September 15, 1900.]
THE SITUATION.
(Daily Press. 12th September.) "No news
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. rho are supposed to represent it, can be with regard to the withdrawal of troops wought to book for their crimes, would be from Peking, and we have therefore been simply fatal to foreign prestige and would looking rather for news from London than unquestionably result in the long postpone for what may come to us via Shanghai, | ment of a settlement of all pending questions, The telegram which we publish to-day from while it would ultimately involve us in a our London correspondent will, therefore, be more serious struggle for supremacy in East- read with interest. It is true that the in- ern Asia. It may suit Russia to put off the telligence which it brings is not yet officially evil day in the hope that she may arrange confirmed, but on the face of it the report matters amiably with China and thus looks to have the stamp of truth. Italy has save her
railways and maintain her throughout the present difficulties in China interests in Manchuria. It may suit maintained an attitude worthy of high com- France because she is bound hand mendation, and the plan now proposed as far and foot to the Northern Colossus, whose as it goes, offers an acceptable solution. Many wishes she has no option but to echo; and will, of course, cavil at the selection of Li it may for the moment suit the United HUNG-CHANG as a negotiator, but it cannot States, whose political parties are now look- be forgotten that he will carry enormous ing eagerly for a new policy; no matter at weight in China, outside the circle of mur- whose or at what cost. But it will not suit derous reactionaries and their deluded fol- Great Britain, who has, we believe, deter-lowers, and that during the events of the last mined to see the matter through; and it few months he has, for all his past reputa- will hardly, we fancy, fall in with the views tion, kept faith with the Powers and freed of Germany, whose Ambassador's blood them from serious difficulties in the south. still cries from the ground for the vengeance We may
be unwilling to trust him which his Imperial Master has solemnly farther than we can see, but in vowed in the face of Europe shall be exacted intellect and in acquaintance with from the cowardly assassins.
European modes of thought, he stands above his fellows. His loyalty to the DOWAGER EMPRESS is an obstacle to his ready accep- tance by the Allies, but the fact remains that there is no one to take his place. Prince CHING has been reported ill and unwilling to act. He is, like Li, an old man and he has been subjected to a great strain and, moreover, to personal danger in Peking. But his patriotism is undoubted and his reluctance may be overcome if pressure be brought to bear. The Chinese proposals to make YUNG LU and HSU TUNG meinbers of the negotiating body may, of course, be set aside as mere attempts at "bluff." The reported Italian proposals go on to make the evacuation of Peking conditional on the signing of the peace preliminaries. This is only reasonable, but it cannot be construed as meaning that no guards will be kept in the capital meanwhile. No mere signature of pre- liminaries will guarantee their execution, and until the Empire is well started on its new lease of life it would, of course, be an act of folly only less than Russia's proposed scuttle to restore Peking in statu quo to the Chinese. As only a skeleton outline of the proposed settlement is at present. given we do not propose to discuss the matter at length here. Two days ago we dealt with the ques- tion of a satisfactory solution of the Chinese difficulty, and we must await until a detailed scheme is evolved by the collective intelli- gence of the Powers before criticism is possible. The proposed guarantee of the integrity of China is a necessary condition; the possibility of an international loan depends on the security which China can furnish.
accurately summed up the state of affairs during the first half of the present, and with cable-difficulties and bad weather prevailing we have had to content ourselves with conjectures and unsupported rumours. In the south nothing has come out of the excitement which prevails gener- ally at times of big Chinese festivals. Even in Canton nothing but a false alarm on Shameen, described in our correspondent's letter yesterday, occurred to break the quiet of the neighbourhood. Lr HUNG-CHANG'S deputy, Tax Sow, has so far succeeded ad- mirably in maintaining the discipline which LI himself established in Canton and the
surrounding district. The departure of some of the more dangerous troops for the north no doubt contributed to make the task of keeping the peace easier, but the Cantonese appear to have been chastened during the term of office in their midst of the new Viceroy of Chihli and to have learnt to keep their volatile spirits in check. At Amoy, where an extremely difficult position threatened to arise, calm once more reigns and trade is beginning to revive. Whether the recent scare was, as the European and Chinese residents believe, actually manu- factured by the Japanese, or whether, as the Japanese themselves claim, there was a serious anti-Japanese agitation in progress, it is not possible to decide at present. In the heat of the moment accusations were rife and evidence hard to obtain. The Japanese ultimately adopted the sensible course of detaining the troops in For- mosa which they had intended to traps- port to Amoy, and the international significance of the episode is at end. From Shanghai up to yesterday no intelligence was forthcoming since the announcement of LI HUNG-CHANG's in- tended departure for the north by the Anping. The garrisoning of the Settle- ments by European troops has been carried on with far less friction than at first seemed probable, and we hear nothing to indicate that the Chinese merchants' anticipations have been realized of the paralysis of local trade in consequence of the effect of this landing of troops on the minds of the na- tives. The European troops are now rein- forced by 600-Japanese marines, and Shang- hai wears a very military aspect.
