82
THE CRISIS IN NORTH CHINA.
(Daily Press. 28th July.)
As day by day advices arrive from the north-scanty in quantity, as they are, and much delayed in transmission-the political aspect of the situation in China seems to grow more and more complicated. The movement itself, from being confined to the Capital and a part of the Metropolitan province, is evi- dently showing a disposition to spread. Immediately along the Yangtsze it may be said to have been held in check mainly by the firm attitude of one man, but it begins to look as if matters were getting beyond his control. The position of things at Tientsin indicates that the Chinaman, though usually a negligeable quantity when fighting has to be done, may be raised by enthusiasm to the borders of frenzy and then becomes a formidable opponent enough. We are apt to forget that in the Taiping Rebellion
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[August 4, 1900.
of Lord SALISBURY'S Administration. But | both answered well the call, and before the the feeling that could dictate such contemp- end of the year considerably more than tible exhibitions of petty spite and ill consi- 100,000 troops were in the field after tra- dered intrigue as have recently been in evi- versing some 6,000 miles of ocean. Though dence at Peking, is not dead, but only the call was unexpected, it was nobly res- momentarily scotched, and is ready to break ponded to, and it was hoped that a resting out again so soon as the opportunity offers. time would be found after the expiry of the The situation at Peking is, in fact, one that war. The war, however, was not concluded, concerns, not only our interests in China or | but had arrived at what might be called its India, or even Asia, but is of world-wide most critical period, when a cloud appeared importance; and it behoves us to take up suddenly on the eastern horizon. On the the affair in all seriousness. all the rest of the world a Pacific Power; serious in China than a few riots, which We are above 10th of April no suspicion of anything more our interests in Canada, Australia, and India would probably have to be supressed by a alike all point to this that the disgrace landing party or two, was entertained by at Peking is one in which the largest and any one, in the secret, or out of it. On the most important Imperial issues are con- 18th Peking cerned, and that it is one that will tax the whole of the
was in a blaze, and the ability of England's greatest skill. The set-up in the city in danger of their Foreign Ministers shut tlement of the complicated problem is one lives from day to day. Since that to which the highest statesmanship of the fatal day not one European Empire may well be devoted, and we should tered or left the doomed city;
we had a similar experience, and that how hail the appearance on the scene of so well | extensive settlement at Tientsined the
C+
A CREDITABLE DISPLAY OF
MOBILISATION.
which it
ever much was effected by the prowess of tried a statesman as, for instance, Lord was supposed would be able to withstand GORDON and his companions in arms, the CROMER. Whoever is sent, if we wish to any force that the Chinese Empire could final cause of the termination of that rebel- avoid a repetition of previous errors, must bring against it, narrowly escaped being lion was sheer exhaustion. The recall of be endowed with full plenipotentiary taken by assault, though defended by some GORDON'S name brings to mind the similar-powers; and this alone points out the neces- thousands of troops from every European ity of the position when he with a few sity for the immediate appointment of the navy represented in China. Now in view troops was shut up in Khartoum. There most talented of England's sons available. of these facts it is interesting to see how is a close resemblance between the situation If we are to judge of LORD SALISBURY's the call was met. Russia, who had been of GORDON in Khartoum and the actual con- grasp of the situation from his appointment strengthening her garrison at Port Arther dition of the Ministers shut up hermetically of Sir WALTER HILLIER as chief adviser to scarcely more than a hundred miles off, was in Peking, and surrounded by rebels no the Commander-in-Chief, we fear he has not naturally first on the scene. But, although less bloodthirsty than the followers of the yet recognised the gravity of the situation. summoned in a hurry, it is satisfactory to Mahdi. In the present case, though there For Sir WALTER HILLIER as a man we have find that Great Britain was not far behind, may have been a want of grasp and decision every respect; but unfortunately he belongs and was able by the 10th June to have a in treating Chinese subjects, neither Lord to a school of dilettanti who more than all body of marines and blue-jackets ready to SALISBURY, nor any other statesman nor other causes combined have concurred in take the field, and essay a rush for Peking, indeed anyone capable of forming an opinion bringing about the present phase. The with the assistance of troops of other na- -had up to the fatal 13th June, the slightest school that condoned the tortures of Husiwu tionalities. That expedition was unsuccess- suspicion of the treachery about to be prac- by the burning of the Summer palace, has ful, but was not altogether in vain, as its tised. The blow fell like a bolt out of the had its innings for forty years: the imprison- prestige has certainly prevented any more blue, nor is it at all likely that even of those ment and attempted murder of the Ministers serious attempts being made to take Tientsin engaged in the plot to expel the foreigner has been the logical result. We certainly by assault. Meanwhile, largely owing to from Peking there was a single one who require in the crisis a higher type of states- the determined front shown by the Japanese, foresaw the course that events would take. manship than is indicated by a BRUCE, a who quickly recognised the importance of We do not say this in any attempt to pal- WADE, or a WALSHAM. liate the authors of the plot, because through
the issue, the almost impregnable forts at the unskilfulness of the manipulators the
Taku were escaladed, and an opportunity explosion took a different direction from
opened for the protection of Tientsin. By that intended. The real plot, in fact, in-
the 9th of July the European Powers, by a cluded the massacre of every single foreigner
concentration of the forces held by each in (Daily Press, 2nd August.)
