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736
CHINA
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 1993 the national Army as represented by the Northern divisions has undergone a great change, and forces organised by Yuan Shi Kai are supposed to number some 40,000 troops; but the efficient force has been greatly over-estimated Great difficulty has been found in keeping even 40,000 properly paid and equipped.
The Chinese Navy consisted, prior to the Franco-Chinese war of 1884, mainly of small gunboats built at the Mamoi Arsenal, Foochow, and at Shanghai, on the foreign model, but was afterwards greatly strengthened. Five ships were lost, however, in the battle of the Yalu, when the Japanese inflicted" a severe defeat upon the Chinese, and the remainder of the fleet was captured or destroyed at the taking of Weihaiwei in February, 1895. Three cruisers of 2,950 tons displacement were secured in 1895 from the Vulcan Works at Stetten, and two very fine Elswick sloops of the same size were added in 1899. These, with two corvettes and two training vessels, supplemented by four Elhau destroyers, comprised the Pei Yang Squadron, or Northern Fleet. These vessels might be of real value for convoying troop- ships, shelling rebellious towns, etc., but as the Chinese have no naval base and no docking facilities in Northern waters, and as the ships are ill-found and with indifferent personnel, they would be of little use against a resolute foreign enemy.
The destroyers were captured at Taku on June 17th, 1900, by the British destroyers Fame and Whiting and appropriated by the allies. The Chinese flagship at the Bar, while not actually seized, was rendered useless by removing the breech-blocks of the guns and by being placed under rigorous supervision. The remainder of the Fleet fled to the Yangtsze. Sir Robert Hart in a scheme of military reorganisation prepared in 1904 recommended the creation of three naval squadrons, the Northern, the Southern and the Central, each to consist of 10 battleships and first-class cruisers, 10 second-class cruisers, 10 torpedo-boat destroyers, and 50 torpedo-boats, with a crew of 10,500 men. The scheme is apparently pigeon-holed at Peking for the present, but in 1999 six torpedo-boat destroyers were built for China in Japane e yards, and four river gunboats were launched in 1908 from Hongkong yards. A Commission, headed by H. I. H. Prince Tsai Hsin, visited Europe in 1909 to study naval organisations with the object of developing China's navy, and H. H. Duke Tao (another brother of the Regent) went on a similar mission to Europe in 1910 with a view to a re-organisation of the Army.
TRADE AND INDUSTRY
The ports open to trade are:-- Newchwang, Chinwantao, Tientsin, Chefoo, Woosung, Shanghai, Soochow, Chinkiang, Nanking, Wuhu, Kiukiang, Hankow, Yochow, Chang- sha, Shasi, Ichang, Chungking. Hangehow, Ningpo, Wênchow, Santu, Foochow, Amoy, Swatow, Canton, Samshui, Wuchow, Kongmoon, Nanning, Kinngehow, and Pakhoi. Lungehow, Mêngtsz, Szemao and Tengyueh, on the frontiers of Tonkin and Burmah, and Yatung in Tibet, are stations under the cognisance of the Foreign Customs. Mukden, Antung and Tatiengkow and many other inland places in Manchuria have recently been opened to foreign trade. The import trade, exclusive of the Colony of Hongkong, centres chiefly at Shanghai, Tientsin, Hankow and Canton, while the bulk of the exports pass through the ports of Shanghai and Canton. The annual value of the trade of China coming under the supervision of the Imperial Maritime Customs was as follows:-