January 12, 1901.]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
body and mind. It further, and we say it Yamen red letter enclosed a telegram from with regret, misled him with regard to the the Shanghai Commissioner sent through policy to be adopted. Our sympathies are SHENG Ta-jen, reporting Shanghai quiet and most sincerely with him in the former case, asking after the Inspector General, etc. On and we are not without hopes that, guided the 27th arrived another red letter, with by the light of experience gained during the some vegetables, from the Yamen, and on siege, he may yet correct the mistakes of the 30th another, enclosing a cipher tele- the latter. It was decided many months gram of enquiries from London via Chi- before the siege took place that Sir CLAUDE nanfu. On the 2nd August the report was to be shifted. When the news leaked was received of the beheading of the friendly out the Foreign Office were inuch incensed Yamen ministers, HBU CHING-CHENG and at the fact, as it was felt that it did not YUAN CHANG, which may well have sounded accord with Lord SALISBURY'S somewhat ominous to the besieged. But to compen absurd, if flattering, eulogy. It had to be sate for this bad news a note, dated 28th done, however, and accordingly Sir ERNEST July, from Mr. DREW, Commissioner at SATOW was appointed to relieve him. There Tientsin, came by special messenger through is no great objection to the Foreign Office's the United States Legation; this announced appointment for the present, provided they relief at band-though, as. a matter of fact, are fully alive to the needs of the future. owing to various delays, the relief expedition That they are, at least, somewhat awake to did not start until three days after the the necessities of the situation is fore-receipt of the message. On the 7th August shadowed in Lord SALISBURY's speech, and a red letter brought Sir ROBERT HART a in view of the enormous stake we have in the message from his family in London, which trade of the Far East we await with interest, came through SHENG's hands. On the not unmixed with anxiety, the next shuffle 10th the report came in of the beheading of and deal of the cards of the diplomatic two more Yamen ministers Hsu YUNG-rand LIEN YUAN. A red letter from the Yamen was received on the 13th, enclosing tele-
Hankow, and Chefoo, bearing the dates of the 9th and 10th of the mouth. On the 14th August the siege was at an end, but three days afterwards the Yamen sent a red letter requesting the Inspector General's advice and intervention. The account con- cludes with the service movements after the siege.
service. ?-
THE I.M.C. AND THE SIEGE OF grams from the Commissioners at Shanghai,
THE LEGATIONS.
*
But
after the Customs buildings had been vacat- ed and the siege begun, have an unconscious humour which in the circumstanees was un- pardonable. The mockery of the professed solicitude of the Chinese Government, through the body delegated to treat with foreigners, confirms to the full the treachery of that Government. The incidents of the siege, as far as the actual fighting is con- cerned, are hardly touched upon in the account. before us. For that reason the few facts recorded stand out well by them- selves, unobscured by other details, and set forth not the least remarkable feature of a remarkable affair.
(Daily Press, 8th January.) In the, July-September number of the Customs Gazette, published by the Imperial Maritime Customs and now to hand here, there is a very brief account of the siege of the Legations at Peking, which offers a few new details about that exciting period. The This record, brief and bald as it is, has account commences with the entry for the its interest. The attitude of the Tsungli 9th June, stating that all the employés, Yamen as revealed in it is indeed remark Customs, Postal, and Educational, in accord-, able, though well in keeping with the ance with the Inspector General's instruc- general double-dealing of the Court. It is tions, left their houses for the Inspectorate true that some at least of the Yamen were General, and that co-operation with the genuinely friendly to foreigners; four. of neighbouring Legation guards was arranged them paid for this with their lives. for. Four days later the Boxers entered the kind enquiries after the Inspector the city, firing chapels and churches, neces-General and Staff on the 21st July, a month sitating the redoubling of precautions. On the 19th the Inspector General received a Yamen red letter, informing him that the foreign demand for the surrender of the Taku forts was tantamount to a declaration of war and that therefore twenty-four hours had been given to the foreign representa- tives in which to quit Peking. To this Sir ROBERT HART sent a reply saying he thought it expedient for the CustoLas Staff to accompany the Legations and asking the Yamen to guard the Customs archives. This letter pever reached the Yamen, the bearer riding behind Baron von KETTELER and turning back when the latter was shot. On the same day, the 20th June, the Inspectorate was abandoned, and the staff took refuge in the. British Legation. "At 4.p.m.," says the account, "firing began and the siege commenced." Then follows a list of the Customs refugees. The progress of the siege is marked by four casualties, including the death of Mr. E. WAGNER on the 1st July. On the 21st of that month came two Yamen red letters, one expressing regret for the burning of the Inspectorate and asking where the Inspector General was, and the other stating that Mr. F. E. TAYLOR, Statistical Secretary, had repre- sented the inconvenience of the Inspector General's absence and proposed to carry on the latter's duties. Sir ROBERT HART was asked what were his wishes with regard to this proposal. To these letters he replied that he and the Staff were in the British Legation, and that his duties could best be carried on by the Shanghai Commissioner and Statistical Secretary conjointly; and a copy of the undelivered note of the 20th June was enclosed. On the 25th July a
THE FRENCH ON THE WEST
RIVER.