Chinese waters, were able to muster on in China; and it was owing to the bungling of the Empress-Dowager and her crew that France."
They manage those things better in the Peiho a small army of some ten to Those who remember France in twelve thousand men, of whom some two the damage, great as it has been, was not the halcyon days of the third NAPOLEON thousand eight hundred were British-a immensely greater. But there are other will readily recall the deprecatory phrase force, unfortunately quite inadequate to the dangers in the situation that seem to point with which it was the custom to reward task before it. Japan who individually had it out as one, the real importance of which every English attempt to get out of the succeeded in sending the largest number of does not seem to be sufficiently appreciated. groove into which we had permited our-troops, and who had taken a conspicuous The murder of GORDON was only one of a selves to drift during the long peace that series of events that brought home to Eng- followed he decisive victory of Waterloo. land the extreme importance of the issues Our own experience in the Crimea taught to be decided in Egypt, and the present us that the saying was not altogether un- status at Peking is only the natural out-founded as far as the arts of war were con- come of not altogether dissimilar condi- cerned, and the many English visitors, who, tions. Had the other Powers been con- tent to act in the general interest at
attracted by the novelty of the thing, went over to see the great Exhibition of 1857, Peking, there would have been no such probably the most picturesque of the whole divergencies of opinion as would have encour-series, came back from Paris fully convinced aged the truculent Government of the Do- that in the arts of display, at least, we had wager in the course she had marked out for much to learn from our neighbours across herself, but it must remain the worst feature the Channel. Fortunately for us the of the present situation that it was distinctly Crimea taught us a lesson that has not yet brought about by the undignified intrigues been effaced from the memory of the nation; of the individual Ministers; not a few of but it still required the humiliations of the whom were prepared to hail any indignity Indian Mutiny to drive the lesson effectively from the Imperial Court, provided only it home. The Franco-German, war of 1870 fell on the person of one of their rivals. again might reasonably have been supposed That this feeling, even in the present crisis, to have taught a useful lesson, but it was is not dead, we have proof in the undignified accepted in such a pedantic manure that manner in which the proposals of Japan to mischief, rather than strength, was the re- take part in the relief of the Ministers at sult. Such was the position when we were Peking were at first treated, when there was suddenly called on to repress & most serious possibility of that assistance being effective; revolt amongst the Boers in South Africa. and the part taken by the British Govern- The country and the Government was taken down to the arrival of the Canning and ment will remain as evidence of the loyalty in the end by surprise, but on the whole
80
part in the capture of the Taku Forts, found herself hampered by the jealousies of the Continental Powers, and though reliefs had been ordered, the British troops in garrison were but few, while an unreasonable delay had occurred in sending out the reliefs to the fleet. Under the circumstances it spoke well for the officers in charge of the Navy and Army on the station that able to place in the field so large and
were they well-found a force as they did. For once, however, the British Government woke up to the danger of the situation; on the 18th June we find that the details of an expedi- tion from India were already determined on, and the staff and regiments to be sent already s selected. No fuss seems to have been made about the preparations, and the first known in China of the actual embarkation was a few days before the 9th July, when the Nerbudda, carrying the first troops of the contingent, entered Hongkong Harbour, to be succeeded on the 11th by the Palamcotta, and then in rapid succession have followed a string of twenty-three transports,
Natiana yesterday. This may be looked