December 8, 1893:1
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CHINA ÖVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
"out here -we quote Lord CHARLES (2.) That our trade with British posses BERESFORD'S own words-and the mersions, whose area in 1896 was 11 millious of chants would presumably not like to see miles, was of a smaller total value than in any backward policy adopted. Of course 1883, when the area was 7 millions of miles; there is the danger that Russia might in (3.) That from 1875 to 1895, our trade the future try to establish hostile tariffs with the United States, France, Germany, and preferential rates, but so, for that and Russia combined, increased from a total matter, might China, as in fact she does, value of 256 million pounds to 293 millions, close to our own doors, by giving preferen- while that with British colonies increased tial rates to junk-borne us against steamer only from 161 to 171 millions; and (4) borne traffic. In the one case as in the That whereas in 1873 our national expen- other it is for Britain to see that treaty diture on armaments was 24 millions sterl- engagements are honestly fulfilled and anỷ lag, in 1897 it had risen to 41 millions. atempted breach promptly suppressed. Our We should for our own part be disposed to the whole Lord CHARLES's speech must be think that Mr. HOBSON's figures require pronounced unsatisfying. The problem he very close examination, for we hold to the dealt with is a very complex and difficult theory that trade follows the flag; but we one, but one thing we think stands out clear-are not now concerned so much with Mr. ly, and that is that in not insisting upon the HOBSON as with the A. C. Daily Neros, necessity of foreign assistance in effecting which accepts his theories and conclusions, a wholesale reform of the Government but goes on to say that "the weak point in of China he missed the most essential
· Mr. Housos's armour lies in his apparent condition of a correct solution. His Lord- inability to realise that the militant ship appears to concentrate his attention 'Imperialism' of our foreign policy is not almost exclusively on the army. Myliu reality based upon the necessities of our "view of the future" he says, "is that we "should induce the Chinese Government to
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allow British officers to reorganise their army. I believe if their army were pr perly organised it would be an umple 'security for the prosperity of the country "and a benefit to all nations." To us.it appears that to place a properly organised army at the disposal of the present Peking Government would be almost equivalent to placing firearms in the hands of a lunatic.
RUSSIAN AND BRITISH INTERESTS IN CHINA.
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commerce but upon an ineradicable in stinct of the race; the same instinct which, sent Caesar's legions to the ends of the earth, which has to-day led the peaceful
democracy' of the United States to Cuba | and the Philippines. It is t is instinct, "the racial craving for supremacy and- pride of place, the silent working of that "endless struggle in which the fittest only survive, that calls our ever-growing arma- ments into being: our commerce is but a hy-product and a fitting excuse for further journey ings afield" In other words, Great Britain has become infected with the chau- vinism wh ch in France has always appeared to the English nation so irritating and unreasonable, the same spirit that led to the sending of Major MARCHAND to Fashod, and which in countless other instances has led France to oppose England, not because she Had anything to gain herself by so doing, but simply because in the racial craving for supremacy and pride of place she wished to humiliate or obstruct a rival,
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in the work of opening up the provinces in cluded in that designation. But the whole of China proper, with the exception of Ger- many's sphere in Saantung, lies open before *19. Why not walk-in and possess it, to the extent of giving it an honest Govern- ment and the material development of which it stands in need? The racial: craving for supremacy and pride of place, if controlled by reason, may serve a useful purpose, as does emulation between in- dividuals, but let the craving. find its satisfaction in doing more and better work than others, rather than by a display of the spirit of obstruction which has for so long characterised France's policy towards Great Britain. Our Shanghai contemporary says
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we may at least learn from Mr. HOBSON to lay less stress upon our commercial neces "sities in matters of foreign policy and more upon the exigencies of our Imperial inter- esis. But the exigencies of our Imperial interests, in China especially, are indis- solub.y united with our commercial neces- sities. Our interests in China are in fact entirely commercial, and to sacrifice those interests for the temporary gratification of a racial craving for supremacy and pride of place by needlessly humiliating or obstruct- ing a rival would be suicidal.
LI HUNG-CHANG'S REINSTATE.
