
a species of dishonesty, in which each subordinate lies to his
240 CHINA .
superior, who, again , winks at such knavery, involved, as he is
himself, in turn, in precisely similar transactions. "
The introduction of foreign supervision resulted through the
confusion that sprang up when Shanghai was held by the rebels
in 1854, the Government officials expelled and their Yamêns
closed , the collection of duties by the Chinese at an end , and
the foreign Consuls in self-defence against future demands
taking duties from merchants in the shape of promissory notes
whose validity was questionable. But as Lord Clarendon wrote
to Lord Elgin, it was “ no part of the duty of Her Majesty's
Consular authorities to take greater care of the Chinese revenue
than the Chinese authorities are disposed to take.” To bring
the confusion to an end, it was at length agreed that the Chinese
custom - house at Shanghai should be reopened under the proper
authority, and that it should be placed under the supervision of
foreigners to be nominated by the Consuls of the three Treaty
Powers—England, France, and the United States. This, of
course, was a purely foreign measure, and it met with opposition
alike from the Chinese, who found their illegitimate profits
threatened, and from the European merchants, who were more
strictly treated and unable any longer to drive bargains for
the clearing of their cargoes. Nevertheless, said Sir Robert
Hart, it tended, “ with unpremeditated gravitation,” to become
Chinese, and no serious objection was made from any quarter
when the proposal was made to extend it to the whole
foreign trade of China. Accordingly, by Art. 46, and Rule
X. of the rules appended to the tariff, of Lord Elgin's
Treaty of Tientsin, 1858, it was agreed that “ one uniform
system shall be enforced at every port.” This was the
birth of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs. For a
time, like its immediate predecessor , it met with opposition from
both natives and foreigners, since both suffered in pocket from
its honesty and exactitude . But first of all, it secured for the
Chinese Government funds “from a hitherto unappreciated
source, and that, too , to an extent never dreamt of before ." In
THE CHINESE MARITIME CUSTOMS . 241
fact, one may say without exaggeration that it has been the
backbone of all Chinese finance ever since. To -day, when
China hints that she desires a loan, and is prepared to offer part
of the Customs revenue as a guarantee, the agents of all the
great banks and financial houses of Europe tumble over one
another in their anxiety to be first in the field with their offers.
Yet they would look askance indeed at a loan based solely upon
native administration . The service has been extended to each
fresh port of China ; its numbers and responsibilities have con
tinually increased ; and all sorts of duties, outside its original
charter, have been laid upon the willing shoulders of its staff.
To-day, as I have said , a position in the Customs gives a
high social standing of its own. The Customs publications
are among the most elaborate volumes of public information
and statistics issued in the world , its huge volumeof “ Decennial
Reports ” just circulated being possibly the most instructive
single work ever printed about China. Finally, to the Customs
Service and the labours of Sir Robert Hart, the world owes the
lighting and buoying of the whole coast of China. In 1863
there were only two small lights in the Canton district and a
lightship at Shanghai, whereas now there are 108 lighthouses,
4 lightships, 89 buoys, and 67 beacons, employing a staff of 66
foreigners and 186 natives, all under the control of the Inspector
General of Customs, and paid for out of the tonnage dues .
Although the Customs Service was established under the
Treaty of Tientsin between Great Britain and China , all
nations have shared equally in its advantages, and they are
equitably represented upon its staff. Britishers (it would be
inaccurate to say “ Englishmen , " where many are Scotch and
Irish ) , Americans , Germans, French , Swedes, Danes, and now
Portuguese, form the personnel, subjects of every nation having
a treaty with China being equally eligible under the most
favoured nation clause . There are doubtless more subjects
of Great Britain than of any other Power, but not nearly so
many as there would be if appointments were bestowed in
17
242 CHINA .
proportion to the share of each country's trade with China.
The staff is at present as follows:
FOREIGNERS . CHINESE .
Revenue Department 682 3,185
Marine 81 388
Educational 6 1
769 3,574 TOTAL 4,343.
The value of the Foreign Trade of China , controlled by the
Customs, for 1893 was 267,995,130 taels- £ 44,665,855 * ; the
duties collected amounted to 21,989,300 taels- £ 3,664,883 ; the
number of ships entered and cleared was 37,902, and their
aggregate tonnage 29,318,811. The direct trade of Great
Britain with China amounted to 39,823,987 taels- £6,637,361,
but the total trade with the British Empire, namely, Hong
kong, Singapore and the Straits Settlements, India, Australasia,
South Africa, and Canada, reached the enormous figure of
195,710,240 taels—£ 32,618,373, or over 73 per cent of the
entire Foreign Trade of China.
The Chinese Customs Service forms, in short, an imperium in
imperio without parallel , so far as I know, in history, and it
should be a matter of great pride to us that it is built upon the
genius, the devotion, and the integrity of an Englishman .
The one dark spot on the horizon of this great organisation is
the question of Sir Robert Hart's successor. It is practically
certain to be an Englishman - at least, the appointment of a
man of any other nationality, however qualified in other
respects, would be as unwelcome to the service as it would
be impolitic and unfair. It has been suggested, however,
that the Chinese Ministers might be tempted, when Sir Robert
resigns, to replace him by a Chinaman , in the belief that the
The tael is nominally an ounce of silver, but its value varies in China in
different parts according to the quality of the metal. All the official calculations as
above are in Haikwan — or Customs - taels . The average exchange value of this for
1893 was 3s . 117d . , but at present its average exchange value has fallen to 3s. Ad .,
at which rate I have calculated it. It must be borne in mind , of course , that the
purchasing power of silver in China has not fallen with European exchange .
THE CHINESE MARITIME CUSTOMS. 213
service would run of itself, and that they might therefore just
as well follow the usual custom of selling the post to the highest
bidder. Such an event would be a calamity for the commerce
of the world, and therefore the Treaty Powers would never
permit it. For whatever may be thought of the statement at
home , not a single voice will be raised in the East to contradict
me, when I say that among her 350,000,000 people China has
not one official who could be trusted to handle so much money
without regarding it first of all as a means of personal
enrichment. In 1864 Sir Robert wrote to the Secretary of
State at home that the Inspectorate “ will have finished its
work when it shall have produced a native administration, as
honest and as efficient, to replace it.” Does the experience
of thirty -five years lead him to cherish this hope of ultimate
Chinese honesty and efficiency ? I cannot say, of course, but I
should be extremely surprised to learn it.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE GRAND SECRETARY LI.
THEto Emperor of Chinahashitherto been practically invisible
any barbarian eye, and if he were not, he probably
knows less about his country than the least of his officials. The
real Emperor is the Empress-his aunt, and her proud and
determined personality is known to the outside world chiefly
through Li Hung-chang. Between the Empress and the Great
Viceroy there has always been a close political partnership and
an offensive and defensive alliance. Therefore the presence of
the Viceroy, till his recent fall from power, at any rate, has been
the nearest possible approach for a foreigner to the throne
of China. Viceroy of the province of Chihli, hence ex officio
guardian of the gate of China, Senior of the four Grand Secre
taries of State, formerly Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent,
President of the Board of War, Superintendent of the North
Sea Trade, Count Shinu -ki of the first rank , special plenipoten
tiary times without number ; practical owner of an army and a
fleet ; immensely wealthy, preternaturally astute, utterly unscru
pulous, having been able to laugh calmly at the dreaded
Censors themselves, Li Hung- chang may be fairly looked upon
as the ruler for many years of these 350,000,000 of shaven
heads and plaited tails, at least so far as the outside world is
concerned. If I had a chief object in my travels in the Far
East, it was to have an interview with Li Hung -chang. And
I talked with him at last for two hours.
Li Hung - chang was born in Anhui in 1825, and is a Metro
244
THE GRAND SECRETARY LI . 215
politan Graduate of the year 1847. In the following year we
come across the first mention of him in public affairs. He was
Financial Commissioner at Soochow , and there issued a pro
clamation of a highly dictatorial character against coiners and
" smashers.” He fought against the Taipings for the first time
in 1853, when they were defying the Imperialists in the province
of Chihli, and he was one of the principal Imperialist leaders
when the Wangs again took up their arms in the valley of the
Yangtze in 1858. In 1859 he was made Futai, or Governor , of
Fuhkien, and in 1862 Governor of Kiangsu. This was the
moment when Ward, the founder of the “ Ever - Victorious
Army," who had carried on the war against the Taipings with
a handful of queer foreigners and a few thousand native troops
whom he had been allowed to enlist and train , had been killed
in retaking Tseki, and when his lieutenant, the traitor Burgevine,
was trying to succeed him in the command . Li refused to
recognise Burgevine's rights , and in spite of the fact that the
latter won several battles, succeeded in getting him dismissed
by the Emperor, and thus clearing the way for the military
reputation of himself and his lieutenant, General Ching. In
February, 1863, the British Government consented to the com
mand of the “ Ever- Victorious Army," which up to that time
had experienced at least its fair share of defeats, being given to
Captain Charles Gordon, R.E. Li showed signs at first of being as
jealous of him as of his predecessors and the force he commanded ;
but he probably soon discovered that so long as Gordon was
allowed to win the battles he did not care a straw who took the
credit, and their relations were amicable until Li committed his
great act of treachery. When it became evident to the Taiping
leaders that Soochow must fall, and with it their rebellion come
>
to an end , they decided to surrender to the Imperialists. Mow
Wang alone was for fighting to the bitter end, and he was
accordingly murdered by his fellow Wangs. Chung Wang, the
great Taiping general, and eight others surrendered. General
Ching had sworn brotherhood with Lar Wang, and Li had pro
216 CHINA.
mised Gordon that the lives of them all should be spared. Gordon
himself had quarrelled with Li because the pay of his men had
not been paid, and had withdrawn the “ Ever-Victorious Army "
to its headquarters at Quinsan. The first thing Li did as soon as
he was left in undisturbed possession of the place was to invite Lar
Wang and eight other Wangs to a banquet on board his own
boat, and shortly afterwards their nine headless bodies were
found on the shore. Gordon's anger was so great that he is
said to have returned and sought Li for a whole day, revolver
in hand, to shoot him, but the astute Futai was not to be found.
Gordon, however, retired in disgust, refused to have anything
more to do with Li and his cause, and indignantly refused the
decoration and the large sum of money that the Emperor sent
him. He came to realise, however, that he would be doing great
harm by allowing the war to drift on, instead of bringing it to a
speedy close, as he felt able to do ; so he returned to his com
mand . Years afterwards he appears to have forgiven Li, and
at any rate the incident did not destroy his opinion of Li's
character as a whole, for I have seen a letter from him in which
he says, “ Li, in spite of his cutting the Wangs' heads off, is
a man worthy the sacrifice of a life I have ceased to value."
Nevertheless, Gordon's estimate of Li's character may be judged
from his view of the future relations of China and Russia, which
was that Russia would advance, driving the Chinese forces
gradually back upon Peking, and that Li, while pretending, in
response to reiterated and imploring appeals from the Emperor
and Empress, to be making his best efforts, would do absolutely
nothing ; that then, when the Russians had taken Peking, Li
would open negociations with them, grant them any terms they
desired in return for their support of him ; that they would
retire and that Li would pose successfully as the saviour of
China , and possess himself of the throne. This opinion of
Gordon's was once published in Shanghai, and Li was so angry
that he succeeded in bringing enough pressure to bear to get
the paper suppressed . “ It is impossible ,” says the chief
THE GRAND SECRETARY LI. 247
historian of China, with regard to the murder of the Wangs,
" to apportion the blame for this treacherous act between Li
Hung-chang and General Ching. The latter was morally the
more guilty, but it seems as if Li Hung-chang were the real
instigator of the crime.” * The facts that the fatal banquet took
place on Li's boat, that Ching was directly subordinate to Li
and would hardly have dared to take so irrevocable a step on his
own authority, and that Gordon himself was sure who was
the perpetrator of the crime, leave little doubt on the subject. All
that can be urged in Li's defence is that to break one's promise
and murder one's enemies in cold blood is no serious infraction
of Chinese military ethics. The Wangs were fortunate that
they were not tortured as well as murdered.
In 1867 Li took the field against the Shantung rebels, and in
the same year he was made Governor -General of Hu Kwang. In
1870 he was elevated to his present post of Viceroy of Chihli ,
the most important viceroyalty in China, since that Province lies
between the capital and the outside world , and this post he has
held ever since, except for a period when he went into mourning.
In 1876 he took the leading part in coping with the great famine,
and in 1884 he was made Grand Secretary of State.
For many years the Yamên of Li Hung-chang at Tientsin has
been the centre of Chinese foreign affairs - indeed the question
has been raised whether it would not be better for the foreign
Ministers to reside there, instead of ruining their tempers and
wasting their time by fruitless visits and endless discussions at
the Tsungli Yamên, the theoretical Board of Foreign Affairs at
Peking. Whenever China has had to deal diplomatically with
foreign nations, Li has been her mouthpiece. Thus at Chefoo,
where Sir Thomas Wade very rightly compelled Li to meet him ,
he signed the Chefoo Convention (never ratified) in 1876 ; at
Tientsin, the Li-Fournier Convention of 1881, in connection
with which charges of falsification of the document were made
D. C. Boulger, “ A History of China, ” iii. p. 616, from which work I have
also taken the allusion to the first mention of Li in public life .
248 CHINA .
by each signatory against the other, leading to Captain
Fournier's subsequent duel in Paris ; the Treaty with M.
Patenôtre, representing France, at Tientsin in June 1885 ; and
the Li - Ito Convention of Tientsin regarding Korea, in 1885.
His career, however, has by no means been an uninterrupted
success. Many times he has been reprimanded from the throne
for faults small and great, and his enemies have unceasingly
plotted against him . His great influence has never been
sufficient to procure the restoration to office of that very able
literate but unscrupulous man , Chang Pei-lun, who was dis
graced and banished to the Russian frontier for having deserted
his post as governor of Foochow Arsenal , and to whom Li
married his daughter-in spite of her weeks of weeping and
desperate opposition , according to gossip-in 1889. Much of
his power-or rather, much of the failure of his enemies - must
be attributed to the army with which he has surrounded him
self. This has been supposed to number fifteen thousand men,
but all Chinese figures on such matters are pure guess-work.
These have undoubtedly been the best-armed and best -drilled
troops in China, and from them have been drawn the contingents
for the defence of the Taku Forts at the mouth of the Peiho
River , and the fortress of Port Arthur. One of the most
astonishing features of the Japanese war is the fact that this
army has given no account of itself ; indeed, it is not certain
that it has not been kept in the neighbourhood of Tientsin all
the time, in view of eventualities in which its master might have
dire personal need of its services. I made many attempts while
I was staying at Tientsin to see some of these much-praised
battalions and their camps, but although I had the formal
permission of Li himself to do so, every opportunity that I
suggested was found to be quite impossible, and I never caught
sight of them, except the few that were occasionally to be seen
in the streets . With regard to the great Viceroy himself, how
ever, I was more favoured .
It will easily be believed that he is not the most accessible
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THE GRAND SECRETARY LI . 219
of men, and after waiting a week at Tientsin for an answer to
my request for an interview, my methods of influence being all 1
exhausted for the moment, I had temporarily relinquished the
project and ordered my ponies to be ready to start for Peking
the next morning. It happened to be the Race Day at Tientsin
and business was suspended, the banks closed and everybody
gone to the course. At half- past two, as I had my foot in the
stirrup to go too, a European-looking note was put into my
hand. It was beautifully written, and read : “ Dear Mr. Nor
man, I have the pleasure to inform you that His Excellency the
Viceroy Li will be pleased to receive you this afternoon at 4.30.
I hope therefore to find you in the waiting-room of His Excel
lency’s Yamên at the hour appointed . Yours sincerely, Lo Fêng
Lub ." There was no time to be lost, as the Viceroy's residence
is two or three miles from the hotel , and it was necessary to pro
cure a chair, with bearers in official red hats, and a man to carry
one's card, for I was informed that it would not be dignified to
pay such a visit of ceremony on horseback or in a jinriksha. A
friendly Chinese merchant soon procured these for me , and the
four bearers carried me off in the closed chair , like a cat in a
basket, at the rate of five miles an hour, while the card -man
trotted alongside and objurgated anybody who got in the way .
Mr. Lo Fêng Luh, I should add, is the English Secretary to the
Viceroy , and an official holding several important appointments.
The Yamên (literally " official gate " ) of a Chinese official is
his combined private and official residence, though in general
use the word “ Yamên " is equivalent to “ office ” or “ bureau.”
It consists always of a number of buildings surrounded by a
strong wall, with a wide gateway and painted doors. In the
centre are the official's private living -rooms and the apartments
of his wife, and of his concubines if he has any ; then come his
secretaries 'offices, his waiting-rooms and his large official court
or reception room. Around the yard into which you enter are
the buildings where his servants and “ runners " live , the latter
being the harpy-like dependents, who shout when his dis
250 CHINA .
tinguished visitors enter, form his train when he goes out, do
all his dirty work, “ squeeze ” his petitioners and sell his
secrets—a set of ruffians of the worst type. If he is a magis
trate his Yamên contains also a prison , and his " runners
stand by to deal with culprits condemned to “ eat bamboo ."
An official Yamên is also a house of refuge for anybody fleeing
from popular vengeance. Half an hour's shaking through the
narrow streets of the native streets of the city of Tientsin
brought me to a bridge over the river, across which two dense
crowds were passing both ways—coolies , beggars, mandarins in
chairs, on ponies and on donkeys, and all kinds of common
citizens. By the time we had jostled half- way across, the
famous Yamên was in full view—a mass of roofs enclosed in
a bigh wall of grey brick, with a big gateway projecting at one
side, over which a score flags and banners were waving, while in
front a crowd of petitioners and beggars raised a ceaseless
hubbub. My bearers broke into a trot as soon as they came in
sight of the gate, and entering it swung rapidly round a blank wall
built directly in front of it, and deposited me in the courtyard
behind . This wall is set up in every Yamên with the geoman
tic object of stopping evil influences, which can only proceed in
a straight line. Two enormous and gaudy figures of officials or
emperors or deities—I do not know which — were pasted to the
doors, and opposite these, so placed as to catch the eye of the
Viceroy every time he goes forth , is a similar flaming monster,
the tan or beast Avarice—a warning against the besetting sin
of Chinese officialdom . While I was noticing these, and the
runners loitering about were commenting in chorus upon my
personal appearance in a manner evidently very entertaining to
themselves, my card -man had rushed forward and two petty
officials came to conduct me to the waiting-room .
This was the first surprise. The great man's anteroom
resembled the out- patients' waiting -room in a charity hospital
at home—a bare , dirty, whitewashed room, no bigger than an
ordinary parlour, with a seat like that of a third -class railway
THE GRAND SECRETARY LI . 251
carriage running round it, broken at intervals of a couple of feet
by small tables placed upon it. Mr. Lo Feng Luh , by contrast
more resplendent in his official winter dress of silk and satin
and sable and ermine, wearing of course a red -roofed hat
crowned by a big button , was already there, and tea was served
to us at once. Before we had time to touch it, however, the
Viceroy's chamberlain came to say that the Chung Tang awaited
us.. I should explain that to say “ Li Hung -chang," as we do,
is to Chinese ears both ignorant and rude ; he should be spoken
of as “ Li Chung Tang,” i.e., “ Grand Secretary Li,” or more
simply, when in his own province, “ the Chung Tang.” The
foreign community at Tientsin , at least all of them who are
familiar with Chinese etiquette, invariably employ the last
expression.
We followed the chamberlain , or whatever he was, for a
couple of minutes, across a yard, through several doorways,
around the veranda of an open court, and turned abruptly into
a room and round a large screen . “ The Viceroy,” said Mr. Lo ,
with perfect European manners, as he stepped back and left me
face to face with a tall and strongly-built Chinaman who put out
his hand and smiled pleasantly and grunted a solitary syllable.
“ The Viceroy says he is very glad to see you ,” explained Mr.
Lo, very much as a proud mother elaborately interprets the
inarticulate cackle of her first - born . The great man acknow
ledged my bow in the Chinese manner-by bowing with his
clasped hands at the height of his chin , and motioned us to be
seated, myself opposite him , Mr. Lo on a foreign circular lounge
between us.
Li Chung Tang is a pure Chinaman, not Manchu like the
dynasty he serves. He is very tall for a Chinese , five feet
eleven, I should guess , and must have been a powerful man in
his youth . His face is the most strongly moulded I saw in
China-not flat, as they usually are, but with all the features
distinctly marked and the lines broad and deep, a face that
would hold its own in comparison with any foreign face. A thin
252 CHINA .
grey moustache and “ chin -beard ” did not conceal his mouth
and chin at all, but what the general expression of his face may
be I have no idea, as he wore an enormous pair of round
tortoise-shell goggles. This may be his custom, as it certainly
gives him a great advantage in diplomatic conversation, or it
may have been by a temporary order of the doctor, as he was
just recovering from a rather alarming attack of facial paralysis
which rendered him unable to speak for several days, and of
which I could see traces in the twitching and drawn lines of one
side of his face. But at any rate he looked me straight in the
eye during nearly the whole of our interview , while I have so
slight a notion of what he really looks like, that if I were not
familiar with his photograph I doubt if I should recognise bim
in the street without his glasses.
The Viceroy was dressed simply, not to say shabbily, in the
ordinary Chinese stiff round hat, a thickly- padded upper
garment of some kind of yellow silk and an undergarment of
grey silk . His hands were tucked into his wide sleeves and only
came out twice during our conversation , once when he wished to
blow his nose, which he did in the familiar but indescribable
manner of the tramp in the street, and once when he was
startled by a little piece of news. Yet he smoked a pipe five
feet long. An attendant stood with pipe, smoking materials
and fire, at the back of the reception -room , and every five
minutes he walked solemnly forward , filled the pipe, blew the
fire -stick into a flame, the Viceroy opened one corner of his
mouth , the attendant inserted the stem and applied the light to
the bowl, the great man absorbed the smoke and opened his
mouth again , when the pipe-bearer withdrew as he had come.
This occurred a score times at least, and never a muscle did the
Viceroy move, except just to open the corner of his mouth wide
enough to admit the pipe- stem. The reception-room is a small
parlour, well-furnished with modern European furniture, except
on one side where an alcove, hung with scarlet silk , contains a
cushion and table adopted for sitting and writing in the Chinese
THE GRAND SECRETARY LI . 253
fashion . The Chung Tang probably sits in this elevated post
on state occasions ; on the present he reclined very comfortably
upon a sofa . Three or four attendants did nothing and did it well,
simply listening to the conversation, while I saw in the back
ground that another had opened a window an inch and was
listening from outside. These attendants are always present at
official interviews, extraordinary as such a habit may seem to us,
and the natural result is that most of the foreign representatives
have one at each Yamên in their pay, and that there are few
secrets which money will not buy. After I left the Chung Tang
I met a facetious acquaintance who inquired where I had been.
" Talking with the Viceroy, ” I replied. “ Oh , ” he said, “ I'll
get all you said to him for a couple of dollars to -morrow . ”
Naturally I offered it to him then and there at half- price.
There are two interesting pictures in this reception - room . One
represents the fable of the monkey, the cat and the chestnuts,
and I believe the Viceroy pointed to this on a recent occasion
when he was approached on behalf of British interests in Thibet.
The other puzzled me a good deal. It hung immediately over
the Viceroy's own seat and was a very large full-length portrait
in oil , representing a tall man with a long grey beard , in a frock
coat, and covered with decorations .Later I learned that it was
& portrait of Herr Krupp, presented by himself. Its position
suggests the reflection - an undoubtedly true one - that the
Chinese have always loved that foreigner best who has best
helped them to keep all foreigners away.
As soon as we were seated, an attendant brought tea and
champagne and placed them on a little table beside each of us,
and the interview began, Mr. Lo translating so perfectly and so
promptly that it was as though we were both speaking the same
language. My own idea, of course, was that I was about to
interview the Viceroy. Nothing was further from his intention,
which was clearly to interview me . Question after question fell
from his lips for a whole hour, and as Mr. Lo apparently did
not translate the feeble attempts I made from time to time to
254 CHINA .
stem the interrogatory torrent, I was as helpless as a man in a
dentist's chair. I think the best thing I can do is to repeat the
first part of the conversation verbatim , not that the subject
matter is of the slightest importance, but because it throws a
flood of light on the working of the Viceroy's mind , and exhibits
a curious mixture of childishness, astuteness and Chinese
manners . After nearly an hour of it I began to feel that I must
be with Alice in Wonderland. Here it is, then , as nearly word
for word as I can recall it.
“ The Viceroy hopes you are in good health and that you have
had a pleasant journey.” Reply taken for granted. " Where
have you been ? ” and “ Where are you going ? ” Easily
answered . “ How old are you ? ” This, I afterward learned,
is an inquiry essential to politeness in China - I ought to have
returned the compliment. “ What is your yearly income from
writing for newspapers ? ” I remembered that sophists hold it
to be not always imperative to speak the exact truth under
pressure , and I replied accordingly, with the natural result
that the next remark was, “ His Excellency says you must
be a very skilful writer to earn so much money ." I could not
observe whether he also winked under his goggles . “ You
have made a long journey – have you no companion ? ” “ None
whatever ." “ Are you not afraid of being stabbed ? ” “In
dangerous countries - not, of course. in China - I carry means of
>
defending myself.” “ * The Viceroy says you must have been in
very great danger.” “ Not to my knowledge.” “ The world is
full of wicked people.” “ His Excellency is evidently well
acquainted with it. ”' “ Are you going to Thibet ? " I took
this inquiry for a joke, as nobody knows better than the Chung
Tang that it is almost as easy to go to the moon , so I replied in
the same spirit, “ Yes, and I have specially to beg from His
Excellency the favour of a safe -conduct and letter of recom
mendation to the Grand Llama himself.” But it was no joke at
all. “ Impossible ! ” exclaimed the Viceroy, sitting bolt upright
80 suddenly that the pipe- bearer narrowly escaped prodding him
THE GRAND SECRETARY LI . 255
in the eye with the mouth-piece. “ Impossible ! Certainly not !
I cannot do anything of the kind. It would be most unwise of
him to think of going.” I did not dare to admit that I had
ventured to joke with the great man , so I said , “ Then if it is
impossible for me to go, perhaps His Excellency will tell me
what is the truth about the recent troubles ."” “ The people of
Thibet are very foolish , ” was the reply, “ but I have sent a
Commissioner to them , who is at this moment conferring with
the English , and there will be no more fighting." I tried to
look like a person who believes what he is told As a matter of .
fact, Li Hung-chang has as much power over the Thibetans as the
Sultan has over the Mahdi, but Thibet is a very sensitive spot
with the Chinese authorities, and they would probably do any
thing, even to declaring war, to keep it out of the hands of the
barbarians.
Then followed an hour during which the Viceroy questioned
and cross-questioned me upon everything I had seen in the Far
East, and my opinions upon every conceivable question at issue
between the Powers. At last my patience gave way. I had
seen Li Hung -chang, I had talked with him, I had examined his
surroundings, and if he was not going to tell me anything, it
was not worth while for me to sit there any longer. So to the
twentieth inquiry about possible Russian action in Korea, I
replied, “ My opinions upon such a matter can have no value
whatever for His Excellency , whereas if he would favour me with
an authoritative statement concerning the relations of China ,
Korea and Russia, it would have the greatest possible value for
the rest of the world .” And I emphasized the request by taking
up my hat and drinking the glass of wine ; for I had been
instructed previously that when either host or guest in China
wishes to give the signal for departure, he empties his cup or
glass. When Mr. Lo had translated my remark there was a
moment's silence. Then, speaking very deliberately, the Viceroy
said, “ The relations referred to in your question are as follows :
there is a distinct understanding between China and Russia that
256 CHINA ,
any action by the latter in Korea will be regarded by the former
as a casus belli. ” In reply to a second question the Viceroy
added, “ At present the relations between China and Russia are
simple. Upon the long Russian-Chinese frontier China is
strong, Russia is weak . Vladivostok is very far from real
Russia . It is alone . Russia and China had better be good
66
friends." But when the trans- Siberian railway is finished,
Excellency — ? ” “ Yes, then the relations of China and
Russia will be revised. As regards Korea, it is a country unable
6
to stand by itself, any talk of its independence ' is waste of
words, the relation of China to it is the same as it has always
been, and you may be prepared shortly to see events which will
make this relation quite clear to all the world ."
I knew enough of China at the time not to attach much
importance to all this ; but recent events have shown how
peculiarly fatuous it was. Did the Viceroy know, when he said
these things to me and similar ones to many other persons, that
China was rotten through and through, and as incapable of
either attack or defence as she was of internal reform ? I think
he did. When our conversation was over, he took his glass at
last and we all drank, Mr. Lo translating, “ His Excellency
wishes you a pleasant journey, and says you will please give a
good account of your interview with him ." Then the Viceroy
was so kind as to accompany me across his private courtyard
and Mr. Lo politely saw me into my chair.
He would be a presumptuous critic who should attempt an
analysis of so complex and subtle a character as that of the
Grand Secretary Li. Something, however, must be said , if
only in correction of a popular misapprehension. It is com
monly supposed that Li's intimate acquaintance with foreigners
and his long experience of their diplomatic and commercial
methods have led him to conceive a certain sympathy with them
and a certain desire to see foreign influence stronger in China.
This is far from the fact. The more Li has seen of foreigners
the less he has liked them . We must not be wholly surprised
THE GRAND SECRETARY LI. 257
at this, since in some respects foreigners have shown him an
unattractive side of their character. His Yamên has been the
focus of every commercial intrigue undertaken on behalf of
Western nations, and most European commerce with official
China has been conducted by means of intrigue. So far as
merchants are concerned , British and German and French and
American have occupied virtually the same position , though I
like to think that our own countrymen have not descended to
the methods of some of their competitors . But the difference
between British and other civilised commercial dealings with
the Viceroy has been this, that whereas other nations have
been supported through thick and thin by their Ministers ,
our diplomatic agents have left our merchants to fight their
battles alone . This policy has sometimes been carried to the
point of indifference , and China merchants have some very
well- founded grievances against at least one British Minister
for his supineness, but on the whole the attitude of our
representatives has been one of dignity . As regards France
and Germany, every diplomatic concession Li has desired has
had to be bought by a corresponding commercial concession on
his part. Hence many a fat contract lost to British trade .
And on countless occasions when a commercial offer has been
refused by the Chinese on its merits , an irate Minister has
hastened off to the Viceroy's Yamên and by means of very
direct hints , if not by thinly -veiled threats , has secured a
favourable consideration for it. Moreover, the great European
firms have been well aware of the part that bribery plays in
Chinese affairs. Whether Li has taken bribes or not , I do not
know , though dozens of amusing stories on the subject are in
circulation in Tientsin ; but it is safe to say that if he has
not, he occupies a solitary position of honour among Chinese
officials . These are the circumstances , therefore , under which
Li has not always seen the best side of European civilisation .
Apart from individual acts, however , he is like all his countrymen
in thoroughly disliking us and all the principles of our ways .
18
258 CHINA .
Between the European and the Chinaman there is this quite
instinctive, as well as quite reasoned, aversion. He has sought
to avail himself of our abilities, especially where these might
enable him to hold us and all other foreigners at arm's length
in the future, but to him the millennium would be the final
disappearance of every “ foreign devil ” from China. Upon
this point there can be no doubt whatever, however much it
may suit the policy of China from time to time to let the
contrary be assumed . A recent British Minister to China said
to me himself that he believed the vast majority of Chinamen
of all classes would willingly mortgage the whole revenue of
China for the next thirty years, to see the back of the last
foreigner, and to have the certainty that he would never return ;
and that Li Hung- chang would be the leader in this step.
There can be no better example of Li's employment of Western
relations to suit the purposes of China than a remarkable letter
he wrote in 1881 to a Korean official : - " Oflate years Japan has
adopted Western customs. ... Her national liabilities having
largely increased, she is casting her eyes about in search of
some convenient acquisition which may recoup her. ... The
fate of Loochoo is at once a warning and a regret to both China
and Korea. . Her aggressive designs upon Korea will be
best frustrated by the latter's alliance with Western nations. " .
While this was his advice, however, the Viceroy has endeavoured
in every possible way, through his nominee and creature, Yuen,
the Chinese Resident in Seoul, to thwart foreign influence upon
Korea .
In a previous chapter I have spoken of Li Hung-chang's
commercial enterprise, the China Merchants' Steam Navigation
Company and the cotton-mills at Shanghai. These are other
examples of his attempts to beat foreigners at their own game.
He has also established a medical college at Tientsin , where
twenty youths are trained for the medical staff of the army and
* Quoted “ The Life of Sir Harry Parkes , " by F. V. Dickins and S. Lane
Poole , ii. p. 205.
THE GRAND SECRETARY LI. 259
navy . In view of his treatment of several young Chinese
graduates in medicine, however, whom in public he compli
mented , and in private refused to employ, one hesitates to
accord him the credit which should belong to this innovation .
The news now is that Li Hung-chang has been degraded,
and that his unique position is gone for ever. We should not
be too ready to believe this. It may be, of course , that his
enemies have thrown him at last, but the Emperor and
Empress-Dowager will hardly realise how dependent upon
him they have been, until the barrier of his unique personality
and experience has been removed from between themselves
and the barbarian world. The decree depriving him of his
Yellow Jacket and peacock's feathers must not be taken au
grand sérieux. “ Degradation " of this character is merely
& Chinese method of incentive. In fact , the decree itself
virtually promises restitution, and as I have not seen a trans
lation in the English Press it is worth reproducing in full :
The Wo- jén having broken faith with Korea and forcibly occupied that country ,
the Throne sympathised with its tributary kingdom in her distress and so raised
an army to attack the common enemy. Upou Li Hung-chang, Imperial High
Commissioner of the Pei-yang, having chief control of the forces there, rested the
entire onus of being prepared for emergencies. But, instead , he has been unable to
act with speed and promptness in his military preparations, so that much time has
elapsed without any important results. He has indeed failed in the trust reposed
in him by us. We therefore command that his decoration of the three-eyed
peacock feather be plucked off from (his hat), and that he be stripped of his Yellow
Ridivg Jacket as a slight punishment. It is necessary then , that the said Imperial
High Commissioner exert himself to the utmost and decide upon what should be
done ; that he direct and hasten the various armies from the various provinces to
the front, in order that all may put forth their best strength to chase and root out
the enemy. In this way Li Hung-chang may hope to redeem his former errors.
This is instructive not only for the light it throws upon such
Chinese “ degradation ,” but also as a contemporary example of
the paternalism of the Imperial sway. It might be a great
mistake, however, to conclude from this that the aged Viceroy
has at length reached that third day on which there
" comes a frost, a killing frost ;
And — when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a-ripening-nips
a his root,
And then he falls."
CHAPTER XVIII.
CHINA AMONG THE GREAT POWERS.
N the original plan of this volume, the chapter with the
IN above title was intended to be one of the longest and most
argumentative. At that time, though it was less than a year
ago, China was regarded by almost all foreign writers as one
of the Great Powers. Her enormous resources in population,
and her excellent credit—thanks to Sir Robert Hart's work,
which made every financial house in Europe eager to lend her
money-were regarded with the greatest respect by military
writers. It was understood that she had taken to heart the
lesson of her defeat by France, and was labouring earnestly to
guard against similar misfortunes in the future. It was known
that she had purchased enormous quantities of military and
naval equipment in Europe, that she had built arsenals, docks,
and forts up and down the country, and that a considerable
number of the most capable and energetic foreign military and
naval experts had been engaged for years in arranging her
armaments and drilling her men. She had gained one or two
distinct successes in diplomacy against European Powers, and
Li Hung.chang had frequently declared that he would regard
certain actions as a casus belli ; her naval base and dockyard
at Port Arthur had been built for her at enormous expense by a
French syndicate ; Gordon's advice to fortify Wei-hai-wei had
been followed ; the powerful Taku forts at the mouth of the
Peiho commanding the approach to Tientsin, and the Bogue
260
CHINA AMONG THE GREAT POWERS . 261
forts on the Canton River had frowned impressively upon every
foreign visitor ; while the famous Northern Squadron of German
built ironclads had visited the ports of the Far East and
exchanged elaborate salutes. From all this, foreign writers
came to the conclusion that China had shaken off her Oriental
lethargy, had drawn boldly upon her vast reserve of strength ,
had armed herself strongly according to modern scientific
fashions, and had therefore at last taken her place among the
great military and naval Powers of the world. To such an
extent was this believed, that probably a majority of publicists
came to look upon China as the great bulwark in Asia against
the Russian advance, and suggestions of an Anglo- Chinese
alliance were the commonplaces of diplomatic conversation .
Such was the opinion a few months ago regarding China, and
it was against this view that the present chapter was to be
directed. I had come to the conclusion , and had frequently
expressed it in print, that so far from China being a Great
Power, her land forces would not stop any foreign army for a
week, and that her navy would be the prey of the first foreign
fleet that attacked it ; that so far from an Anglo-Chinese
alliance being a reasonable ideal , in the first place China
would not make an alliance with any foreign country, second,
if she made one she would not adhere to it, and third, if she
made it and adhered to it, it would not be worth having.
The unlooked -for outbreak of war between Japan and China,
and its inevitable results, have rendered unnecessary any
further exposure of the hollowness of Chinese claims . The
sword of the Japanese has proved mightier in demonstration
than the pen of any critic could have hoped to be. Against the
French soldiers in Tongking , as brave as possible, but mere
handfuls in number, exhausted by the climate, badly led, and
feebly supported from home—the Chinese troops won a good
many victories and were several times within a hair's breadth of
winning greater ones ; but against the regiments of Japan ,
fighting in a climate which was their own, admirably officered,
262 CHINA .
perfectly armed , and enthusiastically supported, the Chinese
braves have fallen back like sheep. And since in the first
naval battle the European strengthening of the feet was killed
off, the Northern Squadron has done nothing but lie under the
guns of the forts , or search those parts of the sea where it was
certain that no Japanese ships would be found. A-san, Phyöng
yang, the Yalu River, Kinchow, and Port Arthur, have given us
at last that most difficult thing to secure — the truth about China.
It would be waste of time, therefore, to dwell upon matters now
so familiar to the whole world , or to argue in support of truths
>
so irresistibly taught by events. It may still be interesting,
however, to describe briefly some of the ways in which China
prepared herself for the defeat which has now overtaken her,
especially since these are hardly less amusing than instructive.
