CHINA
755
Province and Population
Province and Population
Szechuen
78,711,000 Fukien
1
20,000,000
Shantung Anhwei
38,000,000
Manchuria
17,000,000
36,000,000
Chekiang
11,800,000
Hupeh
Chihli
34,000,000
Kwangsi
8,000,000
Kwangtung
Kiangsi.
Kiangsu
Hunan
32,000,000
Yunnan.
7,571,000
29.400,000
Other Provinces (Shansi, Shensi,
24534,000
23,980,000
22,000,000
Kansu, Honan, Kweichau) ... 55,000,000
Total............ 437,996,000
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 4-10,000,000.
The total number of foreigners in China in 1910 was 141,868. Of these 65,434 were Japanese, 49,395 Russian, 10,140 British, 4,106 Germans, 3,377 Portuguese, 3,176 Americans, 1,925 French, other nationalities being represented by less than 2,100. In the year 1,907 the Imperial Maritime Customs compiled a table which showed the number of commercial firms to be 2,595. Japan headed 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 have been 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. Outer Mongolia in 1912 assert- ed her independence of Chinese sovereignty, and obtained the formal recognition of Russia. Inner Mongolia, however, remains a dependency of China. Manchuria has in recent years been steadily and rapidly colonised by Chinese, who greatly outnumber the Manchus in their own land. Tibet, which is also practically a dependency of China, has an area of 643,734 square miles and a population of 6,000,000 souls. Down to 1910 it was ruled by the Dalai Lama, but subject to the Government of Peking, who maintain a Resident at Lhassa. In consequence, however, of the Dalai Lama's refusal to comply with the demands of Peking, a Chinese military expedition was dispatched to Lhassa and he fled to India, where he remained for over year. Meanwhile the great revolution broke out in China. The Tibetans seized the opportunity to proclaim their independence, and again a military expedition was sent to Tibet, but more conciliatory methods had to be adopted; the Chinese troops were withdrawn and the Dalai Lama has returned to the Tibetan Capital.
ARMY AND NAVY
In organization, equipment, personnel and commissariat, the Army is utterly in- efficient, 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 figures for 1912 showed a total of 428,485 officers and men.
The Chinese Navy consisted, prior to the Franco-Chinese war of 1884, mainly of small gunboats built at the Namoi 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 Elbau 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