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(Daily Press, 26th November.) According to our Shanghai morning con temporary, telegrams have been received there from Peking to the effect that the Empress Dowager is determined to reinstate LI HUNG-HANG in the Tsung-li Yamen, and that Russia has given her consent to the reappointment. Another telegraphic an- nouncement runs that the Grand Secretaries Li HUNG-CHANG and Hsu Hưng have been granted the privilege of riding in two- bearer sedan chairs within the precincts of the Western Palace Gates as a mark of special grace on the part of the EMPRESS. Whatever truth there may be in these reports, it was well known that the veteran ex-Viceroy of Chihli has all along been in high favour with the Dowager Empress. They have now, it is known, shared in the spoils which Li discovered the way to make out of contracts, for many years, and both have waxed exceeding rich at the expense of the country they have so long misgoverned and hoodwinked. The Old Lady of Peking has found the astute Li a most useful tool and coadjutor, and until Japan appeared on the scene and pricked the bubble which this wily mandarin had blown it was generally believed not only that he was the most powerful mandarin in China bụt that he had substantial force, naval and mili- tary, behind him. Probably he himself knew pretty well at what value to estimate the resources he had gathered. He was well aware that a 'sufficient sum of money our racial craving for supremacy and pride had been spent on ships, guns, and soldiers of place, any other Power that is genuinely to secure a fairly respectable fighting force; engaged in the benigo work of opening up he must also have been aware that this force the dark places of the earth, but by taking was largely mythical, or that at best it was action on our own account in the same direc- a very hollow sham. That fact did not, tion. Lord CHARLES, however, is all for op- however, greatly trouble the man; he posing Russia, though he says he does not accepted the defeat and disgrace of his blame her at all for what she is doing, that if country with astonishing philosophy, being he were a Russian he would use the very best chiefly anxious to maintain his personal efforts he could to place himself in Peking influence unimpaired. Such and then the Yangtsze. Why does his Lord ignorance and apathy of the Chinese ship not advocate a similar boldness of Government, that his reputation, though policy for his own country? Manchuria is badly smirched in the eyes of all civilised clearly marked out by destiny as a Russian Powers, was not materially damaged at possession, and we may, with much advan- Peking. One reason for this was that the tage to our own trade and to the cultivation consequences of his action had not been of friendly relations, leaveRussia unmolested I made plain; the blame was not at onoa
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(Daily Press, 30th November.) A correspondent whose letter appears in another column, after emphasising the suggestion that if Russia takes over Man- churia trade will quadruple, goes on to say that it is impossible to account for the agitation set up for an attempt to oust "Russin in that direction in any other way "than to suppose that a few interested in "dividuals, who have their own hatchets to This is the spirit breathed by Dr. MORRI- grind, are working on the ignorance of 808, the Times correspondent at Peking, by "the masses by raising this 'Russian bogey.' whose opinions we believe Lord CHARLES But there is another way of accounting for BERESFORD has allowed himself to be affected. the agitation. What appears to us to be His Lordship in his speech at Shanghai probably the correct explanation has been said that as regarded trade he had "got no suggested by the N. C. Daily News, the complaints to go home with," that trade chief apostle of the Jingo cult in the Far was at present very good, but that "so far as East; it is "the racial craving for suprem- development goes, people are not inclined acy and pride of place." This explana- at all to do anything to develop their tion is given in au article headed "Milit- "trade largely because they do not see "ant Imperialism," written in review of "what policy the Government is going to a paper in the Contemporary by Mr. J. put forward at home, and as far as security A. HOBSON on Free Trade and Foreign "for trade and commerce goes, both from 'Policy." Writing from the standpoint of "what I have been able to learn and also a Free Trader of the old school, by a series 'from what I can see for myself, I would of what our Shanghai contemporary considers say there is absolutely none in this to be logical and well-founded arguments, country whatever." Let us then in the Mr. HOBSON endeavours to show that the interests of trade proceed to create the attitude and actions of recent British Gov-security it demands, not by opposing, in erunients are based upon a false conception of the causes and results of expansion if international trade and upon widely pre- vailing fallacies in our political economy. To those whose appeals for a strong policy are based solely on commercial grounds, Mr. HOBSON's arguments, the aily News says, must come home with crushing force, for he shows in the clearest possible manner that the Essigument of spheres of influence or even the acquisition of territory by rival powers does not imply, and has not hitherto resulted in, a corresponding loss of markets to England. In a series of tables he shows: (1.). That in the last forty years our trade with foreign countries has increased in pro- portion to the trade with British possessions;
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