Five years ago the Englishman who knows more of that
inscrutable entity, the Chinese mind, than any man living, told
me that of all her " vassals," there were only two for which
China would fight-Thibet and Korea. Personally, I do not
believe that anything which could lappen, short of an advance
upon Peking itself, would cause China to declare war against
any European Power. The role of sleeping leviathan suited her
perfectly, but she has well known that the first step she might
take would destroy the illusion upon which her security has
been based. What she has liked is to remain perfectly
quiescent, while the world trembled to think what she might do
if aroused — to lie still in her Confucian savagery, while such
utterances as that mass of rubbish called “ China : the Sleep
and the Awakening,” which the Marquis Tsêng signed (but did
not write) in the Asiatic Quarterly for January, 1887 , have
represented her as advancing with a cautious but irresistible
march . The strangest thing is that the civilised world bas
been deceived by these tactics, and even such keen analysts of
national characteristics as the late Mr. Charles Pearson have
painted a future in which China, having prepared herself by
long training, should put forth her gigantic strength and over
CHINA AMONG THE GREAT POWERS . 263
run the world . This ethnical fable of “ Jack and the Bean
stalk ” has been amusing enough to anybody who really knows
the first facts about China, but it is safe to conjecture that
nobody has been moved by it to such hearty laughter as the
Viceroy of Chihli himself. Japan has had no illusions about
China, and she was quite ready to prick the bubble. But the
Beanstalk is hard to cut down . At the beginning of the war a
news agency solemnly announced that each province of China
was called upon to furnish 20,000 men ; nineteen multiplied by
20,000 is 380,000, and the astounded reader was invited to
believe that this enormous force was gathering and marching
to Peking like Lars Porsena's men to Rome. The newspaper
reader might perhaps not be expected to know that the Emperor
of China could as easily raise 20,000 men in Mars as in some
of his provinces ; that it would not be difficult to enlist a con
siderable force in one part of China to attack another part ;
that absolutely no organisation exists in China for the handling
of such masses ; that the men would find themselves without
uniforms, without arms, without food, without the most rudi
mentary knowledge of war, without leaders of any description
whatever ; or that a huge army of the kind in the neighbour
hood of the capital would be almost certain to seize the
opportunity to upset the present alien Government. But it is
hardly making too high a demand upon any reader that he
should have glanced at the map of China, made a rough
multiplication of the degrees of longitude he saw before him ,
and asked himself bow 20,000 men were to march a thousand
miles through a country which is always on the verge of famine.
However, when one of our leading statesmen was of opinion
that China must inevitably win in the end, “ because of her
enormous armed strength ," other people might be excused for
going astray. One expression of opinion , however, puzzled me
extremely. Captain Lang, R.N. , to whose great administrative
skill and absolute devotion to her interests China owes most
of whatever naval strength she has acquired—and whom, it
264 CHINA .
may be added, she characteristically rewarded by dismissing
him with insult - has been reported as saying to an
interviewer, among many other rather startling tributes to
Chinese naval prowess, that “ with an officer like Admiral Ting,
whom I would not hesitate to follow anywhere, the Chinese
navy would prove a splendid force." But this worthy
“ Admiral " has had no education whatever as a seaman, owing
his appointment to the ordinary routine of competitive examina
tion in the Chinese classics, and being merely the nominal equal
of Admiral-as he then was - Lang, to " save the face ” of the
Chinese. In fact, he was previously a cavalry General, &
branch of the service in which he would be equally unpreju
diced by any information. Moreover, Admiral Ting Ju -ch'ang
was the hero of the famous story of the Chinese Admiral who
was found one day playing pitch and toss, or what corre
sponds to it in China, with the sentry at his door, both of
them seated on the floor of the Admiral's cabin . I had an
opportunity once of talking with a foreign instructor on board
a certain Chinese ironclad. In reply to my inquiry when the
ship would sail, he said, “ The only way we really know when
we are to sail is by the Admiral coming aboard. He leaves the
ship as soon as we come into port, and we never see him again
until we sail. He knows nothing at all about naval matters
he is just the mandarin put on board by Li. Why, when some
body comes aboard to visit him , he'll perhaps call a sampan and
see him off over the port side ! Then I have seen him gambling
here on the quarter-deck with a common seaman, and when he
has won all his money he'll tell the paymaster to advance the
seaman some more, so that he can go on playing. Yes, sir,
that is a literal fact. The only men on board that could really
do anything are these young fellows, the captain and lieutenants,
and they have no power at all. They fought against the French
and got nothing at all for it — just a few dollars, and were told
to take themselves off. The rings on the big Krupps are begin
ning to open out already, and if there is the least dirt or sand
CHINA AMONG THE GREAT POWERS . 265
you can't shut them .” “ Then I suppose," I said , “ that no
European squadron need be afraid of the Pei-yang Squadron
yet ? " ' No fear, sir , it is only a question who will get them
as prizes,” was the reply.
“ The truth is, that if the Japanese do not sweep the Chinese
from the sea, then study, skill, devotion, and experience go for
nothing, and there is no need for us to train our naval officers
at all. One thing only could save the Chinese on the sea - the
enlistment by large promises of money of European naval
officers, in whose hands complete and unfettered control should
be placed. The Chinese seamen are not wanting in courage, but
naturally enough they have no confidence whatever in their
leaders, and they would probably fight well enough to give their
undoubtedly fine ships a chance if they were well commanded." *
The actual condition of the Chinese army and navy , while so
much was believed of it abroad, cannot be understood from any
descriptions in general terms. Let me therefore give a few
scattered facts which came to my knowledge. I was once being
shown by a Chinese naval officer over one of their two biggest
ironclads, which was on a cruise at the time , and therefore
presumably in first -rate condition. I noticed a gun carefully
protected in a canvas cover. As we passed it, I asked casually
what it was. The officer explained with pride that it was a new
quick -firing gun, and called a quartermaster to remove the
covering. The order was obeyed with evident reluctance , and
when the gun was at length exposed it proved to be used by one
of the watches as a receptacle for their “ chow , " and was filled
with chop-sticks and littered with rice and pickles. Of course I
promptly looked the other way, but it required no knowledge of
Chinese to interpret the remarks of the officer to the quarter
master. No doubt the whole watch went through the process of
To avoid the appearance of prophesying after the event I may be permitted to
say that I wrote these words on August 18, 1894, and that they appeared in the
Contemporary Review for September. The battle of the Yalu was fought on
September 17.
266 CHINA.
“ eating bamboo " the moment I was off the ship ; but the
Chinese are incorrigible. It would be discouraging to a
European engineer who should be appointed to a Chinese ship
to find that if there were any subordinate boiler small enough
for the purpose, it had been used for stewing dog. There is
nothing inherently improbable in the story repeated by the corre
spondent of the Pall Mall Gazette that a Chinese warship went
to the Yalu without one of its guns, the commander having
pawned it and not been able to redeem it in time .
Another example of Chinese administration which came to
my knowledge may be interesting at this moment. Some years
ago the Chinese Government ordered a magnificent set of
Hotchkiss cartridge-making machinery. In due time this
arrived , but two mandarins claimed it for their respective
districts, and, failing to agree, each seized such portions of the
machinery as he could secure and carried them off to his own
place. When I was there, half the machinery was in one
arsenal and half in another several hundred miles away.
Unfortunately, Europeans are not always above taking advan
tage of Chinese supineness. A cargo of cocoa powder was
ordered from well - known manufacturers and landed at Port
Arthur for use in the big guns there. By -and -by it was tried
and found not to ignite, and finally the whole of it was thrown
into the sea. But both Europeans and Chinese had pocketed a
good “ squeeze " out of the transaction. The superintendent of
one of the largest arsenals in China receives an allowance to buy
steel : he buys iron , and pockets the difference . It is, therefore,
fair to presume that the rifle barrels he is turning out are made
of iron . With my own eyes I saw at an important arsenal the
machinery for making rifle barrels standing idle, while hundreds
of men in the same workshop were making them by hand.
Here is another story which I know to be true. An American
agent showed a Chinese Viceroy the performance of a Hotchkiss
gun . The Viceroy promised an order, but said he should like
first to show it to some of his officers, to find out if they could
OHINA AMONG THE GREAT POWERS . 267
use it. So the gun was lent. The Chinese took it to pieces,
worked day and night in making full- sized working drawings,
put it together again, and sent it back, and the Viceroy wrote
to say that he had decided not to purchase it. Again - in all
these instances I have names and places and dates in my note
books, but for obvious reasons I omit them-a Chinese Viceroy
ordered estimates for a complete set of rifle-making machinery
from the United States. The total cost was (say) 500,000 dols.
The Viceroy, supposing it was like a Chinese estimate, drew
that sum from the Treasury, cut the estimate down to 400,000 ,
and gave the money and the estimate to an official with orders
to procure the machinery. He, in his turn , “ squeezed "” it a
little more, and then made the estimate agree with the money
that remained by striking his pencil through several important
items. The machinery in due course arrived as ordered, and of
course could not be set up.
I had a very interesting conversation with a foreigner acting
as torpedo-instructor in the Chinese navy. He told me that
Chinese officers receive pay for a certain number of men , and
that they are in the habit of making up the total by putting all
their relations and servants in uniform on inspection days, and
drawing their pay all the rest of the time. When an admiral is
appointed to a ship, he makes his brother-in-law the boatswain,
and his cousin the cook . I asked this torpedo -instructor whether
his pupils really acquired any comprehension of the art of
torpedo warfare. He assured me that a considerable pro
portion of them really did . I asked him whether they would
actually fight. He hesitated, and I added : “ Would they not
probably discharge all their torpedoes at once and then run
away ? ” “ I think they would,” he answered. À propos of
66
squeezing , ” he told me that all his pupils had to give money ,
not being able to afford it, to the Viceroy before they could get
the rewards that had been promised them by him when he
inspected them . My informant himself, when he went to the
Yamên to get his decoration, was stopped with a demand for
268 CHINA.
sixty taels by the Viceroy's head “ boy," and finally beat him
down to forty dollars, without which it would have been impos
sible for him to get an audience. This system , he added, extends
through everything. All the “ boys ” at the Yamên actually
buy their posts, and only keep them by a regular subsidy to the
Viceroy himself. A Chinese official who “ squeezes ” up to 20
per cent. is regarded as honest ; more than that the Chinese
consider grasping .
As an example of Chinese naval procedure, I may repeat a
story told me by the agent of one of the great European naval
contractors. The Chinese sent an Armstrong cruiser to carry
troops along the coast of Formosa, a very costly and complicated
vessel , instead of chartering a common merchant steamer. Her
captain ran her promptly upon a rock and stove in her lower
bottom ; then he steamed down to Hongkong and had her
examined, the double bottom being full of water . To escape the
consequences of their mishap, the admiral and commander
determined to pay for the repairs themselves" ; so they told the
dock company that if the vessel could be put right for 15,000
dols. she might go into dock. But the company replied that so
far as they could judge from their divers' reports, the cost would
be at least 40,000 dols. So the vessel steamed away to Tientsin
just as she was, and was docked at Port Arthur. “ But the
dock ,"” continued my informant, “ was so built that when the
water was let in, the pumping -house was submerged, and they
could not get the water out again, so there the ship lay and
rusted for I don't know how long."
While the French fleet was off Tamsui, the 27-centimetre
Krupp guns in one of the shore batteries had been trained upon
the Gallissonnière at 1,000 yards range for several days. At the
first French shot all the Chinese artillerymen fled , except one,
who succeeded in discharging three guns before a shot struck
him and blew his head off. One of the shells he fired pierced
the ship, and remained imbedded in the wood -work, failing to
explode. The vessel went to Hongkong, where with infinite
CHINA AMONG THE GREAT POWERS . 269
precautions the shell was removed and opened. It had been
manufactured at the Foochow Arsenal, and contained - char
coal ! The maker had , of course, been paid for gunpowder and
had pocketed the difference.
The Japanese were blamed in many quarters for threaten
ing to withdraw their promise to treat Shanghai as a neutral
port, if the Kiangnan Arsenal did not cease its operations. The
Chinese replied that the arsenal was only a very small affair,
and its output unimportant. This is not the case. It consists
of an engine department, capable of turning out marine engines
up to 3,000 h.p.; an iron ship and boiler yard, containing a slip
upon which has been built an iron cruiser of 2,000 tons, with
å speed of 14 knots ; a small-arms factory, manufacturing
Remington rifles, the production of which is given by the
Chinese at 200 per week, though under efficient superintendence
this figure could be raised to 1,000 ; an iron and brass foundry,
which has turned out castings up to 30 tons each ; a projectile
department, under a superintendent from Elswick, with capa
bilities of 5 tons a day, ranging from the 6-pounder shell for
field guns up to the 800-pound shell for the Krupps ; an ordnance
department, capable of turning out guns up to 40 tons, with
boring and turning lathes by a dozen different European makers ;
a steam bammer which strikes a blow of 135 foot-tons ; and a
furnace which will admit work 100 feet long. When I visited
this arsenal there was an 8-inch gun of 121 tons and 35
calibres, mounted on a hydro -pneumatic disappearing carriage,
which had been entirely constructed at Kiangnan, and eight
similar ones were in course of manufacture. The superin
tendent of this department, an Englishman of great skill and
administrative talent, Mr. N. E. Cornish, from Elswick-had
turned out in two years twenty -two 8 - inch guns, eight 6 - inch guns,
and one 9-inch gun . Not far away are powder-works and cart
ridge factories, under native superintendence, with capacities
respectively of one ton and 10,000 cartridges per day ; but the
quality of the output had fallen off so seriously since the foreign
270 CHINA.
employees had been dismissed, that grave doubts were expressed
as to whether it would be of any use at all . I give these details
not only as an example of the falsehoods that the Chinese put
forward and which find acceptance among foreigners, but also as
a striking proof of the fact that the ability to produce all the
implements of warfare has not prevented the Chinese from
experiencing a humiliating defeat, on the first occasion that they
have been seriously attacked during the last twenty-five years.
Unless the character of the Chinese Government can be vitally
changed, all the guns and ships in the world will not save them.
The Canton River can now be blocked against the most power
ful fleet at a few hours' notice, and the story of how this came
to be done is a curious one. The British Consul went one day
to a former Viceroy of the province to protest against the partial
barrier which then existed, as a great obstacle to trade. “ More
over,” he said, “ it is not of the least real use to keep out an
enemy, as a foreign fleet could destroy it without the least diffi
culty .” The Viceroy listened with interest, promised to give the
matter his best consideration, and the moment the Consul had
left his Yamên he issued instructions to his foreign naval
instructor to replace the old barrier by one which could not be
destroyed. Accordingly a number of huge iron piles were
driven in, and these when filled with stones in war-time would
constitute an impenetrable obstacle. The river, too, is very
strongly defended by forts of the latest pattern, heavily armed.
As a matter of fact, however, all these precautions are useless,
because no enemy would think of attempting to force the
entrance to the river in face of them. A strong force would be
landed, would advance overland, occupy Canton, re-establish
peace there, collect the duties of the richest city in China, and
with this revenue to pay all military and naval expenses, war
with China could be carried on for ever at a profit.
To Captain Lang, R.N., as I have said, is due almost all that
there is of good in the Chinese navy of to-day, and if the
Japanese war had taken place immediately after his retirement,
CHINA AMONG THE GREAT POWERS. 271
the Chinese ships would undoubtedly have given a much better
account of themselves. The universal testimony of people in
China is that since Captain Lang left, the Chinese fleet has
gone to the dogs as fast as possible. He was, as every con
scientious British officer under the same circumstances would
have been, too much of a détailliste for the Chinese . He pro
bably made a mistake in accepting an executive position-no
foreign officer should do that with the Chinese. He should have
been merely adviser, with more or less power to get his advice
insisted upon . 99
“ Captain Lang,” said a Chinese commander,
" is quite right to tell me about my ships and my guns, but he
need not come and look at my water-closets . ” An arrangement
under which an experienced officer of the British navy, and Ting
Ju -ch'ang, who, on passing a Chinese literary examination, was
made a cavalry officer and thence promoted to command the
Northern Squadron, were placed nominally upon an equal foot
ing as “ Admirals," was destined to break down sooner or later.
The strain which finally destroyed it came when the fleet was in
barbour somewhere in Northern China. Admiral Ting went
away as usual, whereupon the senior Chinese commodore hoisted
his flag. Captain Lang immediately sent him orders to haul it
down. He refused to do so, and Captain Lang thereupon tele
graphed to the Viceroy, who replied ambiguously through the
commodore. Captain Lang then went ashore with all his
belongings, and sent in his resignation, which was instantly
accepted. It is understood that the Admiralty refused permis
sion for any British officer to replace him . Indeed they could
not do otherwise ; and the fate of Captain Lang should make it
clear that no foreigner who is not prepared to pocket the
indignities along with the salary should accept a post in the
Chinese navy .
It may be supposed that the utter collapse of the Chinese
navy in the war with Japan came as a surprise to the Chinese,
and particularly to the Chinaman who has had the chief influence
in creating it. On the contrary, I have had in my hand a
272 CHINA .
detailed and most crushing indictment of the Chinese navy ,
written less than five years ago, which was handed personally
to Li Hung -chang by one of his highest foreign advisers. In
order to strike his imagination, this was drawn up in the forin of
an imaginary account of what had happened to the Chinese in
a naval war—a species of Chinese " Battle of Dorking , ” in fact.
The Chinese ships, it said, were entirely unprovided with stores,
such as oil and patent packing, and these could not be obtained
nearer than Shanghai. When a merchant ship arrives bringing
them , it has to go to Port Arthur, at that time the only defended
Chinese port where any of the Pei-yang Squadron, except gun
boats, could go. But Port Arthur is not large enough to accom
modate the whole squadron, so that while the cruisers are taking
on board coal and stores, the ironclads must remain outside.
Then the enemy blockades Niuchwang and Taku, because there
are no torpedo boats there. The Chinese officers are so nervous
under fire, from having had no torpedo practice at night, that
they fire torpedoes at eight hundred yards. But the squadron
has no reserve of either good men, coal, stores, or provisions,
and on the outbreak of war it is too late to procure them . The
Chinese engineers are afraid of using forced draught, and when
they try to do so the boiler-tubes leak. The Chao Yang is
rammed , because her turning circle is so great and her maneu
vring power so small. (This prophecy was strikingly fulfilled,
as the Chao Yang ran on shore while manæuvring in the battle
of the Yalu .) The enemy land a large force to the eastward of
Talien-wan Bay, entrench themselves strongly, and cut off al
supplies from Port Arthur, which ought to be provisioned for a
year but is not, and starve it out in two months. Finally, said
this report, an enemy with a smaller or even an equal naval
force, would thrash China, and take Port Arthur and keep it.
This report was written primarily to procure for the navy the
money to buy stores and supplies. It had , however, no appreci
able effect, and a disastrous war has been needed to demonstrate
how well -founded were the criticisms it embodied .
CHINA AMONG THE GREAT POWERS. 273
The war has confirmed more than the severest critic has ever
said of the personnel of the Chinese army. An eye -witness has
9
described how the “ picked troops ” embarked at Tientsin on
board the Kowshing were dressed in blouses, wore " thigh -pads,"
carried old rifles, and were provided with an executioner to each
regiment ! The discipline of these troops was such that they
promptly mutinied as soon as they thought themselves in
danger, and the first time they used their rifles was upon their
own comrades who were saving themselves by swimming. Of
desertions and consequent beheadings we have already heard
more than enough. Both before and after being defeated, the
Chinese troops outraged and plundered the peasantry of the
districts to which they were despatched , until the Japanese were
welcomed as deliverers in Manchuria, while in China the refugees
asked the nearest way to a foreign settlement, knowing that there
alone would they be safe. The Rev. John Ross, a well - known
missionary and author, has stated that on the way to Mukden
" every part traversed by the Chinese army has been stripped
of its vegetation, and resembles fields over which locusts have
passed , so complete is its devastation .” When the last mail
arrived from the Far East the first batches of Chinese prisoners
were reaching Japan . The Kobe Herald says of four hundred
of them : “ If these are samples of the Chinese regular troops
we must admit that they are a poor, miserable crowd, being
without exception as ragged, dirty, and puny a collection of
human beings as it has ever been our lot to inspect.” And the
Tokyo correspondent of the Times writes of seven hundred that
arrived there : “ It would be difficult to conceive a dirtier, less
formidable -looking lot of men . They appear to have been
collected from the highways and byways without any regard to
age-some are in their teens, others in their fifties — or any
thought of physical capacity.” The Chinese have taken very few
prisoners, but those they have treated according to their usual
babit. At the beginning of the war I warned foreign corres
pondents that they must on no account be taken alive by the
19
274 CHINA.
Chinese, and Marshal Yamagata afterwards gave the same advice
to his troops. After impressing upon them that only those
Chinese who bore arms were the enemies of Japan, and that
mercy to the conquered and kindness to prisoners must be abso
lutely shown under all circumstances, he proceeds : “ The
Chinese have, from ancient times, ever been endowed with the
cruellest and most merciless dispositions ; therefore, if during &
battle a warrior by any chance falls into their hands, he is sure
to suffer the most pitiless treatment by them, to which death is
far more preferable ; in the end even he will be put to death
with savage ferocity. It follows that in whatsoever circum
stances a soldier should avoid being taken alive, and should
rather in such a case die gallantly, manifesting by such a death
the warrior spirit of Japan and perfecting the fame of our
heroic ancestry." His warning has been justified by events.
The first thing that the Japanese found inside Port Arthur was
a number of headless and mutilated bodies of their comrades,
and the correspondent of the Times whom I have already
quoted , writes : “ * The Chinese take no prisoners. From dead,
wounded , and vanquished alike they shear off the heads,
mutilate them in various ways, and string them together by
a rope passed through the mouth and gullet. The Japanese
troops have seen these ghastly remnants of their comrades. A
barrel full of them was found after the fight at Ping- Yang, and
among the horrible trophies was the head of a young officer
who had fallen wounded in a fort evacuated by General
Oshima's men .”
Having been thoroughly beaten, the Chinese have decided to
“ reform ” the organisation of their army, and how have they
set about it ? At the head of the organisation of reform they
have placed Chang Chih -tung, the notorious foreigner -hater, the
instigator of the murders of missionaries, the Viceroy who was
recently disgraced for defying Imperial orders from Peking.
Better than this, however, they have associated with Captain
von Hanneken, who is to be the chief foreign adviser, with the
CHINA AMONG THE GREAT POWERS . 275
rank of General , a certain Hanlin scholar named Hu Ching-kuei.
That is, a man who represents above all things the old Chinese
literary culture — an official of the Hanlin Yuan , or “ Imperial
Academy," which is the most conservative institution in China ,
and attaches more importance to the propriety of an ideograph
than to all the Western knowledge in the world. The farce of
Chinese “ reform " could not be better illustrated.
To conclude, the truth is that like almost everything else in
China, her offensive and defensive power is a sham. The off
spring of corruption and bombast is inefficiency. The Viceroy
Li said to me that along the thousands of miles of the frontier
between China and Russia, the former was strong and the
latter was weak. Yet a considerable proportion of the troops in
Northern China is armed with flint-locks, gingals, and bows and
arrows, and skill with the bow is still considered a most
desirable military art. Gordon, with his habitual frankness ,
told Li that for China to think of fighting Russia was " sheer
madness. " And even Captain Lang, in the interview from
which I have already quoted, declared that “ when under arms,
one -half of the Chinese army is made up of savages.” A force
made up half of coolies, torn from their homes, afraid of their
weapons, clamouring for their pay, driven forward by the lash ,
punished by the headsman's knife ; and half of uncontrollable
savages, defiers of their own officers, insulters of foreigners,
plunderers of peasantry, torturers of prisoners, murderers of
missionaries, outragers of women, mutilators of the dead,
is not the kind of army with which Englishmen should desire
to stand shoulder to shoulder, and the sooner we learn to look
for our Eastern alliance elsewhere than in China, the better.
CHAPTER XIX .
CONCERNING THE PEOPLE OF CHINA.
one learns about China, the less confident become
THEone'smore
opinions about it. The first result of experience and
study of this extraordinary people and this vast land is to teach
that any sweeping generalisation is almost necessarily untrue.
Every individual Chinaman is a mass of contradictions ; the
gulf between the theory of Chinese government and its practical
administration is not to be bridged ; the geographical differ
ences of the country are greater even than those of the United
States ; the variations of race are almost equal to those of
India ; to the Chinaman of the south the Chinaman of the north
is a foreigner, a person speaking a different language , and usually
>
an enemy ; to the Chinaman of the far west the central authority
of the east is an alien and an incomprehensible dominion ; at
any moment an army could be raised in one part of China to
operate against another part ; public feeling or community of
sentiment is unknown. In fact, there is no such thing as
“ China .”
The wisest remark ever made by a foreigner setting out to
write about things Chinese, was, in my opinion, that which
Mr. George Wingrove Cooke, the special correspondent of the
Times with Lord Elgin's mission, prefixed to the reprint of
his letters . He said :
I have, in these letters, introduced no elaborate essay upon Chinese character.
It is a great omission . ... The truth is, that I have written several very fine
characters for the whole Chinese race, but having the misfortune to have the
276
THE PEOPLE OF CHINA . 277
people under my eye at the same time with my essay, they were always saying some
thing or doing something which rubbed so rudely against my hypothesis, that in the
interest of truth I burnt several successive letters. I may add that I have often
talked over this matter with the most eminent and candid sinologues, and have
always found them ready to agree with me as to the impossibility of a Western
mind forming a conception of Chinese character as a whole. These difficulties,
however, occur only to those who know the Chinese practically : a smart writer,
entirely ignorant of his subject, might readily strike off a brilliant and antithetical
analysis, which should leave nothing to be desired but Truth..
This book is old , long out of print, and forgotten , but between
the soiled and antique covers of my copy I find more common
sense about China, and more appreciation of what should be the
attitude of Europeans towards it, than in almost all the works
with the exception of Professor Douglas's volume just published
that have been written since. And if I may say so without
being misunderstood, I would add that to learn what China is
not, and what should not be our relations with it, one has but
>
to look at contemporary European opinion , and to examine the
actions of the British Foreign Office for the last ten years. In
writing of the people of China I shall certainly not attempt the
foolish task of including them all within the limits of any
definition, or laying down any rule about Chinese character
without exceptions. But there are so many mistakes prevalent
concerning China, and so many errors in dealing with her have
been made, that it is both easy and imperative for any one who
has seen under the least corner of the veil which conceals her,
to point out some of these as vigorously as he may.
By way of breaking ground for what is to follow , I may pause
for a moment to give an illustration or two of the difference
between Chinese and Western views upon a single point, and the
consequent extreme difficulty in the way of our comprehension
of this people. Take, for instance, the subject of human life .
A foreign resident of Peking who speaks Chinese well was riding
along one day and came to an excited crowd. Drawing near, he 1
discovered a circle of people quietly watching a man desperately
George Wingrove Cooke, “ China : being The Times Special Correspondence
from China in the years 1857–58,” London, 1858, p. vii.
278 CHINA.
attempting to commit suicide by dashing his head against a
wall. He dismounted, restrained the man , harangued the
bystanders, and learned that this was a coolie who claimed that
his payment for a certain porter's job was short by ten cash
less than a penny—and as the employer refused to pay more he
was proceeding to take revenge by killing himself on the spot,
knowing that by so doing he would get the other into consider.
able trouble. On another occasion a man threw himself into the
canal, but was dragged out. So he simply sat down on the edge
and starved himself to death , to be revenged against somebody
who had cheated him. Again , one day a man was found
murdered on a bridge near the British Legation. The law
of China prescribes that a murdered body must not be removed
till the murderer is caught. Therefore it was covered with a
mat and left. Days passed and a month and still the rotting
body lay there, till at last the Minister, who had to pass it every
day, vigorously protested , and it was taken off the bridge and
placed a little further away. And a Chinese newspaper is
responsible for this story, which indeed has nothing whatever
incredible about it. One day a sow belonging to a Mrs. Feng
happening to knock down and slightly injure the front door of a
Mrs. Wang, the latter at once proceeded to claim damages, which
were refused. Whereupon a fierce altercation ensued, which
terminated in Mrs. Wang's threatening to take her own life.
Mrs. Fêng, upon hearing of this direful threat, resolved at once
to take time by the forelock, and steal a march upon her enemy
by taking her own life, and thus turn the tables upon her.
She accordingly threw herself into the canal.
This merely by way of illustration. First of all , as I said of
the Grand Secretary Li, most foreigners are wofully wrong in
regard to the feelings of all Chinese towards peoples of other
nations. So far from the Chinese growing more sympathetic
in consequence of greater commercial intimacy, they are
undoubtedly growing more hostile. “ The ruling and influential
classes still only tolerate our presence in the country ; and I
SIT
MONGOL
THE
PEKING
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THE NEW Y TK
PUBLIC LLAR
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I
A
THE PEOPLE OF CHINA. 279
firmly believe they would hail the day when they could see
(were such a thing possible) the last foreign factory razed to
the ground and the last ship dismissed the coast, in spite of
the loss to the national revenue and the ruin of the districts
dependent on our trade that would certainly ensue.” * This
was written twelve years ago, but it is absolutely true to-day.
I have said that the sights of Peking are not nearly so accessible
to foreigners to -day as they were a few years ago. And it is the
testimony of most of the foreign residents that their treatment
by the Chinese grows worse each year, and that they are less
safe in the streets. The closing of the top of the wall to pedes
trians is the last act of petty unpleasantness . There was no
reason whatever for this except to deprive the foreigners of their
only decent walk. Another example is that the Marchioness
Tsêng, when first she returned from Europe, used to have an
afternoon “ at home ” once a week, like European ladies. This
gave, however, such deep offence in all Chinese quarters that
she was compelled to cease. A Chinese lady, again , who had
been in Europe, called upon two European ladies who were
visiting Peking. Next day, desiring to be polite, they returned
her call. Immediately afterwards they received a message from
her begging them never to come to her house again. So, too, if
you begin to study Chinese with a teacher in Peking and you
happen to meet him in the street, do not expect the least sign
of recognition. He will cut you dead , and then come next
morning to apologise and explain that it would be very un
pleasant for his family if he were seen bowing to a foreigner.
He will teach you and take your dollars : he will not greet you.
And the Abbé Favier, the finest specimen of a priest I have ever
met , a beau sabreur of the church , who wears Chinese dress and
his hair in a queue, who speaks Chinese perfectly , who has even
been decorated with a sapphire button by the Emperor, told me
that he had just received the most remarkable honour and
recognition of his whole life in China. He met the Governor
* Medhurst, " The Foreigner in Far Cathay,” 1872, p. 177.
280 CHINA,
of the city in his official chair, and the great man positively
bowed to him, to the stupefaction of the lookers-on. " Il
m'a salué, Monsieur-comme ça ! ” And while I was in Peking,
H.R.H. Prince Henry of Bourbon (Comte de Bardi) desired very
much to see the Temple of Heaven , which had been closed to
foreigners for several years. Accordingly the German Minister
(he was travelling, of course, with an Austrian passport) applied
to the Tsungli Yamên for special permission for his distinguished
guest. After some delay it was granted , as some say only after
the Marquis Tsêng had carried the request to the Empress
herself, and an appointment was made. The Prince and his
party, accompanied by the Secretary of the German Legation,
rode out to the gates of the Temple and only succeeded in
passing the outer one after long discussion and altercation .
The next gate was still more difficult, and after an hour's parley
the keepers agreed to let the men of the party in , if the Princess
would go back into the street and wait for them. This was too
much , and the whole party naturally left in indignation . The
German Minister sent a formal and vigorous complaint to the
Tsungli Yamên, and after a while he received a sort of apology
>
and expression of regret at the misunderstanding. But the
exclusion was undoubtedly deliberate and according to orders
received. The Ministers could not well meet the request with
a flat refusal, but they took care that the permission should
have no value .
“ As for any moral influence that foreigners may exercise by
their presence in the country, it may be regarded as simply
nil.” I believe this to be absolutely true. The reader may
naturally be inclined to reply that in the face of many years
of devoted missionary work and the large sums of money that
are yearly subscribed in England to support this, such a state
ment is incredible.My answer is, that from the missionaries
themselves come some of the strongest testimonies in support
of the assertion of declining foreign influence. I once asked &
Roman Catholic priest whom I met in China, and of whose
THE PEOPLE OF CHINA . 281
knowledge and character I formed the highest opinion, if he
believed that the result of missionary enterprise would result,
even in the fulness of time, in anything that could be remotely
described as the Christianising of China. “ Jamais ! ” he
replied, emphatically. “ Then ,” said I, “ why are you here ? "
“ I am here ,” he replied , “ simply in obedience to the command
to preach the Gospel to all peoples. Like the soldiers in the
ranks I obey the orders of my commander, without understand
ing in the least what good is to come of them . " Yet no
missionary who has been in China for centuries has achieved
such extraordinary victories or has a position of so much power
as this man . To pass from Roman Catholic to Protestant
testimony, in September, 1888, the Rev. A. Williamson, D.D. ,
read a paper at Chefoo on “ Missionary Organisation in China.”"
He said : “ The startling, though it is not the most serious,
aspect of the question is that not only is heathenism extending,
but immorality is increasing in all directions. ... Those of us who
have lived long in China see the evil spreading before our eyes ,
especially in and around our great emporiums , with an ever
widening area every year. The Chinese are learning evil faster
than they are learning good. They are adding foreign vices to
their own, aping foreign free -living and habits, often in the
most powerful manner: ; and the fact is, that in and around our
centres of commerce they are less honest, less moral, and less
susceptible to the preaching of Divine Truth than formerly by a
long way." And again : " Further, we are not rising in the
respect or esteem of the Chinese as we expected. A few years
ago there was a general sense of satisfaction among us at the
attitude shown towards us by many, both officials, wealthy
civilians, and literary men . Now a change is perceptible in all
directions. They respect us less than they used to do, receive
our visits less readily. We find it more difficult to rent or buy
houses , and so on . " Another Protestant missionary—the Rev.
William Ashmore, D.D. , of the American Baptist Mission-in
an article in the New York Examiner, wrote as follows : "Already
282 CHINA.
the revulsion from the old, kindly feeling towards America has
begun . Now they are learning to hate us. It is passing from
mouth to mouth , from village to village, from province to
province, from ruler to ruler, from prince to prince, from
beggar to beggar, until we can contemplate the possibility of
an epidemic of ill- will extending over a fourth part of the whole
human race .” After these witnesses I shall hardly be accused
of prejudice in making the same assertions. I will add, how
ever, one weighty piece of official testimony recently given on
this characteristic of contemporary China. In his review of
the volume of Customs Reports for last year the British
Minister to China forwards, and therefore approves, a report
written by one of his subordinates which concludes with these
striking words : “ I hardly venture to make any comments of my
own upon the pages which I have reviewed ; but in one word I
consider that the conclusion of the whole matter inevitably is
that the trade conducted by foreigners in China has made but
little progress during the ten years 1882-91 ; that it does not
promise any immediate or considerable advance ; and that
foreign interests and influence therein have decreased and
deteriorated to an appreciable extent." *
The character of Chinese officialdom is probably more familiar
to European readers than the diverse characteristics of the
Chinese people, and therefore less need be said about it.
Every Chinese official, with the possible exception of one in
a thousand, is a liar, a thief, and a tyrant. This may be
doubted in Europe, but it is recognised as an almost inevitable
fact by every Chinaman , and volumes could easily be filled
with examples of it. It is well known, for instance, that the
larger part of the sums subscribed in England on one occasion
for the relief of the famine districts in China found its way into
* Mr. Beauclerk's report upon the volume of “ Decennial Reports ," 1832-91,
published by the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, forwarded to the Foreign
Office by Mr. O'Conor, H.B.M. Minister to China. F. O., 1894, Misc. Series,
No. 330, p. 38.
THE PEOPLE OF CHINA . 283
the pockets of the army of Chinese officials. I learned of one
instance of this which would be vastly amusing if it were
concerned with a less painful subject. Some time ago the
turbulent Chinese of Canton attacked the foreign settlement
of Shameen and plundered and destroyed the houses of the
resident foreigners. For this the Chinese Government was, of
course, compelled to pay an indemnity. At the time, however,
the London Mansion House Famine Relief Fund had oppor
tunely been collected and forwarded to China, and this sum
was in large part devoted to paying the Shameen indemnity !
One of my illustrations, by-the-way, shows instructively the
conditions upon which foreigners reside in safety in certain
parts of China. Shameen is separated by a species of moat
from the native city of Canton, and access to it can only be had
across a bridge which is barred by iron gates and held by a
posse of Chinese soldiers. My two friends who were good
enough to stand before my camera on this bridge, with the
Chinese soldiers by their side and the Cantonese mob held back,
like wild beasts, behind the bars , furnish a typical example of
the relations of Chinese and foreigners at the present day. But
to return to the subject of Chinese officialdom . One relief fund
was so carefully safeguarded by Europeans that the officials
were thwarted in their efforts to obtain it, and the Administrator
(Mr. Bruce) wrote : “In a country where corruption and bribery
are indispensable in all business — where in the case of dis
tributing charity it is a large proportion for one-third of the
original contributions to reach those for whom they are designed
-the practically complete absence of ' squeezing ' in this relief,
would seem to the natives to be a marvel.” By order of the
Emperor certain districts stricken by famine were to be
exempted from taxation , and proclamations announcing this
were to be posted up. An Imperial decree, however, published
some time afterwards, declares the Emperor's abhorrence of
what he had learned of the way his orders had been carried out,
since “ the lists of the districts for which exemption from the
284 CHINA .
tax is claimed are too often falsified, and what is worse , the
officials take care not to post the Imperial proclamation until
they have collected the tax in full. The revenue is lost to the
state and goes into the pockets of the hangers-on about the
yamens.” To the common people, adds the Hongkong Daily
Press, from which I take the above, “lekin stations are
6 >
squeeze stations ' pure and simple, and yamêns are places to
be avoided by every possible means. That the mandarins
should practise extortion is looked upon as quite a natural
circumstance, quite as natural, in fact, as that the people
should evade payment of legal dues when opportunity offers.
On both sides common honesty is held in more or less con
tempt, and a man who does not take advantage of his oppor
tunities is regarded as a fool." As a matter of fact, in spite
of the Emperor's pious indignation, it was a common occurrence
for the tax- gatherer to follow the distributor of relief and seize
upon the money as soon as it had been given. The subscriptions
to relieve the starving Chinese were, unfortunately, but another
example of mistaken foreign benevolence. From three of the
distressed provinces grain was actually being exported while
foreign relief was being given, and the foreigners' money merely
caused the return of thousands of natives to a district wholly
incapable of supporting them. The Rev. Mr. Candlin wrote that
there was room for the refugees in other districts, where they
could always get food and generally work, while they were
worse than useless when they returned and hung about the
famine region , subsisting on the missionaries' doles. Mr.
