658
Province and Population
Shengking
Chihli
Shantung
Szechuen
Hunan
Hupeh
Kiangsi
Anhwei..
Kiangsu
CHINA
Province and Population
.16,000,0 0 .29 400,000
Chekiang
11.800,000
Fohkien
20,000,000
..38,000,000
Kwangtung
32,000,000
.79,500,000
Kwangsi
8,000,000
.22,000,000
Yunnan......
8,000,000
.34,000,000
Other Provinces (Shansi, Shensi,
.24 534,000
Kansu, Honan, Kweichau)
55,000,000
.36,000,000
.23,980,000
Total........... 438,214,000
It is to be noted that the Chinese census, following all Oriental methods of calculation, is not to be trusted. There is no subject on which foreign and native statisticians are more contentious than that of the Chinese population. Experts vary in their estimates between 250,000,000 and 440,000,000.
The total number of foreigners in China in 1907 was 69,852. Of these 45,610 were Japanese, 9,203 British, 3,553 Germans, 3,138 Portuguese, 2,862 Americans, 2,201 French, other nationalities being represented by less than 1000. According to the information of the Customs, the number of commercial firms was 2,595 as compared with 1837 in 1906. Of the latter Japan heads the list with 1,416, followed by the United Kingdom with 490, Germany with 239, America with 112, France with 94, Portugal with 51, Spain with 40, Italy with 21, Russia with 20, Austria-Hungary and the Netherlands each with 17, Denmark with 14, Norway with 9, Belgium with 6, and Sweden and a non-Treaty Power each with 1; but, as the British Commercial Attaché has remarked, much depends on the definition and status of a commercial firm.
The principal dependencies of China are Mongolia, with an area of 1,288,035 square miles, and some 2,000,000 people; and Manchuria, with an area of 362,313 square miles, and an estimated population of 15,000,000. The latter has in recent years been steadily and rapidly colonised by Chinese, who greatly outnumber the Manchus in their own land. Thibet, which is also practically a dependency of China, has an area of 643,734 square miles and a population of 6,000,000 souls. It is ruled by the Dalai Lama, but subject to the Government of Peking, who maintain a Resident at Lhassa.
ARMY AND NAVY
The standing military force of China consists of two great divisions, the first formed by the more immediate subjects of the ruling dynasty, the Manchus, and the second by the Chinese and other subject races. The first, the main force upon which the Imperial Government can rely, form the so-called troops of the Eight Banners; they garrison all the great cities in such a manner as to be separated by walls and forts from the population. According to the latest but entirely untrustworthy reports, the Imperial army comprises a total of 850,000 men, including 678 companies of Tartar troops, 211 companies of Mongols, and native Chinese infantry, a kind of militia, numbering 120,000 men ; but these figures, derived from Native sources, are altogether untrustworthy. In organization, equipment, personnel and commissariat, the Army is utterly inefficient and with the exception of a few brigades of foreign-drilled troops is little better than rabble as far as concerns opposition to European, Indian or Japanese troops. The native soldiers do not as a rule live in barracks but in their own houses, mostly pursuing some civil occupation. The Army of Chih-li, undoubtedly the best in the whole Empire, utterly failed to withstand the foreign troops in 1900 except in the cases when the disparity in numbers was over five to one. Disorganisation was supreme: although the arsenals around Tientsin and Peking were known to contain more than 200 modern field guns and to be replete with machine weapons, very few were forth- coming in the day of battle. These arsenals, together with the forts at Taku, and all camps and fortifications between Peking and the sea, have now been demolished. Since 1903 the national Army as represented by the Northern divisions has undergone a great change and Yuan Shi Kai's forces are supposed to number some 40,000 troops; but at the manoeuvres in the autumn of 1906 only some 24,000 men took part, including the Southern divisions, and the efficient force has been greatly over-estimated. Great difficulty is found in keeping even 40,000 properly paid and equipped.