(Confidential.)
2
Inclosure 3 in No. 1.
Vice-Admiral Sir A. Moore to Commander Majendie.
REFERRED for your information.
October 7, 1906.
No doubt a good deal of interest could be obtained from the source indicated, but I leave the Intelligence Officer's suggestion to you to act on or not, as you think fit.
(Signed) A. W. MOORE.
(Confidential.)
Inclosure 4 in No. 1.
Report by Commander Majendie on the Chinese Navy.
A REORGANIZATION of the Chinese navy is now proceeding, and is being conducted under the superintendence of his Excellency Rear-Admiral Sa, who is practically Lord High Admiral and Commander-in-Chief.
His head-quarters are at Shangbae, in the arsenal, from which he directs all movements and issues all orders.
The Secretary of the Admiralty, who corresponds to our First Lord of the Admiralty, is W. F. Tyler, Esq., who is an inspector of the coast, and is practically Hydrographer, head of the Trinity House work, and is responsible for the issue of notices to mariners, &c.
His present appointment as Secretary will lapse in a month's time. Rear-Admiral Sa will then be left in sole control of the navy, and progress may be temporarily arrested.
Mr. Tyler, during his present appointment, has inaugurated the following reforms, or rather, I should perhaps say, has initiated the following system into the service :--
No scheme of reorganization could be efficacious without a new system of education, a new system of justice, a new system of ceremony and standard of conduct being adopted throughout the service.
However excellent the material, however modern the ships aud the drill books, no good results could be expected if the personnel were not self-reliant and self-sufficient. Mr. Tyler has therefore advised the Government and the Admiral that no further purchases of ships of war should be made until the crews were entirely re-educated and capable of doing them justice.
Mr. Tyler then set to work to study the traditions of the various great navies of the past and present, to take excerpts from their regulations, and to embody in a concise form these traditions and regulations into a set of regulations, which should form a standard publication, laying down the rules and laws which should be followed and obeyed by the officers and men of the navy.
It must be remembered that the Chinese navy has no glorious traditions of the past, no ethical standard to guide the conduct of its members. Neither have the Chinese any patriotism, as the Japanese understand it, nor any naval history of which they can boast.
The first essential was to lay down the "Customs of the Service.”
The English navy has in this case been taken as a model, such customs as saluting the flag, the quarter-deck, saluting officers, &c., being clearly laid down.
In this section the duties of men towards their officers and vice versa and the authority of all ranks are clearly laid down. Nothing is left in doubt, and by reading this chapter a newly-joined man should be able to steer clear of trouble. To the Chinese mind ceremony is of the utmost importance, and for this reason the etiquette of the service was most warmly welcomed.
The printed word is also an object of veneration to the Chinese, so that these regulations, which are now in print, and issued to the fleet under the signature of Admiral Sa, will be treated with the greatest respect as the years pass by.
Having thus instituted traditions, it was next necessary to institute a mode of punishing those who disobeyed the rules and customs of the service.
It was also essential that the system of administering justice should be equitable,
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and that the Anglo-Saxon principles of right and wrong should be inculcated into the minds of those who were to bear rule.
The elementary principles were made out and put in print-rules such as: ---
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A man is always to be considered innocent until his guilt is proved. A man need not plead guilty" or "not guilty," and should be warned that any statement that be should choose to make might be used against him.
All these elementary rules are clearly laid down, and have been approved at Peking. They have becu sent to the military officials for their study and report.
Together with these are the rules for summary punishment and for punishment by courts-martial.
As far as I remember them, they are as follows:-
A Captain may punish as follows :-----
Officers: reprimand.
Men: degradation to any rank from which the Captain may have raised the man ; stopping pay up to a third of a man's pay for the month, the money going to the general mess of the ship's company; the equivalent of our 10a; extra work: and finally reprimand.
If the Captain finds that a summary investigation does not elicit the truth, he may call a local court-martial, consisting of three officers, one of whom may be himself if he desires. This court-martial has the additional power of awarding corporal punish- ment," which term is not used in the same sense as in our service, but means
caning."
Officers cannot be punished except by reprimand, unless a general court-martial is called,
General courts-martial are called for more serious cases.
They may be preceded by Courts of Inquiry.
The punishments allowed are as follows:-
For Officers Death; banishment with hard labour; dismissal with or without disgrace; degradation; degradation to the extent of three or less places on the list; reprimand.
For Men.--Death; transportation with hard labour; transportation ; corporal punishment; degradation; stopping pay; equivalent to our 10 A; extra work; reprimand.
The "Recorder" of the Court, who is a glorified "Judge Advocate," not only sees to the legality of the proceedings, but has the power of intervening to prevent irregularities, even if they are caused by the President's ruling.
One such preliminary court-martial or Court of Inquiry has been held, and was well and seriously conducted, all the members of the Court being personal friends of the prisoner, whom they condemned as guilty, and recommended for a court-martial.
But, to avoid scandal, and to smooth matters over, the Admiralty was obliged to intervene, as, if the case had gone forward, one of its prisoners would have bad his head removed by the civil anthorities.
The prisoners are to be dismissed the service, and as they are both of high social rank and are Commanders in the service, it speaks well for the Court that none of the members shrank from their duty.
The organization of the various departments is much the same as in our service, the "executive officer" being responsible to the Captain for the discipline of the ship,
and being empowered to give punishment at the Captain's discretion.
The Engineer Captain or Commander cannot punish.
The messing of the ship's company is conducted as follows:--
There are no ship's provisions nor stores of that description at all. There is a rice locker, which is kept filled by the boatswain, who also supplies dried fish and salted vegetables. These are bought as the ship goes from port to port; but the system is capable of expansion, for the rice and fish, vegetables, &c., last just as long as our salt provisions, and are less balky. All that is necessary in a long cruise is for the Captain to inform the boatswain that so many days will be spent away from land, and the latter will purchase the food. The whole of the ship's company is in one mess, which is catered for by the boatswain and messed by the Captain, who supplies the money.
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