Consul Allen , in a report written a few years ago, gave some
striking instances of the failure of promising Chinese com
mercial undertakings, simply because of their connection with
officials. Referring to the China Merchants' Steam Navigation
Company, he says : “ This is a powerful organisation enough,
with a large fleet of river and sea -going steamers, and it might
be supposed that the China Merchants’ Company was a most
flourishing concern . No doubt it is, but its connection with
THE PEOPLE OF CHINA . 285
the Government is felt by the trading class to be an effectual
bar to its ever becoming the lucrative association that an un
hampered and free trading company could be, and its scrip
shows this.” A Chinese company was started to develop the
mines of Yünnan , and the prospectus declared that the enter
prise promised fabulous riches. An official of high rank was
to be placed in charge of the operations, and shareholders were
promised a minimum dividend of 6 per cent. , with various
bonuses. But, says Mr. Allen , “ the shares in the company
are not eagerly taken up. The Chinese distrust all official
connection with mercantile enterprise, alleging that all the
profits earned go into the pockets of the mandarins, while the
man who has no claims to official rank is left out in the cold.
Europeans, of course, will not touch such a speculation. The
risk is altogether too great."
The Hupao, a vernacular Chinese newspaper in which there
is often much frank information about China, mingled with
superstition and ignorance, reproduced once a proclamation
from the Provincial Treasurer of Kwangtung, in which he said
that the priest in charge of the Temple at Canton pays as much
as from 7,000 taels to 10,000 taels for the post, recouping him
self afterwards for his original outlay by all manner of extortions
from the worshippers. Thus they are not allowed to bring in
their incense-sticks or candles, but must buy these from the
priest inside at ten times their value . They must also pay an
exorbitant bire for space on the mats on which they perform their
prostrations ; and women are persuaded by the priest that a
night's sleep on the mats in the temple, for which they pay a
heavy hotel bill to the priest, will ensure them male progeny.
An amusing light is thrown upon Chinese ideas by a story told
me of Sir Harry Parkes. He once arrested several mandarins,
and kept them for a fortnight. All their friends were allowed
access to them, but they were not permitted to leave the house.
After a few days he sent to inquire how they were getting on.
" We cannot sleep at night,” they said, “ for the dreadful heavy
286 CHINA.
tread of the sentry round the Yamên. Our own watchmen come
and clap, and then they go to sleep ; and we have waited night
after night for yours to do the same, that we might get away.
But he never stops ! ” So the sentry was told to stand still. A
foreign mining engineer in charge of important Chinese mines,
told me that he had eighty soldiers under him armed at first
with percussion-cap guns, and afterwards with sniders. On one
occasion he placed an armed sentry by the boiler to prevent
the miners drying dynamite upon it, which they were constantly
trying to do. The sentry went to sleep on the boiler ; a boy
brought a box of dynamite and placed it there ; it exploded and
blew up the whole place, including the sentry.. Occasionally his
soldiers were all allowed to drill , when the officers sat in their
quarters half a mile away, with their red flags in front of them,
and looked on. This expert foreigner-he was not an English
man-added : “ If you could take away from the English
artisan his present character, and substitute for it the Chinese
character, in six months English industries would be at a stand
still, and in ten years the accumulated wealth of England would
have disappeared .” A correspondent of the Times recently told
a capital and thoroughly characteristic story of Chinese official
dom, to the effect that about ten years ago some of our politicals
had a meeting on the Sikkim frontier with some of the officials
from Thibet. In the course of conversation some reference was
made to our last war with China, ending in the occupation of
Peking and the destruction of the Summer Palace . “ Yes," said
the Thibetan officials, laughing, “ we know you said you went
there, and we read with much amusement your gazettes giving
your account of it all. They were very cleverly written , and we
daresay deceived your own subjects into a belief that you actually
went to Peking. We often do the same thing."
The most illuminating of my examples, however, of the natural
mind of the official Chinaman came from my own personal
experience. When in Peking I visited the Tungwen College, an
institution where Chinese students are instructed in foreign
THE PEOPLE OF CHINA . 287
languages, literature, and science, by foreign masters, a small
monthly allowance being given them by the Chinese Government
for regular attendance . I was shown a class of young Chinese
engaged in writing essays in French upon the subject of “ Pro
tection and Free Trade . ” As a specimen of their work, the
composition of one named Tok-kun was taken from his desk and
handed to me. It was wholly an original production, and I venture
to think that the following passage, which I copied exactly, throws a
vivid light upon the point of view of the would -he Chinese official
after a number of years of foreign teaching : “ Ce qu'il y a de
mauvais et de terrible à l'Etranger, c'est que le peuple forme des
partis qui se mêlent de politique, je suis enchanté de l'ignorance
des affaires d'Etat des Chinois, qui, s'ils s'y entendaient seraient
certainement libre échangistes, car nous achetons beaucoup plus
que nous ne vendons. Notre Gouvernement, profitant de cette
ignorance du peuple, peut augmenter les droits de douane à sa
fantaisie, cela ne fait aucun tort aux commerçants, mais beau
coup aux acheteurs, qui ne comprennent pourquoi. Les mar
chandises venant de l'Etranger, augmentent de prix tous les
jours, et ne cherchent pas du tout à comprendre pourquoi. Ils
paient sans se plaindre du Gouvernement, c'est heureux pour la
Chine. "
Dirt, falsehood, corruption , and cruelty are some of the least
objectionable of Chinese vices. Of the last-named I have drawn
a moderate picture in a previous chapter, but the following
description of what the Abbê Huc saw when travelling once in
the Interior may be added : — " Le chariot avança, et nous vîmes,
en frissonnant d'horreur, une cinquantaine de cages , grossière
ment fabriquées avec des barreaux de bambou et renfermant des
tétes humaines. Presque toutes étaient en putréfaction et
faisaient des grimaces affreuses. Plusieurs cages s'étant dis
loquées et disjointes, quelques têtes pendaient accrochées aux
barreaux par la barbe ou les cheveux, d'autres étaient tombées à
terre, et on les voyait encore au pied des arbres . Nos yeux ne
purent soutenir longtemps ce hideux et dégoûtant spectacle."
288 CHINA.
The Taotai of Ningpo recently issued a proclamation to agri
culturists which contained the following admirable sentiments :
“ Frogs are produced in the middle of your fields ; although they
are little things they are little human beings in form . They
cherish a life- long attachment to their native soil, and at night
they melodiously sing in concert with clear voices. Moreover
they protect your crops by eating locusts, thus deserving the
gratitude of the people. Why go after dark with lanterns,
scheming to capture the harmless and useful things ? Although
they may be nice flavouring for your rice, it is heartless to flay
them. Henceforward it is forbidden to buy or sell them, and
those who do so will be severely punished . ” The cruelty of the
Chinese to animals is indescribably great ; hence the necessity
for the inculcation of such sentiments. A friend with whom I
rode a good deal in Peking told me that one day, hearing screams
of laughter from his stable, he went to investigate . There he
discovered that his groom and “ boy · had caught a big rat,
nailed its front paws to aa board, soaked it in kerosine, set fire to
it, and were enjoying the spectacle. But this is not so bad as
one of the tricks of the professional kidnapper, who will catch a
child in the street, carry it off to another town, blind it, and then
sell it for a professional beggar. Their cruelty, moreover,, is
by no means confined to foreigners and dumb animals : they are
cruel under almost all circumstances . A steam launch, built at
Hongkong, blew up on her trial trip, and amongst others the
wife of the editor of a Hongkong paper was thrown into the
water. Some Chinese in a sampan paddled up, and positively
refused to take her on board until she had promised them
fifty dollars. Another member of the same party had to pro
mise five hundred dollars before a boatman would undertake to
convey several of the survivors to Hongkong. An eye-witness
related to me how a junk upset off Macao, and the seven men of
its crew were all drowned, though there were a dozen Chinese
boats round them . While I was in Hongkong a Chinaman
was terribly injured in an accident at Kowloon. His fellow .
ke
s
A CHINESE LADY's Foot.
THE PROTECTION OF FOREIGNERS, Canton .
LEN OSIV
ASTORF O
TILDEN , OUNDATIONS
L
.
THE PEOPLE OF CHINA . 289
workmen simply laid him in the gutter, and afterwards even
refused to carry him to a steam launch sent to take him to the
hospital. At one of the “ dragon races ” in the Canton River,
150 men were upset out of two of the long canoes, amidst a
thousand other people afloat, and every one of them was
drowned. One of the latest papers from China tells how aa boat,
paddled by two men, carrying rice from Shanghai to Pootung,
capsized in the midst of a number of fishing-boats. The fisher
men immediately seized upon the rice and property belonging
to the capsized boat, but took not the slightest notice of the
drowning men, whose bodies had so far not been found .
Foot-binding, which is practised in most of the provinces of
China, and of which one of my illustrations shovs the results, is
a sufficient example of widespread cruelty ; but the practice of
infanticide is infinitely worse. Attempts have been made to
deny the existence of this practice to any large extent, but proofs
could be adduced by the thousand. One of the most thoughtful and
instructive newspapers ever issued in China was the Chinese Times
of Tientsin, conducted by Mr. Alexander Michie, who possessed
a remarkable knowledge of Chinese life and a profound acquaint
ance with the Chinese mind. This paper, unfortunately, came
to an end for want of foreign support a few years ago. In its
columns I found the following account of infanticide in the
province of Shansi . One man , who had been in the employ of a
foreigner for two years and had received good wages, put his
little girl to death because, as he said, he could not afford to feed
her. A woman, without solicitation, told one of the foreign
ladies that she had killed five children in order to go out as a
nurse, and that her husband compelled her to do it. “ Yes, it
was a great sin ,” she said, “ but I could not help it.” A man ,
who passes for a gentleman , volunteered the information that
he bad allowed two of his girls to die for want of care. “ Only
a small matter . We just wrapped them up in bed -clothes and
very soon they were gone . I am a poor man ; girls are a great
expense and earn no money , and as we already had two we con
20
290 CHINA.
cluded we could not keep any more. " The testimony of a
Chinese teacher is as follows : - “ Infanticide is very common
among the poor , and even people in pretty easy circumstances.
There is hardly a family where at least one child has not been
destroyed, and in some families four or five are disposed of.
Nothing can be done. As soon as the little ones are born they
are laid aside and left to perish. Girls are more often destroyed,
but boys also are very often killed. The officials know it, but say
it is something they cannot control.” Another man, who
is now a member of the Christian Church, says that in his
village there is hardly a family that has not destroyed two or
6
three children . And once more, " a woman said that it was
very common for poor people to go into rich families as wet
nurses because they received good wages, and in fact they often
destroyed their babies that they might do so.' Such a state of
things is terrible in the extreme, and the worst feature about it
is that there seems to be no public or individual conscience
against it : even well - informed and otherwise respectable people
look upon it as a matter of course." A lady contributor to the
North China Daily News furnished the following statistics : - " I
find that 160 Chinese women , all over fifty years of age, had
borne 631 sons, and 538 daughters. Of the sons, 366, or nearly
60 per cent . , had lived more than ten years ; while of the
daughters orly 205, or 38 per cent. , had lived ten years. The
160 women , according to their own statements, had destroyed
158 of their daughters ; but none had ever destroyed a boy. As
only four women had reared more than three girls, the proba
bility is that the number of infanticides confessed to is con
siderably below the truth. I have occasionally been told by a
woman that she had forgotten just how many girls she had had ,
more than she wanted. The greatest number of infanticides
owned to by any one woman is eleven .” Wife -selling and
child-selling are also common, and during the last famine &
party of beggars were actually observed in the streets of Tientsin
with baskets, loudly crying, Mai nü— “ Girls for sale ! ” in one
THE PEOPLE OF CHINA. 291
of the baskets being four baby girls with pinched faces and
wizened limbs .
The subject of Chinese medicine reflects the Chinese mind in
a very instructive manner, but it is too large to be dealt with
here. I will only say that when Sir Robert Hart recently
instructed the Customs officials to prepare lists of the substances
used in Chinese medicine, amongst the 1,575 entries appeared
dried toads, toadspittle cake, dried snakes, liquid manure pre
served for years, and various other preparations of human excre
ment, the genitals of different animals, deer fætus, the human
placenta, centipedes, and the dung of different animals. Dr.
Mackay of Tamsui, in Formosa, recently prepared a catalogue
of Chinese prescriptions which had come under his notice, and
be points out that the most repulsive and disgusting "“ medi
cines ” are given to the unfortunate children . Among the
remedies prescribed for diseases of children are the following :
For cough , bat's dung -name given in drug -shop, “ night clear
thread .” For worms and yellowish face , grubs from filth
washed and dried -name in drug-shop " grain sprouts.” Also
rabbit's dung , called “ the worm -killer." For thrush , cock
roach’s dung -name in drug - shop “ worm pearls . ” For bad
stomach , earth - worms swallowed alive after being rolled in
honey. Fever , dog's dung -prepared — the dog being first fed
on rice . Eruptions , boil on upper lip, fowl's dung. If a child
is frightened from any cause , prepared centipedes are given . Dr.
Mackay adds that “ for different diseases there are a number
of worthless and filthy preparations , some of them scarcely
mentionable. ” Some of the medicines prescribed for adults are
not much better . Thus a man suffering from enlarged spleen
would be ordered to take grass of deer's stomach dried and
cut in slices , skins of silkworms , lining of hen's gizzard , salted
scorpions " ; while another seized with colic might be asked to
swallow a preparation made from horse -manure or, as an alter
native , sow's excrement . I once procured from a Chinese drug
shop a typical prescription , consisting of about thirty different
292 CHINA .
drugs mixed together to be taken as a dose, and the Protector
of Chinese in Hongkong asked a Chinese physician , who had
been educated in Europe, to translate it for me. He returned it,
however, with most of the ingredients marked, “ Substance
unknown."
The greatest obstacle of all to any improvement of the
masses of China is their profoundly ingrained superstition ; this
is common alike to officials and people, to the educated and the
ignorant. The Viceroy of Nankin, Liu Kun-yi, recently declared
that he had suddenly recovered his health in consequence of a
vow to pay for ten days' theatricals to be performed on a stage
before the shrine of Prince Siang-ting, a deified prince of the
seventh century . When the Viceroy Chang's new iron-works
were opened at Wuchang, the Chief Commissioner went through
a ceremony of sacrificial worship before the various workshops,
to ward off any evil influences. There is aa wind- and water
compelling dragon known as Ta Wang, and he has a temple
bchind the Viceroy's yamên at Tientsin called the Ta Wang.
miao. When a boat conveying a prefect and his family was
nearly overwhelmed by a sudden storm, it was evident that the
boatman with his long pole had inadvertently disturbed Ta Wang.
On search being made a small spake was discovered near the
railway bridge, and prostrations and apologies were at once
made before it, and it was conveyed with great solemnity to the
temple aforesaid. This occurred on August 11, 1890. It might
be thought that intimacy with foreigners would destroy such
beliefs ; this , however, is far from being the case. The
Chinaman born and bred in Hongkong or Singapore is every
bit as superstitious as the Chinaman of the mainland. As an
example of this I may tell the following story. One of the
oldest inhabitants and most intelligent Chinamen in Hongkong
had set his heart upon having two houses in a certain terrace to
live in. At last his chance came and he bought them . Then
he went to his lawyer and exclaimed in delight : “ I would have
given three times the sum for them ! ” “ But why, there are
THE PEOPLE OF CHINA . 293
plenty of better houses ? " “ Don't you know that house
has the best feng-shui of all Hongkong ! " Feng -shui means
literally “wind and water,” and refers to the geomantic
or occult topographical influences. Even birth and half a
lifetime under the British flag is not enough to eradicate the
gross beliefs of the Chinaman. For instance, when an extensive
reclamation of land at Singapore was begun by the Government,
a colonial oiñcial had occasion one night to send his head
servant - a British subject and an old resident in the colony
on an errand into the town . He refused point-blank, and when
asked his reason explained that no Chinaman would go down
town at night for the next three nights because, as the Govern
ment were beginning their reclamation, they wanted a hundred
Chinese heads to put at the bottom, and were on the look-out to
catch Chinamen down-town and take their heads. During the
recent plague at Hongkong placards were posted all over the
city of Canton warning the people not to go to Hongkong, since
their wives and children would run the risk of being chopped up
by foreign doctors to make medicine out of their bones and
eyes. This plague has had the effect of exhibiting the views of
the Chinese mind with regard to foreigners and their ways
perhaps more clearly than has ever occurred before. Mr.
Sydney B. J. Skertchly, late of H. M. Geological Survey, has
borne very remarkable testimony to this, and his words deserve
the widest circulation and the closest attention. He says :
“ The sad fact has to be faced that some 200,000 Chinese are living voluntarily
among us for the sake of the facilities the colony offers, and that they hate us,
despise us, and fear us at the same time. Fifty years of British rule has taught
them that we protect their lives and property better than their own countrymen,
that wages and profits are better among us than in China proper, that we do not
squeeze them, that our officials are not corrupt. In fine, that Hongkong is a
temporary paradise where they are allowed to live as they like, to follow all their
own customs, and where dollars are almost as easily earned as cash at home. They
know , too, that we will educate them gratis , so that they can earn the high wages
of the European clerk , and above all that when the loved dollar is netted no hungry
mandarin will clamour for his share.
" In spite of all this they hate us and fear us. They acknowledge our skill as
mechanics, they see our medical men and women daily minister to their wants
294 CHINA .
unselfishly ; but they dread the doctor more than the plague. They are firmly
convinced that we destroy pregnant women, and cut out children's eyes to make our
medicines, and they are taught this by their so-called educated classes. The
Chinese mind is steeped in the most soul- destroying superstition. The dread fëng
shui, the spirits of their ancestors , the myri of demons that throng the air, are
to thein active principles, and as virulent as they are active. They know every
European can cast spelis over them , can , with an outward show of benefit, destroy
their health , and they are sure we have deliberately caused this plague, for they see
it passes the European by and slays the Chinaman. No African savage is more
ground down by fetish than is the Chinaman by his superstitions. The way we
designed this plague is to the Chinaman proof of our diabolic powers ; we made a
tramway up to the Peak ! This interfered with the feng shui by stopping the flow
of benign influences from the south and causing the evil influences to stagnate in
the island. Is not this proof positive ? Were not the Chinese warned of the coming
evil ? Was not the sun eclipsed ? Did not the bamboo flower this year ? Is it not
an established fact that all Englishmen can see the hidden treasures in the earth ?
Not one in a thousand has any doubts on these subjects. ... Then we woke up
and cleared out the filth , disclosing scenes of horror that no pen can describe. We
pulled down the partitions in the rooms, we removed the people from the stricken
haunts, we started hospitals, we nursed the sick, we buried the dead.
“ And how did the Chinamen take it all ? The answer is visible as I write, in the
gunboat anchored off the China town , for they threatened to fire the city . They
posted placards ascribing untellable atrocities to the doctors ; they hid their sick
from us ; they refused to go to our hospitals, they threatened to poison the water
supply. The viceroy of the province allowed Canton to be placarded with atrocious
libels and threats against the European settlement, and he has stated to the
governor of Hongkong that he will not guarantee the safety of the foreigners living
in the country, though they have a right, under treaty, to be there. They nearly
killed a lady doctor last week , who was attending to a sick coolie.”
Finally, the most important because the most fundamental
fact to remember about the Chinese mind, is that theory and
practice bear no relation whatever to each other. Chinese
literature inculcates all the virtues : Chinese life exhibits all the
vices. Chinese professions—and this is the point where foreign
diplomatists have so often gone astray - are everything that is
desirable : Chinese practices are everything that is most con
venient. “ The life and state papers of a Chinese statesman,"
wrote Mr. George Wingrove Cooke, “ like the Confessions of
Rousseau, abound in the finest sentiments and the foulest deeds.
He cuts off ten thousand heads, and cites a passage from Mencius
about the sanctity of human life. He pockets the money given
him to repair an embankment, and thus inundates a province ;
• The Times. Letter to the Editor. August 26, 1894 .
THE PEOPLE OF CHINA . 295
and he deplores the land lost to the cultivator of the soil. He
makes a treaty which he secretly declares to be only a deception
for the moment, and he exclaims against the crime of perjury."
One of the chief living authorities upon China has just declared
the same truth, in these words : - " There is no country in the
world where practice and profession are more widely separated
than in China. The empire is pre -eminently one of make
believe. From the emperor to the meanest of his subjects
a system of high-sounding pretension to lofty principles of
morality holds sway ; while the life of the nation is in direct
contradiction to these assumptions. No imperial edict is com
plete, and no official proclamation finds currency, without pro
testations in favour of all the virtues. And yet few courts are
more devoid of truth and uprightness, and no magistracy is
ܙܙ
more corrupt, than those of the celestial empire.” This con
trast was never more picturesquely shown than when the
Emperor of China made his periodical procession with the
sacred records. Here were documents of so sacred a character
that hundreds of miles of roads were repaired for their passage ;
carried in shrines of Imperial yellow silk ; escorted by high
officials ; preceded by the music of the Imperial band ; and
despatched on their journey by the Emperor in person , and yet
the coolies who carried them actually jerked open the hangings
of the shrines and threw in their indescribably filthy and
vermin -haunted overcoats to be borne in state side by side with
the boxes containing the precious records.t
My object in this chapter has been a simple one. I have at
tempted no complete analysis of any aspect of the Chinese
character. Upon the virtues of the Chinese I have not even
touched. But by describing a few of their views and vices I
• Professor Robert K. Douglas, “ Society in China, ” London, 1894, p. iii.
Professor Douglas's book tells the truth about China in so indisputable and enter
taining a manner, and he speaks with so much authority, that there is very little
left for any one else, especially a much more superficial inquirer like myself, to say.
I have omitted from this volume much of my material about China and my experi
ences there, simply because Professor Douglas's work appeared a few months ago
and has covered the ground finally. † Chinese Times, October 27, 1888.
296 CHINA .
have sought, first, to show how little likelihood there is of the
reform of China coming, as Gordon believed it would ultimately
come, from the inside ; and second, to make it clear that what
ever change comes upon China from the outside, in consequence
of recent events and the relations of foreign nations to one
another, cannot be otherwise than a blessing to the Chinese
people themselves.
CHAPTER XX .
THE FUTURE OF CHINA.
THERE is one building in Peking which every foreign visitor
THE RE
should be careful to see, not because it is in any sense a
" sight,” but because when its history and significance are under
stood it affords a great object-lesson on the relations of Chinese
and foreigners. It is also necessarily the focus of any discussion
of the future of China. This is the Tsungli Yamên, the “ Board
"
of Foreign Affairs ” for the Chinese Empire. My illustration
shows its external appearance, and thereby hangs an instructive
little tale. I desired permission to visit it and photograph it ,
and the Marquis Tsêng courteously endeavoured to procure this
for me. This distinguished official, however, who was regarded
by all Europe as one of the chief influences in modern China,
who had negociated with half the Governments of Europe, who
had set the world agog by a magazine article, and whose return
to China was confidently expected to inaugurate a new era of
sympathy with foreigners, was so destitute of authority in the
capital of bis own country and lay under so profound a suspicion
9
of being permeated with the views of the " foreign devils, ” that
he was actually unable to procure this small favour for me, and
admitted the fact to me with his apologies. A friend thereupon
applied on my behalf directly to Prince Ching, the Emperor's
uncle and President of the Tsungli Yamên , who instantly granted
the permission and ordered several of the secretaries to make an
appointment with me there. The buildings of the Tsungli
Yamen are not of a very imposing character, but they are supe
297
298 CHINA .
rior to most Chinese public buildings in this respect , that they
are in good repair. They consist of an external hall and aa series
of reception-rooms, leading finally to a small and trim Chinese
garden. What they lack in appearance , however, is more than
made up by the magnificence of the moral sentiments placarded
upon them. The room in which I was received, and which
serves , I was informed, as a reception-room for the Ministers of
the foreign Powers , was a comparatively small one, containing
a round table with a polished top, and a number of heary black
Chinese chairs. On one side of it were hung three scrolls, con
taining each a number of Chinese ideographs. The first of
these reads, “ When the tea is balf made the fragrance
arises.” This I do not profess to interpret. Perhaps it is
intended as an encouragement to persevere in the tortuous
and interminable paths of Chinese diplomacy. The second
declares, “ To study is indeed excellent." The third, appearing
where it does , can only be regarded in a humorous light. The
most treacherous, untrustworthy, and unscrupulous set of
diplomatists of modern times, of whom the united Ministers of
foreign countries accredited to China have solemnly declared
that no faith can be placed upon their assurances, meet their
European colleagues beneath an inscription which reads, Wei
shan tsui töh— " To do good is the highest pleasure ! ” In the
large reception-room is the inscription, " May Heaven and Earth
enjoy great peace " ; while the inscription over the principal
doorway, which is shown in my photograph and reproduced on
the cover of this volume, is formed of the characters, Chung
wai ti fu — literally “ Centre,, outside , peace, happiness ”" —China
being the centre and the rest of the world the outside. The
inscription thus means, “ May China and foreign countries alike
enjoy peace and happiness, " an admirable sentiment, and one
which the Tsungli Yamên has persistently done its best to
falsify.
The future of China depends upon the relations of China and
foreign countries -- that is all that can be said of it with certainty.
中
外福祺
TSUNGLI
THE
P EKING
,YAMEN
2
4
PU
AST
TILDEAN
THE FUTURE OF CHINA . 299
A discussion of its future therefore amounts to a discussion of
the history and prospects of its foreign relations. The Tsungli
Yamên, as I have said, is at the focus of these. It was founded
by a remarkable man, Prince Kung, in 1861 , after the war with
China had come to a close and the Treaty of Tientsin was signed
at the Board of Rites on October 25th, 1860, by Lord Elgin. By
this treaty, foreign representatives were received at Peking,
large indemnities were paid, the Roman Catholics were com
pensated for the destruction of their buildings, Chinese emigra
tion was sanctioned, and Kowloon was added to Hongkong. A
new era in the relations of the " centre " and the “ outside "
was thus inaugurated, and some new point of contact became
essential . To meet this demand Prince Kung founded the
Tsungli Yamên, and remained at its head until 1884, when ,
after rendering very great services to China, and showing him
self to be a man of great sense and power, he was suddenly
disgraced for the second time, and deprived of all his offices.
He was succeeded by Prince Ching, who died during the present
year, when to the surprise of every one, Prince Kung, after ten
years of degradation and inactivity, was again appointed by the
same decree President of the Tsungli Yamên, President of the
Admiralty, and co - director with Li Hung-chang of the operations
of war. The Tsungli Yamên consists of the President, eight
Ministers, six Chief Secretaries, two Assistant Secretaries, and
thirty clerks of Department apportioned as follows :–English
Department six, French Department seven, Russian Department
six, United States Department seven , Maritime Defence Depart
ment four ; and six superintendents of current business and the
Manchu Registry Department. To “ Their Excellencies His
Imperial Highness the Prince of Kung and the Ministers of the
Tsungli Yamên ” are addressed all communications from the
foreign Ministers at the Court of China, and from it all Chinese
representatives abroad receive their appointments and instruc
tions. Theoretically the arrangement is an admirable one ;
practically, it has been an almost uninterrupted failure. If the
300 CHINA.
Chinese Ministers desired to promote foreign relations, the
organisation of the Tsungli Yamên would be perfectly suited to
their wish ; as a matter of fact, they desire to obstruct foreign
relations and have moulded their institution accordingly. In the
first place, the Tsungli Yamên, while theoretically possessing
supreme political authority, has not possessed it practically.
The Emperor, and still more the Empress, have demanded a
considerable share of personal influence upon current politics,
and Li Hung- chang has always been the avowed rival of the
Tsungli Yamên, and with him most foreign arrangements have
been ultimately concluded. In the second place, the Tsungli
Yamên has never insisted upon its own authority for the defence
of foreign rights. Margary was treacherously murdered while
travelling with a special safe - conduct issued by this Board, and
beyond the money indemnity to his relatives, no punishment
was ever dealt out to his murderers. Missionaries have been
murdered on many occasions, in spite of the assurance of the
Tsungli Yamên that the strictest orders for their protection had
been issued. Chow Han, the well-known author of the vile
anti-foreign placards, is still unpunished. Rights assigned by
treaty have been deliberately suffocated under years of diplomatic
correspondence. In fact,, so obstructive have the Ministers of
the Tsungli Yamên become of late that the foreign representa
tives regard it as a mere waste of time to enter upon the
discussion of any point with regard to which they are not pre
pared to insist upon an immediate settlement, by force of arms
if need be. Any Minister or Secretary of Legation who goes to
the Yamên is deliberately wearied out by needless talking,
ceaselessly recurring trivialities, an incredible fertility of puerile
argument—one of the reasons solemnly given for delaying the
treaty right of navigation of the Upper Yangtze was that the
monkeys on the banks were so mischievous that they would
throw stones on the deck of the steamers, and thus kill the
foreigners ; and finally, by grudging promises made only to be
broken. Sir Harry Parkes deciared that to get any definite
THE FUTURE OF CHINA . 301
answer from the Tsungli Yamên was " like trying to draw water
from a well, with a bottomless bucket.” Whatever the Tsungli
Yamên may have been created to do, it bas served only to head
off foreigners and postpone the satisfaction of their legitimate
demands . It is to -day the great stronghold of Chinese pro
crastination.
Little or nothing, then , has been accomplished by this in
stitution towards bringing China and Europe nearer together.
In further support of this opinion, which will no doubt meet with
much criticism, I will only refer back to the opinion of the
present British Minister to China , as quoted in the preceding
chapter, to the effect that foreign influence is not so great to-day
as it was a few years ago. To see how small it is, take the
recent example of the unprovoked murder of the two Swedish
missionaries, Messrs. Wikholm and Johansson , at Sung- pu.
In response to much pressure the Chinese promised to punish
not only the murderers, but the officials and the Viceroy himself,
all of whom were clearly among the instigators of the crime.
The Swedish Consul foolishly accepted a small money indemnity,
against which all his colleagues protested, and appealed to the
Ministers of the Powers to make a united demand upon the
Imperial Government for the execution of its promise. The
Viceroy in question was Chang Chih-tung, whose offences against
foreigners are legion . So far from being punished or disgraced
in accordance with the undertaking given , Chang Chih -tung has
received a series of distinguished honours, culminating with his
appointment to the head of the scheme of Army reform . Except
under direct pressure, or in an extremity of fear, the Chinese
Government has never done anything to punish outrages upon
foreigners. The Rev. Mr. Wylie was brutally murdered at
Niuchwang by Chinese soldiers at the outbreak of the present
war, and as the Chinese authorities naturally feared that any
procrastination at that moment might bring the British as well
as the Japanese down upon them , they promptly beheaded half
a-dozen privates and disgraced their officers . The same fear of
302 CHINA.
immediate foreign interference has just caused them to issue the
following edict in Peking :
China is under obligation to exercise extra precaution for the protection of
( Christian) churches, missionaries, and other foreigners in the capital. We , as in
duty bound , give stringent orders to soldiers and people that they must, as hereto
fore, behave amicably ( towards foreigners ). Let every one attend to his own
business and thus he will not wantonly listen to evil rumours or join in circulating
them. Should any dare to disobey orders let them instantly be seized and sent in
chains to this Yamên , where they will be severely punished, no leniency being
shown them. The American Missionary Headland and his wife were insulted and
reviled by local roughs outside the Chi-Hua Gate. We have already severely repri
manded the local officials, and the ruffian offender, Wang Yao -erh , has been taken,
and, as is right, will be severely punished by this Yamên. We further issue this
proclamation in the hope that there may be everlasting mutual amity ( between
natives and foreigners ). The local officials and police must honestly search out
offenders.
If our officials had properly insisted , this would have been done,
of course, years ago. So, too, the latest rumour is that the
Chinese Government is prepared to make foreign nations the
concession of opening two more ports to trade. They offer
two, of course , under the fear that twenty may be otherwise
demanded .
Now whose fault is this ? The answer is easy. It is entirely
due to the supine attitude of foreign Governments with regard
to China , which, again, has sprung, so far as this country is
concerned, chiefly from the fantastic belief that China might be
a valuable ally in Asia and therefore must not be offended. The
one representative we have had in Peking who really understood
the Chinese and had his way with them , was Sir Harry Parkes.
Sir John Walsham introduced for the first time the manners of
the great world to the Court of China. With much personal
charm and dignity he conducted his diplomatic relations with
the Tsungli Yamên as he would have conducted them with the
Foreign Offices of Paris, Berlin, or Rome. The result was total
failure, unmitigated by the faintest redeeming success .
The history of the famous so-called “ audience question "
points the same moral. The first Ambassadors to China were
required to perform the Kotou — knocking their heads nine times
THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 303
against the ground in the Imperial presence. Lord Macartney,
in 1793, refused to do this, and had an audience of the Emperor
Kienlung, at which he merely bent the knee. Lord Amhurst
refused to do it in 1816 to the Emperor Kia King, and had no
audience. In 1873 the corps of Foreign Ministers refused either
to perform the Kotow or to go down on one knee as Lord
Macartney had done, and the Chinese Ministers accordingly
arranged an interview at a place set apart for the reception of
the Ambassadors of “ tribute nations ” like Korea. The foreign
Ministers—to their disgrace be it said - fell into this trap and
thus lowered the prestige of all Europeans for a generation. In
1891 "“ all the nations " were again received in the same place .
In 1893 the British Minister was received with the same empty
form , but in an Imperial temple ; and during the present war
he is said to have been received by the Emperor in person , within
the enclosure of the Palace itself. It has thus taken a century
and the dire extremity of a foreign war to enable a repre
sentative of Great Britain to be received by the Emperor of
China as he would be received by any European Sovereign . As
Professor Douglas says, " we have humbly implored, to use the
Emperor's own words, to be admitted into the Imperial presence,
and we have reaped our reward . ” Chinese representatives of all
sorts have been accredited to the Court of St. James . They
have often been men of no personal standing in their own
country, but thought good enough to be foisted upon the outer
barbarians. We have received them with the most elaborate
honours, have accorded them the most formal and distinguished
reception , and have even permitted them access , as a matter of
right, into the personal presence of the Sovereign . All this
time our own representatives have been snubbed , insulted, and
deliberately humiliated in China, and have only been admitted
into the Emperor's presence by an act of supreme condescension ,
accorded to them as an opportunity of laying the homage of the
barbarians at the feet of the Son of Heaven. It is high time this
ignoble farce came to an end .
304 CHINA.
In any consideration of the relation of Chinese and foreigners,
the much-vexed Missionary Question cannot be passed over. I
hold very strong opinions about this, but I will express them
as briefly and as moderately as I can. I believe it to be strictly
within the limits of truth to say that foreign missionary effort
in China has been productive of far more harm than good.
Instead of serving as a link between Chinese and foreigners,
the missionaries have formed a growing obstacle. As travellers
in the East well know, Oriental peoples are especially sus
ceptible upon two points, of which their religion is the chief. We
have forced the inculcation of an alien and a detested creed
upon the Chinese, literally at the point of the bayonet. That
very competent observer, Mr. Alexander Michie, whom I have
previously quoted, sums up the results of missionary enterprise
as having produced for the Chinese Government perpetual
foreign coercion ; for the Chinese nation, an incessant ferment
of angry passions and a continuous education in ferocity against
Christianity ; for the foreign missionaries, pillage and massacre
at intervals, followed by pecuniary indemnification - an indefinite
struggle with the hatred of a whole nation, compensated by a
certain number of genuine converts to their faith . * Of the
truth of this, so far as concerns the attitude of the natives
toward the missionary, a member of the China Inland Mission
has just given striking evidence :
The Chi-nan-fu fop, dressed in silks and satins, flipping his sleeves in the face of
a respectable foreign visitor met in the street ; the middle-aged scholar, dressed 83
a gentleman, not thinking it beneath him to hiss out “ foreign devil” or simply
“ devil ” ; young and old spitting on the ground in bitterness close to the visitor's
feet, laughing right in his face , or on passing, turning sharply round and making a
most hateful noise at his ear - these are some of the petty annoyances that the
literati and gentry practise ; underlings easily carry on the treatment to something
more spiteful and serious than this. "
A careful distinction must be made, however, between Roman
Catholic and Protestant missionaries. The former enjoy, on
• “ Missionaries in China " by Alexander Michie, 1891, p. 71.
+ China's Millions, September, 1894 .
THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 305
the whole, far more consideration from the natives, as well as
from foreigners, and the result of their work is beyond question
much greater. The Roman Catholic missionary goes to China
once for all ; he adopts native dress, lives on native food ,
inhabits a native house, supports himself upon the most meagre
allowance from home, and is an example of the characteristics
which are as essential to the eastern idea of priesthood as to
the western-poverty, chastity, and obedience. To borrow the
words of Sir W. Hunter, he has “ cut himself off from the world
by a solemn act.” More than that, he meets native super
stitions half-way by amalgamating the worship of ancestors,
which is a vital part of every Chinaman's belief, to the
worship of the Saints ; and by teaching his native converts a
prayer for the Emperor of China, which concludes with the
petition, “ de Le conserver jusqu'à une heureuse vieillesse,
en prolongeant la prosperité de Son Empire, afin que nous
puissions plûtard jouir avec Lui de la paix éternelle.” He is
also subject to one authority, and preaches and practises one
doctrine. The two chief grounds of reproach against him are
first, that in China as elsewhere he is nearly always a political
agent ; and second, that many a dangerous suspicion has been
aroused by his habit of paying small sums for dying children,
for the purpose of baptising them in articulo mortis.
Το any one who has read my chapter on Manila , I need not
explain that I am not prejudiced in favour of the Roman
Catholic propaganda ; yet I should not be honest if I did not add
that for the personal character and the work of many a Roman
Catholic missionary whom I have met in China, I have con
ceived a profound respect. The Protestant missionary, on the
other hand, in a majority of cases, looks upon his work as a
career like another ; he proposes to devote a certain amount
of his life to it, and then to return home with the halo of the
Christian pioneer ; he has, in most cases, his comfortable house,
his wife, his children , his servants and his foreign food, and it is
even stated that his stipend increases with each addition to his
21
306 CHINA .
family. For his doctrine he is virtually responsible to nobody but
himself. Whatever his own views upon the mysteries of Christi
anity happen to be, those he impresses upon his native hearers as
the one and only truth. He is jealous of his Protestant rivals,
between whom and himself there is a perpetual warfare of pious
intrigue to secure converts. So far as education goes, both men
and women among Protestant missionaries are often quite un
fitted even to teach at home, where there would be little danger
of serious misunderstanding ; in their present sphere of work
they are often not too hardly described by the phrase which has
been applied to them— “ ignorant declaimers in bad Chinese."