(Daily Press, 11th January). We recorded yesterday the report, conveyed in a Havas telegram from Paris at the be- ginning of the year, that a French gunboat was taking steps on the West River to pro- tect the Roman Catholic converts and to collect the indemnity due to the victims of the recent disturbances. Now it must be recognised that the French gunboats have done some excellent service on the waterways which run through Kwangtung province into the sea at Canton. Thanks to French energy in co-operating with the Chinese authorities, much injury was warded off from the life and property of peaceable con- verts from the anti-Christian ruffians who attempted to take advantage of the weaken- ing of the Imperial forces in the south to plunder their compatriots. Owing to the inadequacy of the British fleet on the China station Britain was powerless to do any
27
thing in a region where her interests are very great. France, who for all her preten sions to influence in the Kwang provinces has very little real interest in them, stepped in and did some very necessary work in strengthening the hands of the party of law and order. Recognising this fact fully, we are all the more sorry to hear of a repetition of the mischievous action of the Comete in Swatow neighbourhood, which is what is implied by the Havas telegram. The pro- tection of converts, when their lives and property are threatened, is a laudable action, and perhaps a necessary one also if the Chi- nese Government is unable to protect its own subjects. But the demand for in- demnities at this stage of the proceeding is unjust and impolitic, and moreover constitutes a breach of faith with the allies of France in the Chinese question. It is unjust, because the incidence of the penalty is on the wrong people, in a vast majority of cases. It is generally found that the work of destruction is done by wandering bands of rowdies, on the look- out for plunder, not by the regular inhabi- tants, so that those who have committed the offence are not often those who suffer the punishment. The demand is impolitic, because it tends to inflame the whole neigh- bourhood against foreigners and Christians and produce the very state of affairs which it professes to punish. Lastly, the demand is a breach of faith, because there is a treaty in course of negotiation which covers this very question of indemnities, and therefore no single Power has the right to extort them independently in any portion of China. We trust that the Paris telegram is incor rect in so far as it states that the demand for compensation forms any part of the action of the French naval authorities on
the West River.
MARTIAL LAW IN THE PHILIPPINES.
(Daily Press, 9th January.)
A certain analogy which has been ob served between the state of affairs in the Philippine Islands and that in South Africa has, it can hardly be doubted, done much to restrain the sympathisers with the Boers, and Filipinos in the United States and the British Empire respectively from showing that sympathy more strongly. The conditions in these two centres of distur bance are now more similar than they have been before. The annexation of the Trans- vaal Republic, following on that of the Orange Free State, has left the Boers still in arms without a country; they must either lay down their arms and become British subjects or they must emigrate.
The re election of Mr. MCKINLEY to the Presidency of the United States, shattering the Fili pinos' hope of independence, leaves them in a similar position of having to become citizens of the United States or quit the Islands for another country. Both in South Africa and the Philippines there is a certain number-though in neither case can the exact figures be known-of uncom- promising opponents of the conquering Power's troops in the field, but the greater danger is threatened by the pretended friends, the ostensibly peaceful citizens, who take the earliest opportunity of joining the enemy's forces or, better still, render them all the assistance possible without com- promising themselves. It is with these pretended friends that Lord Kitchener and General MACAETHUR have the greatest difficulty in coping. We hear from day to day scanty news of the British Commander- in-Chief's progress, but apart from the extension of martial law over certain dis-