42
AFFAIRS IN NORTH CHINA.
1
(Daily Press, 19th July.)
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND and as they have been massing men in great numbers they will be able to offer a stub- born resistance if their supplies of ammuni- tion do not fail. Meantime Prince TUAN seems to be bent on imposing his will on the! provinces, and is actively setting in motion the ponderous state machinery for coercing unwilling or recalcitrant mandarins. If he succeeds, the war, which might otherwise have been confined to the Northern pro- vinces, may spread all down the coasts and up the great rivers, and thus cause in calculable damage and loss of trade.
H.E. LI HUNG-CHANG'S DEPAR- TURE.
!
1
[July 21, 1900
CHANG is actually to be allowed to proceed to Peking. We do not know whether there is any sign of this probability in the It would seem pretty clear that, whatever
fact that the yamen at Canton for the use of the Cadets learning Chinese will not for the has happened in Peking, there is still an
present be tenanted; a correspondent writes Administration there possessing powers which some at least of the provincial rulers
that he saw the luggage therefrom conveyed fear to disregard. His Excellency LI
through the streets of Canton last week. The step is distinctly one of necessary pre- HUNG-CHANG, Viceroy of the Two Kwang,
caution and no one will be so foolish as to former Grand Secretary, and member of the
interpret it as a mark of panic; but we trust Tsungli Yamen, has received telegraphic
that it does not indicate a recognition of the intimation of his re-appointment to his old
Viceroy's right to depart. Events in Can- post of Viceroy of Chihli, and he left here
ton have been somewhat mysterious of late. yesterday for Shanghai, presumably with the intention of proceeding thence to Tientsin
The soldiers formerly stationed in the sub- urbs, we hear from an unquestionable source, to take it up. LIU KUNG-YI, the Viceroy
have vanished, no one knows whither. The of Nanking, has also been ordered to the
(Daily Press, 16th July.)
Tartar General's men, of course, remain in capital, but it remains to be seen whether
Up to the present we who reside in Hong- the town, and it is precisely the soldiery he will accept the invitation, which, in view kong or in the neighbouring parts of the whom the inhabitants of Shameen fear of his recent action in guaranteeing the province of Kwangtung have been little most, should an outbreak occur, The protection of foreigners in the Yangtsze more than distant spectators of the crisis mob alone would only be dangerous from ports, might prove promotion of a sort for through which China is passing. In Hong- its numbers. The troops would be a very which he has no special desire. If tele- kong we have sent the bulk of our effective different matter. Various correspondents grams of this kind can reach the Chinese officials, it is very obvious that they have garrison and have sanctioned a scheme of have dealt in these columns with the ques- not been kept in ignorance of the events that regular volunteering; in Shameen the tion of the defence of Shameen, and it may Europeans have armed and undergone some be gathered from their remarks that the have transpired in the capital during the drill; and the Redpole and Don Juan de position of the defenders would be far from past month. They must know, for one Austria remain close at hand. Macao has a strong one in event of a sudden assault. thing, what has been the fate of the eight looked into her inadequate defences and is This position unfortunately cannot now well hundred to a thousand foreigners who were
preparing to receive reinforcements. Hong- be strengthened without giving rise to the besieged by thousands of Boxers and Imper-Kong and Macao have received large num- very disturbances which it is desired to pre- ial troops in the British and possibly an-
bers of refugees from more exposed localities.vent. The only real guarantee of security other Legation. They must be aware Otherwise there has been little to disturb is that a strong man should remain at the whether the numerous reports, as often con- the ordinary calm. Nor is it likely that head of affairs at Canton. To obtain this tradicted, that the foreigners had been this calm would be broken as long as L guarantee the moral suasion applied to H.E. wiped out or whether succour had reached HUNG-CHANG remained in Canton, for not LI HUNG-CHANG should not be relaxed. them from an unthought of source and in
even Lr's bitterest opponents have been able some unhoped for manner. They must be in
to deny that he is the one man capable of a position to end the cruel state of suspense controlling the turbulent city and its neigh- which has now existed nearly a fortnight, bourhood. But unfortunately severe pres- and to which even our telegram received last
sure has been put on Lr by the Imperial night from Shanghai cannot put an end. authorities-whom exactly this term denotes The Canton correspondent of our
now it is impossible to say--and the Viceroy ing contemporary represents His Excel- feels unable to disregard the summons to go lency Li IUNG-CHANG as having admitted north. Our Canton correspondent mentions that "it was
doubtful whether the
the China Merchants' vessel Anping as the boat by which he is to sail. We cannot, how- holds the reins at Peking, it is difficult to ever, regard as decided the question whether see on what footing he can be welcomed in he will go. The communications which any part of the dominions of a nation whose passed between the British local authorities Minister is now in all probability dead at and the Viceroy when first he was called the hands of that Government' subjects upon to proceed to Peking may or may not and regular troops. If he holds his com- be made public some day. They are at pre-equally guilty of the crime of murdering the mission from the Empress Dowager, she is sent closely preserved (secrets, but we can easily imagine that strong representations were made to LI HUNG-CHANG that his departure at this crisis would not be accepted calmly by Great Britain or in- deed by any Power with interests at stake in Canton. On his part, LI HUNG-CHANG, recognizing the practical impossibility of travelling to the Capital overland, cannot but have sounded our authorities, in the
68
**
to our
even.