“ The Protestant missionaries who enjoy the respect of their
compatriots ,” says one writer, “" are the exception, not
the rule, and owe their reputation more to sinological ac
complishments than to ecclesiastical prestige . Protestant
missionary tracts are distributed bearing coarse illustrations
of such Biblical incidents as the swallowing of Jonah by
the whale, and the killing of Sisera by Jael. Moreover, up
to the present, the Protestant missionaries have circulated the
whole Bible in Chinese. They have recently seen their error,
and are now considering the advisability of following in the
steps of the more circumspect Roman Catholics, and withholding
certain parts obviously unfit for Oriental comprehension. Their
failure to do this hitherto has resulted in parodies of the most
vital doctrines of orthodox Protestantism being spread all over
China, of a brutality so revolting and ferocious as to be beyond
all possibility of mention. Again, they reproduce in China all
the petty sectarian divisions of their own country. I quote
a list of these from a missionary address. There are three
branches of the Episcopal Church, nine sects of Presbyterians,
six sects of Methodists, two sects of Congregationalists, two sects
of Baptists, besides several minor bodies. In Shangbai alone
there are seven missions—the London Mission, American
Presbyterian, the American Episcopal, the American Episcopal
• Balfour, “ Waifs and Strays from the Far East," p. 113.
THE FUTURE OF CHINA . 307
Methodists, the Church Missionary Society, the American
Baptists, and the Seventh-Day Baptists. “ Here, then,” says
the Rev. Dr. Williamson, “ we have seven sets of foreign
missionaries working seven different churches ; seven sermons
every Sunday, seven sets of prayer meetings, seven sets of com
muning services, seven sets of schools, two training agencies,
seven sets of buildings, seven sets of expenses, four or five
versions of the Bible, and seven different hymn -books at least.”
In the face of these facts, one is surely justified in saying
that we have not yet reached a point of Christian unity which
affords us any moral justification for thrusting our theological
views by force of arms upon heathen nations.
I am well aware, of course, that to some missionaries the
world is deeply indebted for its knowledge of the Chinese
language and literature ; and that among the Protestant
missionaries of the present day there are some men of the
bighest character and devotion, upon whose careers no criticism
can be passed. These, however, are a small minority. The
Chinese themselves bracket missionaries and opium together
as the twin curses of the country, and although it is true that
among Christian converts have been men who have shown under
persecution all the characteristics of the early Christian martyrs ,
it is equally true that the ordinary foreigner carefully avoids
the employment of the native Christian in any subordinate
capacity, having found by experience that in many cases he has
only lost his native virtues to acquire foreign vices in their
place. Conversion to Christianity is looked upon by many
natives merely as a means of an easier livelihood . A friend
of mine asked a Chinese servant whom he had previously
known, what he was engaged in doing. He replied : “ My
have got that Jesus pidgin .” He was no more intentionally
irreverent in saying this than I am in quoting it ; he merely
meant that the profession of Christianity, with its comfortable
concomitants, was his new occupation . Mr. Michie declares
that were the alliance of the Christian nations with the military
308 CHINA .
Powers of the West to be brought to an end, a chief root of
bitterness would be extracted from the Chinese mind. For my
own part, I am convinced that if the subscribers to Chinese
missions could only see for themselves the minute results
of good and the considerable results of harm that their money
produces , they would find in the vast opportunities for refor
matory work at home a more attractive field for their charity.
At any rate, in considering the future of China the missionary
influence cannot be counted upon for any good.
The prospects of future reform in China may be estimated
from the fate of her railway schemes. In 1876 the first railway
in China was laid by a foreign firm from Shanghai to Wusung,
where the notorious bar on the Shanghai River interrupts the
traffic. It was well patronised , paid a dividend at once, and
after running sixteen months was purchased by the Chinese
authorities, who no sooner came into possession of it than they
tore it up and shipped the materials over to Formosa. Under
its energetic Governor, Liu Ming-chuan , now Commander-in
chief of the Chinese army , a railway was built in Formosa, and
prospered for a time under foreign management ; but the
foreigners have almost all been dismissed - from 1886 to 1889
there were no fewer than six consulting “ chief engineers " in
succession in the Governor's service--and the working of the
railway is now a farce. Six or seven years ago an Imperial
edict was issued, declaring that “ to make a country powerful,
railways are essential,” but the reactionaries at Court succeeded
the progressives in their influence upon the Emperor, and a
subsequent edict declared that " they must only be built with
Chinese money. ” That is, they must be postponed indefinitely,
for the Imperial Government in China is always poverty
stricken , and the wealthy Chinese would not dream of putting
their money into a Chinese official scheme. But at this time
foreigners were so confident that the era of railway construction
in China had at last dawned, and that the consequent opening
up of the vast Celestial Empire was about to begin in earnest,
THE FUTURE OF CHINA . 309
that long descriptions of the route of the first “ Great Western
Railway of China ” were published ; the Emperor called for
reports from the leading provincial Viceroys ; and the talk was of
nothing but railways. The Imperial family, and Liu Ming -chuan ,
and a few others were strongly in favour of the introduction
of railways, and against this powerful combination the conserva
tive officials could not prevail directly. So they cunningly adopted
the round -about method of declaring that not only must the
railways be built with Chinese money , but that the ore must be
mined and smelted , and the rails made , in China, since other
wise foreigners would acquire an influence so great as to be
dangerous to the stability of the Throne, and would profit by
enormous sums which ought to be spent in China. The result
was that nothing whatever was done, and the subject has not
been heard of for five years. The original proposals were to
build one line from Liu -ko - chiao, near Peking, to either Hankow,
the great port on the Yangtze, in Hupeh, or to Chinkiang, near
the junction of the Grand Canal and the Yangtze, in Kiangsu
Another short line was to connect Tungchow, the village at
which one leaves the Peiho River for Peking, with Tientsin , and
thereby place the capital in communication with the coast ; while
a third , which would certainly prove an extremely prosperous
undertaking and which British capitalists have long been eager
to build , would connect Canton with British Kowloon, and thus
bring the commercial metropolis of China into close relations
with the great port of Hongkong. An American mining expert
who had charge for a time of the largest silver mines in China,
gave me this interesting explanation of the failure of the Chinese
to take any steps with regard to railways. They desire , he said,
to do the biggest thing at once. They reason thus : Great
Britain, with 38,000,000 population , has 20,000 miles of rail
way ; therefore China, with 350,000,000, ought to have x
miles. They will not buy rails abroad : they insist upon making
them ; and they will not make iron rails, which they could
easily do, and which would serve just as well for their light
310 CHINA.
traffic. They must have steel ones. But steel rails cannot be
made cheaply except on a very large scale, say the smelting of
250 tons of ore a day, and without long experience ; and with
the Chinese habits such an output is utterly impossible, no
matter what the mines may be. They have already discovered
excellent iron mines, but as the phosphorus limit is exceeded,
steel cannot be made there, and they will not make iron. More
over, they sent two Englishmen and two Germans to seek
for steel-making iron and coal throughout the provinces of
Southern China. This, again, was wrong-English and German
methods of work are entirely different, and the task should have
been assigned exclusively to one or the other.
One railway only have the Chinese-or, rather, has Li Hung
chang - pushed towards completion. It was first laid from
Tientsin to the coal mines at Kaiping-80 miles. It is now
completed as far as Shan -hai-kwan, where the Great Wall
reaches the coast, a total distance of 180 miles, which a fast
train is supposed to cover in eight hours . It was next to be
extended to the Taling River, an addition of 128 miles — and
40 miles of earthworks at one end and 38 at the other have
been practically completed -- whence one branch would run
-
south through Kinchow to Port Arthur, and another north to
Mukden and ultimately to the very important strategic city of
Kirin . The war has, of course, put a complete stop to this for
the present, but before the war broke out the birthday of the
Empress-Dowager came in sight, and the railway subsidy of
2,000,000 taels was promptly diverted to swell the funds for
celebrating the occasion. Foreigners have pointed out to the
Chinese authorities again and again, that without this railway
they could hold neither Port Arthur nor the sacred and rich
province of Manchuria, but no attention was paid to the
warnings, and now the inevitable result has come. Except as
the result of foreign pressure, China is as little likely to build
railways—except possibly for purely strategic and defensive
purposes-as she is to introduce any other feature of reform or
progress .
THE FUTURE OF CHINA . 311
Finally, the time has come when the interests of British trade
must be more closely regarded. We have done up to the present
three - quarters of the foreign trade of China, but the returns show
a distinct falling off, and with the establishment of manufactures
in China, and above all, in the face of Japanese competition, this
will certainly tend to become more marked every year. In spite of
the admirable Chinese Customs service foreign trade is hampered
in many ways, and successful efforts are made to keep it from
extending into the interior. The likin , or inland tax, stations
are merely opportunities for “ squeezing " on the part of the
mandarins, in spite of some recent reforms in this direction, and
the vast interior of China is almost as closed to us to-day as it
was before the first treaty port was opened . China may not
prove the bonanza to foreign manufacturers that is sometimes
supposed. The population presses so hard on the means of
subsistence , and there are so many parts always on the verge of
famine, that the purchasing power of the inhabitants may fall
short of all expectations based only upon their numbers. But at
any rate the time has now come for us to insist upon a radical
reform of the government, and a consequent lifting from the
shoulders of the people the load of corruption and extortion they
bear. One of the first effects, too, of greater foreign influ
ence would be the revival of the tea and silk trades, which would
mean at once enormously increased exports, and ability to
purchase foreign imports. This, again, would furnish a natural
and most welcome palliation , even though only a temporary one,
of the silver question, because of the demand for silver that
would arise among the 350,000,000 inhabitants of the Chinese
Empire. As an example of the silver -absorbing power of China,
it is only necessary to consider the statistics given by the British
Consul at Canton, according to which from May, 1890, to
December, 1891 , no fewer than 23,000,000 silver coins were
made at the Canton mint, and put into circulation, their value
ranging from a dollar to five cents.
There is one factor in Chinese life which prevents the outlook
312 CHINA .
from being utterly hopeless, and curiously enough this factor
is one of the most ancient of original Chinese institutions. I
mean the system of competitive examination for office . If this
system could be detached from its Confucian ineptitudes, and
filled with a living content of western knowledge, the future of
China might be vitally changed . It is important, therefore, to
understand what this system is. Chinese historians declare
that the Emperor Shun examined his officials competitively in
the year 2200 B.C. , and that the Emperor Chow, in 1115 B.C.,
instituted examinations into the “ six arts " of music, archery,
horsemanship, writing, arithmetic, and social rites. This is
no doubt mythical, but to- day the entire Chinese Empire is
covered with a network of machinery for examining ambitious
men in the “ six arts , ” and the “ five studies," and conferring
the " three degrees." The latter are, first, hsui-tsai, or
Budding Genius ” —a sort of B.A.; second, chü-jên , or “ Pro
moted Scholar ” —or M.A .; third , tsün -sz, or “ Ready for Office "
- which may be compared with LL.D. The first of these exami
nations is held every year in each provincial district, of whic
there may be sixty or seventy in a province. The subject of
examination consists of an essay and poem upon assigned
topics, and the examination lasts a night and a day. Out of
about 2,000, twenty " budding geniuses ” are selected ; they
wear a gilt button ; they are no longer liable to corporal punish
ment ; and they become marked men of the literary class.
The second examination takes place triennially at every pro
vincial capital. On the last occasion Wuchang had 15,000
competitors and Nankin 18,000. Of these, less than 1 per
cent, can be successful . The examiners in this case come from
Peking ; the examination is divided into three sessions of three
days each ; and again the subjects consist almost solely of com
mentaries upon some passage of ancient literature. The
examination is conducted with extraordinary ceremony and the
utmost stringency . The Examination Hall is like that which I
have described in Peking ; everybody - examiners, magistrates,
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THE FUTURE OF CHINA , 313
police, competitors, doctors, cooks, tailors, and executioner, for
any offence within the sacred enclosure is punished by death-is
shut up irrevocably during the nine days that the examination
lasts. The strain is, of course, intense, and competitors fre
quently die from the close confinement and extremely insanitary
surroundings. As a specimen of the subjects of examinations ,,
the following passage from the Analects of Confucius was one of
the themes in the last competition at Nankin :- “ Confucius
-
said, ' How majestic was the manner in which Shun and Yu
held possession of the empire, as if it were nothing to them .'
Confucius said, ' Great indeed was Yaou as a sovereign ! How
majestic was he ! It is only Heaven that is grand and only
Yaou corresponded to it ! How vast was his virtue ! The
people could find no name for it !' " The competitors , that is,
were simply invited to write an essay in the most extravagant
style of eulogy upon the wisdom of the sage as exhibited in this
passage. Three weeks after the examination, the names of the
hundred successful are published, and the happy ones are more
than repaid for what has often been a lifetime of study, by the
honours that await them. No actual reward of any kind is
conferred upon the “ Promoted Scholar,” but his position bas
been compared with that of a victor in the Olympian Games,
and his fortunate family shares in his fame. He mounts a
larger gilt button upon his hat , places a tablet over his door,
erects a couple of flagstaffs before his house, and plunges into
study again for the third and final examination of the following
spring. “ Though ordinarily not very devout, he now shows
himself peculiarly solicitous to secure the favour of the gods.
He burns incense and gives alms. If he sees a fish floundering
on the hooks, he pays its price and restores it to its native
element . He picks struggling ants out of the rivulet made by a
recent shower, distributes moral tracts, or better still , rescues
chance bits of printed paper from being trodden in the mire of
the streets .” The final struggle takes place in Peking, and is ,
of course, more difficult and even stricter than the preceding,
314 , CHINA.
for success in it means public office - - the offices being dis
tributed among the successful by lot. Beyond this triumph,
however, there is still a possible pinnacle of literary glory,
namely, to be selected by the Emperor himself as the best of all
the successful competitors in Peking, and to receive the title of
Chang -yuan - say, “Poet Laureate " —the finest flower of the
literary culture of the Celestial Empire. To have produced
such a man is the highest honour to which any province can
aspire ; the town of his birth is immortalised, and his happy
parents are regarded as the greatest benefactors of the
State.
As at present organised, this system of competitive examina
tion has its excellent side. The Rev. Dr. Martin , who has
written a luminous analysis of the system , * gives three great
merits. First, the system serves the State as a safety-valve,
providing a career for ambitious spirits who might otherwise
foment disturbances. Second, it operates as a counterpoise to
the power of an absolute monarch , since without it the great
offices would be filled by hereditary nobles, and the minor ones
by Imperial favourites. Every schoolboy is taught to repeat a
line which declares that “ the General and the Prime Minister
are not born in office." It constitutes, in fact, the democratic
element in the Chinese Constitution. Third, it gives the
Government a hold on the educated gentry, and binds these to
the support of existing institutions. “ In districts where the
people have distinguished themselves by zeal in the Imperial
cause, the only recompense they crave is a slight addition to the
numbers on the competitive prize list.” On the other hand, the
evils of the system are sufficiently obvious. Its sole effect, so
far as education and the government of China are concerned, is
to limit knowledge to the moral and intellectual level of the far
past. As an example of the pitilessly mechanical character of
the Chinese culture which this system promotes, the following
• “ Hanlin Papers ," by W. A. P. Martin , D.D. , LL.D., Peking, 1880, p. 51.
THE FUTURE OF CHINA . 315
sketch of the rise and fall of a Chinese literate is illuminat
ing:
“ The provincial records have not been revised for many years, and thus are not
available to determine what success Kwangsi has had in the examinations at
Peking; but there are those who say that not for a century had a Kwangsi man
taken first, second, third, or fourth place until 1889. In that year Chang Chien
hsün secured the highest honours. He was born in 1856 of a very poor family, of
Hunan origin , living in Lin -kuei -hsien , Kuei - lin - fu . He became a hsiu - tsai at the
age of 15, à chi -jên at 23, and chuang.yuan 10 years later. The story goes
that in all the examinations before taking the chü - jên degree he was easily first,
and his talents attracted the attention of Yang Chung-ya, appointed Governor of
Kwangsi in 1876, who promised him his grand -daughter in marriage. We may
suppose that from that time his poverty was not allowed to interfere with the
prosecution of his studies . After Mr. Chang's success at Peking, he became,
as is usual, a compiler in the Hanlin College. Unfortunately, the career which
opened so well has received a sudden check. The report reached Kwangsi this
summer that the chuong -yüan of 1889 , in the course of tests upon the result of
which depended appointment to the provincial literary offices, wrote another
character of the same sound in the place of one he intended, as if, for example
(the illustration is intended for readers unfamiliar with China) , in writing of the
position of the subject in the State, he had spoken of his rites and duties. The
reader acquainted with Chinese feeling will understand how much worse than any
moral delinquency was this error." +
The competitive system is the door beyond which lies the way
to the civilisation of China. Upon that door is written the word
Confucius ; and unless this is erased and the word Truth sub
stituted , China must remain the victim of more enlightened
races, even until she be finally dismembered and disappear. If,
however, any pressure could be found strong enough to provide
for modern teaching in her provincial centres, and for the
westernisation of her topics of competitive examination, with
offices as rewards for those who distinguish themselves in the
different branches of modern science , China might emerge from
her slough of Confucian ignorance, prejudice, cruelty, and cor
ruption. As Dr. Martin says, “ If the examiners were scientific
men , and if scientific subjects were made sufficiently prominent
in these higher examinations, millions of aspiring students
would soon become as earnest in the pursuit of modern science
Chinese Imp. Maritime Customs, Decennial Reports, 1882-1891 , Mr. C. C.
Clarke's Report on Lungchow , p . 656 .
316 CHINA .
as they now are in the study of their ancient classics . " Nothing
could have so great an effect in moulding the future of China
as the modernisation of her best-preserved and most ancient
institution .
War has once more given us our opportunity. Japan has
pricked the bubble of the " awakening " of China,, and has
exhibited the Chinese Government as the imposture it really is.
Without in the least exercising our power to dictate to Japan the
terms she may make so far as regards herself—which we have
not the faintest right to do — we must not fail to control the results
of the peace so far as other nations are concerned. First of all,
we must insist upon the opening of treaty ports wherever these
may be required for foreign trade. It would, perhaps, be in
advisable to insist upon the opening of the whole of China at
present, until the people of the remoter districts have had time
to learn that we are only peaceful traders, and not barbarians,
though if this should be possible, no scruples regarding extra
territoriality should be allowed to stand in the way for a moment.
Second, we must insist upon foreign representatives being
received by the Emperor himself at regular intervals, and under
such circumstances as to make it clear that the honours of the
audiences are divided ; and the Ministers of the State must
realise once for all that diplomacy and procrastination are not
synonymous terms. Third , for the protection of our future
interests in the Far East, we must secure by purchase, exchange,
or otherwise, a naval base a thousand miles north of Hongkong.
This is an absolute necessity, and there will not again be such
an opportunity for acquiring it. Chusan at once suggests
itself, if we do not want the responsibility of taking Formosa,
which has no harbour. Chusan has been occupied by us before;
it has an excellent harbour, which can be easily fortified and
made impregnable ; and it is at the mouth of the great trade
route of China. But this is a point that our naval authorities
must decide. Fourth, the literal fulfilment of our previous
convention with China regarding Indian trade with Thibet must
THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 317
now be demanded. The Chinese will say that they cannot
guarantee that the Thibetans will not oppose us by force . This
is quite true — it is wholly out of the power of the Emperor of
China to give any such guarantee. Our answer must be that in
that case we will look after ourselves . The present moment is
the turning - point in our relations with China, and it must not
be allowed to pass. China, we must never forget, yields only to
pressure. She has never been opened except by war, and will
never admit reform except at the point of the bayonet or at the
sight of the ironclad.
It may be said that I am calmly assigning the predominant
role in the present situation to Great Britain, to the exclusion of
other Powers. To this I unhesitatingly reply that the pre
dominant role belongs to us, and that it is not our policy to
exclude anybody, for, unlike other nations, whatever we get is
thrown open to the whole world. Beside the commercial
interests of England in China, those of all other nations are
almost insignificant. This is an assertion which can be proved
in a moment. Take the question of foreigners in China first.
On December 31 , 1891, a census was taken in all the treaty
ports of China, including the two Customs stations of Lappa and
Kowloon, by the Chinese Customs service. These were the
results :
British . American, French , German . Portuguese. Spanish . Italian .
Residents 3,746 1,209 681 667 659 316 133
Firms 345 27 24 82 7 5 4
That is, in the Treaty Ports alone, there were 3,746 Britishers
and 345 British firms, against 3,811 subjects and 161 firms of
all the other European Powers and the United States put
together. But to this must be added the British population and
firms in Hongkong and Singapore trading with China, by far
our most important representatives in the Far East. When this
addition is made, it is clearly not too much to say that the
interests of other nations are insignificant in comparison .
318 CHINA .
Second, take the question of trade. The figures furnish the
following astonishing results :
FOREIGN TRADE OF CHINA WITH EACH COUNTRY, 1893.
Haikwan Taels.
Continent of Europe, except Russia 21,070,988
United States 17,169,213
Russia ... .. .. 10,267,743 48,507,944
Great Britain and British Possessions 195,710,240
That is—taking the Haikwan tael roughly at four shillings (it
averaged 3s. 11 {d. in 1893 )—the total trade of Great Britain and
British possessions for 1893 amounted to £ 39,000,000, against
£ 9,700,000 for the whole continent of Europe (except Turkey)
and the United States. These are the figures given by the
Customs, but a considerable reduction must be made from
British trade in view of the fact that a good deal of the trade
passing through Hongkong and Singapore is not British . It is
impossible to calculate how much this is, but to show the orer
whelming superiority of British trade, let us suppose that Hong
kong and Singapore, our greatest trading centres with China,
were wiped off the map , with all their trade. Even in that case
British trade would still stand at 62,288,436 taels, or £ 12,400,000
against £ 9,700,000 for all our civilised competitors put together!
If under these circumstances we do not recognise that we are
the predominant Power in all foreign relations with China,
and act accordingly, then we are indeed unworthy of the heritage
of good fortune that sturdier Englishmen have made and be
queathed to us.
In all the foregoing I have written upon the supposition that
at the conclusion of the present war we may still have a united
China to deal with . This, however, may well not be the case.
The Abbé Huc , Cooke, and Gordon , all thought that the Chinese
Empire would possibly one day collapse, and indeed the ties
which hold it together are much weaker than is realised by most
people. The victory of the Japanese, if carried beyond a certain
THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 319
point, would quite surely bring about the downfall of the present
dynasty, seated as it is upon an insecure throne. If China,
however, is torn asunder or falls to pieces, then a much vaster
problem will face us. For in that case we shall find ourselves
face to face with the momentous suggestion of Asia for the
Asiatics. Upon this I shall have something to say in a later
chapter .
KOREA.
22
CHAPTER XXI.
ON HORSEBACK ACROSS KOREA .
I TOOK an unusualway to reach thecapital of the Hermit
Kingdom . The ordinary route is to go by steamer from
Nagasaki or Chefoo to Chemulpo, and then walk or be carried
in a chair twenty-six miles to Seoul. The steamer which
took me from Nagasaki to Vladivostok touched at Wön- san
on her way north , so I made arrangements, by the kind
help of the Commissioner of Customs, for ponies and men
to be ready for me on my return , to make the journey
across the peninsula to Seoul, instead of going round by
the beaten track. There is a road from the coast to the
capital, and a number of Japanese and an occasional Con
sular officer had travelled it ; but at the time of my journey
very few other Europeans had crossed the country. The road
is of interest at this moment because it was for a long way the
route of the third column of the Japanese army to the battle
of Phyöng-yang, and Wön-san itself was worth seeing for
the sake of its possible future. The Korean authorities dis
courage travellers, and the Korean Minister at Tokyo per
sistently declined to give me a passport or to apply to Seoul
for one for me, although pressed by the British chargé to do so .
And the condition of the country may be judged from the fact
that four months before my journey marines were landed from
the American , Russian, and Japanese men-of-war at Chemulpo,
and marched all night up to the capital to protect the foreigners
there ; while H.M.S. Leander got up steam in a hurry and left
323
324 KOREA .
Yokohama at a few hours' notice for the same purpose. Some
Chinese, it was stated , had entrapped Korean children and sent
them to Tientsin for immoral purposes, and the Koreans pro
fessed to believe that the missionaries had stolen them to use
their eyes for medicine and for taking photographs. Hence
murders of Koreans and a threatened attack upon foreigners.
The town and harbour of Wön -san — which is known as Gensan
to the Japanese, and Yuensan to the Chinese --are of great
ELEMENT
CUSTOM HOUSB
HAPANESE
SETTEMENT
+
OR
EA
N
THE SETTLEMENTS AND HARBOUR OF WÖN -SAN .
interest because of the part they are likely to play in the future
of the Far East. Broughton Bay, named after Captain William
Robert Broughton, the companion of Vancouver, who dis
covered it in 1797, afterwards losing his ship, the Provi
dence, near Formosa, is situated in the middle of the east
coast of Korea . The northern arm has been named Port
Lazareff by the Russians, whose ships come regularly for
manoeuvres . It was here that their cruiser, the Vitiaz, ran on
ON HORSEBACK ACROSS KOREA. 325
a rock in broad daylight and calm weather, on May 10, 1893,
and became a total wreck . This bay is the only useful harbour
on the whole six hundred miles of coast ; but to make up for
the deficiency, it is one of the finest harbours in the world. Its
area is not far short of forty square miles ; it is perfectly
sheltered ; it is open all the year round ; there is excellent
anchorage in from six to twelve fathoms ; and several streams
empty into it, from which excellent water may be obtained.
The provinces of which it is the sea outlet are the most moun
tainous in Korea, and they undoubtedly contain the two most
precious of minerals—gold and coal. The former , to the value
of half a million dollars annually, has been passed through
the Custom House, and probably an equal amount has been
smuggled ; while deep seams of coal have been observed in several
places, and anthracite from the district is burned by foreigners
at Wön- san. For game of all kinds the surrounding provinces
are a sportsman's paradise. Tigers and sables abound, and
wild -fowl of all sorts exist in myriads. And the sea, says the
Commissioner of Customs, “ literally teems with legions of
fish ," which the Koreans are too lazy to catch. " The whales,
black - fish , sharks, and seals, which abound on the coast, are left
to fatten on the multitudes of salmon , cod, tai, haddock, whiting,
ribbon - fish , herrings, sardines , and innumerable other tribes
that crowd the waters at various seasons." With all these
natural advantages, Wön -san , in the hands of energetic and
intelligent people, would soon become a place of great com
mercial prosperity and strategic importance.
The port of Wön-san was thrown open to the Japanese in
June, 1880, and to the trade of all nations in November, 1883.
The settlements there, as shown in the accompanying sketch
map, are the native town, dirty, crowded together, and traversed
by filthy alleys in the place of streets ; the Japanese settlement,
neat and clean and prosperous ; and the Chinese quarter, some
thing between the two. Tbe total population is about 15,000 .
Steam communication is kept up with Vladivostok and Naga
326 KOREA.
saki by the excellent Japanese line, the Nippon Yusen Kaisha ; &
Russian steamer, which calls at regular intervals ; and one
small but very profitable coasting steamer flying the Korean
flag. The total tonnage of the port for 1893 was 69,835 ; the
total import and export trade, 1,481,260 dollars ; the export of
gold , 632,960 dollars, besides 140,000 dollars' worth remitted as
taxes on Government account to Seoul ; and the net total col.
lection of revenue, 53,089 dollars, say £ 6,500. A telegraph-line
now connects Wön-san with the capital. I give all these
details because of my belief, the reasons for which will be
found in other chapters, that Wön -san - or, at any rate,
some point in Broughton Bay - will ultimately be the Pacific
terminus of the Trans- Siberian Railway.
As soon as the Takachiho reached Wön -san, I said good -bye to
my very pleasant quarters, and went on shore, where through
the glass I could see the ponies already waiting. A Korean
pony is a small, shaggy, scraggy creature ; but you never like
him less than when you first set eyes on him ; and before I had
gone far with these I learned that many virtues were concealed
in their little brown bodies. Four ponies and six men were at
the landing, the latter being three grooms, two soldiers , and an
interpreter. One pony was for me to ride ; upon the second
were strapped my bag, canvas hold-all, containing rug and
sleeping arrangement, camera, and gun ; the third was burdened
with two boxes of provisions, for it is necessary to carry with you
almost everything you need to eat ; while the fourth pony had all
he could do to transport the money for current expenses — about
twenty Mexican dollars, £2 10s. The only Korean currency
consists of miserably-made copper, iron, and brorze coins,
called " cash ” in English, and sapek or sek in Korean, about
the size and weight of an English penny, with a square hole in
the middle by which they are strung on plaited straw in lots of
five hundred, subdivided by knots into hundreds. Hence the
expression “ a string of cash.” The pony carried about fifteen
thousand of them .
ACROSS
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ON HORSEBACK ACROSS KOREA. 327
The personnel of my little caravan was decidedly curious, but
not very impressive. The grooms, called mapou , were good
natured, grinning creatures, low down in the social scale, dressed
in extremely dirty white cotton robes and trousers , with straw
sandals, and battered old bamboo hats, or none. The soldiers,
called kisiou, were tall, well -built fellows, distinguished from
civilians by a broad-brimmed hat of heavy black felt, with a
scarlet tuft trailing behind, and a coat of rough blue cotton ,
shaped exactly like the exaggerated dress-coat , reaching to the
heels, that one sees in a burlesque on the Gaiety stage. They
carried no weapons but a long staff, and they appeared amused
when I asked where, since they were soldiers, were their guns ?
My interpreter was a tall, really handsome man, with a striking
resemblance to the Speaker of the House of Commons, dressed
in spotless white, topped by a monumental black pot-hat made
of woven horsehair, and with nothing undignified about him but
his name, which was I Cha Sam. It was impossible to get a
Korean who knew any English , even a little “ pidgin ,” so I had
to be content with one who spoke Japanese. From his preter
natural silence and solemnity I soon discovered that his know
ledge of Japanese was on a par with my own . The bill of
expenses furnished me by Mr. Creagh was as follows :
4 Horses , at 5,000 cash .. .. .. .. 20,000
1 Interpreter (falsely so-called) .. 4,000
2 Soldiers, at 100 cash a day, 11 days there and back ..
2,200
3 “ Kumshaws ” (tips) to soldiers and interpreter, at $1 2,000
Total, 28,200 cash, say forty-three Mexican dollars, plus travelling
>
expenses and food . The price of the horses included grooms. .
The cash, by the way-miserable, battered, verdigris-covered
coins, apparently compounded of an alloy of tin and dirt - have
actually been debased by the Korean Government for illicit
profit, while they bear on them such gracious inscriptions as
" Used for Public Benefit," and “ Enrich the People."
The journey overland from the east coast to the capital
generally occupies five days, at the rate of something over thirty
328 KOREA .
miles a day. Thirty - five miles from Wön -san , however, north
of the overland road, is the great Korean monastery of An -byön,
which I was assured was the only interesting place in all Korea.
So I determined to lose a day and visit this. I said good-bye
to Mr. Creagh about midday, and pushed on fast through the
filthy lanes and among the squalling pigs of the native town
of Wön - san.
The red shades of evening appeared while we were still jogging
along at our best speed. When it was quite dark we reached a
little Korean inn, where the grooms had already aroused every
body. Out of a house of apparently two rooms, twenty white
robed travellers turned out and squatted in a row, like tired
us. The men were all for stopping—the road
ghosts, to stare at .
ahead was very steep , the woods through which it passed were
infested with tigers, the ponies were tired , the monastery would
be closed for the night, &c., &c. But I looked at those two
rooms and those twenty travellers , and hardened my heart.
Then the soldiers, seeing that I was determined, rose to the
occasion . One of them shouted to the innkeeper to turn out
and bring torches to light us, and his manner, I remarked with
interest, was peremptory. The innkeeper demurred in a high
tone of voice, when , without another word , this excellent kisiou
took one step toward him, and whack ! with a tremendous slap
in the face sent him staggering across the road. The sudden
ness of the blow took me aback, but nobody seemed in the
least surprised or annoyed, and the innkeeper appeared a
minute later with a blazing pine -knot and led the way. We
left the road at right angles, and fifty yards from the inn we
plunged into the woods and began a steep ascent along a narrow
stone path. Then a curious thing happened . As soon as our
last pony was out of sight, a simultaneous and blood-curdling
howl arose from the twenty travellers behind us, and was pro
longed with a series of yah ! yah ! yah ! till the hills echoed
again, and when it ceased our six men similarly exploded,
each one putting his back into the yell , till it rivalled the notes
>
ON HORSEBACK ACROSS KOREA . 329
of a Chicago mocking-bird. The travellers howled again , and
our men answered, and so on till we could no longer hear the
former . “ What on earth is the matter ? ” I asked I Cha Sam .
* To keep the tigers away ! ” he replied . I strapped my revolver
outside my thick riding- coat, but if the noise was half as dis
agreeable to a prowling tiger as it was to me, no wonder he
avoided our company, for anything so ingeniously ear-splitting
as the sounds our men kept up at intervals of three or four
minutes for an hour and a half I never heard .
Meanwhile the road ascended rapidly and the stony path grew
narrower, till at last we were climbing a mountain-side. At one
moment we were in thick woods, at another a precipice of con
siderable depth yawned a yard or two to our left, then we were
struggling up a stone-heap on to a plateau where half a dozen
miserable houses formed a village. No European horse could
have made a hundred yards of the road, yet the ponies stepped
doggedly over everything, rarely stumbling, and catching them
selves again instantly if they fell. I soon learned that the less
attempt I made to guide them the safer it was . Before leaving
Wön-san Mr. Creagh had said, “ If you don't need the soldiers as
an escort, you'll find them very useful in other respects .” And
I soon learned how. The theory of Korean government is that
the people exist for the officials. And as I had this escort I was
travelling as an official, and therefore entitled to demand any
services from the people to speed me on my way . The night
was pitch dark, and without torches we could not have gone a
yard. Therefore the soldiers levied lights from the people. As
soon as they spied a hovel ahead they shouted a couple of words,
the man carrying the torch helping lustily. I found later the
words were simply Poul k‘ira ( “ Bring out fire ! ” ), and no matter
bow late the hour, how bad the weather, how far to the next
house — no matter even though the sole inhabitant was an old
woman or a child , the torch of pine-wood or dried millet -stalks
bound together must be produced instantly, the guide must hold
it flaming in his hand when we reach his door, and woe betide
330 KOREA .
the unlucky being that keeps Korean officialdom waiting, if it be
only for half a minute. Sometimes the stage to the next house
was two or three miles, sometimes it was only a couple of hundred
yards, but there were no exemptions to this fire -conscription. The
general effect as I saw it from the rear was extremely picturesque
and striking—the line of ponies with their sideways-swaying
loads, the ghostly -white figures of the men on foot, the cries to
each other and the animals, the recurring shout for fire, the
yell to keep off the tigers, the dense wood, the precipice, the
flaming and flashing torch waved ahead or beaten on the
ground , dividing everything into blood-red lights and jet- black
shadows, and finally the thought that it really was just possible
the gleaming eyes of one of the great striped cats might be
choosing their victim a few feet away .
Our goal announced itself long beforehand by gate after gate,
and the instinctive feeling that we had got to the top, whatever
it was . Then the edge of the ravine became paved with stone
slabs, and a hundred yards along it brought us to a pair of
great wooden doors. They were opened after a little parley,
and we found ourselves in a small courtyard, and surrounded
by a score of young priests, apparently delighted to see us.
The rugs were hastily unpacked, and a brazier was brought. I
boiled the kettle, plucked and cooked one of the birds I had
shot, and then, while the monks sat round in a laughing,
chattering circle, I supped magnificently off broiled duck, hard
tack, and marmalade, washed down by many basins of tea.
(Nobody but a traveller knows the real value of tea .) At
midnight I was shown to a clean, paper-windowed room about
six feet square, and turned in on the floor. And when the
morning came it showed how strange and romantic a place I
had reached - one of the most striking and picturesque of the
unknown corners of the world.
The great monastery in the mountains is one of those chosen
and built by a militant Korean sect to serve, according to need,
either as a retreat for the spirit or a refuge for the body. The
ON HORSEBACK ACROSS KOREA . 331
monks themselves do not look very warlike, but the situation of
the monastery is an almost impregnable one. It can be reached
by only one road, a long steep stony path, in which " a thousand
might well be stopped by three " ; behind it on two sides are
mountains of rock, and on the fourth it is secluded by a very
deep and precipitous ravine through which dashes a noisy
torrent. The central buildings, on the edge of the ravine, shown
in my photograph, are the sacred apartments of the king,
entered by only one attendant, and they are kept in perfect
preservation and hourly readiness for his coming. When I
woke in the morning I found myself in the midst of great
heavy-eaved temples through the open doors of which could
be seen the solemn faces of squatting gilded gods , while al
ready half a dozen priests were bending before the altars with
incense and drum .
All the buildings of An - byön are in the style to which the
traveller so soon gets used in the East-rectangular wooden
structures with high -peaked roofs and richly-carved curving
eaves, generally with three doors at one side and the chief idol
facing the largest central entrance. Before him are sets of
altar utensils and little brass tallow lamps, and joss-sticks which
the pious visitor purchases for a few cash and lights at his
prayers. The walls are covered with silk and brocade, mostly
very old and time-stained ; the ceiling is marvellously carved
and gilded, perhaps a huge dragon appearing at one end and
worming himself in and out of the masses of ornament to the
other ; and inuumerable gongs and drums invite the hand of
the too willing pilgrim. The interior of these temples is tawdry ,
but the massiveness of the wooden architecture, its bright
colours, its picturesquely contrived vistas of gate and gable and
column and pavilion , taken together with the wonderful natural
situation of the place, form an impressive and romantic spectacle.
