178
126
told me that the Russian Consulate guard at the other Ili consisted of fifty men and one officer. Up to last year there had been 250, but 200 had been recalled. Even during The Chentai has 300 men of the Russo-Japanese war the number remained unaltered. the old pattern; they live in Suidun. There are a few shops in Suidun (within the town walls), but the area is mostly covered with yamêns and official buildings. It is in the commercial quarter that most people live. The streets are narrow and filthy, though this may have been partly due to the melted snow. The population is chiefly Turki.
October 25.--I spent the whole day in Hsincheng ("New Town," New Kuldja, or Ilifu), driving thither in a Russian four-wheeled carriage. These vehicles have almost ousted the lumbering Chinese carts.
Hsincheng lies some 5 miles to the south, and it took fifty minutes to drive there. The road is good for most part of the way, and runs among trees and over rough uncul- tivated, uninhabited country. We met a fair amount of traffic, chiefly riders or these Russian carts. The latter act as omnibuscs, and charge 10 cents per head. They will hold as many as eight people.
Hsincheng is the residence of the Tartar General, and the head-quarters of the Government of the Ili district. As regards wealth of trees and abundance of water the city is far superior to Peking, while the streets are broader and more evenly laid out. The town is surrounded by walls and entered by gates of the usual pattern. All the shops are inside the walls, and there was plenty of life in the streets. The Chinese shop- keepers told me trade was very good. The town is policed by a body of men eighty strong. They are dressed as the Peking police-neat black uniform, foreign military cap, and either big leather boots or the Chinese velvet hoot; they carry batons. I was told they all live in a yamên to the north of the city-a kind of barracks; their pay 6 taels a-month. They looked a respectable and well-disciplined set of men. Tartar General is trying to double the strength.
is The
I visited the telegraph office-a telegram to Peking costs 54 cents a word. Ten clerks live in this establishment; they are allowed to be married men; their wives live there, too. None speak English or Russian, and they said they had no Russian business. All the clerks seemed very stupid. They said it was impossible to send a telegram to England, but later on they offered to accept one; it would go viâ Shanghae, and the cost would be 5 dol. 60 e, per word. I subsequently sent my telegram from Old Kuldja by the Russian wire, at the rate of 65 copecks per word.
The pay of these clerks is 12 taels a-month, all the expenses of the establishment being borne by the Government, including food and lighting.
There is no Government bank in the town, but the large Chinese shops will do bank work as regards transmitting money to Peking or Tien-tsin. There is no Chinese post-office, all correspondence has to go through the Russian post-office, and so to Peking via Siberia. It seems a great pity that there is no branch of the Imperial Chinese Post Office here, they would assuredly have plenty of work, and the cost of installing it along the Imperial highway would be met by the revenue derived from the large towns along it not already furnished with branches.
The official Peking Gazette" reaches the telegraph office through the other telegraph offices, and the news contained in it trickles through a month late unless the matter is urgent.
He
I subsequently visited the Chiangchün (Tartar General). He is a friendly old man of 66, though he looks a good deal older. Chang Gun is a Manchu with many years' service for the State. Sixteen years ago he was Amban at Lhassa for one year. subsequently became Chiangchun here, and being succeeded by two others, returned to the same post a year ago. He is energetic and progressive, and said to be honest; he is popular with the Chinese merchants, who all speak of him as 'extremely good." This certainly proves that he is honest. He speaks no foreign language. We conversed chictly about foreign railways.
<
On my way back to Suidun I left Hsincheng by the west gate in order to visit the barracks of the Luchun. These are situated about of a mile from the town among trees and scrub: the building was formerly a temple and is surrounded by a high mud wall of the usual town wall type. The inclosure is some 200 yards square and entered by one gate (single entrance) facing the south. Inside the inclosure is the residence of the Major, and on either side of the courtyard and leading up to this are the soldiers' quarters. Several of the men were outside at work on the horizontal bars and other athletic arrangements. I visited the Major. He told me he had 270 men (one of the soldiers outside had told me 340, and I had already been informed 210 from several sources; this latter number is probably the correct one). They had been here a year, They belonged to Yuan Shih Kai's army and spoke proudly of the fact. The Major said
men.
