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internal evidence this would seem to be the case; but I understand from Mr. Harmon, of the Baptist Mission, that it is supposed by the Chinese to have been produced in Chefoo. I was unable to obtain a second copy of the leaflet, as every endeavour was being made to keep it not only from foreigners, but even from Chinese belonging to other provinces.
The leaflet is only one symptom among many of a very strong anti-German, rather than a general anti-foreign, agitation that is being fomented in Shantung, and that threatens, sooner or later, to develop into an organized boycott directed against the Germans throughout the province. The reasons for this agitation are twofold :-
1. The very heavy, not to say oppressive, taxes that are being levied by the German anthorities everywhere in the leased territory, and which bear especially hardly upon the Chinese; and
2. The Mining Concessions held by the Germans in Shantung and the German control of the Kiao-chau- Chinan Railway, not to mention the occupation of Tsingtau, ever a thorn in the flesh to the Chinese.
In my despatch No. 16 of the 8th October, in which I forwarded copy of the new Tsingtau Godown and Wharf Ordinance, I drew attention to several of these taxes, and expressed a doubt whether the Chinese would in the long run submit patiently to them. The event seems likely to justify my doubts; and these taxes being, as stated above, one of the chief causes of the present feeling against the Germans, it may be of interest to recapitulate some of them, and to discuss the developments that have taken place since I last wrote on the subject.
First comes the Godown and Wharf Ordinance. As already reported by me, the Chinese merchants at Tsingtau did not rest until the Hamburg-Amerika Steam-ship Company had not only promised to pay all whartage dues on behalf of their clients and acknowledged liability for any damage to or loss of goods discharged from or shipped by their steamers, but had further undertaken to render active assistance to the Chinese in their agitation against the Ordinance: only on these conditions was the boycott against the Company raised. Subsequently, however, the Chinese alleged that the latter was not carrying out its undertaking to assist them actively against the Govern- ment, and the boycott was renewed as stringently as before. Once again the Hamburg-- Amerika line could not get a single package of cargo, either in Shanghae or in Tsingtan; and the effects of the boycott were even felt as far south as Hong Kong. The Company was reduced to holding out the inducement of half rates, but even ou those terms could obtain no cargo; and, according to my latest information from Tsingtau, the boycott is still in full swing. This will give some idea of the very strong feeling against the Ordinance. The English Companies serving Tsingtau are reaping a rich harvest, and the Chinese are themselves chartering steamers in addition. The Hamburg-Amerika line has complained to the German authorities; but the latter declare that, after full investigation, they cannot trace any signs of a boycott, and they decline to take any action on behalf of the Company, an attitude probably due to a realization of their own helplessness in the matter.
As regards other taxes, the tax on Chinese huts mentioned in my previous despatch is in operation, and the Chinese complain that the taxes on each individual house or hut amount to no less than 75 per cent, of the rent. The tax on water has also been introduced at the rate of 10 cash for two kerosene tins full (this singular unit was adopted in order to secure absolute uniformity with the minimum of trouble). Those houses that have water laid on pay the tax monthly according to the meter, while in the streets an official stands at each main to take the money and to dole out the water to the coolies and others who come to fetch it. Fees have also been instituted for the use of what are called articles of public utility, among which may be mentioned the public scales set up at all the market-towns in the German territory. On market-days all articles sold by weight are to be weighed in the public scales, for the use of which a small fee is charged. Dues are also levied on sales of cattle and various other goods, while the fees on pedlars' licences were recently raised. In this case, however, there was a general strike of pedlars, and the opposition was so determined that the German authorities were compelled to give way and agree to levy the licence fees at the old rates. In some other cases also the Chinese have protested by closing the shops and by not attending the market; but these manifestations were only sporadic, and soon collapsed for lack of united action. The discontent evoked by these various taxes, which are so oppressive in their incidence, will readily be realized.