The inost curious sight in the monastery, however, is four huge
idols of brilliantly painted wood, carved with a good deal of
appreciation of the heroic human face and form , which stare at
332 KORFA .
one another across a narrow passage from behind the bars of
two great cages, a pair of war- gods being on one side, and a
king and queen (the latter playing a colossal mandolin) on the
other. My Japanese vocabulary unfortunately did not permit
me to make through my interpreter any inquiries as to their
abstract theologic significance. The headgear of the monks
beggars description, and I held my sides again and again as a
new specimen emerged from the dormitories. Hats of paper, of
wood, of bamboo, of horsehair, and of wire ; hats round, square,
triangular, cylindrical, conical , and spherical ; hats like &
clothes-basket, like a sieve, like a pumpkin, like a flying
crow, like a paper boat, like three three-cornered gridirons
fastened together at the edges ; half of them affording not
the slightest pretence of protection against cold or rain or sun,
but being either symbols of sacerdotal rank, or else simply the
offspring of a disordered creative imagination. Every priest,
too, carried or wore a rosary of red wooden beads, polished like
crystal by ceaseless fingering. I told my interpreter to ask one
of them by and by privately whether a string of these could be
purchased as a souvenir. He, however, blurted out the question
to the chief Abbot in the presence of fifty priests, and the
hospitable old gentleman instantly took off his own rosary
bracelet of specially big beads and handed it to me, saying,
“ They cannot be purchased, this is a present. ” Naturally
before leaving I wished to make him some present in return ,
but ransacking my bag produced nothing whatever suitable. My
revolver or knife I could not spare , the old gentleman had
already refused to taste whisky, and there appeared to be literally
nothing to give him. I recollected, however, that I had had
some new silk pocket-handkerchiefs made and embroidered in
Japan, and one of these presented with many airs and the
explanation from the interpreter that the monogram on the
corner was " good joss ," satisfied him completely. For our
entertainment I left a few dollars in the treasury, the amount,
attested by my autograph, being solemnly and elaborately
WRI
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APARTMENTS
ROYAL
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ONASTERY
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ASTOR , LEXBid's
TILDEN FUUNDU
ON HORSEBACK ACROSS KOREA. 333
entered in the great ledger of the monastery, and when at noon
I mounted my pony, a hundred of the white-robed , much - hatted
priests, led by the venerable Abbot himself, came a little way
down the hill to give me good-bye.
It would be absurd to deny that I experienced a new sensa
tion - a “ traveller's thrill ” —at this moment. I had never at
this time been out of reach of white men before, and now I was
at the beginning of a week's ride across a country which a very
few years ago was an utterly unknown and “ hermit ” land,
alone with six men of whom I knew nothing whatever, and with
whom I could have communication only through a very difficult
language which my “ interpreter " knew little better than I did ,
and with not a white face between me and the Yellow Sea. The
new sensation comes, I fancy, from the first consciousness of
the fact that all the protective and co-operative machinery of
civilisation has temporarily disappeared — that whatever happens
one has nothing to count upon but one's own health, one's own
wits, and if the worst comes, upon one's own hand. My reflec
tions of this kind, however, were soon interrupted for a con
sultation . There were two roads, I Cha Sam came up to say,
the longer and better one to the left, the much shorter but
mountainous one to the right. Which would I take ? At this
moment my chief desire was to get the trip over as soon as
possible, so I promptly chose the latter, and an hour later we
were in the first pass.
For three hours we climbed steadily up the narrow pass,
and then through it. The road was merely a bridle-path or
the dry bed of a mountain stream strewn with stones of all
sizes. But the ponies never slipped or even hesitated , and our
little train wound along in single file without a moment's rest
till dusk. The mapous sang and jödelled, hundreds of magpies
flew chattering about us all the time, big mangy old crows
hopped alongside, and the rare passers either stopped and
stared till I was out of sight, or else looked on the other side
and passed pretending not to have seen me. From eleven
331 KOREA .
o'clock till half-past three it was blazing hot, and my helmet
with its two inches of solid pith was none too thick. Then it
began rapidly to grow chilly, and long before dusk I had a frieze
riding-coat buttoned up to my chin . How these Korean mapous
and kisious - grooms and soldiers-manage to escape pleurisy
and consumption I cannot imagine. Positively their only
garments are a short loose jacket without any fastening down
the front, and a short loose pair of trousers, both of thin white
cotton cloth. As the man walked at my pony's head in the
evening he shivered till I could hear his teeth chatter, yet less
than two hours before he was wet through with perspiration. By
six o'clock we had descended somewhat to an extensive plateau,
and in the distance we could hear the dogs of a village. As
we entered it they ranged themselves in a snapping, yelping band
at our heels , and from every low doorway an inhabitant crawled
out to look at us. Any one who likes to be conspicuous should
go to Korea, for the look of overwhelming, speechless surprise
that passed over each face as I came in sight was wonderfully
flattering. As a rule, however, the face withdrew immediately,
and the door was hastily and silently closed- I suppose lest my
official attendants should demand the hospitality which every
Korean householder is bound to give .
In the middle of the village—the twenty or thirty miserable
thatched dwellings hardly deserve the name - We came to a halt,
and I Cha Sam approached . “ What is it ? ” I asked him , and
he replied with a single Japanese word , “ We will sleep .” I
looked at the house before us and my heart sank . True , I
knew that Korea did not boast a Palace Hotel , but this was
rather too much . A big, tumble -down , badly -thatched hovel
surrounding a yard ; all round this, stalls for ponies and
bullocks ; in the middle a huge cesspool surmounted by a
dunghill, in which horrible black sows were rooting ; opposite
to the entrance the two rooms in which the dozen members
of the family lived and had their domestic being, and a large
guest - chamber on one side for my men, and on the other ,
ON HORSEBACK ACROSS KOREA . 335
a
exactly fronting the most fragrant corner of the dunghill,
smaller one for myself. I Cha Sam flung open the door
about two feet by three-and bowed me in. The floor was
of hammered earth ; the walls were mud , covered in spots with
very dirty paper ; the material of the ceiling was concealed by
the dirt and smoke of generations, and tapestried with spiders ’
webs. At first, of course, I was highly indignant with Sam
for bringing me to such a hole, but from the look of
genuine surprise on his handsome placid countenance I soon
gathered that this was the regular Korean hotel, and that I
had nothing else to expect. Therefore I accepted the in
evitable with what joy I could, and with difficulty crowded
myself, my bag, rug, and provision - box into the room.
My Korean trip taught me at least two things. First, that
our supposed instinctive dislike to being personally dirty is
merely a matter of local convention . At home I am as un
happy as another if I cannot get my tub at a moment's notice
morning or evening, yet after twenty -four hours of Korea
I regarded washing, except just a swish of face and hands, as
an artificial virtue, and when I found that there was no clean
place anywhere on which to lay my coat if I took it off, I just
kept it on . In fact I kept it on for five days. And whether
it was the new sensation or the old Adam , I do not know ,
but by and by I grew rather proud of being distinctly and
indisputably dirty. The dunghill, of course, did not come
to recommend itself to me as a bedroom balcony, but that,
unhappily, was only a speck compared with later experiences
which I will not describe. The second thing is that repugnance
to certain animals is a foolish weakness which sensible people
should immediately abandon. When I left Wön-san I loathed
cockroaches . To-day I care no more for a cockroach than for
a rabbit. Every room I occupied in Korea was full of them
— literally full, hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands.
The first night was horrible with them, and sleep was theoretical
only ; but after that I used to pick them out of my hair and
336 KOREA .
beard, or flick them off my coat like flies . They came to my
candle till the floor shone all over from their pretty polished
backs, and if I put a sheet of paper on the ground twenty of
them would start surveying it before I could begin to sharpen
a pencil. My third night in Korea was the only other one
wasted . My quarters were even worse, and besides the cock
roaches there was an army of rats. They ran over my feet
the moment my candle was out, they ran over my body, they
crunched at my sugar, they scampered over my bag, till at last
I gave in, lighted the candle again, and read all night. As my
only book was The Newcomes it was a night well spent. Every
Korean choumak or inn was as I have described , sometimes a
little better, once or twice very much worse. In this respect
I should probably have fared better if I had chosen the longer
and more travelled road .
The people of the country varied very much. Two villages out
of three were very friendly, highly inquisitive, and easily moved
to laughter. The third was generally sullen , and its inhabitants
would not come near me, would not reply to the greeting of the
country— “ Oual keuiounni eutesio ? ” (“ How is your health to
day ? " ) — and would not even return a friendly nod. More than
half the time I walked, and my chief amusement was to get a
mile or two ahead of my caravan and enter a village by myself,
walk into the middle of it, and seat myself calmly on somebody's
doorstep as if I were perfectly at home. The stupefaction of the
natives was delicious. Probably they had never seen a white
man before, for very few had ever crossed Korea, and these
generally by the longer and better route. First they would
stare from a long distance, then they would drive off the dogs,
then some patriarch would approach cautiously and hazard a
question. I would reply with a few lines from “ Hamlet ” or
“ Paradise Lost,” whereupon they would all laugh. Then one
would remove his long pipe from his mouth and offer it to me,
and though the courtesy was neither accepted nor returned, it
sufficed to break the ice. Invariably they would begin by feeling
ON HORSEBACK ACROSS KOREA . 337
my clothes, and the different textures of these filled them
knowing nothing but the calico which is their sole wear—with
infinite amazement. Especially the corduroy of my riding
breeches pleased them, and they would send to the other end
of the village for an old man to come and feel it. Then if
they were amiable I would give them a little entertainment,
consisting of opening my watch-case by blowing on it, turning
out my pockets for their inspection , doing a few tricks with
coins, making cat's cradles with string, striking matches, and
other such infantile performances, firing my revolver as a grand
finale. Childish and ignorant in the extreme they were, knowing
less of the outside world than a Digger Indian. Poor, too ,
beyond telling. I believe that ten dollars would have bought
: everything (except the crops) that I saw exposed for sale in
hundreds of shops from the time I left Wön - san till I struck
Seoul. The men were well-built, as a rule, and fairly well
featured ; but I did not see a single woman or girl during my
trip who could have been called even moderately good-looking.
The daily labour in the fields or at the millet-mill is too hard for
that, and the women are even more beasts of burden than the
men. One or two men I saw most horribly diseased with some
kind of scabby elephantiasis, and one of these bothered me not
a little by coming and poking his head over my shoulder while
I was taking photographs. Only twice was there the least sign
of hostility. Once in the middle of the night some sneak - thieves
came to my room , but I happened to be lying awake smoking in
the dark, and heard them coming. So when with great stealth
they had got the door half -open , I struck a match , when they
shut it with a bang and scuttled like rats .. On the other
occasion I started out to investigate a big village in the dark ,
and finally got surrounded by a rather unpleasant and unfriendly
crowd, who were gradually edging me along the street in the
direction I did not want to go. But luckily I Cha Sam had
discovered my absence and set out to look for me , and his
commanding tongue soon put matters straight. During the
23
338 KOREA .
first two days I was greatly annoyed by my mapous, whom I
could not get along at all. At the midday halt they would lie
about for a couple of hours, and in the morning it was two or
three hours after I was up before I could get them to start.
On the third morning I lost my temper, and going into their
room I kicked them one after the other into the yard . This was
evidently what they expected, for they set to work immediately.
Unless they were kicked they could not believe the hurry was
real. Afterwards, by a similar procedure , I started whenever I
wished. At first, in the evenings I tried to learn something by
inviting the innkeeper and an old inhabitant or two, with the
interpreter, into my room, and regaling them with weak whisky
and water and dry biscuits. But they expressed their apprecia
tion in the native manner by such horrible eructations, and
would “ spit refreshingly around , ” as Pendennis says , to such
an extent that I was compelled to decline to receive callers. My
official kisious were of little use, and as lazy as lobsters. My
camera was injured by being jolted on pony-back, so I told one
of these that I would give him a dollar — a fortnight's wages—if
he would bring it safe to Seoul for me. He jumped at the offer ,
carried it for about a mile, then stopped at a house and shouted
the magic words “ Cha’m chim neira ! ” (“ Carry a parcel a
stage ! ” ). The householder hastened to obey, for, as I have
explained, any official (as I was because of my escort) has a
right to demand any such service of the people. This process
was repeated every few miles , and so my camera was borne by
hand across the Hermit Kingdom from sea to sea, with the tall
soldier convoying it in the rear.
As regards the country itself it was far more fertile in
appearance, and also much more cultivated , than I had been
led to expect. After leaving the monastery we climbed till
evening, then slept in a flat valley, then climbed again through
a succession of narrow, rocky, and difficult passes till we reached
an extensive plateau or table-land, 2,500 feet above the sea ,
stretching between two fine mountain-ranges, and perhaps forty
E
I
A KOREAN HOTEL.
MEN AND WOMEN OF KOREA.
YORK
RARY
LATIONS
ONYXC
ON HORSEBACK ACROSS KOREA . 339
miles in length. The mountains were splendid in their autumn
tints, the air was superb, the weather perfect, and I had not
a lonely moment. In fact, I seldom passed pleasanter days
than four of those spent riding or walking in utter solitude in
Central Korea . The nights were all bad, and at that time I
used to wonder what real travellers think about during the
lonely hour between dinner and sleep, when instead of being a
hundred miles from a white face they are a thousand, when
instead of a day or two dividing them from civilisation they
must be alone for months and years, and when the revolver
under their hand day and night is there from necessity and not
from nerves . I am inclined to think we do not quite appreciate
them as we ought. For my own part, I used to reflect how good
it would be to sit again in the midst of the old faces in the club,
or to drop into a stall at the Lyceum , or to listen once more
to “ Qu'allez vous faire si loin de nous? ” But I wander. To
hark back , therefore, the chief crops grown in the interior of
Korea are rice , millet, beans, and red peppers , the second of
these much predominating and furnishing the staple food for
the people. So far as appearances tell anything to an inexpert
eye, Korea ought to be rich in minerals, and there is certainly
plenty of land which would give fair if not great returns for
cultivating. The village industries were few and far between
a little spinning and a little primitive weaving of cotton cloth. The
country is miserably poor at present, for nobody cultivates much
more than will support him, as the only outlet for the surplus,
and that an unavoidable one, is into the pocket of the nearest
official.
My last day's journey of sixteen hours brought me to the
great gate of Seoul at eight o'clock. This was my first glimpse
of the East of my imagination - the rocky ascent, the towering
battlemented walls, the huge black gates inexorably closed.
Neither persuasion nor money could open them , as the keys of
the colossal padlocks were with the King's guard at the palace.
So rather than return five miles to a choumak, I rolled myself
340 KOREA.
up under my rug, and slept there on a big stone all night ; and
when morning broke, and the countrymen coming to market
lifted the corner of the rug and saw what was underneath, they
were not a little astonished. Then at daylight we rode into the
city , and Mr. Colin Ford, Her Majesty's most hospitable Consul,
met me at his gate in gorgeous pyjamas, and extended the bath
and the breakfast and the welcome of civilisation to a particu
larly dirty traveller.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE CITY OF SEOUL AND ITS INHABITANTS.
IT is the City ofIchabod. A few years ago- a few , that is, in
the life of a city - Korea was educating the Japanese people
in the arts : Satsuma ware was born in Seoul . To-day there
is not a piece of porcelain to be bought in the city worth
carrying away. A few years ago it took an army of 130,000
men under the greatest general Japan has ever had , to con
quer the country. Yesterday the advent of thirty American
marines threw 250,000 Koreans into a panic. To -day two
alien nations are fighting for Korea on her own soil, and she
is unable to lift a finger to help or oppose either of them. I
visited one of the old palaces. Pushing the door open to
enter, I almost pushed it off its hinges ; the spacious entrance
terrace is a mulberry orchard ; grass grows in the stables ; the
throne on which the King sat to receive his ministers is black
with mildew ; the splendid carvings are rotting from the lofty
roofs ; not a soul sets foot in these deserted balls. Oddest of
all, as I stood in silence by the great pillars of the throne-room,
a dove cooed from her nest in one of the carven capitals. It
was the vision of Omar Khayyam :
“ The palace that to heaven its columns threw,
And kings the forehead on its threshold drew,
I saw6 the solitary ring-dove there,
And Coo, coo, coo, ' she cried , and Coo , coo, coo. ' "
The word Seoul (pronounced variously Sool, Soul, and Say -ool,
and erroneously marked on many maps as Kinkitau, the name
341
342 KOREA .
of the province) merely means “ Capital,” the proper name of
the city being Han - yang, “ the fortress on the Han ." It is
a city of about 250,000 people. It is surrounded by a more
or less dilapidated wall, pierced by several imposing gateways,
all of which are closed at sunset at the sound of a great
bell, and the keys placed for the night in charge of the King's
guard at the palace. On one side of the city a second wall
encloses the palace and the royal domain, and from the farthest
point of this a stony mountain rises abruptly and symmetri
cally to a sharp peak . The city is surrounded by mountains,
and lies like the palm of one's hand when the fingers are turned
upwards ; but this one, Nam- san , is the highest, and every night
about eight o'clock a beacon blazes for a few minutes from its
summit. On some bill-top of the west coast, if order reigns,
a signal-fire is lighted after sunset every day. Another hill.top
further north repeats it if all is quiet there too, and so from
mountain to mountain the bonfires travel round the Hermit
Land-along the shore of the Yellow Sea, across the frontier
of Manchuria, by Russian Tartary, down the Sea of Japan,
coasting the Korean Strait, up the Yellow Sea again, and
inland to the capital , till at last the sudden blaze upon Nam --san,
almost in the royal gardens, tells his anxious Majesty that one
more day throughout his kingdom has passed in peace. The
telegraph , however, is fast putting an end to this picturesque
custom .
Seoul is twenty- six miles by road from the port of Chemulpo,
but fifty -five by the winding river Han . The latter could
undoubtedly be rendered serviceable for regular water-traffic
to and from the capital, which it approaches within about
three miles, at a place called Mapu, but at present it is
navigated only by native junks, to whose owners time is of
no importance, and an occasional steam-launch which is often
aground during half the time of its trips. Chemulpo — known
to the Japanese as Jinsan , and to us officially as Jenchuan — is &
flourishing place, with a good many excellent modern buildings
SEOUL AND ITS INHABITANTS . 343
and an energetic commercial population, among whom the
Japanese are pre-eminent both in numbers and in enterprise.
In 1882, when the port was opened to foreign trade, Chemulpo
was a handful of mud huts. Now its four settlements — foreign ,
Chinese, Japanese , and Korean—are well built, well lighted, and
have good roads. And they are so crowded that land is rising to a
high price. Its population, formerly a few fishermen, has risen
to about 7,000, of whom Europeans and Americans number
about 30, Japanese 2,500, Chinese 670, and Koreans 4,000 .
The general foreign settlement is under the control of a
Municipal Council, composed of the Consuls, a Korean official,
and three representatives of the landholders. The outer har
bour affords abundant and safe anchorage, but the inner
harbour is small and silting up, and as the tides rise and fall
about thirty feet there is a vast mud flat at low water. Chemulpo
is connected with the capital by telegraph , and there is a daily
courier service, under the control of the Customs Service. The
latter is a branch of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs,
and is conducted in an ideal manner. In 1893 a Chinese
" Mutual Transport Company ” was formed , for the improve
ment and communication with the capital and the development
of trade on the Han . The trade of Chemulpo for 1893 was not
up to the average, owing to droughts and political disturbances,
but its figures, considering what Chemulpo was fourteen years
ago, are a striking proof of the possibilities of Korea with
energetic merchants and honest administration. The exports
are gold, rice, beans, and hides. The first-named was exported
to the amount of 201,846 dollars. The total exports reached
866,495 dollars, as against an average of nearly a million and
a half for the three preceding years ; and the total imports
2,421,133 dollars. The balance against Korea is supposed to be
made up by the export of smuggled gold. The shipping entered
and cleared at the port during 1893 was 490,981 tons, of which
159,626 tons was Japanese, 50,434 Korean, and 28,809 Chinese.
The British flag did not put in an appearance, but it is estimated
344 KOREA .
by the Customs that 54 per cent. of the foreign import trade is
British in origin , 24 per cent. Japanese, 13 per cent. Chinese,
and 9 per cent. German, American, French , and Russian put
together. As I have said, the development of Chemulpo is an
interesting and important index to the potential development of
Korea generally under a reformed administration.
Seoul has two wide streets, and two only. For a quarter of a
mile in front of the palace and then at a right angle for a mile
or so, there is a fine well- kept road fifty yards wide, while
everywhere else in the city the average width is probably about
twelve feet. Almost all are traversed by an unsavoury gutter,
sometimes down the middle, sometimes at the sides, while
every now and then you cross a kind of canal-sewer, a lingering
shallow stream of water, refuse , and filth .. Needless to add ,,
therefore, that the atmosphere of Seoul is very offensive to the
nostrils . The houses are built of wood and paper, and all
thatched, for it is forbidden for anybody except an official to
cover himself with a tiled roof. The shops are segregated in
streets according to their wares. Thus, the grain- market is in
the wide street, and for half a mile this is covered with broad
shallow baskets full of rice, millet, beans, and many other seeds,
among which the merchants and their customers walk and talk.
The cabinet -makers occupy a whole street, the secondhand
dealers another, the dealers in piece-goods have a row of ware
houses, the gold- and silver-smiths live along the canal, and so
on . But there is nothing whatever for a stranger to buy. I
went to a score of cabinet -makers ' shops to purchase one of the
curious little cabinets, but the most expensive one I could find
cost only two dollars, and that was not worth carrying home.
Nothing of gold or silver is made except to order ; the embroidery
is shoddy ; the paintings are ghastly ; the carving is beneath
contempt. The glory has departed.
A street full of Koreans suggests the orthodox notion of the
resurrection. Everybody is in white robes, and even though a
man has only one suit in the world , it is clean . When he goes
17
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SEOUL
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ܬܐ ܠܝ
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SEOUL AND ITS INHABITANTS . 345
home at night, if he belongs to this poor class, he retires to bed
and his wife washes and pommels his clothes. I say “ pom
mels," for ironing is an unknown art in Korea. After being
washed the calico is stretched on a wooden block, and then with
a flat block of wood in each hand the woman pounds it for
hours . After sunset all Seoul rings with the dactylic tap -tap
tap , tap -tap -tap of these domestic voices of the night, as with
the incessant cry of aa million strident insects . The dress of the
women is extraordinary, and certainly, to adapt Dr. Johnson ,
they must have been at infinite pains to invent it, for by nature
no one could be such a fool. The upper garment consists of
sleeves and an apology for the body of a jacket about six inches
deep and reaching therefore about three inches below the arm -
pits. The skirt is a great baggy petticoat attached to a broad
waistband which begins about six inches below where the
jacket ends. Between the two there is nothing—nothing, that
is to say, except six inches of dirty brown skin, just those parts
of the body being exposed which all other women in the world
prefer to conceal . The effect is disgusting. Moreover, as if to
emphasise this ludicrous exhibition, these very women are most
particular to hide their faces from any man . The theory is
that a male Korean always looks the other way, but the moment
a foreigner comes in sight they hastily draw over their faces
the folds of the light cloak worn hanging from the head. It is
a pity they have not fairy godmothers to supply them all with
invisible caps . Seoul would be the more attractive . The
Korean men , on the other hand, are fine fellows, tall , well-built ,
graceful, dignified, generally possessing regular features. They
all have , too, a well- fed look, although the standard of physical
living is about as low as is possible. Poverty reigns in Seoul
extreme, universal, and hopeless. And the explanation is to be
found in one elegant word - nyangpan, of whom more hereafter.
The nyangpan is the official, from the Prime Minister to the
lowest hanger -on of the palace. All Korean society consists of
two classes, those who are nyangpans and those who are not.
316 KOREA .
All work is done by the latter, and the problem of the former
is how to get most of the product of it with least trouble. By
taxes, by enforced bribes, threats, by " squeezes," in short by every
known or discoverable form of extortion, the nyangpan makes
the other support him . Consequently the other takes good care
not to earn a cash more than will keep the life in his own body
and enable him just to hold the nyangpan at arm's length .
Hence, by an obvious chain of causation, the utter rottenness
and inertness and stagnation of Korean society. Any proposed
change for the better has against it the whole nyangpan tribe,
that is, everybody in Korea above the hewers of wood and
drawers of water. And the people themselves have fallen below
the stage at which they could initiate the sole step that would
save them- " swift revolution , changing depth with height.” Is
there, then , any hope for Korea ? Only from outside - that is,
under present circumstances, from Japan.
In considering the present and the prospects of Korea, one is
confronted with the striking discrepancy between the excellent
possibilities of the people themselves, and the almost un
imaginable sloth and degradation in which they are content to
exist. All observers lay emphasis upon the natural capacities
of the inhabitants. “ The Koreans are undoubtedly a fine race.
The men are stalwart and straight, proud and independent ;
they possess intelligent and expressive faces, small feet and
hands, and are even-tempered, except when excited by drink
not an uncommon condition ." * Yet under the native régime
their character is as degenerate as that of a Bushman . They
are totally devoid of ambition or even the elements of personal
or commercial success . “ The average Korean takes life as
easily as he possibly can. Does he till the soil, a mere tick
ling of the surface at seed- time, an occasional weeding at
remote intervals, and a happy- go-lucky mode of garnering,
constitute all the assistance he feels called upon to render a
bountiful nature ; he lets an ample water supply run to waste,
* Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, Mr. Hunt's Report for Fusan , 1891.
SEOUL AND ITS INHABITANTS.. 347
regardless of periodical droughts ; and he recks but little of
ditching or drainage, but allows the heavy summer rains to
gather foot-high on the standing crops. Is he a trader, he
places lis business in the hands of a professional middleman,
who, in turn, passes it on to his satellites ; days, or weeks,
perhaps, are wasted, with sublime unconcern , in bickering for
a trumpery object or a trivial advantage , while his profits
are absorbed in the social entertainment he receives and in
exorbitant brokerage . Is he a fisherman , he is generally
heedless of the magnificent hauls that could be made by
venturing upon the sea , and remains content with such fish
as will run into crudely and easily constructed traps set out
along the shore, which only require attention for an hour or
so each day. Does he labour for daily wage , and extra pay
is given in busy times, a sense of burdensome wealth will
speedily overcome him, and make him decline remunerative
work, except at his own fanciful terms, until the bonanza '
of extra earnings is exhausted and the pinch of necessity drives
him ; then, however, it must be admitted, he falls to again
9 *
cheerfully enough ." *
In further elucidation of this point I may add an explanation
of the foregoing from the same dispassionate source, which will
carry more weight than could attach to my own much briefer
and more restricted observation of the same facts. “ The
buildings and walls of the different cities in the province present
a poverty -stricken aspect, and the Yamêns in all the towns are
in a state of extreme dilapidation. The poverty does not reach
the stage of actual distress, but has rather the appearance of
à curtailment or suppression of every want beyond the bare
necessity of keeping body and soul together. The rapacity and
cruelty of the officials are not conducive to the accumulation of
wealth. All stimulus or inducement to increase his possessions
and give himself comforts is denied the middle- class Korean ; for
he is not allowed to enjoy the results of his labour and industry,
* Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, Mr. Oiesen's Report for Yuensan, 1891.
348 KOREA.
never feeling sure that the little property he may have (or even
his life) is safe from official despotism, and consequently the
people have become dispirited and indifferent. Safety and
security are found in obscurity only ."" * Hence the saying,
“Given a good meal and a hot floor, and a Korean holds
Paradise cheap.” This is Korea after centuries of vassalage
to China . As for the cruelty and barbarism with which the
law - or the absence of it - is enforced , the vassal has even
surpassed the sovereign . Secret official assassination is the
accepted way of settling a political difficulty or removing a
troublesome Minister . When the body of the murdered Kim
Ok-kyun (whose story will be found in the following chapter)
was brought back to Seoul , this was the treatment meted out
to it : " The corpse was laid flat on the ground face down .
wards , the head and the four limbs being supported on blocks
of wood to facilitate the process of cutting them off. The head
was first severed from the trunk by the tedious process of saw
ing. The right hand was then cut off at the wrist, while the
left arm was severed midway between the wrist and the elbow .
The feet were chopped off at the ankles . Last of all, the back
of the trunk was hacked at regular intervals with three lateral
cuts, seven inches long and one inch deep . The head was
suspended from a tripod made of old bamboo sticks tied
together with rough straw ropes , and the hands and feet,
joined in a bundle , were hung by the side of the head , the
trunk with the three lateral cuts being left on the ground just
as it had been placed for mutilation . The process was carried
out in a barley - field by the riverside at Yokkaichi . Originally
it was understood that the mutilated corpse would be exposed
for a space of about a fortnight, but the disgusting business
came to an end sooner . The trunk was then thrown into
the river , while the head was salted and sent to Chiku -san in
Keiki-do, to be subsequently exposed throughout the length and
breadth of the peninsula , and finally brought back to Chiku -san
* Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, Mr. Hunt's Report for Fusan, 1891.
SEOUL AND ITS INHABITANTS . 349
and there cast away to become the prey of vultures. As to the
hands and feet, it is stated that one band and foot of either side
were salted and sent to Kankyo and Keisho-do.” Kim's widow
and daughter, who had been living in poverty as washerwomen ,
were brought to Seoul at the same time, and with his father,
an old blind man, were beheaded . The following royal decree
placarded on the walls of Seoul also throws light on the
condition of the country and the character of the throne :
" Considering that the choice of candidates for the harem of
the Korean Prince Royal will take place on 19th inst. , the
Government interdicts throughout the kingdom up to that date
marriages between Koreans."
As a further concrete illustration of the social condition of
Korea, take an event which occurred a week before my visit.
There is a guild or secret society of the colporteurs of Korea,
having wealthy merchants in the capital for its apex, and the
army of itinerant peddlers traversing the country in all
directions for its base. It was discovered or suspected at the
palace that a conspiracy threatening the throne was hatching
among the members of this guild. Therefore one afternoon six
of the most prominent members, rich merchants, were seized,
thrown into prison — the barracks either contain or constitute
the prison—and the same evening, when the general in com
mand found leisure or energy to attend to the matter, the
unlucky six were quietly strangled. There is " no infernal
nonsense ” about trial or conviction or sentence in the “ Land
of the Morning Calm .” So much for law. Politics is on the
same level. I had three letters of introduction to Korean states
men . One was dead, the second was in banishment at Hong
kong, the third sent me his card with a polite message that
he had just been appointed Prime Minister, and therefore could
no longer talk about politics ! And another little illuminating
fact is that when a Korean statesman is banished or executed
for political trespasses, his wife and daughters and all his
womankind are taken and attached as a sort of permanent
350 KOREA .
staff of prostitutes to one of the departments of State for the
use of the Minister and his assistants .
The country has been believed by every traveller to possess
great mineral resources, besides its undoubted gold -mines,
but every attempt to develop these has come to utter failure,
through native corruption and indifference. Mint, post-office,
match -factory, sericulture, mining — all of these have been
introduced with a flourish of trumpets, to collapse miserably
within a short time. If it had not been for the Japanese,
Korea would still be the Hermit Kingdom, without a trace of
trade or the possibility of improvement. One thing only has
saved it from being annexed by anybody who chose - the fact
that it stands at the focus of the geography of the Far Eastern
question , too important to Great Britain, Russia, Japan , and
China for one of these to encroach upon it without arousing
the opposition of the other three. Most Korean affairs
are conducted with a pomposity and a grandiloquence only
equalled by their insignificance. Since the country was opened
to foreign intercourse, for example, a Foreign Office, among
other administrative institutions, has been created. It consists
of a President, two Vice-Presidents, a Councillor, and twenty
two clerks. For futility it can only be compared with the
scenes and personages of a Gilbert and Sullivan opera, yet
it enforces respect by the appalling name of T'ong-ni-kio- syep
tong - sang-sa -mu- a -mun . The Korean navy consists of half a
dozen " Admirals,” who know no more about a ship than a
Hindu knows about skates - indeed , how should they, since
there is no Korean ship for them to know ? And the Korean
army is almost equally non- existent. There are a few thousand
soldiers, under the professed supervision of two American
instructors, called respectively Vice-President and Councillor
of the Board of War, but no account need be taken of them.
Two regiments were drilled for my inspection , and a very
amusing sight it was -- a sort of cross between Swedish gym
nastics and the soldiers of Drury Lane pantomime. An eye
THE OLD PALACE AND NAM -SAN , SEOUL.
The Consul GOING TO AN AUDIENCE, SEOUL.
|
۔NاHرi.nc inas
SILDE (1 ,
انی
SEOUL AND ITS INHABITANTS . 351
witness has just written that a number of newly-raised " naval
soldiers were armed with muskets without locks ! As has
been seen, Korea has played no part whatever in the struggle
that is being waged on her own soil, with her own future for
the stake. Lower than this no people could sink .
Before I left Seoul I had the honour of an audience with his
Majesty the King, the British Consul -General presenting me.
We were received at the palace at three o'clock by half a dozen
Vice-presidents of the Foreign Office, in a small detached wooden
building where we sat for a quarter of an hour drinking cham
pagne over a green baize table, seated on ordinary foreign chairs,
and with gimcrack brass electric-light fittings over our heads.
Then an officer came for us , and in solemn single file we pro
ceeded through the grounds and yards to the central open
pavilion where alone the King holds audience, first the official
court interpreter, Mr. Kim , a Korean nobleman , as no one of
lower rank is admitted to the presence of the sovereign , then
the Consul, then myself, and more officials in broad-winged hats
and gorgeous purple robes bringing up the rear. As soon as we
came in sight of the King an official left his Majesty's side and
instructed us in a loud voice in the method of our approach
left turn , ten steps, right turn, ten steps, bow, up two steps,
bow , up two more steps , right turn, five steps, and bow—all of
which brought us face to face with the King across a small
square table. Mr. Kim assumed a crouching position from the
first moment, like a sportsman stalking a covey from behind a
hedge, and never quitted it till we were out of the royal sight
again. The first thing that caught my eye was a three-and
sixpenny English hearthrug of glaring red and green , which
formed the cover of his Majesty's reception table . The second
thing was that our noble interpreter was so overcome by finding
himself in the presence that his English took wings and he
could scarcely articulate. The King is a little man , dressed in
handsome dark red silk, richly embroidered with gold, and wear
ing a pot-hat of similar material. His hands he kept hidden in his
352 KOREA,
voluminous sleeves. His face is pale but very pleasing, brim
ming over with good nature, and each of his questions he
chattered out with a rippling nervous laugh like a girl's. And
every time he laughed we could see a large yellow bead of some
thing he was chewing . On each side of him stood a big solemn
faced minister suggesting from time to time a word or a proper
inquiry. Poor Mr. Kim, however, was a broken reed . The
King asked something with a merry laugh. After a short pause
a faint and shuddering gurgle emerged from beneath Mr. Kim's
low bent head. “ What does he say ? " asked the Consul of me
(I was standing between them) behind his hand. “ I give it up,"
I returned. “ I thank his Majesty," said the Consul , taking the
bull by the horns, “ for the honour of this audience .” The King
laughed again, as if it were an excellent joke, and asked some
thing else . This time I nudged Mr. Kim and listened intently.
Slowly in an awe- stricken tone the words came, “ His Majesty
hopes your King is quite well." The Consul looked at me
beseechingly, and IΙ whispered, “ Hopes your King's quite well,"
trying to keep a straight face. “ I thank his Majesty ," replied
the Consul boldly, thinking he was now on safe ground, and not
having caught my words : “ I am quite well.” This time when
his Majesty laughed, we both laughed with him. And so on,
over the usual routine questions for a quarter of an hour, when
the King graciously expressed his good wishes for my journey
and we retired, carrying away the impression of a capital little
fellow , rather in awe of his own big ministers. Afterwards, with
similar formalities, I was presented to the Crown Prince, &
flabby -faced youth of about nineteen, bloated with dissipation,
turning helplessly to two horrible eunuchs who stood beside
him for what he should say to us, bobbing up and down in his
pitiable physical nervousness - altogether a dreadful spectacle,
suggestive of the society of Gomorrah.
The foreign community at Seoul consists of about a score
people, excluding Japanese, of whom there is a long street of
merchants and artisans. A good many missionaries still stay
SEOUL AND ITS INHABITANTS . 353
in Seoul , although , I believe, they are still forbidden to preach ;
and one only, an excellent doctor, is permitted to practise, in
charge of a free hospital and any number of daily out-patients.
The little community manages with difficulty to amuse itself,
and from time to time a threatened attack forms a welcome
break in the monotony of its life. For example, a few weeks
before my visit, there was a passing scare. All the Chinese
servants left, simply saying that the foreigners were to be killed ,
and they dare not stay ; arms were brought out and cleaned and
loaded ; the Russian Legation was prepared for a siege, and
everybody was ready to rendezvous there at a signal of three
rifle- shots, and a rocket, if at night. Thirty American marines,
however , marched up one night ; a number of Russians followed,
and although upwards of twenty Koreans were butchered in the
streets by their compatriots, no foreigner was disturbed. But
the beacon did not blaze from Nam- san that night.
It would be easy to fill pages with descriptions of the queer
scenes and circumstances of Korean life. I will mention only a
few , as specimens. A remarkable figure frequently met in the
9
street is the mourner. He is dressed in rough material — almost
sackcloth ; on his head is a hat of colossal dimensions—perbaps
four feet in diameter, within which his head almost disappears ;
what is left of his face is hidden by a fan made of a piece of
sacking stretched between two sticks, over the top of which he
peeps to find his way. Another interesting fact is that the ox
slaughterer is the lowest man in the social scale-an obvious
relic of Buddhism — while next above him come the pork
butcher and the prostitute. * Korea, which is modelled in most
respects upon China, has a theoretical system of competitive
examination for office . In fact, however, the system is as
corrupt as everything else Korean. A picturesque and curious
ceremony is this. A successful candidate is introduced by his
friends to one of the examiners, who, amid much laughter,
buffets him about, tears his clothes, breaks his hat, daubs his
• Ross .
24
854 KOREA.
face with ink, and sprinkles powdered white soap over his
moist countenance . He is then led away home, washed and
dressed in holiday attire, and receives congratulations for the
rest of the day.