If
tele-
1
(Daily Press, 18th July.) · A very important question is raised by the reception of H.E. LI HUNG-CHANG, Viceroy formerly of the two Kwang and now of Chibli, at Hongkong this morning. As representative of whom or what is he being officially received in a British Colony? If his appointment to the Province of Chihli Government" which now is made by the “
subjects of Britain and other Powers. And yet if LI HUNG-CHANG does not represent the governments of Prince TUAN or the
Empress-Dowager, the theory must be main- tained that the Emperor KWANG Hau still rules China. The support of such a theory can only be defended on the ground that by this fiction will the present situation in North China be most quickly ended. As
one indeed is prepared to guarantee that KWANG HSU is at this moment alive. Whom then does His Excellency represent ?
foreign officials and
others in the Legation at Peking were alive." the newly-appointed Viceroy of Chibli really has doubts on the subject there is reason to fear the worst. It is true that he informed our Governor yesterday that he had heard from the Empress Dowager that the for- eigners were safe on the 8th-the date on which the massacre is supposed to have taken place, according gram of the 15th. The extreme probabi- lity is that the high provincial officials have been duly notified of the tragic taking off if it has been perpetrated. Beyond this surmise it is difficult to advance far. The air is so thick with rumours that it is impossible to place much reliance on those that originate among the natives. first place, as to facilities for the journey fact it will not stand for a moment, No Moreover, it is evidently not the desire of the
by sea. It is, moreover, believed that the Chinese officials to court publicity for their visit of the U. S. flagship Brooklyn was not statements. They probably wish to defer wholly unconnected with the expected de- the evil day, to leave the disaster a matter arture of LI HUNG-CHANG. But be the of uncertainty as long as possible, both in facts connected with the delay of the jour- order to gain time and to allow for a little ney what they may, the danger still con- evaporation, by anticipation, of the just in fronts us that peace cannot be certainly dignation and wrath of the deeply wronged reckoned on for a hour, if Lr leaves Canton. nations. For our own part we greatly fear This is obviously a situation in which all the worst, and we cannot avoid seeing in panic must be avoided-from reports we the mandates issued to the Viceroys LI hear Shameen has been in danger of forget-light of present events the story of his suffer- HUNG-CHANG and Lru KUNG-TI signs of ating this-but there is nothing to be gained ings in China is a striking proof that Chins is far more general recognition throughout the by shutting one's own or other people's eyes just where she was forty years ago, that she has Empire of the usurping Government at Pe- to the perils. As long as the Viceroy re-learned nothing and, after all, in the last resort, king than is generally expected. Unfortu-mained at his post, any fears as to the safety nately there is no opportunity of securing an immediate reckoning with the Peking Gov- ernment, for the roads are flooded and the way blocked for an advance, even if a suffici- ent force could be got together on short notice. The Chinese are meanwhile gaining time to fortify and defend the approaches,
of Shameen had little foundation, and the outward display of panic among the Euro- peans can only have had a very bad moral effect on the Chinese. For the same reason the withdrawal of Europeans from Canton itself would have been bad policy. Matters, however, are totally changed if L HUNG
It is rather a remarkable coincidence, says the London and China Express, that the death of Lord Loch should have occurred just at the present moment, for it was in the troubled days immediately after the first taking of the Taku forts in 1860 that he nearly suffered martyrdom in China, and now he has died within a few days of the second capture of those forta. In the
is amenable to no argument save that of force. The story of our early dealings with China is also a significant reminder of the part which Great Britain played in opening-up the pro- vinces of the Middle Kingdom to Western trade. We are afraid this pioneer work is too often apt to be overlooked amid the conflicting ambi tions of foreign Powers who have, to some ex tent at any rate, entered into our labours.