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"das Deutschtum im Auslande," the most glowing colours only should have been used. Now, would it be too much to say that it indirectly seeks to exalt German interests, by suppressing all comparison with what their rivals have achieved or are accomplishing, and thus throws dust in the eyes of the uninitiated ?
That no stone is being left unturned in order to impress on the native mind a sense of German power, German influence, and German prestige is matter of common knowledge. And that insidious attempts are constantly being made to undermine our own position in China cannot be denied.
Hercof abundant proof can be furnished and innumerable indications cited. The somewhat superfluously exaggerated part played by Germany after the events of 1900; the large sums of money lavished on the fortification and development of Kinochau; the ostentatious display of the German naval ensign on the Yang-tsze, a river on which, except at the one port of Hankow, no German merchants are to be found, the creation of a Consulate at fchfang, where there is absolutely no Gorman trade; the persistence with which the matter of the very questionable right to engage in target practice on the Poyang Lake is being fought; the erection at Shanghae of a palatial post-office, quite beyond the needs of any postal service carried on; the strenuous efforts made to collect funds wherewith to build a club which, by its grandeur, is to advertise the German name; the increase of salary and allowances granted to the German Consul-General, in order to enable him to take up a social position higher than that of his colleagues, constitute a bundle of straws, sufficiently indicative of the direction in which the wind is blowing.
Great Britain enjoyed for so many years such complete commercial supremacy in China that it was only natural that, so soon as her competitors realized the possibilities for trading which this Empire affords, and endeavoured to obtain their legitimate share thereo, she should have been compelled to relinquish a certain proportion of her erst- while monopoly. To argue from that, however, that her total trade has declined, or that her stake in the comtry is less than it was before, would be ludicrous.
China we find
The veil of reticence within which the British merchant, as a rule, chooses to shroud his affairs is one which the British official feels a certain amount of delicacy in removing; and it is, therefore, not casy for him to collect the data necessary to traverse the statements of the German compiler of this publication of the Central Union, who has evidently been copiously supplied with figures not usually accessible. Taking, however, such material as is at his disposal, the writer will endeavour to criticize, seriatim, the various German contentions put forward. "Wherever we turn our eyes on German effort at work." This is not strictly in accordance with fact. German enterprise has not, so far, effectively penetrated north of Haukow, into Ssuch'uan, nor into Yünnan, China's two most valuable staples of export are silk and tea, which together represent nearly 50 per cent. of the total value of native produce exported. Germany does not participate at all in the export of. tea. As regards silk, however, it must be admitted that of the 45,000 bales exported from Canton, a very considerable portion is shipped by Germans. The total export of silk from China amounts to 120,000 bales. Of imports there are quite 50 per cent. in which no German can claim a share.
To turn to the shipping figures. The statement that the German flag has taken second place in Chinese waters is untrue. For 1903 the percentages are as follows :—
Great Britain
Per cent. 49.08
China (including junks under the cognizance of the Imperial Maritime Customs) 17-30 Japan Germany
14.00 12.75
There is not a single merchant-vessel flying the German flag trading on any lake in China. The great part of China's coasting and river trade, carried on under the German flag, amounted, in 1903, to 792 per cent. The British proportion was 45-26 per cent. All German Companies put together may have "no less than twenty-five steam- ships in the regular coasting trade of the Empire"; one British Company alone has exactly double that number. On the Lower Yang-tsze, between Shanghac and Hankow, five German steamers ply now as in 1902. They are all said to be unprofitable carriers, and the proportion of cargo they obtain is less than 10 per cent. of what one British Company can secure for itself. Recent returns would seem to show that, so far from making any advance, they are actually losing ground. On the Upper Yang-tsze, Hankow-Ichfang, one German steamer ran, but was lately withdrawn, and is now for sale. The exiguous "thread of Empire," she was engaged in spinning, shrunk by some 20 per cent, in four years. It is quite possible that in 1902 the Germans had thirty coasting vessels
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trading from Hankow, but in 1904 only one German steamer loaded from there coast- wise against twenty-eight British. While the British and the Chinese Companies, who control the trade between Hankow and Swatow, were quarrelling with the Swatow Guild, the latter invoked German assistance. Those concerned fought hard to hold their own, but, as they could not grant the facilities required and sustained an admitted loss of 60 per cent. of their capital, they were compelled to quit the field. An equally unsuc- cessful effort was made to capture a share of the carrying trade between Shanghae and Ningpo.
British steamers, in 1904, carried from Swatow to Shanghae and the north, out of 209,000,000 packages, 157,000,000 against 5,000,000 carried by German steamers. Perhaps the most important section of the coasting trade is that to and from Newchuang, and this the Germans hardly touch. They have four steamers running to Chefoo, Tientsin, and Tsingtao, and they naturally receive the support of German firmus both upwards and downwards, but the bulk of the trade is in the hands of Chinese, who are strong supporters of the British Companies.
Recently British steamers have been running to Tsingtao, and so formidable is their competition that the Hamburg-Amerika Linie is agitating to have them excluded from that port entirely.
As regards the coolie traffic from Swatow and Amoy to the Straits and Siam, this is conducted in Chinese-owned steamers or in Dutch and German boats, of which two latter the agency is held by a British firm. It is freely rumoured that the German Companies intend to place twelve new steamers on the China coast, and, if they do so, they will doubtless, by cutting rates, secure a proportion of the trade, but, everything being equal, we have no cause to feel alarmed, as in 1904 the two large British Coasting Companies increased their fleets by ten vessels, and are building more. As has been stated, any movement on the part of German shipping on the coast has been of a retrograde nature, and, in so far as their transoceanic trade is concerned, their finest advertisements, the "König Albert" and the "Hamburg," had lately to be withdrawn because they were losing money so heavily.
In the matter of catering for the large and growing passenger traffic between Europe and the Far East, it is frankly acknowledged that the German Companies have completely outdistanced their competitors, but it would be interesting to learn whether or not they have sought to swell their passenger figures by including therein time- expired men from or reliefs to the Kiaochau garrison.
In order effectively to criticize the tonnage statistics adduced, one would require to know what proportion of British-owned goods and produce British steamers carried to and fro. As it is, one's only approximate guide is the Customs percentage table of foreign trade, inwards and outwards, carried under each flag, which, however, affords no indication of national ownership. This gives for 1903 :-
British Japanese German
Per cent,
47:57
13.38
11-18
(It may incidentally be remarked that, at first sight, the wording of the German statement is misleading. Total tonnage and total value refers not to the whole of China's trade, but to that small portion thereof carried in German steamers.)
The railway between Tsingtao and Chinan is a piece of work of which the Germans may justly feel proud, and the energy and expedition displayed in carrying it out should serve as a useful object-lesson to British dilatoriness and apathy in this particular field of enterprise. (The writer has gone fully into the prospects of this line in a Memorandum which appears in the Confidential prints for November 1904.) It is not quite correct, however, to say that German engineers are actually engaged in building a second German railway, and the suppression of any reference to British co-operation in the construction of the line from Tien-tsin to the Yang-tsze is hardly straightforward.
Outsiders do not hold the same optimistic views as the Central Union with regard to the coal which, up to date, the German Shantung Mining Company have turned out. Nor can it be said that the Society for Mining Industrial Effort Abroad has had much reason, so far, to congratulate itself. To compute the amount of German capital invested in industrial enterprises in Shanghae recourse must have been had to private information furnished by the individuals concerned, but to make up a similar statement from a British point of view would involve an officious prying into the affairs of others likely to be strongly resented. Reading the remarks of the Central Union, one would imagine that the various undertakings enumerated owed their existence to German
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