As I happen to be much interested in the art of dancing I
took occasion to see and photograph the votaries of Terpsichore
in every country of the Far East. And for charm of sentiment
I must give the palm to Korea, over China, Siam, Malaya, and
even over Japan. The danseuses of the last-named country are,
of course, far more attractive objects, but I was unable, perhaps
from ignorance of the entire significance of the elaborate Japanese
dances, to discover in the rhythmic movements of the geisha or
the elaborate evolutions of the No -dance, a simplicity of senti
4
ment and a suggestion of romance - the latter the rarest thing
in the Far East-equal to those of the Korean dancing -girl. I
engaged a troop of them to dance one afternoon in the grounds
of the British Consulate, which the Consul was good enough to
lend me for the occasion. They arrived in chairs, with a band,
and the considerable retinue which invariably appears in a
mysterious manner at every eastern function. Each dancer
produced her pipe and tobacco - pouch, and the performance was
preceded by a long and animated conversation. Then mats
were spread upon the grass, the band sat down in a long row ,
and under the trees, amidst the quaint many -eaved architecture,
to a discordant and yet curiously effective accompaniment, was
displayed before us the Korean version of the universal poem of
“ Love's Young Dream ." One of the danseuses assumed the
toga virilis and the pot-hat, the other remaining the embodiment
of womankind. The former was of course the suitor, the
pursuer, the love-beseecher ; the latter was the besought, the
elusive, the hesitating, the Ewigweibliche. A more prosaic
metaphor would be that of the candle and the moth. To a
hand -thundering of the drums the lover advanced, displaying
himself like a purple pigeon in the sun . The drums faded to a
mournful riping of the flutes, and the loved one retreated in
M
S
S
." ove's
DREAM
YOUNG
LGIRLS
DANCING
:“KOREAN
. photograph
I.)( nstantaneous
SANOTY ITANDINE
CNY ONATION
V
SEOUL AND ITS INHABITANTS . 355
shyness and refusal. With a less confident quick-step the
former advanced and renewed his persuasive suit. The latter
repelled him, but less cruelly. The music grow tenderer and
more insinuating, and the hopeful one returned to his charming.
The shyness grew less, the warmth grew greater, the lento
changed to adagio, and the adagio to presto, the confidence of
the one increased with the increasing hesitancy of the other,
the pursuer revolved in a large but decreasing circle, the pursued
fluttered in her little round, the space diminished, the thrill
became more intense, the doomed pair were within a few feet of
each other , till on a sudden space was annihilated for them and
time at an end, and to a final triumphant outburst of wood and
brass they were merged in each other's arms in an ecstasy of
passion, and the spectators relieved their pent-up feelings in an
explosive sigh. The victor was vanquished at the moment of
his conquest ; the captured triumphant in the moment of her
defeat an exquisite personification of the sex which
“ draws
Men upward as a moon of spring,
High wheeling , vast and bosom -full,
Half clad in clouds and white as wool,
Draws all the strong seas following."
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE QUESTION OF KOREA ,
THE Chino- Japanese war is the last link in a perfectly
THE
straight chain of circumstances. Korea remained sealed
against foreigners of all nations until 1876. In 1866 an Ameri
can trading schooner called the General Sherman had been
destroyed by the Koreans, and her crew and passengers
murdered . A man -of-war, the Wachusett, was sent to obtain
satisfaction, but failed to do so. In 1870 a small American
expedition again appeared, and while negociations were in pro
gress the Koreans fired upon a surveying party. Thereupon the
American commander landed his troops upon the island of Kiang
Hwa, destroyed five Korean forts, routed the army, killing three
hundred men, and then retired, with the result that Korea Fas
more firmly closed against foreigners than ever. The young King
came of age in 1873, and succeeded his cruel and conservative
father. In 1875 some sailors from a Japanese man -of- war were
fired upon while drawing water at Kiang Hwa. The Japanese
captain also destroyed a fort and killed a number of Koreans,
but his Government followed up the incident by sending a fleet
under General Kuroda to demand satisfaction , and offer the
Koreans the alternative of a treaty of commerce or a war. The
former was chosen , China, on being appealed to by the Koreans,
refusing-as she has done on several similar occasions --to have
anything to do with the action of her nominal vassal . A treaty
was therefore signed on February 26 , 1876, between Korea and
356
THE QUESTION OF KOREA. 357
Japan, and from this moment dates the opening of Korea to
foreign intercourse.. On this occasion, too, the suzerainty of
China was formally set aside, without any protests on her part
-indeed , with her express recognition , since she refused to
interfere. Article I. of this treaty reads as follows : “Chosen
being an independent State enjoys the same Sovereign rights as
Japan." Chemulpo, Fusan, and Wön-san were opened by this
treaty to Japanese trade.
The King himself was in favour of extending the same privi
leges to other nations at their request, but the conservative
party prevented him . In 1882 fresh overtures were made by
foreign nations, and the reactionaries took alarm . Led by a
“ scholar " named Pe Lo-kuan, an insurrection broke out in
Seoul, directed chiefly against the Japanese, as the promoters of
foreign intercourse. Several members of the Japanese Legation
were murdered in the streets , the Legation itself was attacked,
and Consul Hanabusa and his staff were at last compelled to
cut their way through the mob and make for the palace, where
they hoped to find refuge. Here,, however, the gates were shut
against them, so they fought their way out of the city with the
greatest pluck, and walked all night to Chemulpo, where, to
escape violence, they put to sea in a native boat. Fortunately the
British surveying vessel, the Flying Fish, saw them, and conveyed
them to Nagasaki. This happened in July, 1882. Of course the
Japanese Government took instant action, but with great mode
ration began by merely sending Mr. Hanabusa back to Seoul
with a strong escort to demand reparation. This was abjectly
offered , and a Chinese force which arrived with unusual prompti.
tude suppressed the rebellion, executed a number of the leaders,
and caused their mangled bodies to be publicly exposed. A sum of
500,000 dols. was accepted by the Japanese as indemnity, but was
subsequently forgiven to Korea in consequence of her inability
to pay it. Next year, other nations once more following in the
steps of Japan, treaties with Korea were concluded by the
United States, France, England , and Germany.
558 KOREA .
In 1885 the whole incident was repeated, with this difference,
that the instigators of the outbreak were a few students who had
imbibed progressive notions in Japan , and who imagined that if
they began by vigorous assassination foreign nations would
support them. During a dinner - party to celebrate the opening
of the new post-office, an attempt was made to murder Ming
Yong -ik, an influential nobleman , who, though he had visited the
United States, was most bitterly opposed to the party of progress,
and was known to have expostulated with the King for having
conferred office on the students who had been educated in Japan.
The revolutionary leaders proceeded to the palace, secured the
person and to some extent the sympathy of the King, and in his
name, and no doubt with his assent, despatched messengers, and
finally an autograph letter from himself, to Mr. Takezoye, the
Japanese Minister, begging him to come instantly and safe
guard the royal person. Mr. Takezoye, accompanied by the
Legation guard of 130 Japanese soldiers, complied, and guarded
the palace for two days. In the meantime, the revolutionists
executed five of the conservative Ministers. By this time the
Chinese troops in Seoul had decided to assert themselves : two
thousand proceeded to the palace, and without allowing any
opportunity for negociation or explanation, fired upon the
Japanese guard. Although outnumbered by almost ten to
one, the latter had no difficulty in holding their own, but at
length the King decided, to prevent further bloodshed, to place
himself in the hands of the Chinese, and therefore he proceeded
alone, with the consent of Mr. Takezoye, to the Chinese com
mander. Having no further reason for remaining, the Japanese
left the palace, fought their way to the Legation, but finding it
surrounded by an armed mob of Chinese and Koreans, and
without any provisions for a siege, they quitted it again, and it
was immediately burned behind them. Then for the second time
the Japanese representative and a small band of his countrymen
fought their way through the streets of Seoul, and walked
twenty-six miles to Chemulpo, where they chartered a steamer
THE QUESTION OF KOREA. 359
and returned to Japan. Again the Japanese Government de
manded satisfaction , but this time from China, on account of
the action of the Chinese soldiers. The negociations between
Count Ito and Li Hung-chang, at Tientsin , in 1885, followed,
and after long delays, and finally a distinct hint from the former
that if a result satisfactory to Japan was not arrived at, war would
be declared, the Convention of Tientsin was concluded at the
eleventh hour . China agreed to withdraw her troops from
Korea, to punish her officers who had commanded the troops in
Seoul on the occasion of the attack upon the Japanese there on
December 6th of the preceding year, and to investigate the out
rages committed by her troops on the following day. The
clauses of the Convention, which has unfortunately never been
published officially, were two. The first declared that the King
of Korea should be invited to form a force sufficient to preserve
order in future, to be trained by officers of some nation other
than China or Japan, and that certain internal reforms should
be instituted by him ; and the second, that either China or
Japan should have the right to dispatch troops to Korea , if
necessary to preserve order and protect their nationals, on giving
notice each to the other, and that when order was restored both
forces should be withdrawn simultaneously. Thus China at last
formally recognised the equality of Japan with herself so far as
Korea was concerned . This Convention shows one other im
portant thing — that Japan put forward only the most moderate
claims, that she sought no advantages for herself in Korea, but
accepted in full satisfaction of her demands conditions which
merely guaranteed the future peace and prosperity of Korea .
These facts should have been borne in mind when charges of
intemperance were made against Japan for declaring war.
For the third time history has sought to repeat itself. Another
rebellion broke out, which the King of Korea was wholly unable
to suppress. This time Japan did not wait for the burning of
her Legation and the expulsion of her representative by the
forces of Korean reaction. But let it be remembered that while
360 KOREA.
landing troops in perfect accordance with her treaty rights, she
again contented herself with proposing to China the joint occu
pation of the country until reforms should have been definitely
carried out to render future disturbances impossible. Not one
sign has she ever given of the slightest intention to secure
territorial advantages for herself in Korea . On the contrary
she has taken every occasion to declare specifically that she was
determined upon the independence of Korea. Upon China must
rest the responsibility of refusing these terms Her attitude
toward Korea has been marked by all her characteristic unscru
pulousness. When her suzerainty over Korea has brought
prestige, she has asserted it ; when it has involved responsi
bility, she has repudiated it. She has at last fallen between the
two stools. So far as my knowledge of the situation goes, I
am unable to see how Japan could have acted with greater
moderation, or could have been satisfied to propose any other
conditions .
In the anti- Japanese feeling prevalent in England at the
outbreak of the war , Japan was currently charged with having
deliberately provoked hostilities for the gratification of her own
ends. This charge is baseless in the form in which it was
commonly made. It is true enough that Japan had long con
templated the possibility and even probability of war with
China about Korea, and she had made the most careful prepa
rations for this. But to fear and foresee a series of events is
quite different from provoking them Otherwise half the nations
of Europe might be charged with provoking the hostility of
their neighbours at this moment. Japan, understanding China
so incomparably better than any European nation understands
that strange country, knew well enough that Korean troubles
would occur and recur until drastic measures were taken for
their permanent suppression, and that China would always
oppose these measures, even by force if diplomacy and pro
crastination should fail. At last the old trouble came, in &
rising of the Togaku -to, as it is called in Japanese, or the
THE QUESTION OF KOREA. 361
Tonghak rebellion—the two characters of this name signifying
“Eastern Learning." This was nothing more than one of the
periodical revolts against official exactions, but it grew rather
faster than usual, and the rotten Korean government was
beaten in several engagements. China thereupon despatched
a considerable force to crush the Tonghaks, and in the despatch
announcing the fact to Japan she employed an expression
which deliberately set the Li- Ito Convention at defiance. Japan
had already been intensely irritated by an incident which had
just occurred, and this significant neglect of a diplomatic re
quirement added fresh fuel to the flames of her anger.
Japanese public opinion at the time cannot be understood
without a knowledge of this incident. I will therefore narrate
it in the fewest possible words. The leader of the Korean
revolutionists who had attacked Ming Yong-ik, that arch
conservative and denouncer of the young Koreans who had been
educated in Japan, was a certain Kim Ok -kyun. When the
revolt was crushed and the hopes of the young Korean Japano
philes at an end, Kim Ok-kyun naturally sought refuge in
Japan. There he lived in security and obscurity for some
time, but the Korean Government had neither forgotten nor
forgiven him. Two or three Koreans were accordingly de
spatched secretly to Japan to assassinate him—in itself a
sufficient outrage to Japanese soil. They nearly succeeded,
but Kim's suspicions being aroused at the last moment he
failed to keep the appointment at which he was to have been
killed. By and by, however, one of the conspirators succeeded
in luring him to Shanghai upon some pretext or other, and
he was shot to death in a native hotel there on the very night
of his arrival. So far from arresting the murderer, the Chinese
authorities sent him in all comfort, with the corpse of his
victim , upon a Chinese gunboat to Korea, where he was
received with rejoicings, loaded with honours and given official
rank, while the body of Kim was publicly hacked in pieces,
his head salted and promenaded through the principal cities,
362 KOREA.
and his relatives murdered. Thus the man who had raised
the standard of revolt in Korea for Japanese ideas, and who
had been received by Japan as an exile to be protected (just
as we have received revolutionary exiles in England) , was
decoyed away to Chinese soil, murdered there with the almost
certain connivance of China, his murderer treated with every
consideration , and a Chinese Government vessel employed to
take both assassin and victim to the honour and the degradation
which respectively awaited them in Korea. This was enough
to have provoked an outburst of popular anger in a much
more sedate country than Japan , and it was while the
Japanese were thus deeply indignant at this combination of
Korean treachery and Chinese insult that Chinese troops were
sent to Korea, and the irritating despatch sent, as I have
described. The Japanese instantly despatched a still larger
force, and the diplomatic negociations began.
It will be remembered that China raised no protest when
Korea described herself as an independent State, and concluded
foreign treaties upon that basis, and that she had further
admitted Japan to equal rights with herself for the preservation
of order in Korea. Yet the despatch announcing to Japan
the departure of Chinese troops to Korea was couched in these
words :
“ The application upon examination is found to be argent both in words and in
fact, and that it is in harmony with our constant practice to protect our tributary
states by sending our troops to assist them. These circumstances were accordingly
submitted to His Imperial Majesty, and in obedience to his will, General Yeh,
Commander of troops in Chihli has been ordered to proceed at once to Zenra and
Chinsei in Korea with selected troops, and to speedily suppress the disturbance in
such manner as he may deem most convenient in order to restore the peace of our
tributary state and to dispel the anxiety of the subjects of every nation residing in
Korea for commercial purposes, and at the same time the General is commanded to
return with the troops as soon as the desired object is attained ."
By thus asserting at the outset the fact that China regarded
Korea as a tributary State, the Chinese Government deliberately
repudiated the past and challenged Japan to make good the
THE QUESTION OF KOREA . 363
position which she had always maintained, and which had been
formally recognised nine years before. A less conciliatory
despatch -especially considering that Japan was smarting under
the murder of Kim Ok -kyun-could not have been penned.
The reply of the Japanese Government could easily have been
foreseen . It was (June 7), “ In reply, I beg to declare that,
6
although the words ' tributary State ' appear in your Note, the
Imperial government has never recognised Korea as a tributary
"
State of China . ” At the same time the Japanese Minister in
Peking informed the Tsungli Yamên that, “ owing to the exist
ence of a disturbance of a grave nature in Korea necessitating
the presence of Japanese troops there, it is the intention of the
Imperial government to send a body of Japanese troops to that
country.” Two days later (June 9) the Tsungli Yamên , with
extraordinary promptitude, replied as follows, and the despatch
is worth giving at length , as it is so deliciously characteristic
of Chinese diplomatic methods :
“ The sole object of your country in sending troops is evidently to protect the
Legation , Consulates, and commercial people in Korea, and , consequently, it may
not be necessary on the part of your country to despatch a great number of troops ,
and, besides, as no application therefore has been made by Korea , it is requested
that no troops shall proceed to the interior of Korea so that they may not cause
alarm to her people. And , moreover, since it is feared that in the event the soldiers
of the two nations should meet on the way, cases of unexpected accident might
occur, owing to the difference of language and military etiquette, we beg to request
in addition that you will be good enough to telegraph the purport of this com
munication to the Government of Japan .”
In the despatch China totally and calmly ignored the fact that
by treaty Japan had identically the same rights as China to
send troops to Korea ! Of course the Japanese reply (June 12)
pointed this out :
“ The Imperial Japanese Government has never recognised Korea as a tributary
state of China . Japan despatched her troops in virtue of the Chemulpo Convention,
and in so doing she has followed the procedure laid down in the Treaty of Tientsin .
As to the number of troops, the Japanese Government is compelled to exercise its own
judgment. Although no restriction is placed upon the movement of the Japanese
troops, in Korea, they will not be sent where their presence is not deemed necessary .
364 KOREA .
The Japanese troops are under strict discipline, and the Japanese Government is
confident that they will not precipitate a collision with the Chinese forces. It is
hoped that China has adopted similar precautions."
This unanswerable despatch brought down the curtain upon
the first act. Both Chinese and Japanese troops were in Korea,
precisely as the Li-Ito Convention of 1885 had agreed that
under such circumstances they should be. The Chinese Ministers
had vainly endeavoured to wriggle out of their previous
promises, and being unable to do so, this aspect of the matter
disappeared .
The next step came from Japan, and took the form of the
following proposals for the future administration of Korea
(June 17)
“ As to the present events, Japan and China to unite their efforts for the speedy
suppression of the disturbance of her insurgent people . After the suppression of
the disturbance, Japan and China, with view to the improvement of the internal
administration of Korea , to respectively send a number of Commissioners charged
with the duty of investigating measures of improvement, in the first place on the
following general points :-(a ) Examination of the financial administration. (6)
Selection of the Central and Local Officials. (c ) Establishment of an army necessary
for national deſence in order to preserve the peace of the land.”
To this the Chinese Minister in Tokyo replied that the
disturbance was already put down , and that reforms must be
left to Korea herself. This suggestion was amusing enough,
but the argument by which it was supported was farcical.
H. E. Wang wrote : “ Even China herself would not interfere
with the internal administration of Korea, and Japan having
from the very first recognised the independence of Korea,
cannot have the right to interfere with the same.” This is
Chinese diplomacy at its happiest : first, Korea is not in.
dependent, but dependent upon China, and therefore Japan
has no right to interfere ; second, Korea is independent, even
of China, and therefore again Japan has no right to interfere !
Is it to be wondered at that Japan should brush aside diplomacy
conducted with such puerile craft ? The point to be borne in
mind, however, is that Japan requested China to unite with her
THE QUESTION OF KOREA. 365
in joint action for the reform and strengthening of an in
dependent Korea, and that China refused to do so. The
parallel of Great Britain , France and Egypt will occur to every
reader. Japan had determined that this should be the last
wrangle over Korea, and pursuing the parallel, she informed
China in the following admirable despatch (June 22) , that she
should undertake the task single-handed if China persisted in
her refusal :
“ The Imperial Government, much to its regret, finds it impossible to share the
hopeful views entertained by your Excellency's Government regarding the actual
situation in Korea at the present time. Sad experience teaches us that the
Peninsular Kingdom is the theatre of political intrigues and civil revolts and dis.
turbances of such frequent recurrence as to justify the conclusion that the Govern.
ment of that country is lacking in some of the elements which are essential to
responsible independence. The interests of Japan in Korea, arising from pro
pinquity as well as commerce , are too important and far -reaching to allow her to
view with indifference the deplorable condition of affairs in that kingdom . In the
estimation of the Imperial Government the withdrawal of forces should be con
sequent upon the establishment of some understanding that will serve to guarantee
the future peace, order, and good government of the country. That course of
action is, moreover , it seems to his Imperial Majesty's Government, not only in
perfect harmony with the spirit of the Tientsin Convention, but it accords with the
dictates of reasonable precaution. Should the Government of China continue to
hold views antagonistic to those which I have frankly and in good faith presented
to your Excellency, it cannot be expected that the Imperial Government will , under
the circumstances , feel at liberty to sanction the present retirement of their troops
from Korea ."
This was followed by a formal declaration to the Tsungli
Yamên that " in this juncture the Imperial Japanese Govern
ment find themselves relieved of all responsibility for any
eventuality that may, in future, arise out of the situation ."
China still did not realise the danger that lay before her, and
tried one more piece of bluff by demanding that the withdrawal
of the Japanese troops should precede any negociations. The
Japanese, not being fools, dismissed that suggestion for what
it was worth, and took an early occasion to inform China that
any further despatch of troops to Korea would be regarded by
Japan as a hostile act. Both countries had up to that point
availed themselves of their rights under the Tientsin Convention,
366 KOREA .
and it could not be pretended that the Chinese and Japanese
forces together were not abundantly capable of keeping order in
Korea . For Japan to have allowed China to send reinforce
ments at this moment would have been an act of suicide.
She knew Chinese methods far too well to permit anything of
the kind. China's reply was to send the Kowshing, full of
troops, relying upon the British flag to protect them on the sea.
The Chen Yuen met the Naniwa at sea, fired upon her and
steamed away (there seems no reason to doubt the statements
to this effect), and shortly afterwards the Naniwa met the
Koushing, and on the latter failing to surrender, sunk her. I
express no opinion upon the technical point of international
law involved, though to a non-expert it seems clear enough,
but it is probable that if the Japanese had committed an outrage
upon the British flag on this occasion, they would have been
brought to book for it before the lapse of five months. It
is therefore fair to presume that they were within their rights.
The Japanese declaration of war came on August 3, and that
of China, affording a painful comparison by its tone and
language, followed immediately. Subsequent events are too
well known to need recapitulation ; they may be summarised
for the present in the four names, Asan, Phyöng-yang, Yalu, and
Port Arthur .
In Korea itself, in the meantime, little has happened. The
anti-Japanese party has of course been thrust out of office, and
replaced by politicians having presumably Japanese sympathies.
The Government has vacillated, so far as was possible to it
under the circumstances, between China and Japan, promising
and intriguing first for one party and then for another. Naturally
the official class has made every effort in its power to save its
historic right to plunder the people. The Japanese have con
cluded a treaty with the King, to last till the conclusion of the
war, by which his independence is guaranteed . This has, of
course, no significance as indicating the sympathy of the King,
as he had no choice but to accept it ; but it is of importance as
THE QUESTION OF KOREA . 367
putting the Japanese attitude formally on record. A number
of reforms of a sweeping character have been imposed upon the
government, and the only criticism that can be passed upon
them is that they exhibit perhaps an undue confidence in the
possible political development of the Korean character. As
Japan, however, will be charged with carrying them out, she
may well be left with the responsibility of having proposed
them. As for the intrigues, the shilly-shallying, the professions
of grateful friendship followed by hostile treachery, and these
again succeeded by promises of faithfulness and pitiful revolts,
they are but the natural consequences of stirring up an admini
stration which has been well called a cesspool of corruption.
The main fact is that Korea has come under the influence of
Japan, and that under its influence she will remain .
Japan has one indisputable claim to her new sphere of
interest : she has won it by the sword . That is the kind of
right which the world most easily recognises. Moreover, she
may put in an additional moral claim on the ground that her
control will confer vast benefits upon the unfortunate Korean
people. But beside these she has other very cogent justifica
tions for her action. In the first place, it was she who opened
Korea to foreign intercourse. And second, the greater part of
Korea's modern trade has been created by Japan, and is in the
hands of her merchants. Except with China and Japan, Korea
has little trade worth mentioning, and the interest of the latter
is exactly twice that of the former. The net value of Korean
direct foreign trade for 1892 and 1893 together was 4,240,498
dollars with China, and 8,306,571 dollars with Japan. In tonnage
of shipping the proportion was vastly greater in favour of Japan .
Her tonnage in 1893 was over twenty times that of China, and >
the number of vessels entered and cleared was over twenty-five
times. The exact figures are : tonnage - China, 14,376 ; Japan,
304,224 : number of vessels -China, 37 ; Japan, 956. In fact,
the tonnage of Japan's shipping trade with Korea last year was
more than seven times that of all other nations put together,
368 KOREA .
including China. Many a western war has been fought to
preserve a smaller actual and prospective commercial pre
ponderance.
As regards the future, unless a great change has recently come
over the diplomacy of Japan , it is Russia that she fears . The
status of all the other European Powers in the Far East is ap
proximately fixed. Spain and Portugal count for nothing. Japan
could wipe out either of them. France will hardly claim to
extend north and east of Tongking. Germany is making great
progress with her trade , but she has no opportunity to seek terri
torial advantages. Great Britain bas reached her limit, with
the exception of the Malay Peninsula, which will certainly be hers
sooner or later ; of aa naval base north of Hongkong ; and of Siam,
in which developments are possible ; and Japan is not interested
in two of these directions . But for Russia the Far East lies in
the direct line of immediate expansion. The late Tsar made
the path of international politics an easy and a pleasant one to
tread, and his successor may be counted upon to preserve a
similar attitude . But Japan bas learned that nations have to
reckon with the inevitable Drang of other nations, and that they
cannot count for security upon the good-will of any individual.
Japan has suffered once in a little transaction with Russia, when
she exchanged Saghalin for the Kurile Islands. She has seen
illegitimate European -directed sealing expeditions which sailed
secretly from her shores fired upon murderously by armed parties
in Russian waters, and no redress or even information has been
obtainable . She has watched the Russian fleet come for its
manæuvres year after year to the Korean bay in which lies Port
Lazareff : : only the other day a Russian cruiser, the Vitiaz, was
lost there . She knows that the Russian Minister at Seoul has
tried- as one of his own colleagues expressed it to me - to jouer
un grand rôle dans un petit trou . She has applied to the Russian
Minister and the Chinese Resident there the proverb that “ two
foxes cannot live in the same sack .” She remembers when a
Russian man -of-war - I think it was the Vladimir Monomach
THE QUESTION OF KOREA. 369
beat to quarters in Yokohama harbour and trained its guns upon
an approaching British ship, and when she telegraphed down
the coast for a little gunboat of her own which carried a 35 -ton
gun, and anchored it alongside the Russian, before sending on
board to exact an apology for the breach of neutrality. The
time for Russian action in the Far East may not be ripe yet,
for it will be some time before the Trans- Siberian railway will
be of any service . But sooner or later Russia will need a winter
harbour in the Far East, and Japan knows that in Russian plans
Port Lazareff has long been fixed upon as one of the two
possible places. This would be a serious matter for Japan,
and in her present state of mind I feel sure she would rather
fight than yield it. Yet for my own part, as I have already
said, I am convinced that the Russian terminus of the Trans
Siberian Railway will be (unless much bigger events take place)
in Korean waters. The discussion of this eventuality, however,
is connected with the momentous suggestion to which I have
already alluded and which is treated in a later chapter, namely, 9
that of Asia for the Asiatics. Of this, Europe is destined some
day to hear not a little. But in connection with the immediate
future of Korea it is of more interest to see exactly what is the
present attitude of Russia as defined in the one international
document upon the subject which has been published. Port
Hamilton , it will be remembered, was occupied by British
vessels under Vice- Admiral Sir W. Dowell in April, 1885, under
instructions from Mr. Gladstone's Government. The naval
authorities reported that it was worse than useless ; protests
were received from China, Japan , and Korea, and it was under
stood that if the occupation were persisted in, both Russia and
Japan would seek some similar territorial strategic advantage.
Lord Iddesleigh (a change of Ministries having meanwhile
occurred) therefore confidentially advised the British Minister in
Peking that the British Government would be prepared to
evacuate Port Hamilton “ if any suitable arrangement could
be made which would ensure that neither it nor Port Lazareff
25
370 KOREA .
shall pass into hostile [that is , Russian)] hands." An assurance
to this effect was obtained by China from Russia, and com
municated in the following terms, which now become once more
of great importance :
“ Rumours have recently been disseminated from Corea that Russia was inter
fering with China's feudatory . The Chinese Government accordingly demanded
an explanation from Russia as to the existence or otherwise of this fact, and in due
course the Russian Foreign Office gave the Chinese Minister Liu the most frank
assurances that the Russian Government had absolutely no such intentions. M.
Ladygensky, the Russian Chargé d'Affaires at Peking, further went to Tient -sin at
the orders of the Russian Foreign Office, and bad several personal conversations
with the Grand Secretary Li, Minister Superintendent of Northern Trade, to whom
he repeated and enlarged upon the answer earlier given to the Minister Liu. He
also stated that the Russian Government gave a sincere promise that if the British
would evacuate Port Hamilton , the Russian Government would not occupy Corean
territory under any circumstances whatsoever.
“ The Grand Secretary Li, Minister Superintendent of Northern Trade, then told
M. Ladygensky that what was feared was that after the British vessels of war had
retired from these islands they would be again taken possession by some other
Power. Russia, therefore, must guarantee that she would not hereafter seize these
islands, and on the faith of this guarantee China could officially address the British
Government, and urge their speedy evacuation .
“ In the course of time M. Ladygensky, in obedience to instructions from the
Russian Government, gave a most explicit guarantee, distinctly declaring that in
the future Russia would not take Corean territory.
“ The Chinese Government is therefore naturally in a position, on the faith of
he guarantee of the Russian Government, to give a guarantee to the British
Government."
Port Hamilton was accordingly evacuated on February 27,
1887 .
It will be observed that the Russian assurance came wholly
through the Tsungli Yamên . We -the public, at least - have
no other source of information concerning this assurance. We
do not know what conditions may have been attached to it, or
what was the exact form taken by M. Ladygensky's " explicit
guarantee .” At the time this was given , China's pledge was
sufficient, because it was then believed that China would have
been a valuable ally in case war had resulted from the breaking of
the promise . But China is now known to be virtually worthless
* The Tsungli Yamên to Sir J. Walsham , Peking, October 31 , 1886. China,
No. 1 (1887 ) , p . 38 .
THE QUESTION OF KOREA. 371
as a fighting force, yet we have only her word that Russia pro
mised , years before the Trans- Siberian Railway was sanctioned,
that she “ would not occupy Korean territory under any circum
stances whatsoever.” And the word of China, on such a matter at
such aa moment, is not worth to-day the paper on which it was
written . Such, then , is the position of Russia in this question ;
China has been brushed aside ; Korea will doubtless be left
independent under a more or less defined Japanese protection ;
and Japan is left face to face with a problematical future.
(
JAPAN .
CHAPTER XXIV .
THE JAPAN OF TO -DAY.
JAAPAN
PA N has at length come into her inheritance.. Kossuth is
reported to have said that the two most wonderful men in
the world were Prince Bismarck and the Emperor of Japan.
From one of these the wonder has somewhat abated of late, but
the country of the other has finally imposed itself upon the some
what unwilling recognition of the West. The “ child of the world's
old age ”" has proved to be its most remarkable offspring. Until
to -day, however, the world has not taken Japan quite seriously,
in spite of the thousands of travellers who have visited her and
the hundreds of volumes that have been written about her.
But now that she has been seen sword in hand , sweeping
the Chinese hordes out of Korea and Manchuria, driving the
Chinese ships off the sea, and capturing their principal fortress
in the course of a morning, and at the same time concluding
a treaty with Great Britain on equal terms, Japan stands no
longer in need of the encomiums and the prophecies of her
friends. Her leap from feudalism to modernity is without
parallel, but everybody appreciates it now. In a quarter of
a century she has sprung from an Oriental despotism, hating
foreigners above all else, and differing only from other Oriental
despotisms by the fact that the ruling influence among her
people was one of the strictest, loftiest, and most punctilious
codes of honour that man has ever devised, to a nation whose
army and navy may meet those of contemporary Europe on
equal terms ; whose laws will bear comparison with any in
375
376 JAPAN .
existence ; whose manufactures are driving western producers
from the field ; whose art-work has created a new standard of
taste abroad ; whose education has produced a band of experts
second to none—it was a Japanese physician who first dis
covered the bacillus of the bubonic plague in Hongkong ; whose
colonising strength suggests more than one alteration of the
map of Asia ; whose official statistics, for truthfulness and
elaboration, leave those of many western countries far behind
her last Budget covers 1,438 printed pages ; whose people are
simply thirsting for fresh fields to conquer, and scorn the mere
idea of failure. All this, however, has become a commonplace
of information, and so far as I am concerned, I have written
about it in so much detail elsewhere, * that here I propose
only to touch upon two or three aspects of Japanese life which
characterise her more intimately to-day than ever before.
The first aspect under which the world must now regard
Japan with respectful interest is that of a first -class Power.
Four years ago I wrote that the Japanese army was virtually a
European force, and that it might be counted upon to make a
desperate fight against any enemy in the world. To-day there
is no longer any need to dwell upon the armed strength of Japan,
since war—the supreme test of paper and parade -ground dis
positions — has tried it. The Japanese army and navy bave proved
themselves more than equal to the physical estimate that their
admirers had formed of them . As rapidly as Germany when
Von Moltke telegraphed “ Krieg mobil,” the army was ready.
Force after force was despatched with a secrecy, a simplicity,
a celerity and a completeness that few European nations
could equal ; the reserves came to the colours with a
mechanical precision ; and this time literally not a gaiter
button, in Marshal Lebauf's famous phrase, was lacking
from their equipment. Every European expert has been enthu
siastic in his praise of the perfection of Japanese methods, the
* In my book entitled “ The Real Japan : Studies in Japanese Manners, Morals,
Administration and Politics,” London . T. Fisher Unwin , fourth edition, 1894.
THE JAPAN OF TO - DAY. 377
discipline of Japanese men, and the scientific tactics of Japanese
officers ; while the succession of brilliant victories tells its own
tale of the primal virtue of courage. Of this the vernacular
papers have been full of stories, one of which I will quote as
typical of the Japanese people. At the battle of Söng -hwan a
bugler named Genjiro stood beside Captain Matsuzaki, when a
bullet struck him in the chest. Though knowing he was
seriously wounded, he continued to blow until breath failed him
and he fell dead where he had stood. The so -called " Christian
Patriotic Relief Corps ” of his native village of Funaomura
collected a few presents to send to his family — who were people
in the humblest circumstances with a letter of consolation ;
the headman collected the people of the village, the gifts were
presented by the local member of Parliament, and in reply
Genjiro's father spoke as follows : — “ It is the lot of all men to
:
die. My son had to die some time. Instead of falling asleep
in a corner of this miserable hovel, unmourned save by a few
relatives, he has fallen on the field of honour and received the
praise of a multitude of his superiors . Hence his mother and
I cannot look upon this as a mournful occasion . We rejoice
that our son has been loyal to Japan, even to the point of
shedding his blood in defence of her honour."
The Japanese army consists to-day of the Imperial Guard, and
six Divisions with headquarters in the principal districts of the
country. These average about 10,000 men each, and to each is
allotted a First and Second Reserve. According to the latest
statistics, the total strength is as follows :
With the First Second
Colours. Reserve. Reserve .
Imperial Guard 6,530 8,610 5,507
First Division ( Tokyo) 10,068 15,549 19,870
Second Division ( Sendai ) 8,892 16,428 20,002
Third Division (Nagoya) ... 9,011 13,912 15,897
Fourth Division (Osaka ). 9,157 14,876 15,595
Fifth Division ( Hiroshima ) 8,882 13,462 17,077
Sixth Division (Kumamoto ) 9,885 14,870 16,039
Total 62,425 97,707 109,987—270,119
378 JAPAN.
The actual fighting force of Japan , therefore, without taking
into account the large numbers of less-trained levies she could
raise in dire extremity, amounts to at least 250,000 men . It is
sufficient to add that a force of this strength, armed , drilled,
equipped , and led as the Japanese army is, renders Japan the
leading Power of Asia so far as operations on land are concerned.
Japan might well have raised and perfected this force without
having developed the moral qualities which are as essential as
mere strength to the proper conception of a Great Power.
That she realises the imperative need of these-apart from
the tributes that have been paid to her troops for their
admirable behaviour, and the consideration with which they
have treated the people among whom they have been quartered,
-a single example may suffice to show. Soon after the de
claration of war the following proclamation was made to the
Japanese army by Count Oyama, the Minister for War, who
subsequently took command of the Second Army, and so success
fully attacked Port Arthur :
Belligerent operations being properly confined to the military and naval forces
actually engaged, and there being no reason whatever for enmity between indi
viduals because their countries are at war, the common principles of humanity
dictate that succour and rescue should be extended even to those of the enemy's
forces who are disabled either by wounds or disease. In obedience to these
principles, civilised nations in time of peace enter into conventions to mutually
assist disabled persons in time of war without distinction of friend or foe. This
humane union is called the Geneva Convention, or more commonly the Red Cross
Association. Japan became a party to it in June , 1886, and her soldiers hare
already been instructed that they are bound to treat with kindness and helpfulness
such of their enemies as may be disabled by wounds or disease. China not having
joined any such Convention , it is possible that her soldiers, ignorant of these
enlightened principles, may subject diseased or wounded Japanese to merciless
treatment. Against such contingencies the Japanese troops must be on their
guard . But at the same time they must never forget that however cruel and
vindictive the foe may show himself, he must nevertheless be treated in accordance
with the acknowledged rules of civilisation ; his disabled must be succoured and
his captured kindly and considerately protected .
It is not alone to those disabled by wounds or sickness that merciful and gentle
treatment should be extended . Similar treatment is also due to those who offer
no resistance to our arms. Even the body of a dead enemy should be treated with
respect. We cannot too much admire the course pursued by a certain Western
country which in handing over an enemy's general complied with all the rites and
THE JAPAN OF TO - DAY . 379
ceremonies suitable to the rank of the captive. Japanese soldiers should always
bear in mind the gracious benevolence of their august Sovereign and should not be
more anxious to display courage than charity. They have now an opportunity to
afford practical proof of the value they attach to these principles.
(Signed ) OYAMA IWAO , Count ,
Minister of State for War.
September 22nd, 27th year of Meiji.
It is perhaps not too much to say that in the history of warfare
no army has ever been sent to the front with a more admirable
exhortation . For the sake of contrast, it may be recalled that
at this time Chinese Viceroys were offering and paying rewards
for the heads and hands of Japanese soldiers , and that Chinese
officers, as an eyewitness has testified, were claiming and
receiving them . It was rumoured that one of the conditions of
peace to be insisted upon by Japan was that the Chinese
officials who had been guilty of this barbarity should be handed
over to them for execution . The rumour was denied , but, for
my own part, I am sorry it was not true, since one lesson
of this kind would have taught China more civilisation than she
has learned during the last thousand years .
The Japanese people have exhibited the greatest patriotism
and enthusiasm for this war, and if their own newspapers may
be trusted, chiefly because its result was to be the carrying of
Japanese enlightenment into the darkest country of Asia. An
enormous sum was subscribed in a few weeks and voluntarily
presented to the Government. When a loan of 50,000,000 dols.
was asked for, 77,000,000 were promptly offered . Not for one
moment has the slightest doubt of the result of the war been
felt. Certain foreigners, says the Japan Mail, were expressing
surprise at the quiet manner in which the announcement of the
victory of the Yalu was received in Tokyo. “ The reply was
6
eminently characteristic of the Japanese. But this is only
what we knew would happen ; it was a matter of course ; why
should there be any unusual display or demonstration if the
victory of our arms was positively assured from the outset ? ' ”
Yet the one point upon which the Japanese might well have felt
380 JAPAN .
considerable anxiety was the question of their equality with the
Chinese at sea, especially as the great fight, when it came, was
bound to be to a large extent one of cruisers against ironclads.