As to the second cause of the agitation, the occupation of Tsingtau and the control
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of the Kiao-chan-Chinan Railway may be left aside, and attention confined to the German Mining Concessions in Shantung. For the sake of completeness it may be as well to enumerate once again the Concessions actually held at the present
moment :-
1. Exclusive mining rights for 15 kilom, on either side of the Kiao-chau-Chinan Railway, including the branch line to Poshan. These were transferred by the German Government to the "Schantung Bergbau Gesellschaft," a Syndicate with a capital of 12,000,000 marks, and comprise the richest coal-fields in the province, near Weihsien and Poshan, as well as Tieh-shan, near Chinling-chen, where a very good quality of magnetic iron ore has been discovered, containing on an average 58 per cent. of iron.
2. Mining Concessions in the so-called five zones, held by the "Deutsche Gesell- schaft für Bergbau und Industrie im Ausland," which include gold, coal, mica, and diamond mines. The Company, which is bound under the terms of the Agreement to commence work before the end of 1909, failing which the Concessions will be forfeited, has already started prospecting. I understand that it may possibly confine itself to working the gold mines in the Maoshan, near Chefoo, in the Ning-hai Department, and give up the other Concessions, the value of which is doubtful.
3. Finally, there is the Chung-hsing Coal-mining Company at T-hsien, which is officially called a "Deutsche-Chinesische Gesellschaft," but in which, so I gather, out of a capital of 2,000,000 dollars, the Germans are only interested to the extent of about 43,000 dollars. Besides, it has already been decreed that the Germans are to be bought out as soon as possible, and that the word "German" is to be eliminated from the name of the Company. On the other hand, rolling-stock for a short line of railway, 47 kilom. in length, for the carriage of the coal between the mines and Han-chuang, on the Grand Canal, has been purchased in Germany by means of a loan of 800,000 marks, bearing interest at the rate of 6 per cent. per annum, and this doubtless gives the Germans a certain lien on the mines until the loan has been paid off.
There is, of course, also the Agreement for the German section of the Tien-tsin- P'uk'ou Railway, but owing to the very different Lature of the arrangements under which this line is being built, it is not the object of the same hostility on the part of those responsible for the agitation. It may, however, not be out of place to mention at this juncture that the Chinese have been careful to make no arrangements, for the present at all events, for any connection between the Kiao-chau-Chinan and the Tien-tsin-P'uk'ou Railways. A separate station is to he built at Chinan for the latter, the idea being, as I imagine, to preclude any possibility of the Germans asserting that the line is the continuation to the border of Shantung of the railway from Kiao-chau, thereby enabling them to claim mining rights in the 15-kilom. strip on cither side of the line, as provided for in the Kian-chau Agreement. And here I may add that I cannot find that, as reported by my predecessor in his Intelligence Report dated the 7th August, 1908, mining rights in the 10-mile strip on each side of the portion of the Tien-tsin- P'uk'ou Railway from Chinan southward to the border of Shantung have been granted to Germany.
To revert to the Mining Concessions, their retrocession is demanded from Germany, and, as stated above, a general boycott of German goods and industries is threatened in the event of non-compliance. The agitation appears to have made itself definitely felt some time last May, about the time when the present Governor of Shantung took over the seals of office. Be was evidently considered by the local Young China Reform party as an official thoroughly hostile to all foreigners, and his arrival was hailed by them as the dawn of a new era. The so-called Society for the Protection of the Mines, which comprised the leading spirits in the movement, entered upon a career of active anti-German agitation by the distribution of leaflets, the exhortations of itinerant speakers, and other means, while the Chinese teachers in the high schools published the Kiao-chau Agreement in English and Chinese, with a view to raising feeling against the Germans.
One of the immediate results of the agitation was the usual crop of extravagant rumours, which would deserve no notice were it not that they as ever found ready credence among the people. The Germans were supposed to have occupied Chefoo with their soldiers, while the movements of the Chinese troops in connection with the local manoeuvres in Shantung were said to be an advance on Chefoo in force in order to drive the Germans out. It was reported later on that the Germans were bringing out reinforcements to Tsingtau with a view to the capture of Chinan. On the whole, these
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