| PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TPLLC.O. 882
6
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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an expression of my deep sense of the many kindnesses you have shown to myself, Captain Barnes, and all the other members of my party.
From the moment that we set foot in the Province of Shantung, which now enjoys the benefit of your able rule, we have been treated with as great care and solicitude as a mother bestows on her child.
I know full well that your wish is to promote the welfare of our two countries by cementing more closely the friendly relations between them, and to make the Chinese and British more thoroughly acquainted with each other by promoting a more intimate intercourse between them.
The opportunities you have afforded to myself and my party of meeting frequently yourself and the high officials of your Government have given us an insight into the life of Chinan, which has left on our minds a deep impression of the ability with which the affairs of this important province are administered, and of the high capacity of the officials who assist you in discharging your multifarious and arduous duties.
I am certain that your enlightened policy must succeed in making Shantung more prosperous, and that your term of office as Governor will be remembered as one of progress and enlightenment.
You have called me your friend and I feel both honoured and pleased to be regarded as such, not because you occupy a high position, but on account of the manner in which you discharge the duties of your high office and of the respect which I have for your character and disposition.
I have heard with the greatest interest from your own lips the story of your early days, when you had many difficulties to meet, but overcame them all; of
your first acquantance with Li Chung Tang, with whom you were so closely associated during many years; and of your relations with Gordon, the great hero of modern times, under whom you served.
I am indebted to you for having introduced me to His Excellency K'ung Hsiang- lin, the lineal descendant of the seventy-fifth generation of your great sage, Con- fucius, and for having made arrangements for me to visit the birthplace and grave of Confucius, whose name is known throughout all the world, and whose philosophy is universally respected.
I have to thank you for having enabled me to visit all the places of interest in Chinan and its neighbourhood. In the midst of such surroundings it is no wonder that to-day Chinan can boast of so many poets worthy of China's greatest poets of old, and I am proud to be the possessor of poems written by all your leading officials, and to know that I am also to be honoured by a poem from your cultured pen.
Through your unvarying kindness and splendid hospitality our visit to Chinan has been in every way enjoyable, and we shall always remember it with pleasure.
The time has now come for us to part, but I cannot leave Chinan without writing to thank you sincerely for all the kindness you have shown to me and my party, and expressing a hope that we may meet again soon. I trust that you and your family will continue to enjoy health and happiness, and that your sons will prove themselves worthy of their father.
I remain, Yours very truly,
Enclosure 6.
J. H. STEWART LOCKHART.
TRANSLATION of the COMMISSIONER'S ENCOMIUM of CONFUCIUS.
Oh! great Confucius, Sage renowned of old, Whose name for evermore is writ in gold; Thy boundless love, impartial, doth embrace Kindred and stranger, knowing naught of race. Proud am I to approach thy hall of fame, Reverent I pay this homage to thy name. The far-reaching truth of thy classic lore Fresh through the ages ever shall endure.
Translated by
R. WALTER.
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Enclosure 7.
ADDRESS from DUKE CONFUCIUS to the COMMISSIONER OF WEI-HAI-WEI. YOUR HONOUR,
You are an European scholar who have resided in Hong-Kong twenty years. You are able to admire the teaching of our sages, and your learning is profound. You are not only a great official but a great scholar.
Now you have come from afar, not reckoning the distance, to visit the scene where my ancestor lived and taught. Not only do I in my own heart rejoice, but I think that the soul of my illustrious ancestor in heaven must also be glad beyond
measure.
I hope that Your Honour, having such an intimate knowledge of the great sage's teaching, will not refrain from making it more widely known, and will rejoice to welcome those who in pursuit of culture and truth come from afar to honour you, presenting you with tablets such as you have presented to me.
I feel sure that from this meeting will commence a close friendship between you and me.
I attach a poem in honour of
your visit.
K'UNG LING-I YEN SHêng Kung,
Lineal descendant of the 76th generation of Confucius.
POEM by DUKE CONFUCIUS to the COMMISSIONER OF WEI-HAI-WEI.
From London far a learned man hath come
To visit me in my ancestral home;
For twice ten years high rank he held, and power;
Well versed is he in all our classic lore.
To-day he deigns to visit poor Kut Li,*
And greets the Altar of the Almond Tree.t
Happy, indeed, am I this day to meet him,
But mean and poor the feast I spread to greet him. With deep respect this poem I present; This day's the happiest I have ever spent.
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Enclosure 8.
Translated by
Ř. WALTER.
'NORTH CHINA DAILY NEWS," April 23, 1903.
TSINGTAO.
(From a Correspondent.)
April, 1903.
Tsingtao lies 300 miles north of Shanghai and is a 36 hours' run for the steamers that now perform the service. The complete change in soil and climate experienced in this short interval is very striking: the rich alluvial plain of the Yangtze delta is left behind until its northern boundary is reached in the arid granite mountains of Shantung. Into these the wide bay of Kiaochou gives an opening and at the eastern extremity of the bay is situated the whilom fishing village of Tsingtao, now, since 1898, the proud metropolis of Deutsch-China.
The impression made upon the writer, upon approaching Tsingtao from the sea for the first time, was that of a collection of toy houses set down on a shore of glittering yellow sand: so clean and new, of red brick and white plaster, and scattered over a considerable area without any apparent plan, seen from a distance, the innumerable isolated buildings fail to convey the common idea of a town with regular streets of continuous houses. Towers at the corners of buildings, with green and red cupolas, strengthen the illusion, (curiously enough the only conspicuous building wanting a tower is the church) and the lack of traffic in the wide well- kept streets completes the idea of a model town capriciously erected rather at the wave of a magician's wand than that of an ordinary city whose growth has adapted itself naturally to the wants of its inhabitants. Such is the impression on approach; on landing at the fine jetty run out into the sea, one realises that the bright new buildings are really inhabited, although, from the deserted air of the streets, the inhabitants would appear to be mostly indoors, A main cause of this apparent absence of population is the lack of Chinese residents such as swarm in our Treaty
The Home of Confucius.
† In the Temple of Confucius.