One other point only calls for comment in this connection .
European writers, knowing in most cases little of the extreme
strictness of Japanese military organisation, have frequently
said that both the Japanese and Chinese accounts of what had
happened must be received with equal scepticism until supported
by independent testimony. The correspondents at Shanghai
who have been responsible for an almost unbroken succession of
misstatements concerning the war - have constantly made this
assertion. It is so baseless as to be ridiculous. Not in one
single instance has the official report by the responsible Japa
nese commander been shown to deviate by a hair's breadth
from the exact truth so far as he could possibly know it
All Japanese statistics, as I have said, are compiled with
more than German detail and scrupulousness ; every Japanese
soldier wears a metal disc slung round his neck for purposes
of identification ; and the most precise detail of every action
either has been published or will be when the history of the war
comes to be written. A friend at the centre of affairs in Japan
wrote to me upon this point as follows : — “ It has always to be
remembered , in judging between Chinese and Japanese accounts,
that the former emanate from private and irresponsible sources,
the latter from official ones. The salient features of every fight
are reported by the Japanese Admiral or General in command,
and the report is published by the Government. Any wilful
perversions of facts would involve a court-martial for the officer,
and would bring the political house about the Government's ears.”
The second aspect under which the progress of Japan is of
great interest to western nations, is that of a rival in manu
factures . This is a far more serious question, especially to
Great Britain, than is yet generally understood. The truth is
that our manufacturers are actually being driven out of many
markets of the East by the Japanese, and that the most com
THE JAPAN OF TO - DAY . 351
petent observers prophesy the rapid development of this process.
The circumstances under which the war almost produced a
commercial crisis in Japan , bear striking testimony to the
growth of Japanese manufacturing interests. In 1893, there
were about a quarter of a million cotton spindles in Japan ; this
year there are over half a million. On July 6th , the Osaka
branch of the Bank of Japan had 6,000,000 dols. advanced for
the purchase of raw cotton ; when the war came, however, the
banks withdrew a good deal of their credit, and the cotton
spinning companies found themselves threatened with ruin at a
moment when their trade afforded the most legitimate justifica
tion for extension . Under these circumstances a panic was only
averted by the promise of the Government to give assistance.
In 1875 , there was no cotton-spinning in Japan, as in that year
the first European machines, of small capacity , were introduced .
The following table, compiled by a Japanese economist, shows
the rate of progress since then, with the inevitable corresponding
decline of imports from Great Britain and India :
National Production Foreign Imports
in Japanese lbs. in English lbs.
1888 ... 956,804 47,439,639
1889 20,952,687 42,810,912
1890 32,217,456 31,908,302
1891 45,306,444 17,337,600
1892 64,046,925 .. 24,308,491
And new companies are being formed in Japan even at this
moment, with a total capital of over 2,500,000 dols .
The skill and intelligence of the Japanese at all handicrafts is
a matter of common knowledge ; and considering at the same
time the low rate of its remuneration, Japanese labour is beyond
all comparison the cheapest in the world . In Miiki wages
averaged last year , according to the British Consul's report,
17:37 sen (about 5d. ) a day per man , and 7.85 sen per woman ;
at Kurume, 15.05 sen per man , and 9.95 sen per woman ; at
Kagoshima 15.35 sen per man , and 5:57 sen per woman . At
the last-mentioned place the day averaged 103 hours, while at
382 JAPAN .
Miiki and Kurume the spindles were working 23 hours and 24
hours a day throughout the year, excepting holidays. At
Osaka, the chief Japanese manufacturing centre, men earned
from 6d . to 2s. 4d. a day, and women from 1 d . to 5d.; girls,
eight or nine years old, worked 12 hours a day for 3d . Many of
the mills run for 24 hours a day, in two shifts of 12 hours each,
with a total allowance of forty minutes for meals. Moreover,
the Diet is about to press the Government to remove or greatly
modify the import and export duties upon cotton , which will
probably be done, and the manufacture thus receive a very
stimulating bonus. It is not only in cotton , however, that the
Japanese are competing favourably with western nations. A
“ Japan Watch Company," of Yokohama, is about to commence
the manufacture of watches on a large scale ; it has procared
the finest watch -making machinery from America, and bas
erected engines of one hundred horse power to run it. This is
an enterprise for which Japanese labour is peculiarly adapted,
and with the inexhaustible market of the East to supply, the
promoters are probably not too sanguine in anticipating a great
success . In match -making, again, the Japanese manufacturers
have driven all competitors out of the East. “ There is no
doubt,” says Mr. J. H. Gubbins, Secretary of the British
Legation in Tokyo, “ that so far as the Eastern market is con
cerned, no country can any longer compete with Japan in this
particular industry.” Five million gross went last year to
Hongkong alone. Already Japan is manufacturing the rolling
stock for the Korean railway to be built. In every Consular
and Customs Report the same story of Japanese competition is
told. Japanese cotton goods have got as far as the Straits, and
her clocks have already beaten even the countrymen of Sam
Slick in that market . Fifteen hundred dozen undershirts came
to Singapore in one recent consignment. From Macao Mr.
Brennan writes : - “ The articles from Japan at present con
sist of curios, cotton cloths, blankets, flannels, hosiery, soaps,
lamps, tea-kettles, matches, hats, umbrellas, Gladstone bags,
THE JAPAN OF TO - DAY . 383
silks, and such like. To give an idea of the cheapness, I may
say that umbrellas of European pattern cost 30 cents to 1 dol.
(11d . to 2s. 2d.), and cotton crapes 1 dol . to 1 dol . 20 cents a
piece of 20 yards, that is 28. 2d. to 2s. 7d. These are of fine
texture and nice appearance, so that they are much appreciated
by Chinese and Europeans, and worn as dresses and shirts.
Indeed, the competition of Japanese goods is sure to become
keener in course of time. " At Tamsui , Japanese towelling
has taken the place of former importations, and the import of
Japanese cottons in 1893 was 20 per cent. greater than in 1892.
The export of matting from Japan in 1893 was double that of
1892. At Niuchuang, Japanese flannel, blankets, brass buttons,
lamps, umbrellas, pictures and mirrors, are becoming important
items. At Ningpo, hundreds of band - gins of Japanese make
have been imported . The following report concerning the
Korean market is worth quoting at length :
" It may not be out of place to remark here that while the bulk of the Piece
Goods and Metals sold in Fusan are of European origin , principally British , the
fact should not be overlooked that Japan , by carefully studying arising needs, and
supplying articles suitable to the tastes and means of Koreans and her Fusan
colonists, is able to compete, more successfully each year, with almost all the goods
of European manufacture. In no place, perhaps, is this rapidly growing competi
tion more patent than in Fusan, where can be seen in the shops of the Settlement
imitations of nearly all the Western goods and wares named in our Returns, from
Piece Goods downwards. Besides these , there are Foreign - style suits, underclothing
and hose, felt and straw hats, household furniture and culinary utensils, carpets,
glassware, chinaware, lamps and fittings, soaps, scents, tinned provisions ( tish,
meat, and vegetables), wines and beer, farming implements, &c. , mostly made in
Osaka and selling at prices very much cheaper than those of Western manufacture.
Whether Europe's persistent adherence to the gold standard is solely responsible or
not for this state of affairs is a question well worthy of consideration ; but certainly
the rate of exchange seems to have a great deal to do with it . Another question
presents itself : Is it not highly probable that, at no distant date, Japan - with better
machinery, added to the advantages she already possesses in cheap labour, and the
( to her) favourable exchange now ruling -will run European manufactures entirely
off the Eastern markets ? " *
Finally , I may take from the last report of Mr. Troup, the
British Consul at Yokohama, the striking statement that, “ to
>
say the least, the trade in imports seems likely to suffer great
Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs. Mr. Hunt's Report for Fusan , 1893.
384 JAPAN .
restrictions, and, in the case of articles which come into competi
tion with home Japanese manufactures, probable extinction ."
Between 1873 and 1892, the imports of Japan only rose from
26,000,000 dols . to 74,000,000 dols. , while her exports increased
from 20,000,000 dols. to 91,000,000 dols . In view of all these
facts, and the improbability of any legislation in the direction of
bi-metallism coming to the rescue of the British manufacturer, we
cannot find much comfort in the fact that the percentage of the
total foreign trade of Japan for 1892 was 35 per cent. for the
British Empire , against 27 per cent. for the United States, 14
per cent. for France, 12 per cent. for China, and 4 per cent. for
Germany. It is only too clear that in the future Japan is certain
to be as keen a competitor in the peaceful arts of commerce as
she might possibly be a dangerous enemy in the “ trampled
lanes of war. "
The greatest ambition of Japan has been realised. She has
always wanted to whip China, but far more, of late years, has
she desired to be recognised by European Powers as on a level
with themselves. Till this happened , she has felt that all she
did was admired as one admires the precocity of a child ; that
her achievements were regarded as clever imitations ; that the
praise lavished upon her was a species of charity. And she was
quite right. It had never occurred to the statesmen of Europe
that Japan possessed, behind all her cleverness and her genius,
a spirit of true originality, a creative power, in the great things
of life - politics, administration , morals, science, and art ; nor
that the failure on their part to see this was the great thorn in
the side of Japan . It must be borne in mind, in order to esti
mate this feeling, that while on the one hand Japan had an army
which was not much inferior to any army in the world of its
size, a navy small but first-rate in quality , a growing system of
manufactures which threatened the predominance of western
competitors, a development of scientific knowledge that was the
surprise of all who understood it, and a po.itical system of which
the least that could be said was that it was based on the best
THE JAPAN OF TO - DAY. 385
models, she was at the same time unable to exercise the least
jurisdiction over the criminal foreigner in her midst, that her
Customs system was dictated to her by foreign treaties, and
that before she could make any change in these treaties she
must procure the consent, not only of the really great Powers,
but also of Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Denmark,
Holland, Sweden, Hawaii, and Peru. Many of Japan's friends
-quorum pars minima fui - had urged her to “ denounce ” the
treaties — to give formal notice that after aa certaiu date she would
no longer recognise their validity. This would have been strictly
within her rights, for the American diplomatist who had dictated
the words of the first modern treaty of a foreign Power with
Japan had expressed his regret that words he had inserted as
giving to Japan the concession of revising her own treaties, had
been distorted by other Powers into the claim of a right on their
part to interfere in this. And it would have been well within her
ability, too, for it was known that several of the great Treaty
Powers would not have dreamed of fighting for their treaties ,
and that in their absence the others would not have found it con
venient to do so. But Japan adhered to the slower though less
risky processes of negociation. The result was that the condi
tions of 1866 remained those of 1894. The Japan of feudalism
was to Europe the Japan of modern times , Some two thousand
five hundred strangers dwelt within her borders, and in order
that the personal and commercial privileges of these might be
safeguarded, Japan had no power over her own tariff and was
compelled to tax her agricultural class excessively to provide a
revenue ; she had no jurisdiction over a single foreigner ; she was
unable to tax the foreigners who prospered by her trade ; and
while she had spent five million dollars in lighting and buoying
her coasts she could not make foreign ships pay either light, ton
nage, or harbour dues. Yet by treaty she was entitled to shake
off these trammels. Is it surprising that when the Japanese
people gradually awoke to a realisation of this fact, and the
further one that foreigners were deliberately delaying any reform
26
386 JAPAN .
in her interests, an anti-foreign spirit grew up and manifested
itself in offensive ways ?
In 1882 Count Inouye proposed that Japan should be opened
to foreign trade, in return for the abolition of Consular jurisdic
tion, and that foreign judges should sit in a majority with
Japanese judges when foreigners were tried by her new codes.
This was rejected by the Powers, Great Britain leading the oppo
sition. In 1884 it was proposed to Japan that she should have
a limited jurisdiction over foreigners in return for the opening of
a few more “ accessible ports " to trade. Her reply was of course
that she desired to have complete jurisdiction and was prepared
to open her whole country. In 1886 a Conference of the sixteen
Treaty Powers was held with Japan, and after a year's discussion,
it was solemnly proposed to Japan that she should set up an array
of highly- paid foreign judges, with a staff of foreign interpreters
to render the evidence and their judgments from half a dozen
foreign languages into Japanese and back, and that for fifteen
years to come every change of every Japanese code should be
“ communicated ” to every one of the sixteen Powers - to Bel
gium, to Denmark , to Portugal , to Hawaii, to Peru ! -- for its
approval. So anxious was Count Inouye to get the great ques
tion settled that he even accepted these terms, but the moment
they were understood in Japan a storm of public indignation
sprang up and drove him from office. He was succeeded by
Count Okuma, who approached the sixteen Powers separately
and proposed that the revised Codes should be promulgated in
English for two years before the abolition of Consular jurisdic
tion, and that foreign judges should sit in a majority in all cases
affecting foreigners. In return he would throw open Japan to
foreign residence and trade . To these proposals the United
States, Germany, Russia and France agreed. Great Britain,
unfortunately, still hung back . Again Japanese public opinion
manifested the greatest hostility, and the natural demand was
made that the question should be left for the decision of the
Diet, which was just about to assemble for the first time. The
THE JAPAN OF TO - DAY . 387
Cabinet resigned in a body, and a fanatic lay in wait for Count
Okuma at the gate of the Foreign Office, threw a dynamite bomb
at him, shattering one of his legs, and then and there cut his
own throat and fell dead. It has been told me by a foreigner
who was engaged at the Foreign Office on that day that public
opinion was so charged with anger that everybody was expecting
something dreadful to happen, and when the explosion was
heard all present knew in a moment what it must be. Viscount
Aoki succeeded Count Okuma as Minister for Foreign Affairs,
and made new tentatives towards settling the Treaty Revision
Question , but in vain . An anti- foreign feeling had now taken
deep root, and the watch ward of all parties was, “ A treaty on
terms of absolute equality. ” And that is what has taken place .
Viscount Aoki has been more fortunate as Ambassador than as
Foreign Minister, and he has concluded with Great Britain a
treaty which gives to Japan everything that she desires.
Treaties with the United States, Germany, France, and Russia
will of course follow immediately. Japan acquires her com
plete judicial autonomy after a period of at least five years,
when the treaty takes effect, and it remains in force for a period
of twelve years. A revised tariff would go into operation a
month after the exchange of ratifications, except for the “ most
favoured nation " clause in the Japanese treaties with other
Powers ; she will not, therefore, be able to avail herself of this
until she has concluded similar treaties with them .
On the expiration of the treaty-that is to say, seventeen
years from the present time--Japan comes into possession of
her complete tariff autonomy also. During the next five years
Japan agrees to issue passports, available for twelve months, to
all accredited British subjects ; and by the treaty the whole of
Japan is thrown open to British trade, travel, and residence,
and British subjects are placed in every respect on a par with
Japanese, with certain exceptions. On the one hand, they are
exempted from compulsory military service, and from any
pecuniary burden in connection with it ; and on the other,
$88 JAPAN .
they are not allowed to own land or to engage in the coast
ing trade, except between certain specified ports. Every
thing except land they may own in the interior, but that
they can only acquire by lease, and according to the Japanese
laws and customs these leases will probably be for thirty and
fifty years . The prohibition of land-owning by foreigners
will be seen when looked at from the point of view of the
Japanese to be a reasonable measure of self-protection . If
wealthy foreigners were allowed to acquire by purchase vast
tracts of land in Japan it is easy to see how serious political
and other difficulties might arise. Japanese capitalists could
not enter into competition with the capitalists of Europe.
By this treaty for the first time Japanese subjects are
accorded in Great Britain the same rights and privileges as
British subjects; this has hitherto been a matter of courtesy, and
not of right. The Japanese Codes, as is well known, have been
drawn up by European experts and are equal, theoretically, to
any criminal and civil codes in the world ; and during the five
years which must elapse before foreigners come under their
operation the Japanese judges will bave a further considerable
experience in the administration of them . Considering, more
over, that it is the very legitimate ambition of the Japanese so
to act in all public matters as to be above the criticism of
western nations, there is no reason to fear that any miscarriage
of justice towards foreigners will ensue. Should the arrange
ment, however, prove unsatisfactory in any way, it must be
remembered that the British Government were repeatedly
offered by Japan terms of treaty revision which included
foreign judges upon the Japanese Bench when the interests of
foreigners were concerned , and that having refused these terms
they have now accepted the present much less advantageous
ones . So far as Great Britain is concerned it is the story of the
Sibylline books : we have paid more in the end for less than we
were offered at the beginning. But there can be no doubt what
ever of the absolute justice of this treaty, and it should be a
THE JAPAN OF TO - DAY . 389
matter of pride to us, no less than of satisfaction at the ex
pediency of the act, that we have been the first nation to recog
nise the just claims of Japan to be regarded as a civilised
country . Our hesitation to do so for many years produced
much hard feeling against us, but this is now replaced by a
feeling of grateful appreciation that we have at last led the way
where other nations must inevitably follow . Thus Japan enters
- first of all eastern countries-into the charmed circle of the
civilised Powers, and the dearest wish of her heart is at length
gratified.
The Japan of to-morrow has nothing to fear except from
herself. There are certain signs of threatening dangers, how
ever, which students of her history and critics of her institutions
cannot overlook. The first of these springs from her very success
in rivalling western nations in their manufacturing industries.
While we have succeeded , after many struggles, in mitigating
the horrors of the old factory system , and are still occupied in
devising fresh safeguards for the future, Japan is complacently
allowing identical evils to grow up in her midst. It is time
for her to realise that even though her army and navy
become the most powerful in the world, the title of “ civilised ”
cannot properly apply to her so long as young children work
twelve hours a day in her factories. The character of her
people, to which is due in the last analysis every success that
she has achieved , has sprung from the free development of
individual character, and it is seriously threatened by the rapid
growth of great manufacturing industries, which tend, when
unrestricted , to reduce the individual man to a mere cog in the
mechanism, and which eat up the lives of women and children.
Upon this point I may be permitted to repeat what I have said
before. When Japan rings with the rattle of machinery ; when
the railway has become a feature of her scenery ; when the boiler
chimney has defaced her choicest spots as the paper-makers have
already obliterated the delights of Oji ; when the traditions of
yashiki and shizoku alike are all finally engulfed in the barrack
390 JAPAN .
room ; when her art reckons its output by the thousand dozen ;
when the power in the land is shared between the professional
politician and the plutocrat ; when the peasant hasbeen exchanged
for the " factory hand,” the kimono for the slop-suit, the tea-house
for the music-hall , the geisha for the lion comique, and the daimio
for the beer-peer-Japan will have good cause to doubt whether
she has made a wise bargain . Her greatest triumph will come,
if ever, when she has shown that while adapting and even
improving the western methods of influence and power, she
is able to guard herself from falling into the slough of social
and economical difficulties in which European and American
societies are wallowing, and from which one may almost doubt
whether they will succeed in emerging without leaving civilisa
tion behind them for good .
The second danger lying ahead of Japan may spring from her
own excessive zeal . She has been so marvellously successful
that she may be apt to believe she cannot fail. “ Let him
>
that thinketh he standeth beware Jest he fall.” If the Japanese
politician becomes enamoured of Utopias and panaceas ; if he
believes that, in the future as in the past, his own country can
do in a decade what it has taken other nations a century to
accomplish ; if he does not realise that the difficulties ahead are
infinitely greater and more trying than those which have been
overcome, he may plunge Japan into a bottomless pit of
troubles. There are still in modern Japan all the elements
for civil explosion, and serious economic and political difficulties
would undoubtedly bring these into action.
Excess of zeal has already brought about a virtual deadlock in
the most vital institution of modern Japan—its Parliamentary
system. This has hardly been in existence four years, yet
during that time it has developed more than one sharp conflict
between the Emperor and the deputies ; the Diet has been
several times prorogued and twice dissolved ; it has expelled its
President ; it is split up into innumerable and almost incom
prehensible factions ; it has been the scene of many unseemly
THE JAPAN OF TO -DAY . 391
demonstrations ; and it has formally declared itself in direct
conflict with the provisions of the Constitution of 1889. A
majority of the Diet is bent upon securing the system of party
Cabinets, which rise and fall in accordance with party votes.
This the Constitution expressly avoide. The Japanese Cabinet
is the Government of the Emperor ; nominally he is its head,
but actually he is only its figure-head ; a majority, therefore,
in appealing to him over the heads of the Cabinet, is striking a
blow at the heart of the Constitution. The situation is a very
difficult and even dangerous one, for representative government
almost necessarily involves government by party, yet in the
present fluid state of Japanese political thought, under a party
system there would be no guarantee whatever of stability or
continuity. Nor does Japan as yet seem to have produced any
great party -leaders. Moreover, her politics shows an unfortunate
tendency to violence . There is a class of unemployed rowdies,
called soshi, descendants by practice of the old ronins and corre
sponding roughly to the “ heelers ” of Tammany, who hire
themselves out regularly, especially at election times, to the
highest bidder, for any disreputable purposes, from breaking
up meetings to bludgeoning candidates, or even assassinating
political opponents. When to all this is added the further fact
that the great clan jealousies of ante- Restoration times are still
smouldering, and that Satsuma and Choshiu live in harmony
chiefly because they divide political power between them , it will
be seen that in her new -found politics, too, Japan may find
many a danger to her national welfare. For myself I believe
that when these dangers loom a little nearer and in their true
proportions, the Japanese people will have wisdom and sobriety
enough to avoid them, but no foreign friend of Japan should
fail to sound a note of grave alarm .
Of all excessive zeal, however, the most dangerous will
be excess of military zeal. There has always been a war
party in Japan, and it has looked for years with eager
pess to a struggle with China. This has now taken place,
392 JAPAN ,
and its results are not likely to be pacific ; on the con
trary, the party of a so-called “ strong foreign policy ” will
be justified in the eyes of all men. And as there is no
longer any eastern Power to fight, the “ strong "” party of the
future can only turn its eyes towards some nation of the West.
Lest it be thought that I am exaggerating Japanese confidence
and ambition , I will quote the following extraordinary passage
from a recent speech of no less distinguished a person than
Count Okuma himself, ex-Minister for Foreign Affairs :
“ The European Powers are already showing symptoms of decay, and the next
century will see their constitutions shattered and their empires in ruins. Even if
this should not quite happen , their resources will have become exhausted in unsuc
cessful attempts at colonisation. Therefore who is fit to be their proper successors
if not ourselves ? What nation except Germany, France, Russia, Austria, and Italy
can put 200,000 men into the field inside of a month ? As to their finance, there
is no country where the disposal of surplus revenue gives rise to so much political
discussion. As to intellectual power, the Japanese mind is in every way equal to
the European mind. More than this, have not the Japanese opened a way to the
perfection of a discovery in which foreigners have not succeeded even after years of
labour ? Our people astonish even the French, who are the most skilful among
artisans, by the cleverness of their work. It is true the Japanese are small of
stature, but the superiority of the body depends more on its constitution than on
its size. If treaty revision were completed , and Japan completely victorious over
China , we should become one of the chief Powers of the world, and no Power conld
engage in any movement without first consulting us. Japan could then enter into
"
competition with Europe as the representative of the Oriental races.
One of the best friends Japan has ever had, the man who
knows her better than any other foreigner, has recently written
that Japan stands in great need of a peace party at this moment.
“ Experience has taught us to dread one thing in Japan above
all others - fashion. . . . It may seem premature to speak of
this, but in truth we dread lest war become the fashion in
Japan , so that success, instead of bringing contentment, may
merely fire ambition . A peace party is wanted ; that is to say,
a party prepared to hold the nation back when the time for
halting shall have fairly arrived . " * Captain Brinkley further
points out that the spectacle of the present war is not offered
* The Japan Weekly Mail, August 25 , 1894.
THE JAPAN OF TO - DAY . 393
gratis to western Powers, but that each pays for witnessing it
the price of interrupted or crippled trade, and that they “ will not
sit idle if they see Japan fighting merely for lust of fighting or
of conquest. ” Japan, if she is wise, will find in solving the great
problems of peace, chief among which will be the education
of the masses of her people up to the standard of profession and
practice reached by her ruling and educated classes, a sufficient
occupation for all her genius.
CHAPTER XXV .
ASIA FOR THE ASIATICS ;
WHEN peace is concluded between Japan and China,the
difficulties of the war—to speak in paradox - will begin.
Up to the present time it has been plain sailing for everybody
concerned in the struggle , directly and indirectly, except China,
and her humiliation is a matter which no one except a partisan
of savagery can regret for a moment. The time is rapidly
approaching, however, when Japan must show her hand, and
then she will find herself face to face, across the carcase of her
defeated foe, with all the combined rivalry and mutual jealousies
of the European Powers. That moment will be a momentous
one for all parties , especially for Japan and for ourselves. It is,
of course , a risky matter to prophesy concerning the next six
months , since it is an open secret that no Foreign Office in
Europe has any accurate knowledge of the conditions Japan
will demand . Moreover , there are some aspects of the situation
which cannot yet be even discreetly discussed . But so far as
may be possible , the situation is one which Englishmen , of all
people, should consider carefully beforehand , for upon its develop
ment bang very great issues for themselves .
There exists in Japan, in the minds of the intelligent among
her citizens no less than among her publicists, her soldiers, and
her diplomatists, a sentiment which is seldom mentioned there,
and which , so far as I know, has hardly been hinted at in
Europe . That sentiment is summed up in four words : Asia for
the Asiatics. Herein , I am convinced, lie the germs of the most
394
ASIA FOR THE ASIATICS ? 395
momentous events in the relationships of nations since Napoleon
Bonaparte was exiled to St. Helena. To appreciate this, let us
first glance at the situation as a reasonable forecast pictures it.
It is assumed that Japan crushes China and is requested to
table the terms on which she will make peace. These may be,
first, the complete autonomy of Korea under Japanese protec
tion, and with a Japanese force stationed at Wiju ; second, an
indemnity of £50,000,000 ; third, the occupation of Port
Arthur as a strategical guarantee, and possibly the control of
the Chinese Customs Office at Shanghai as a pecuniary guaran
tee, until the above sum is paid ; fourth , the formal recognition
of Japanese rights over the Liuchiu Islands, and the cession of
Formosa. These would constitute a splendid set of conditions
for the victor, and all things considered, they could hardly be
described as extravagant, since with regard to Formosa, the
most contentious point, China informed Japan in 1873 that she
could not be responsible for an attack upon Japanese subjects by
the Formosan people. But would even these conditions wholly
satisfy the people of Japan ? I do not hesitate to say they
would not.
Japan has already fixed her eyes upon the future, and what she
sees there alarms her, as well it may. Japan is aa little country,
with 40,000,000 of people . China is a huge country, with
350,000,000 . China could easily bring 500,000 men of splendid
physique to the colours ; she could engage European or American
officers and teachers to bring them gradually under military
discipline and instruction ; well paid and fairly treated the soldiers
would be as good a mass of Kanonenfutter as need be ; she could
arm them with repeating rifles and quick-firing field -pieces ;
she could buy herself a new fleet and place it under the absolute
control of foreign officers . It is inconceivable that even China,
if she ever escapes from the consequences of this war, should not
have learned her lesson at last. Then in ten or fifteen years'
time she would be a really great Power. During this period
Japan would have been compelled to increase her army and her
396 JAPAN .
navy, and to support a constantly growing burden of military
expenditure ; and at its close the whole struggle would be to
wage over again under conditions infinitely less favourable to
herself. The leading vernacular journals have already declared
frankly that this must not be permitted at any cost. Taking
once more the Japanese point of view , it cannot be asserted that
this is unreasonable. The question then recurs, what does Japan
want ?
This brings us back to the aforesaid undercurrent of national
sentiment in Japan which would express itself, if it spoke at all ,
in the declaration, “ Asia for the Asiatics . " In other words,
I am able to say from positive knowledge that the Government
of Japan has conceived a parallel to the Monroe Doctrine for
the Far East, with herself at its centre. The words of Presi.
dent Monroe, in his famous Message of 1823, in which this
doctrine was first promulgated, express exactly, with the change
of the one word I have italicised, the views of the chief Japanese
statesmen of to-day : “ With the existing colonies or depen
dencies of any European power we have not interfered, and shall
not interfere ; but with the governments which have declared
their independence and maintained it, and whose independence
we have, on great consideration and just principles, acknow
ledged , we could not view an interposition for oppressing them ,
or controlling in any other manner their destiny by any
European power , in any other light than as a manifestation of
an unfriendly disposition toward Japan.” After all , Japan
says — and the assertion is true-Asia is Asia, and between the
Asiatic and the European , however keen may be the commercial
instincts of the latter, or however progressive the temperament
of the former , there is an everlasting gulf. We have found out
-- or we shall do so—in India, that in Mr. Kipling's words,
East is East, and West is West.” We may like Japan and
admire her and trade with her -- and for my part I do not think
it possible to know Japan without both liking and admiring her
greatly ; and Japan may like us and appropriate our knowledge,
ASIA FOR THE ASIATICS ? 397
and trade with us. But Englishman, American, Frenchman, or
German is one kind of human being, and Japanese is another.
Between them stands, and will stand for ever, the sacred and
ineradicable distinction of race. China has, of course, been dimly
inspired by this knowledge when she has denounced.Japan as a
traitor to Asia, and the Chinese community in Hongkong betrays
the same feeling when it speaks of the “ treachery ” of the most
enlightened Chinaman there because he possesses a double
European education in law and medicine, wears European
clothes, and married a European wife. But the retort of Japan
is that the real traitor is China, because she has been content to
remain the victim of the Occident instead of rousing herself to push
back its advancing waves, if an opportunity should offer. And
Japan is prepared to bring China back to Asiatic allegiance. It
is not yet understood that if Japan's first object during the war
has been to vanquish China, her second has been to avoid any step
which might upset the Chinese dynasty. Had she wished to do
this , nothing could have been easier. She could with almost
a certainty of success have left Port Arthur and Wei -hai-wei
to stew in their own juice, and have marched an expedition
straight to Peking. But putting this supposition aside in defer
ence to the views of some military experts, she could have
despatched emissaries to China — and her soshi class would bave
provided numbers of them — to distribute throughout the
more disaffected provinces placards calling upon the Chinese
people to rise against their alien rulers, and assuring them
that the war was only against the throne and not against
the country ; then, by providing with money and arms tbe
rebels she would thus have created , she could,, almost with
out striking a blow, have brought down the political organisa
tion of China like a house of cards. In that event, however,
China would have been a mere inert mass of members ,
without a head. Japan has no doubt whatever of her ability
to re -organise China.. The Hochi Shimbun, one of the leading
Tokyo journals , recently said : — “ The Chinese are the worst
398 JAPAN .
governed people in the world, and consequently the easiest
to bring under a foreign yoke . Besides, they have no strong
national pride, like that entertained by the French, the German,
the English , or the Japanese . Talleyrand's saying that
6
' Italy is a mere geographical name ' may be applied to
China with much greater force. The Chinese, under the mild
and civilised rule of Japan , would soon learn that they fare
better thus than under their old masters. That would assuredly
be the case in respect of material prosperity, and an improve
ment in such an important matter would in itself satisfy them . "
And in a later issue the same journal, which is not in the
habit of treating serious matters thoughtlessly, has carried this
consideration to the point of advocating it as a measure of
practical politics. It declares that China is doomed to destruc
tion , if not by Japan , then by Europe. It is, therefore, a ques
tion demanding deep thought whether Japan should not take
possession of the big empire in the sequel of the present war.
Should China fall a prey to one or more European countries,
Japan's position would be greatly endangered. The Hochi
Shimbun therefore entertains little doubt that it lies in the path
of Japan's mission, as the peace-maintainer of the Orient, to
bring China under the flag of the Rising Sun at the earliest
possible opportunity. And the same confidence on behalf of
Japan has been strikingly expressed in England :
“ Consider what a Japan -governed China would be. Think what the Chinesa
are ; think of their powers of silent endurance under suffering and cruelty , think
of their frugality ; think of their patient perseverance , their slow, dogged persis
tence, their recklessness of life. Fancy this people ruled by a nation of born
organisers, who, half -allied to them , would understand their temperament and their
habits. The Oriental , with his power of retaining health under conditions under
which no European could live, with his savage daring when roused, with his inborn
cunning, lacks only the superior knowledge of civilisation to be the equal of the
European in warfare as well as in industry. In England we do not realise that in a
Japanese dynasty such a civilisation would exist : we have not yet learned to look
upon the Mikado as a civilised monarch , as we look upon the Czar. Yet such he is
undoubtedly. And under him the dreams of the supremacy of the Yellow Race in
Europe, Asia, and even Africa, to which Dr. Pearson and others have given expres.
sion, would be no longer mere nightmares. Instead of speculating as to whether
ASIA FOR THE ASIATICS ? 399
England or Germany or Russia is to be the next world's ruler, we might have to
learn that Japan was on its way to that position,” *
Upon this Japanese ambition, however, there can be but one
comment : Great Britain and Russia would never permit it. Yet
if the Chinese Humpty-Dumpty fell from his wall nobody but
Japan could put him together again .; no western nation could
attempt the task, even if her rivals would allow her to try. If
the Emperor Kwang -hsü were hurled from his throne either from
within or from without, foreign intervention would take place
on the instant, and that is what Japan desires to avoid above all
things. Hence her unwillingness to strike at Peking, hence
British anxiety, hence the well-meant attempt at mediation, and
hence, too, the powerful British fleet at the present moment in
Chinese waters.
Japanese statesmen are keenly alive to the foregoing con
siderations. What is the alternative in their eyes ? Obviously
and certainly an alliance with a European Power. But with
whom ? Japan has already chosen in her own mind. She fears
Russia ; she distrusts France ; Germany is not powerful enough
at sea to count in this connection, even if her interests were
large enough to justify a strong policy in the Far East . The
ideal in foreign politics of the most enlightened Japanese is
an alliance with Great Britain . In fact, without exaggera
tion and without the slightest discourtesy to Japan it may be
said that her alliance with us is on offer. The commercial interests
of the two countries are identical; we both desire the widest
markets for our manufactures ; cordial friendship reigns between
us because we have shown our trust in Japan by making a
treaty with her upon equal terms. And what Japan needs in
an alliance is power at sea. Upon land in Asia no Asiatic nation
can dream of opposing her ; nor for the matter of that could
any European nation fight her at the present time. But at
sea she is weak, and upon the command of the sea, as we are
• The St. James's Gazette, Oct. 6, 1894.
400 JAPAN.
slowly learning, national safety depends. Great Britain and
Japan allied in the Far East would be irresistible. The one
would command the sea, the other would dominate the land :
the British Fleet would keep communications open, and nothing
could resist the troops of the Emperor. With such a union the
Korean Channel would become a second Dardanelles, and the
Sea of Japan would become the Russian Black Sea of the East.
In return for our alliance Japan would willingly see Great
Britain occupy either Wei-hai-wei or Chusan as her northern
naval base, and Canton as her opportunity of commercial
expansion ; Japan taking Formosa and holding Port Arthur.
As an ally Japan would be faithful, brave, and powerful ; and
the Anglo- Japanese alliance would impose peace and offer
freedom of trade . It would not, like France,, devise every
pitiful fiscal expedient to exclude all manufactures except its
own protected ones, nor handicap sick and suffering foreigners
by a differential hospital tariff.
What are the alternatives to this union of interests ?
They are two. First, Japan will ally herself with France ;
or if not with France then with Russia, France regard
ing the operation with a friendly eye. A Franco - Japanese
alliance would doubtless be received in France with accla
mation , for it would be aimed directly at Great Britain,
and France would get as her share of the bargain the
occupation of the Chinese province of Yunnan , and thus the
dream of Garnier of opening the markets of Southern China
through Tongking would at length be realised. Against France
and Japan combined we should be helpless in the Far East,
except at the cost of a great war upon which no British states
man would embark . And it would not be long before a Franco
Japanese -Chinese Zollverein would close the markets of China
to our goods . That would be an end of our influence and our
trade in a part of the world where, given a modicum of wisdom
and courage, it is our destiny to play a predominant part in the
future.
ABIA FOR THE ASIATICS ? 401
In the second place, if the alliance were between Japan and
Russia, France would get almost as much for her share, while
the advantages to Russia would be colossal.. As I have
explained in another chapter, it is Russia that Japan has feared
in the past ; indeed, II may go further and at the risk of being
charged with indiscretion add that the plans of Japan for hos
tilities with Russia are as complete · as they were for her
occupation of Korea. For years it has been in the mind of
certain Japanese statesmen to propose to China at the fitting
opportunity an alliance whose ultimate object should be to
drive Russia back from the Far East. The Japanese Staff have
in their possession the most detailed plans for the taking of
Vladivostok and the cutting off of the wedge of Russian territory
which intervenes between Manchuria and the sea . This done,
the Japanese would propose to China that Kirin-ula should be
made into a great fortress, at the termination of a line of rail
way, as a base from which to hold Russia for ever in check.
This, however, would be a pis aller of Japanese politics, and
would be dictated alike by anger at England and by fear for the
future. Russia has long desired to absorb Manchuria, with its
vast potential riches, and to establish herself at Port Arthur.
This is well known to those whose business it is to know such
things, and it explains the willingness of Russia to promise to
take no step in Korea.. This is what Russia would gain by an
alliance with Japan ; France would get something to “ keep her
sweet,” as Orientals say ; crippled China would be a mere corpus
for Japanese trade ; Wei-hai-wei, the native city of Shanghai,
and Formosa would be Japanese ; and with Port Arthur
Russian, and Yunnan French, where would England be ?
These are not dreams. If they seem so, it is because there
has been no rearrangement of the map of Europe on a large
scale for so long that we have lost the habit of considering such
eventualities. The collapse of China, however, lays the Far
East as open to the gambits of international rivalry as a chess
27
402 JAPAN .
board when the four files face one another for the game. If
they are dreams to-day, any one of them - so far as Japan is
concerned-may be a reality to -morrow ; and since I regard the
situation as one of the utmost gravity for Great Britain, I may
perhaps venture to take one step more, and present as a basis
for the consideration of those who are better informed or upon
whose shoulders the responsibility will rest, my own view of
what the action of England should be.