F
an
In the north the main interest is centred in the action of the foreign governments
(Daily Press, 14th September.)
$199
As
whether he conveyed any proposals from the Court to the allied Powers or whether he returned to Peking on his own initiative. His intended co-adjutor LI HUNG-OBANG has not yet left Shanghai, but proposes, as our telegram states, to start to-morrow and make his way up to Peking to join the Prince. This he can only do by the consent of the Powers, which, however, there seems no reason why he should not obtain. we pointed out yesterday, though there are many reasons why Lr's appointment to the position of negotiator should be distasteful to us (an article appearing in another column puts them forward in a striking manner), yet his undoubted ability marks him out as the man for the onerous post, and there is no one else whose name will carry a tithe of the weight which his carries. To China he has for many years been the unfailing last resource; to the rest of the world he is with all his glaring faults the strongest Chinaman of the century, not trusted, but at least in a fashion respected.
It is not yet possible to say that the situation at Peking is become much clearer, but it is certainly satisfactory that Prince CHING has returned and that the Allies are at length able to communicate with a pro- minent Chinese official, albeit one who has been long out of favour with the Court party. The fact that Prince CHING for all his sympathy with the foreigners was able to weather the "Boxer" storm and retain his life during the period of triumph of his most violent enemies proves that he inspired even the reactionaries with a feeling akin to respect. The less deeply compromised of the anti-foreign party must now see that he affords them the best means of making terms with the Powers; this was evinced, indeed, by his selection in the first instance as peace negotiator. It still remains for us to hear
We still await from Europe the news of an approach to definite agreement among the Powers. We may be certain that tele- grams are passing to and from all the prin- cipal capitals and that the ambassadors at the various courts are having a busy time. The very fact that all press telegrams are so delayed shows what a pressure there is of official messages from the diplomatists in Peking to their respective governments. We are, however, likely to know little of what is going on until some joint plan is fully matured. The Peking withdrawal, or rather retreat, fortunately hangs fire, and we have apparently grounds for trusting that, if actually put into execution, it will at least be delayed long enough to prevent the fatal compromising of the position which Russia threatened to bring about. Germany at any rate is unlikely to take any decided step before the arrival in the north of Count von WALDERSEE, now on his way from Singapore to this port. Dr. MORRI- sons' despatch of the 31st ult. to the Times speaks ill for Russian sincerity. How are we to justify the fact that the Tsar's Government is insistent on the withdrawal of the troops from Peking, while Russia's own military authorities in that city are acting in a high-handed fashion and "assuming an over-mastering position "? The task of explaining the tortuosities of Russian dip- lomacy is beyond us. Time alone may show what is the exact object of this apparently double-faced action. Experience does not encourage us to hope that it is for anything else than Russia's own material advantage.
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WANTED-AN INTELLIGENCE
DEPARTMENT.
(Daily Press, 13th September.) Few of our readers will be surprised at the strength of Dr. MORRISON's communica- tion to the Times, in which he expresses the profound indignation felt by the European residents now released from their prison in Peking at the way in which the home authorities, both in London and Washing- ton, have continued to receive honourably the Chinese representatives to whose “shame- less lies and transmission of bogus edicts was due the long delay in the relief of the Legations at Peking. We have often had to call attention to the way in which Lord SALISBURY has had recourse to Portland Place for his information about Chinese affairs and the disgrace involved by the dis- regard of his own countrymen's warnings in deference to the interested misrepresenta tions of the Chinese Minister to Great Britain. Recently, too, we have had many opportunities of seeing that the United