Ch
January 18, 1902.]
with funds for the development of trade and mining, if such are required by her.
a.-No Power shall be allowed to interfere with the trade and mining interests of the territory.
b. Should any Chinese mines under Russian control require funds, no capital other than Russian shall be employed.
c. Should it become necessary to re- new contracts regarding the working of mines under Russian control, Russia and China under such renewal shall share benefits equally.
d.--The Chinese officials shall protect
Russian merchants.
IV. Chiua shall not increase the num- ber of Chinese troops in the territory be- yond the present number. In case the number shall be increased, Russia shall arrange for the drilling of the new troops.
E-
China may fortify important places, but no artillery shall be mounted on such
fortifications.
b.-Rifle-firing will be permitted in drill exercises but not the firing of artillery.
c.-Russian officers alone shall be ap- pointed to drill the Chinese troops, and no other Power shall be allowed any interest
in this matter.
According to the Mainichi, the Russian Minister presented this document to Prince CHING and WANG WEN-SHAO on the 24th ult., in answer, we suppose, to their statement that they were not very well Acquainted with the previous negotiations on the subject. The Mainichi goes on to say that WANG WEN-SHAO replied to M. LESSAB as follows:-The stipulation re- garding the drilling of the Chinese troops is injurious to the dignity of China and it should be amended. The period allowed for the departure of the Russian troops is too long, and as for the expense of the maintenance of the troops it will be duly considered after the actual condition of Chinese finances has been ascertained. The stipulation regarding restrictions to be placed on British and Japanese officials travelling on the Newchwang Railway should be discussed between these powers and Russia, while the clause prohibiting the construction of any branch beyond the Liao-ho should be amended. Finally the stipulations with regard to mining in the province menace the integrity of China. As will have been recognised, this alleged reply of WANG WEN-SHAO practically tallies with the objections quoted from a Peking telegram by our Shanghai correspondent on the 26th ult. This may perhaps be regarded as increasing the probability that the terms given by the Mainichi are authen- tic. In this case, it is not necessary to discuss them over again. The objections to them from the point of view of the com- mercial Powers and from that of China have been stated repeatedly in the Press and elsewhere. The majority of the con- ditions are not new. Such a clause as that numbered I. c. is preposterous. It is hard to imagine that Russia expects that an agreement of this kind could possibly be tolerated by those nations against whose interests the Convention is mainly directed. It is not necessary to suppose that there are any secret provisos behind this "agreement." Its ratification alone by China would mark the vassalage of that empire to her northern neighbour.
A large public meeting was held on the Luneta, Manila, on the 30th ult. in honour of the Filipino martyr Jose Rizal. Senores Buen amino, Reyes and others delivered com. memorative speeches in Tagalog. Few Ameri- cans were present.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
19
on
THE RETURN OF THE EMPEROR. | come uppermost in the Dowager Empress's mind, and within the last week she seems to have sent H.E. YUAN SHI-KAI With a woman's message to the Ministers offer. ing to make terms that if she her part should condescend to go back own quarters, they on their to her part would withdraw the Provisional Go- vernment at Tientsin. That YUAN himself would sincerely desire that the local govern- ment of his chief city should be restored goes without saying, and no one will think the worse of him for using every means in his power to that end; but YUAN is a man who has exhibited an unwonted degree of perspicuity in very trying circumstances, and it can hardly be supposed that the suggestion came from him. More likely is the suggestion to have emanated from the notorious favourite LI LIEN-TIN, to whose evil counsels so much of the present position is due. That the specions request met with the contempt that it deserved is a fortunate circumstance, showing that more sensible counsels than prevailed in many quarters last year are coming to the point. As a fact, although some of the Powers did wish to insist on the return of the Court as a concession, the majority of the Powers, including, we believe, Great Britain, were well content to leave this to follow as a necessity as soon as the Court displayed any desire to come back to its senses, so that the attempt to exact terms is likely to fall Meanwhile the Pro- as a dead letter. visional Government has earned the grati- tude not only of the foreign Powers but of China herself. Indeed, it was entirely through the steps taken by that body that it has been possible to introduce a suffi- cient feeling of confidence to enable the Court to return at all. The work of the Provisional Government is not yet com- plete, and none know better than YUAN SHIKAI himself that without it affairs would rapidly fall back to their old condition of disorder.