The Anglo-Russian entente , by which Lord Rosebery has
achieved an undoubted triumph of diplomacy (supposing it to
last), is somewhat of a disappointment to Japan, but it leaves the
way open for a solution of the Far Eastern question in her inte
rests no less than in those of Russia and ourselves . In all the
country north of the southern frontier of China there are virtually
only three great interests : those of Great Britain , Russia, and
Japan. The object, therefore, of any arrangement should be
the combination of these three. In this there should be no
serious difficulty, since, in the first place, the interests of the
three are fortunately not conflicting ; and, second, since the
ends aimed at are to the injury of no other party, a moral
justification is not lacking, and therefore there need be no
hesitation in defying opposition. Let us consider first the
case of Japan. By the terms of an Anglo -Russian - Japanese
understanding she would receive in the first place the virtual
suzerainty of Korea ; second, whatever reasonable indemnity
she chooses to impose upon China ; third, the cession of
Formosa ; fourth , the Chinese navy, which she may capture.
Fifth , there need be no hesitation in allowing her to collect
the Customs at the port of Shanghai until the indemnity is paid.
And finally, she would have the inestimable advantage of being
free from fear of China in the future. Next consider the case
of Russia.. Her share would be the triangle of territory around
which her Siberian Railway is at present planned to run ; this
would then proceed in a straight line from Verkhne Udinsk
or Kiakhta to its terminus on the coast , across a district
ASIA FOR THE ASIATICS ? 403
probably more capable of development and possessing greater
natural wealth than any other part of the Far East. Second,
she would of course have to be provided with a winter port
at the terminus of her railway, and to this it would be
necessary for Japan to consent. No great concession , however,
would be here involved, since, as I have said elsewhere, it
is utterly out of the question to suppose that when her
railway is finished Russia will stop short at a port frozen for
five months in the year, whatever may be the cost of pro
curing a better. Third, Russia would be freed for ever from the
fear of China along the three thousand miles of her weak and
hardly defensible frontier. Finally, what would be the position
of Great Britain under this arrangement ? First, she would
secure her indispensable northern naval base at Chusan,
Wei-hai-wei, or elsewhere. Second, the vast markets of the
whole of China would be thrown open to the whole world, and
she would have her customary predominance in them. Third ,
she would be allowed to construct a railway from British
Kowloon to Hongkong, and the development of the province of
Kwangtung and the city of Canton would be placed under her
charge. Fourth, the Government of India would be given a
free hand in Thibet. Fifth , all anxieties—and they are many
and heavy - with regard to her future in the Far East would be
happily removed. To an arrangement of this kind the powerful
sympathy of the United States would hardly be wanting.
This is a moment for courageous and far-seeing statesman
ship , a moment to admit frankly the existence of our bitter
enemies, and a moment, therefore, to seek for ourselves inte
rested friends. France in the Far East will always be our
opponent. Whatever we propose at the present time—this is
neither a supposition nor a secret-Germany will oppose. It
is therefore the imperative duty of our statesmen to seek an
alliance elsewhere on fair terms. Moreover, this is our last
opportunity in that part of the world. If not we, then with
absolute certainty it will be others and our enemies who will
404 JAPAN .
profit. Once more, at the risk of wearying the reader, let me
beg him not to forget that we already have the right which
comes to us from possessing beyond all comparison the pre
dominance of trade and foreign population in the Far East,
and that whatever territory comes under our influence we throw
open freely to all the world. The ball of a great opportunity
is at our feet. Aegre offertur, facile amittitur. I am well aware
that at the present moment the ideal of our Foreign Office in
the Far East as elsewhere is the old -fashioned one that has
often served us so well before the maintenance of the status
quo . But a status quo maintained by England and Russia,
with a victorious and foiled Japan outside it, presents to my
mind the aspect of a slumbering volcano.
SIAM.
CHAPTER XXVI.
BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE .
THEN the present Tsar of Russia visited Siam in 1891 , he
was met outside the bar of the Bangkok River by a large
European-built Siamese man -of-war with heavy guns, and was
conveyed to the Royal Palace in a Siamese State Barge of
Oriental maguificence, a hundred feet long, with eighty gilded
paddles and gorgeous decorations. His amazement, for he
had expected to find a land of jungle and peasant, fitly re
presents not only the ignorance of the world about Siam and
her resources, but also the ease with which the realities of her
condition have always been concealed by the speciousness of
her outward display.
The ordinary traveller will also obtain at the very mouth of
the river his first insight (as he will imagine it to be) into the
reality of Siamese progress from her ancient characteristics of
a tropical jungle and a down-trodden people. For whether you
approach from Singapore or from Hongkong, your first vision
of this land of the paradoxical and the bizarre is a wide river
mouth edged apparently with endless swamp and fringed with
miles of waving and impenetrable attap palms, sending forth
swarms of vigorous mosquitoes to repel the intrusive foreigner.
But at the true entrance of the river you discover two large
forts, containing the latest developments of harbour defence
big guns, disappearing carriages, and masked batteries. And
this strange contrast, this shock of false relationships, this
mingling of west and east -the one real, interesting, and
407
1
408 SIAM ,
living, the other sham , pretentious, and dead—constantly faces
you in Siam .
The bar of the Bangkok River is an exceedingly difficult
obstacle ; the channel itself is so constantly shifting, the
workings of the tide in this narrowing end of the great funnel
of the Gulf of Siam are so perplexingly intricate, and the effects
of the variations of wind upon the tides are so great, that a
very intimate and constant familiarity with the river will alone
enable any vessel to enter. The sagacious Foreign Minister of
the Siamese Government, Prince Devawongse Varoprakar, once
replied to an Englishman who asked why the removal of the bar
was never included among his projects of reform , “ Perhaps for
the same reason that you do not welcome the proposal for a
Channel Tunnel . " The French gunboats, when forcing their
entrance to the Menam in July, 1893, were fully alive to
this difficulty, and though the Siamese Government had cut off
the supply of pilots from foreign men -of -war by proclamation,
they cleverly secured the services of the best of the Bangkok
pilots by making their entrance close upon the heels of a vessel
trading under the French flag. Even at high tide, it is only
possible for ships drawing twelve or thirteen feet to get over the
bar ; the cargoes of the large trading vessels being brought
outside to them in sailing lighters and Chinese junks.
As you pass into the actual river, there gradually comes into
view one of the most striking pictures of this eastern wonder
land—a little island lying midway in the broad expanse of
stream, bearing upon its scanty head a pinnacle of glistening
white, a lofty Buddhist pagoda with attendant cloisters, shrines,
and chapels, with roofs of many-tinted tiles. It is an idyllic
picture, a fitting adytum to the shrine of truest Buddhism
Siam , the land of monasteries, the loyal guardian of the Faith
at its purest, the scene of its return to the more rationalistic,
and, in fact, originally simple elements. On your right, upon
the low -lying eastern bank appears the village of Paknam , " the
mouth of the waters," whose portly governor, Phya Samudh,
BANGKOK
T
OF
VENICE
.":“ HE
East
THE
1
1
.
5
11
BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE. 409
was certainly one of the most remarkable of my many eastern
acquaintances ; the holder of one of the highest ranks of
Siamese nobility and officialdom ; a man of mixed but chiefly
Chinese origin ; at the age of ten boot-black to a British
mariner ; at fifty, confidant, factotum , and counsellor to the
Royal Prince Ministers of Siam ; owner of four wealthy rice
mills ; the official cicerone and entertainer of most foreign
visitors to Siam ; speaking with equal ease and native force,
English, Siamese, Malay, and various dialects of Chinese.
A single railway runs now from Paknam to the capital ,
sixteen miles by land. This line saves some three hours of
time , as against the tortuous windings of the Menam, and
affords a striking panorama of the wide plantations, the rich
gardens, the muddy paddy - fields, and the humble peasant-life
which make up the real Siam that the hasty traveller so seldom
sees behind the shifting scenes of politics and progress in the
capital. But the water-way is the true highway in this land
of canals ; and as the ship breasts the current of the river in
the early morning, you may look upon the awakening of Siamese
daily life in all its primitive simplicity. The yellow-robed priest,
just risen from his early orisons, passes in his slight canoe from
door to door upon the riverside, to gather the daily offerings of
rice and food in the iron alms-bowl of the Buddhist mendicant.
The chattering women, with their large wicker sun - bats, standing
to their oars in gondola fashion , with stalwart strokes urge along
their laden boats of fruit and betel to the floating markets. The
ubiquitous Chinaman paddles his tiny dug-out, filled with much
loved greasy pork. The children play in the water, or swim reck
lessly in the wash of the big “ fire-boat ”. ” The father munches
his early rice and fish on the floor of one of the quaint floating
houses, with pointed roofs of thatch, built upon shaky rafts of
bamboo, that line the banks of the river in endless rows, and
form perhaps the most distinctly characteristic feature of this
novel scene . And the heavy junk -rigged lighters sail down,
with their gesticulating Celestial crews, carrying the cargoes
410 SIAM .
of rice or teak to the traders in the Roads at Ko-si-chang, the
island anchorage and health resort some sixty miles away.
On dropping anchor in mid-stream at this strange town of
Bangkok, one realises at once that it is to trade, and trade
alone, that Siam has owed, and must ever owe, her chance of
figuring among the people of the East. To the silent palm
groves and virgin jungles of 1850, have succeeded to -day the
forest of masts, the towering chimneys, and the humming
godowns " of the pressing British trader. Rice -mills and
saw -mills, docks and ship -yards, stores and banks, houses and
schools, alike display the energy of the Anglo -Saxon, hand in
hand with the industry of the Mongol, forcing new life into
native indolence.
On arriving at the Merchants' Wharf or the Hotel Quay, or
when looking up one's acquaintances in the busy town, one's
first question is, Where is Siam ? where are the Siamese ?
Everywhere are Chinamen, or Malays, or Indians. Do the
Siamese have no part in all this scene of activity and com
merce ? A very small share. In one's wanderings one sees
at first but little of Siam and the Siamese. Indeed the " down
town " farang — the Siamese word for every foreigner — though
full of rumours, gossip, stories, and his own ideas about the
Siamese and their ways, the Palace and its intrigues, the princes
and their policy, knows practically nothing about the real Siam,
almost completely shut off, as he is, from observation of its
primary elements, and misled as to the intricacies of its internal
condition and prospects. That this is indeed the case is never
for a moment lost sight of by the wily Siamese themselves ;
and it is with many a smile that they watch the futile efforts
of the foreign element to follow the workings of the native mind.
But they receive blandly the advice and suggestions of foreign
Consuls, as the latter endeavour to apprehend the apparent
directions of eastern methods in general and of Siamese plans
in particular, from the impossible standpoint of western criti
cism and European aims. And when it is remembered that the
BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE. 411
Foreign Legations, the Ministers and Consuls of foreign nations,
are all situated in the midst of this atmosphere of ignorance
and misconception, commonly called “ down town ," and that
with the exception of the French Consular officials (who use
special means for getting information from behind the scenes)
they see nothing whatever of the inside life of Siam , nor ever
gain the confidence of her Princes, it will be easily understood
how difficult it has been for the Foreign Offices of Europe to be
alive to the realities of the situation from time to time, or to
foresee and to forestall the sudden developments, whether of
diplomacy or mere intrigue, that work such effective changes
under an Oriental government
In the solar system of Siam , the Palace is the sun . “ Up
town," when the Palace awakes, everything awakes ; when the
Palace sleeps, everything sleeps - officialdom , politics, work,
duties, pleasures. Whereas, whatever happens in the Palace,
wbatever intrigues take place, whether French threatenings
are being resisted in the Cabinet, British Consuls hoodwinked
in the Foreign Office, or German Concessionaries browbeaten
in the bureau ; though cruelties are being perpetrated in the
gaols, or exactions plotted in the Ministries ; though unspeak
able blunders are committed in the Departments, and the whole
administrative machine seems going to pieces, — “ down town
life and its commerce go on the same. The foreign element
is, in fact, completely outside the real life of Siam, and this
although it is solely due to foreign pressure that Siam has
become what she is, and that the Palace has any policy to
devise or resources to expropriate. To the Palace, therefore,
one must speedily find one's way, to see things as they are, or
in any sense to know Siam. I shifted my quarters to the city
proper within twenty -four hours of my arrival, and for nearly
three months I lived in the very centre of it, within a stone's
throw of the Palace wall. To the opportunity of doing this I
owe whatever intimate knowledge of Siam I possess.
As you drive through the one main street to the city wall you
412 SIAM.
see many of the worst aspects of Siamese town life — the pawn
shops and brothels, the spirit-dens and gambling-houses, the
reeking alleys and the heaps of refuse, the leprous beggars and
the lounging peons. The old wall of a hundred years ago
still surrounds the older city. You pass through it half
way between the foreign quarter and the Palace. Its lofty
gateways, however, are never shut or guarded, and indeed
the gates are almost too rusty to be closed . The Siamese
have little reverence for the antique, and invariably prefer
convenience to sentiment ; so openings are freely cut, battle
ments removed, and towers destroyed, whether for admitting
a road into some prince's property or for erecting electric
installations for the Palace. As soon as you have passed the
gateway and entered the city proper, you begin to realise the
effective presence of the Siamese Government and to feel the
pervading influence of royalty. The broad and well-kept road,
the rows of new-built houses and rapidly-spreading shops, with
the stuccoed walls of palaces and prisons, of barracks and
offices, display the Hausmann-like changes that King Chulalong
korn I. bas effected in the outward appearance of his capital,
during the twenty - five years that have elapsed since first be
wore the crown as a lad of fifteen .
Most of the princes, the two dozen brothers and half -brothers
of the King, who practically control all the executive and ad
ministrative departments of State, inhabit large houses, built
for them, usually at the King's expense, in foreign style. But
the Royal Palace itself has been cleverly contrived by an English
architect in collaboration with Siamese artificers to combine
Oriental picturesqueness and pinnacles with European comfort
and solidity. The lofty and graceful pointed spires of the
Grand Halls of Audience are conspicuous from a long way off ;
and the gleaming tiles of the golden Pagoda and the many
coloured roofs of the Royal Temple within the Palace walls give
a richer effect than anything to be found east of Calcutta.
The arrangement of the Palace and its buildings is an em
1
billiglole
THE HALLS OF AUDIENCE, BANGKOK .
ه هه - ال *ه
47 * 3 ***
BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE . 413
bodiment in brick of the policy of King Chulalongkorn's reign
which has been to draw the power, and consequently the wealth ,
from the hands of the once great nobles and old family digni
taries, and to concentrate it in himself alone ; to delegate it to
members of his own intimate family circle, and to them only,
and this not permanently but provisionally, at his own sovereign
will and changing pleasure. By this means he has attained the
very quintessence of centralisation, and realised in the com
pletest sense a State in which the King is de facto as well as de
jure the sole source and repository of power.
Round the Palace buildings proper, enclosed by lofty walls
and solid gateways guarded by day and closed at night, are
grouped almost all the offices of the various Government
departments. And right in the heart and centre of this
charmed circle of officialdom is the Royal Grand Palace, of
which the audience halls and State apartments form the outer
and only visible portion. The inner portion of the Palace—the
real dwelling-place of his Majesty — is entirely concealed behind
these. It is invisible from any point on the north , south and east,
and entirely shielded on the river side by cleverly arranged walls
and courts which effect their purpose without suggesting their
object. The King is the only man within this seething city of
humanity ; alone-if ever a man were alone- amidst a crowded
population of none but women and children ; a complete female
town with its houses, markets, streets, prisons , and courts .
This city of women is known among the Siamese as Kang Nai,
“ The Inside,” and etiquette even forbids any allusion to it.
Here the King lives his life, and has deliberately elected (for it is
by no means a necessary custom) to spend the greater part
of his time ; his excursions “ outside " amidst life and male
humanity, once frequent and enjoyed, have gradually decreased ,
>
till in the last five years he has seldom exceeded an hour of
formal audience daily, and during the past twelve months he
has not averaged an hour in a fortnight. This seclusion of the
King, even in its milder form of five or six years ago, must
414 SIAM .
always be borne in mind as helping to explain many of the
strange inconsistencies of Siamese policy, both foreign and
domestic, especially when it is taken in conjunction with the
influence which naturally falls into the hands of the women by
whom his Majesty is perpetually surrounded. But that, in the
now classic phrase, is another story, upon which it is best not
to dwell, though there are volumes to be written about it .
To find picturesque Bangkok, one must look elsewhere than
in the Palace, for there one sees merely the effect of money
spent in the tasteless purchase of European extravagances, so
that the result, though somewhat grand in general effect, only
serves to heighten the squalor and disorder that prevail in every
corner. On ordinary days, when the King is not expected to come
out, and no foreign representatives are to have audience, the
sentries of the Palace Guard usually sit about on rickety chairs
at the grand gateways ; the officials of the Household lie about in
all descriptions of undress in the stone courtyards ; and gigantic
chandeliers of countless German-made duplex lamps burn all
day until they go out from want of oil, in the lack of any regular
hands to perform the simplest household routine — that word so
entirely hateful to the average Siamese.
Every visit that I paid to the Royal Siamese Ministry of
Foreign Affairs was an Oriental object-lesson. A lazy sentry
lolling on an old oil-tin at the outer gate would insolently ask
my errand, and lazily give a reluctant guttural assent to my
doubting ingress. Another sentry, if my visit was late
as it generally was, for the Foreign Minister usually began
his work at eleven o'clock at night - lying asleep within the
entry, would sulkily respond to my shouts of inquiry with a
hardly intelligible reply in colloquial Siamese that the Prince
was in or was out, -yu or mai yu — as might suit his own particular
humour, without any needless reference to the truth of the
matter. As I thus necessarily carried on my own hesitating
researches unheralded into the inner regions, my ears were met
with the snores of attendants lying about the passages, or the
BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE . 415
pawns of sleepy clerks kept there the whole night in idleness ;
till at length one might come suddenly upon the Royal Prince
Minister himself, at supper with some favoured gossip, or intent
upon a vigorous and exciting game of chess, an occupation at
which he is facile princeps, as in most of the other games of
skill that his Royal Highness affects, and on which he spends a
very considerable portion of his “ office hours." In the mean
time suitors might wail, and Consuls rave at the needless delays,
the perpetual procrastinations, which often continued from
week to week and even from month to month ; and usually
wearied out, as they were intended to do, the unfortunate
foreigners. Go where one would, and when one would, in this
strange medley of departments, bureaus, and government offices,
every passage and every room was all unswept and littered with
the daily mess, the cast-off cigarettes, the decaying betel-nut,
and all the indescribable débris of the countless hangers-on and
ragged retainers who attend the footsteps of every official. In
not a single office but that of Prince Damrong-a brilliant
exception to the general slovenliness of Siamese ministers in this,
as in many respects — did I observe the slightest desire for neat
ness and order, or even an idea of common cleanliness . One
naturally expects great things, for instance, of the far -famed
White Elephants that live at the gates of the royal palace , to
whom fable and a credulous European public have attributed an
absurd sanctity. But they are in reality in a plight that would
shame the bear-cage of a wandering circus ; tended by slouching
ruffians who lie about in rags and tatters, eking out a scanty
livelihood by weaving baskets, and begging a copper from every
visitor in return for throwing a bunch of seedy grass or rotting
bananas to the swaying beasts which raise their trunks in
anticipation of the much-needed addition to their scanty diet.
Such is the Palace of the wealthy and progressive King of Siam.
When one thinks of the swarms of women and children that
spend their whole lives “ inside ," and the innumerable officials
and hangers-on that throng the “ outside " of this wondrous
416 SIAM .
palace, when one realises that it boasts of no drains except a
simple trench that was dug for surplus rain floods, but which
has unfortunately been made to slope the wrong way and so
collects the flood -water into three - feet pools at the very gateway
itself, while every domestic or sanitary arrangement is con
spicuous by its entire absence, and is supplied, as one's senses
inform one, by nature's means alone,-one begins to wonder
-
indeed at the prolonged exemption from epidemics that seems
to have favoured the happy-go- lucky Siamese. But on gala
days, and above all when any farang visitor is to be dazzled,
they set to work strenuously, and soon with hasty brooms,
scurrying officials, weary prisoners, half -paid coolies, and many
lashes, a general effect is produced, striking in its mass of
colour, effective in its architectural pose, and brilliant in its
Oriental profusion of “ humanity in procession . "
Back from the busy parts of the city, Bangkok is intersected
by pleasant bye-paths and the winding canals all overhung
with tropical verdure ; so much so that the whole city, when
surveyed from the height of the “ Great Golden Mountain
—an artificial brick pagoda some two hundred feet high
appears, as my photograph shows, to be one mass of trees
dotted with occasional protruding spires. To turn off into
the first side-path and enter the compound of some petty
official, is to penetrate at a step into the patriarchal state.
Around you stand the wooden houses, erect on piles to raise
them above the mud, or even water, which is always present
during the rainy season ; reached by simple ladders, sufficient for
man but impossible for beast. The women are pounding in the
mortars with heavy wooden hammers beneath the floors of the
houses, or winnowing the brown- skinned paddy in great wicker
pans, in the middle of the courtyard . Pariah dogs are prowling
round , snarling and howling over the refuse of many weeks of
primitive Siamese housekeeping. In the centre dwelling sits the
master, full in the open doorway, and whether he is making his
toilet, or eating his dinner, or performing his duties, he is
PB. INNACLE
ANGKOK
rom
A,FWat
CHANG
Hi OLARY
PUELT
ASTOR , LENOX AINODNS
T
TILDEN FOUNDA
BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE . 417
always surrounded with servants and visitors, wives and
mothers , in unconcerned proximity ; for Siam is a land where
privacy is unknown and a desire for it unfelt. In the adjoining
dwellings, upon the same platforms, are the households of his
various sons and their wives, or more often of his daughters
and their husbands ; for in Siam a young man goes to live
in his mother-in-law's compound without any misgiving.
But it is in the “ Wats " —the temples, or monasteries, as
they should rather be calledthat we discover the really finer
parts of Bangkok. These buildings occupy the best sites, and
afford the most beautiful views of the town. Built for the most
part in the days when roads and carriages were unknown, they
nestle among the trees upon the banks of the innumerable
canals. Amidst shady cloisters, frescoed in brilliant colours
with the fabled incidents of Brahmin polytheism, and glaring
with the hell-pictures of later Buddhist mythology, stands the
Temple itself, lofty, cool , and dim, with threefold or fourfold
roofs and soaring rafters and marble floors, where dreamy
monks recite in impressive sing -song the lengthy formulæ of
their world-old faith, while placid Buddhas tower above them
in endless calm, or stretch their length in huge figures of sixty
or seventy feet of gilded brickwork, through the gloomy
columns .
Around and outside these more sacred precincts stand rows on
rows of little dwellings for the priests, where day by day they
practise their orisons or instruct their pupils, or pursue their
meditations. But it is on festival days, and on the weekly
Sacred Day, the seventh and fifteenth of each moon, that these
Wats become the scene of activity and resound with the
hum of many voices. In Siam, as elsewhere, the active
ministrations of religion seem chiefly sought by the softer sex,
perhaps with more reason than in Europe , since here the men
will work off each his own necessary portion of religion in the
few weeks or months, or occasionally years, that almost every
Siamese man spends in the monastic order, at some period of
28
418 SIAM
1
his life. Thus on “Wan Pra " may be seen a crowd of women
with laughing children coming in all simplicity, like mediæral
Christians to the weekly Mass, to gain their humble share of
hard-won “ merit ” by devotion , and if possible to escape the
eternal handicap which Buddhism lays upon their sex.
The only official call that a Siamese makes upon the rites
of the church is at his cremation, the greatest event in his
career . It is a genuinely impressive experience to see the
humble ceremonies of a peasant cremation, to hear the yellow
robed priests intoning with Gregorian sonorousness the office of
the dead over the leaping flames, and to watch them as they
repeat the orisons from hour to hour throughout the night over
the smouldering ashes, with weird cadence, in the strange
rolling accents of the old Pali, till at dawn they make their
mournful search upon the pyre for the charred remnants of frail
humanity.
The cremation of the rich and great is a different affair
altogether. At the death of a noble, and still more of some
member of the Royal Family, a cremation, which is then held
some months afterwards, becomes a public holiday, a brilliant
gala week with dances and shows and theatres and every form
of national amusement and delight ; and so adds one more to
the wonderful list of high- days and holidays which the ease
loving Siamese contrives to fit into his year. Festivals are
indeed the chief business of Siamese life. I was a spectator
of one specially gorgeous festival in the king's summer palace
up the river at Bang-pa-in. It was a right royal pageant in
honour of the yearly fête of Loi Katong, a sort of Feast of
Lanterns, when every stream and waterway sparkled with the
little lamps and tapers set afloat by the simple worshipper, to
“ make merit," in happy ignorance that he thus perpetuated the
primeval invocation of his Aryan forefathers to the bounty of
the waters which alone can give the rich barvest. In tiny
cockle-shells and stately barges, in fragile emblems and in
towering monsters, the glinting line of lights was borne along,
BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE. 419
amidst the blare of trumpets and the shouts of the throng, till
it disappeared into the darkness, and left the light-hearted
Siamese to count up the days to the next of those recurring
holidays .
It is only during the vast preparations for some Palace
function — a gorgeous cremation, the brilliant ceremony of the
“ top -knot cutting " when the Crown Prince comes of age , or
the annual visits to the Wats — that one first perceives that
the indolent Siamese can work , and work with a will, too, to
> >
build up towering erections of bamboo and thatch and tinsel
and gaudy colouring of waving festoons, with an activity and
ingenuity that pass one's comprehension, till one happens upon
the explanation. It is that the great officials and even the
royal princes are themselves directing and urging on with voice
and hand the work of raising these ephemeral shows, which
appeal at once to their keenest sense of pleasure and their
fondest hopes for royal favour. It has been well said that the
Siamese habit is to work at play, and to play at work ; I shall
have something to say upon the latter head later on, but the
subject of cremations offers one of the finest examples of the
former. There is a fine square of open and level greensward just
in front of the Grand Palace, covering some four or five acres .
On the death of any child or near relative of the reigning or
previous monarch, this ground is covered with an immense
erection of buildings, which occupy often five or six months
and tens of thousands of hands in building, and are on view
during perhaps five or six days of the ceremony, and in actual
use only during the five or six hours of the burning. They are
then entirely demolished within a few days, and the whole
process is begun over again with entirely new material at the
next royal death . The expense involved each time is almost
incredible. If we include the accompanying lavish distribution
of presents, both of Siamese money and of goods ordered
from Europe by hundreds of cases, it sometimes amounts
to as much as fifteen thousand catties—say, £75,000. And
420 SIAM .
this in a country where the peasant is taxed nearly fifty
per cent. on every article of necessity ; where official salaries
are generally in arrear ; while defence, education, public works,
and other reforms, are always starved on the plea of lack of
revenue .
But to see a Royal Siamese Ceremony at its best, one must
witness the pageants connected with the varied innumerable
sacrosanct events in the life of the Heir Apparent himself, or
indeed of any other of the full Celestial princes — Chow Fah, as
they are called-i.e. , those sons of the King whose mothers are
of royal blood. There is first the giving of presents to the
royal parents at his birth—a list of the money value of each,
with the donor's name, being carefully registered as a guide for
future royal favours . Then there is the top-knot cutting at the
age of twelve, followed by his entrance into the noviciate of the
Buddhist monastic order at thirteen, and into the full priesthood
at twenty -one; besides the minor fêtes at marriages or the
bestowals of higher ranks and titles ; and above all, the final
festival of his cremation . Every one of these events is the
occasion for immense processions and gorgeous pageants, entailing
a complete cessation of all Government business for a week or
ten days at least, and its confusion and delay for a much longer
period before and after. To crown all, there is the expense
>
involved in the dresses , the lavish largesses, and the almsgiving,
besides the heavy penalty of the forced and unpaid labour of
most of the unfortunate workmen employed. So that each one
9
of the little “ sons of heaven ” —whose number is now rising
seven, as the present King began his family rather early in life
( at thirteen he was the father of two children) -has been
estimated to cost his faithful and long -suffering country from
ninety to a hundred thousand pounds in festivals alone. Nobles
and princes , by the way, pay nothing towards taxes. I should
add that any lack of the necessary total sum is made up
through “ loyal contributions," consisting of “ voluntary
abatements of the monthly salaries of the officials, since it is
Tap
Nin
TOS
TANGKOK
A
AC
ON
.,B EMPLE
ANAL
BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE . 421
an absolute necessity that the full requirements be forthcoming
for these royal and national amusements.
In a people so averse to work of any kind, one would expect
to find but few popular amusements, and those not of the
nature of violent exercise. And this is the case. There are
practically but two forms of amusement throughout the whole
of Siam-gambling and the theatre. The former is the great
national passion ; every large town has its nightly lottery of
incredible proportions. The possession of the Bangkok Lottery
license brings a great fortune in about five years , and the
Government draws one of its largest revenues from this source .
Gambling-houses, and their natural concomitants and next- door
neighbours the pawn-shops, are as numerous in Bangkok as
public-houses in London, and fifty times as pernicious in their
effect on the people ; and this deadly national trait can but
increase so long as a native government prefers to use it as a
source of profit rather than to check it as a national curse .
Of theatres and theatre- going a volume might be written. To
an ordinary Siamese it is the height of happiness to sit jammed
in a dense crowd on the floor, from seven p.m. to two a.m. ,
watching the same play-or rather portion of a play, for it is a
matter of several such nights in succession before the drama is
completed. The plays are usually adaptations from old Hindu
mythology ; the plot and every incident of it are familiar to all
in the audience—the more so, the better. The attraction con
sists in the manner of its presentment, the long-drawn tension
>
of the " love " episodes, the realism of the dénoûments, the
gorgeousness of the dresses, and the minute skill of the nume
rous dances. The actors, with the exception of a few clowns,
are all young girls. They are subjected to stringent training
from the age of four years, and in their prime at seventeen and
eighteen years of age are a possession of immense money value
to their “ owners , " in spite of the much - vaunted but unenforced
slavery reforms of the present reign. The dances are entirely
posture-dances, great pleasure being taken in the abnormal
422 SIAM .
bending-back of elbows, wrists, ankles, and finger-joints, which
is carried to an extent that would be impossible to even a
“ double -jointed " European . The dances are accompanied by
loud music from the orchestra, assisted sometimes by the hard
voices of a chorus of some twenty old women, and heightened in
the impassioned moments by the voices of the danseuses tbem
selves. I was permitted to take the accompanying photograph
of two of the leading prime donne of Bangkok, in a company
belonging to a most distinguished nobleman , a personal friend
of the King, whose theatrical performances are always the
most popular feature of all the great national and other
holidays, the spectators numbering many hundreds at a time.
There is nothing to pay at a Siamese theatre, for the owner is
recouped by special donations from wealthy patrons, propor
tionate to the popularity and success of the performances, while
the “ company, " like most other native employees in this
strange land, alike in palace and cottage, are not wage - earners
but house-chattels, that is , domestic slaves.
The fascinating subject of Siamese ceremonies, which, as I
have said, comprise three- fourths of the whole interest of life
to a Bangkok Siamese, has led me away from my description of
Bangkok itself. Its plan as a town, however, is so simple that
a few words will suffice. It is situated at about twelve miles
distance from the sea in a direct line, sixteen by rail, and some
thirty by water, and lies right on the banks of the really fine
river which has called it into being, to wit, the Menam Chow
Phya. Menam, " the mother of waters ," is the generic name
for all rivers , and “ Chow Phya " is the highest title of nobility,
the Lord Duke, as it were. The city itself possesses a lengthy
official name, couched as are all Siamese titles in the ancient
Pali language of the Buddhist Scriptures, the first portion of it
meaning " the City of the Great White Angels.” Grandiloquent
titles, by the way, are a strong point in Siam both for places
and for officials, an arrangement which one might almost
regard as a striking instance of compensation, since the
BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE . 423
importance of the places is usually particularly small, and the
duties of the nobles are chiefly conspicuous by their absence. I
make this explanation in passing, because otherwise the
seventeen -syllabled name of the Palace cook, and the even
longer one of the King's barber, might possibly mislead an
innocent foreigner into ascribing a wholly fictitious excellence to
the cuisine of the one or the dexterity of the other.
The city is practically confined to the left bank of the river ;
the portion on the right bank which fifty years ago was the
centre of power and activity as the abode of the great Regent
and his immense and once influential family , has now fallen
into complete decay, and is purposely left in neglect, as it might
otherwise recall a strong régime that is gone, and suggest some
unwelcome and uneasy memories of things that the present
reigning House may well wish buried in the past.
There is one main road some five or six miles long in excellent
condition in its upper portion (that is, where it may have to
face the criticism of Majesty itself), which runs parallel with
the river and leads from “ down town " right up to and through
the city proper. The streets of Bangkok will agreeably astonish
the visitor from Canton or Peking by their width , their condition,
and comparative cleanliness ; while the excellent state of the
many cross-roads also in the city, such at least as are near the
Palace, speak well for the efforts made by the Government
during the past ten years in this direction . These owe their
existence to the energy of the various European employees of
the Siamese Public Works Department. There is, of course , the
typical Eastern conglomeration of filth and humanity in hovels
and alleys and fetid bazaars ; but to see it one must deliberately
seek it and leave the ordinary roads of traffic, for it is practically
confined to the one long gruesome stretch of Chinese bazaars
and native dens of various sorts, of evil odours and still worse
repute, known as Sampeng. But even this plague -centre has
now been cut into and ventilated by several wide transverse
roads, in consequence of the fortunate recurrence recently of
424 SIAM .
some fires which destroyed hundreds of the close-packed
shanties .
Along the whole length of the main road runs a well -kept
electric tramway, invariably filled to overflowing with chattering
passengers of every description, and paying to its lucky share
holders the respectable dividend of thirty- four per cent . per
annum . It was started some five years ago, and was in a sense
the precursor of a great wave of native speculation. The fortu
nate Concessionary was a Dane named M. de Richelieu, who
has been for many years in the more or less confidential service
of the King of Siam. The tramway was so great a success
pecuniarily that it served as an admirable object-lesson in
the elementary principles of the investment of money to this
simple people, who had previously hoarded their moneys in bags,
or invested it in nothing better than slaves for the household or
buffaloes for the farm. This gave the first start to an eagerness
amongst all the natives to put their money to reproductive uses,
which fact explains, amongst other things, the uprising of the
rows upon rows of fairly good and neat-looking brick houses
that line the main roads of Bangkok, almost from end to end.
The Legations and all the principal residences of Bangkok
nave their landings on the river front, while the more fortunate
ones possess in addition a good entrance on the main road.
This is also true of the Grand Palace, of which the Royal
Landing is one of the most conspicuous and peculiar features
on the river, fronted as it is with meagre battlements and
mangy guard-houses and enormous refuse-heaps, but backed by
the beautiful spires and glittering pinnacles I have already de
scribed. Directly opposite the Palace landing, on the west side
of the river, is the Naval Arsenal , the one decently-kept and
good-looking government department of Siam — the outcome
also of the efforts of the Danish Commodore de Richelieu. Here
are the headquarters of a large department of marines, which
may be said to monopolise all that can be credited to the account
of discipline and order in the government departments of Siam.
LCENE
A
.-S
STAGE
SIAMESE
THE
ONOVE
ور
ASTOR LA
II دعا ماده دودلی
را
BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE. 425
As an arsenal, its equipment can hardly be called excessive ; to
us it might even seem a trifle inadequate, since its chief “ pro
perties " (no other word is so suitable) are a few turning-lathes,
a blacksmith's shop, some Chinese boiler-makers and fitters ,
some native carpenters, with a few half-paid coolies and ragged
prisoners in chains. I must not omit to mention the cartridge
making machinery without materials, the gun-fittings without
guns, and the cannons without projectiles. The arsenal does
indeed possess one large European-built dry-dock, made two or
three years ago, which, after remaining for years unfinished, so
long as it had been required only for ordinary government pur
poses, was at last completed hurriedly so soon as it became
necessary ” (in the Palace sense) for the special purpose of
accommodating the King's own new yacht. This latter is a vessel
of two thousand five hundred tons, with velvet couches, cushioned
anterooms, and innumerable ladies' bedrooms, combined with
a steel deck , a ram, and an armament of quick -firing guns. The
latter might have produced some telling effects upon the French
gunboats last year if only there had been one single Siamese
engineer who knew how to work the engines to bring the vessel
into action, or a single gunner who understood how to fire her
guns when she got there. These, however, were details which
had unfortunately been overlooked when the Siamese Govern
ment with farcical dignity sent their curt intimation to the French
Legation that “ all necessary instructions ” “ have been given
to our naval and military authorities ” to prevent the French
entrance .
I must make it clear, however, that Bangkok is not Siam .
To see Bangkok superficially in tourist fashion without ever
penetrating beneath the thin veneer of recently-acquired western
tricks and manners is , of course, misleading to an indescribable
degree, while even a close and intimate acquaintance with
Bangkok and its life and people, will give but a deceptive and
inaccurate conception of what Siam really is, either actually or
potentially .
426 SIAM .
Bangkok is a town with about the population of Newcastle,
and the size of Oxford, but Siam is a country with the popula
tion of Switzerland and the size of Great Britain and Ireland,
Holland, Belgium , and Italy, all rolled into one. Neither a
traveller nor a politician can hope to take the measure of &
country like this by observing, however carefully, a hybrid
development that has arisen in one small corner of it under the
special circumstances of European contact and proximity to the
sea ; more especially when it is remembered that the distant
portions of the kingdom are very slightly under the control of
the central Government, so far as direct action is concerned, in
spite of the recent strenuous efforts towards centralisation.
The solution of the most pressing problems of Siam's future
is, of course, means of communication. So long as this one
and only remedy is untouched by any efforts except the present
perfunctory and fictitious designs of the Royal Railway Depart
ment, so long the vast possibilities of Siamese development must
remain unrealised. Take about half an hour's walk from the
Grand Palace in Bangkok in any direction you please, and you
find you can go no further. Not, however, because the roads
are atrocious, as in Korea, or impassable, as in China. They
simply do not exist—there are none. Even the great waterway,
the one hope and stay of the struggling timber-dealers and
despairing rice-traders , is allowed to remain in a more or
less unnavigable condition for half of every year. The trade
of Siam, the development of Siam, the resources of Siam, have
become what they are in the teeth of almost insuperable ob
stacles. In this complete absence of roads, one can of course
only get out of Bangkok and see anything of the country by
boat- travelling either on the canals or the main river ; and
afterwards start from certain recognised centres, on ponies
or more often on foot, with bullocks or coolies for baggage,
along the rough trails and jungle paths, created simply by the
persistent tramping of feet, without artificial construction of
any sort, which still do duty for “ Internal Communications."
BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE . 427
The chief pla