127
that if it had not been the 1st October, a Chinese holiday, he would have paraded his I saw some forty of the men; all looked clean, There is no foreign instructor. bright and healthy, there were no opium faces among them, a very different set of men to any of the so-called soldiers I had seen in the dependencies. The number was to be increased if possible by local recruiting. Punishment for desertion is swift and summary; one man recently ran away, was recaptured and beheaded.
Outside the gateway was leaning an old fashioned Austrian rifle for one cartridge; it was fitted with a bayonet. The soldiers said they had new ones, magazine for five cartridges. They have no artillery, but the Major said there were some old fashioned cannon in the yamên (probably only for saluting purposes).
The only other soldiers in Ili are all the inhabitants of Hsincheng (Sibo Solong) who receive pay from the Government as such but are only so-called soldiers; they are the old banner organisation and need not enter into
any
account.
The Russian Consul told me a few days later that the Chiangchun is very frightened of his troops (the Luchiin) that he finds it difficult to provide their pay, that they mutiny if they do not receive this when due, and that one or two executions have already taken place.
October 26.---A merchant tells me that there are no Russian shops or traders in Suidun or Hsincheng; all are in Ningpuanhsien (Old Kuldja).
We left during the morning for Old Kuldja and after traversing Hsincheng turned eastward up the Ili Valley. The road rose very slightly to Tieliangsze at mile 114 from Isincheng. This is the half-way stopping place for all traffic but it only consists of some eight Turki mud houses, four on either side of the road, rising phoenix like from a larger collection of ruins. The population sell tea and cakes to passers-by and are in the In the hills close by the coal, excellent smokeless, happy position of paying no taxes. which is used throughout the district, is mined. I was told that it did not belong to the Government but that anybody who liked could send and take it away. It is sold at an amazingly low price in the towns.
Descending from the low hills we were abreast at mile 17 of another of the 9 hsien cities which compose the Government of Ili, Baiandai, behind a long mud wall. No trees mark its position and it is difficult to sight it among its dreary surroundings. Half-way between Baiandai and Ningyuanhsien we passed Chuncheng another hsien city, a small deserted town said to be haunted by the spirits of the Chinese massacred in the last rebellion thirty years ago. Reaching the outskirts of Ningyuen, another hsien city (Old Kuldja) we saw in the neat houses with glass windows signs of the existence of Russians. On reaching the gate of the city at mile 22 we did not enter but turning to the left skirted the walls, passed the Russo-Chinese Bank and the Russian post and telegraph office and found our way through a labyrinth of dirty squalid streets to a poor inn. had taken us six hours to perform the journey in a Russian carriage for the road is very indifferent. From Balandai onwards, the country was entirely covered with the ruins of the disastrous days of thirty years ago which not even trees and rough grass could conceal. It was possible to have a coal fire in the inn although there was no chimney, the coal being absolutely smokeless.
It
October 27-I called on the Taotai at 10 o'clock, he is an old man and it was too early for him; he is a Manchu called Ching. To-day is the Mahommedan New Year's Day, a three days' holiday; the streets were full of merry-makers and children dressed in the gayest of colours, were driving about in carts and carriages; everyone was exchang- ing greetings in the market place. Beggars, strolling minstrels and singers were going their rounds from house to house, with a successful persistency which should encourage our Christmas waits. The most deserted looking spot was the Taotai's yamên, forlorn, grass-grown and empty, in striking contrast to the merry streets.
I subsequently called at the Russian Consulate, which is situated in the labyrinth of tall trees, among which the various buildings for guard and interpreters are scattered in a confusing manner. The Consulate lies to the north of the town and away from the busy streets of the trading borough. The Bureau was closed in view of the Mahommedan holiday, and later I found the bank also closed. The Consul, Federoff, is a quiet, elderly, The Chinese officials like him, and say he is well-preserved man, with a quiet manner.
a good man. He has only just come back from leave; he had retired, but having lost her only son at Vierny, where he lies buried, Madame Federoff has insisted on spending the rest of her life here. The Consul's health is bad, and this will tend to non-activity on his part.
The Russian post and telegraph office was open in spite of the holidays. No one speaks any European language there except Russian, nor indeed is Chinese spoken; fortunately a Russian-speaking Chinese customer was able to act as interpreter.
Page 180Page 181