1
(Daily Press, 7th January.) This afternoon His Majesty the Emperor KWANG Hsu is due to return to the capital of his Empire after an absence of nearly seventeen months. On the 11th August, 1900, he fled, no better than a captive in the train of the Empress Dowager, escaping from the advancing forces of the Allies pressing on to the relief of their beleaguered fellow-countrymen. After two months of hardships such as seldom fall to the lot of a reigning monarch the Emperor, reached Hsianfu, Shensi, in October, 1900, to remain in that once celebrated but now totally decayed city until the 6th October last. Three months more see him back at last at Peking and restored once again to the nominal headship of the Chinese Empire. The interval between his hurried flight and his return has been a period of deep humiliation for China, humiliation for which he has been in no wise responsible, except in so far as his rash enthusiasm for the cause of reform brought about the coup d'état of 1898. .It is difficult to feel any assurance that His Majesty has profited largely by the lesson he has received. No one doubts his good intentions, but unfortunately KWANG Hsu has never given signs of genuine force of character. If he can be separated for ever from the pernicious environment of his aunt's friends and surrounded by such honest and enlightened statesmen as China possesses, then there may yet be cause for his rule to be remembered with gratitude in the history of his country. But the re- maining reactionaries, utterly disgraced as they have been by the course of affairs, seem yet able to cling to the offices which they and their fellows have exercised with such discredit to themselves and such sorrow to China in the past. It is neces- sary, if the era of KWANG HSU is ever to be
We have every confidence in notable rather than notorious, that the statesinan of the shool of LI HUNG-CHANG YUAN himself as an administrator, but it means the intention of the and worse, if less able, men shall yield place is by no to that of the Yangtsze Viceroys and others Dowager Empress and her party to who have in the recent times of trouble leave him a free hand, and until some has yet been proved themselves real patriots. By their plainer indication than moderate yet progressive advice alone is the afforded, that the Empress Dowager has Emperor likely to contribute to the much made up her mind to change the rule of eunuchs for some better system, is talked-of regeneration of China.
apparent, it would be little short of folly to listen to any such suggestion as has been made. In the interest of China, no less than of foreign Powers, the still further continuance of the present position is a matter of necessity. The Court has it, however, in its own power to put an end to the anomaly, and the Powers will be ready to remove the inst vestige of interference as soon as the restored Government shows any sign that it is able to grasp the first prin- ciples of sound administration.
CHINA AND THE EMPRESS DOWAGER.
}
The rate of exchange between United States currency and that of the Philippines was fixed by Acting Governor Wright at one dollar-gold to two dollar and ten cents Mexican,
to take effect on the 1st inst.
(Daily Press, 8th January.) That the recent outbreak of savagery in China owes its main inception to a woman is curiously shown now and then by the characteristically feminine inconsequence of the Chinese government. Tired out at the state of semi-starvation existing at Hsian, the Court made up its mind to try Kaifeng, but found it had leaped from lowest grief to something lower still, so after as short a stay in the old Kin capital as it thought consistent with dignity, it last month set out on its journey to the promised land of Peking. So far so good; none of the foreign Powers were anxious to see the Inperial Court continue any longer in its
There was a brilliant gathering at the self-imposed purgatory, and all were pre- luncheon given to Marquis Ito at the Mansion pared to welcome it back in its old quarters. House. The Lord Mayor highly eulogised the For some days affairs went on as well as Mikado, and extolled Marquis Ito's indomitable could be expected, and all the luxuries that will and unselfish patriotism. Marquis Ito, the most exacting of Chinese lalies even in replying, said that the reforms in Japan were the richest days of Imperial rule could due mainly to the devotion of the Mikado and profound satisfaction at the cordial relations require were supplied by the provinces with the patriotism of the people. He expressed unstinting hands.
As Peking was ap existing between England and Japan. He proached the idea that in returning to her believed the focus of international commercial own personal comforts she was in some way competition was moving towards the Pacific, conferring some hitherto undiscovered bene- and hoped that Japan would largely share fit on the foreign Powers seems to have therein.,