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One was a letter of instructions to the Mixed Court Magistrate, directing him to ascertain and report the present addresses of the relatives of twelve innocent Chinese killed by the foreign troops (exclusive of six rioters killed), and to report further W particulars respecting the claims of thirty-one Chinese who suffered loss of property in These instructions concluded the riot, and of nineteen Chinese who were injured. with the following remark:---
"The fact is, the British Minister puts the blame on the Chinese authorities, and insists on the arrest of the rioters and payment of compensation before the case can be settled. The Wai-wu Pu has telegraphed to the Viceroy to take the case into considera- tion, and I have received telegraphic instructions from his Excellency to bring the documents to Nauking after the fifth day of the New Year, and consult him on the matter. The rights and wrongs of the case are known alike to Chinese and to foreigners. It is not right that we should pay compensation, and the claim must be energetically resisted.
"Moreover, the Chinese suffered most. The loss of Chinese property was greater I am than that of foreigners; and as for lite, we had lives lost, and they had none. anxious that the British authorities should have no handle, and therefore am bound to make further investigation."
The other letter was addressed to Mr. Tseng Shao-ch'ing, who is, I understand, an expectant Taotai, President of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce or some such institution in Shanghae. This letter begins by attributing the origin of the disturbances to the strong public feeling caused by the action of the British Assessor, Mr. Twyman, in mistaking Madame Li, a Cantonese lady with many friends and fellow-countrymen in Shanghae, for a kidnapper, and by the assault on the Mixed Court attendants and insult to the Magistrate effected by the municipal police under Mr. Twyman's orders. The letter goes on to justify, as a precautionary measure, the action of ex-Taotai Yuan in temporarily closing the Court, comments on the peaceable tone of the speeches delivered at the meetings held by the student and merchant classes, and states that the outbreak by rowdies in the Settlement was totally unexpected. Dealing with the claim made by the British Minister for compensation, the Taotai's letter says that it The Taotai has been is utterly unjust, and tends to create further resentment. instructed by the Viceroy to investigate the matter carefully, and report fully. He gives the following reasons for his conclusion that the Chinese Government is not Tiable :-
1. The Chinese authorities are forbidden to exercise jurisdiction in the Settlement, and are consequently unable to secure safety.
2. The Chinese pay police rates and are equally entitled with foreigners to protection.
3. The municipal police nevertheless failed to protect Chinese, with the result that they suffered more than the foreigners.
4. Taotai Yuan offered military assistance to restore order, and took effective action in punishing rioters.
5. The shops were all open as usual on the morning of the riot, but were forced by the rioters to close.
6. The rioters did not come from Pootung and the city, as is proved by a letter from the French Consul-General.
In conclusion, the writer requests his correspondent, as fully conversant with the origin of the disturbances, to furnish him for the information of the Viceroy with detailed evidence in support of the above general statements, and remarks on the disparity between the loss of life and property suffered by the Chinese, and the smaller loss of property suffered by foreigners.
After reading the above summary of the Chinese official view of the situation, I was prepared to find that the Shanghae Taotai's conferences with the Viceroy would do little towards facilitating a settlement, and so it proved. When I called on Mr. Jui, he soon sent the servants out of the room, and brought up the subject. Although he did not touch on the alleged injustice of the demand for compensation, but, on the contrary, assured me of his own and the Viceroy's anxiety to arrange an amicable settlement, he dwelt at great length on the dangerous tension of public feeling at Shanghae with regard to the matter, and on the certainty that insistance on the demand for com- pensation to be paid from the Chinese side alone would lead to a further outbreak of the rowdy elements at the instigation of irresponsible agitators, which could not fail to
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embitter the relations between China and England. As the result of his conferences with the Viceroy, a telegram had been sent that day to the Wai-wu Pu suggesting as a basis for the proposed negotiations between the Taotai and a British official the principle of reciprocal compensation, that is, the foreigners should indemnify the Chinese, and the Chinese should indemnify the foreigners. He asked me whether I thought this compromise would be acceptable to the British Minister.
I replied that you had already rejected the proposal for payment by the Municipal Council to foreign, and by the Chinese authorities to Chinese, sufferers, and that the present proposal did not seem to be in any way more calculated to effect a solution.
The Taotai begged me to telegraph to you and to Sir Pelham Warren, and urge the importance of arranging a settlement which would not be humiliating to China. For himself, he would absolutely decline the responsibility of negotiating on the basis of compensation by Chinese alone, not so much from fear of the obloquy to which he would expose himself, but from his conviction that rioting would inevitably ensue. If this were insisted upon, he would ask that the former Taotai Yuan, who was originally responsible for the trouble, should be commissioned to settle it. Of Yuan he spoke confidentially with some bitterness, remarking that, although he had been prevented from taking up his new post, he was still rich and influential, and was watching critically in Nanking the action of the Viceroy and himself, without stirring a finger to help them in their difficulty.
I told the Taotai that I had no instructions to discuss the question, but only to report the result of the consultation between him and the Viceroy, for the information in regard to which I thanked him.
I had the honour to telegraph to you yesterday the substance of the proposal made by the Viceroy, and before my interview with the Viceroy this afternoon I received your reply, instructing me to make it clear to his Excellency that the proposal was absolutely inadmissible and that His Majesty's Government would insist on the payment of compensation to bond fide sufferers.
The Viceroy began by showing me, in strict confidence he remarked, the draft of his telegram to the Wai-wu Pu, which, he said, had been dispatched yesterday. It was pretty much to the same effect as stated by the Taotai, and contained a reference to an investigation into the Chinese claims which was being made by Mr. W. V. Drummond, Legal Adviser to the Government (who, by the way, came to Nanking with the Shanghae Taotai, and is still detained here by the Viceroy). His Excellency proceeded to explain the merits of his scheme, which, he said, would in some measure prevent loss of "face" by China, and would at the same time secure indemnity for the sufferers; for, he added in a whisper, when the settling up time came, it could be arranged that the bulk of the loss should fall on the Chinese. He seemed genuinely disappointed when I gave him the substance of your message, and exclaimed: "In that case I shall have to ask leave to resign! He went on to expatiate, as the Taotai of Shanghae had done, on the danger of another outbreak. There was an alarming increase in the number of bad characters in the Settlement, robberies were constantly taking place, and the Chinese police employed by the Municipal Council were notoriously inefficient. On the other hand, the temper of the merchant and student classes had quite changed within recent years. They no longer accepted their ideas from the officials, but had learned to think for themselves and to ventilate their grievances at public meetings. There was a very strong feeling as to the injustice of giving the Chinese authorities no jurisdiction in the Settlement at ordinary times, and then holding them responsible and demanding compensation when trouble arose. He understood that more public meetings to express this feeling were already contemplated, and it was now difficult to interfere with the modern claim to freedom of speech. Although the rowdy element was quite independent of the merchant and student classes, the former found their opportunity when the latter became excited, and the present situation was such that a spark might produce a general conflagration, the possible extent of which it was impossible to foresee.
The Viceroy mentioned another difficulty, without, however, laying much stress on it, namely, that the other Powers, who had waived all claim to compensation, would assert such claims if compensation were paid to the British, and that no settlement would be satisfactory which would not apply to all the Powers alike.
His Excellency said he had never had a day's peace since he took up his administration, nothing but famine, rebellion, and an empty Treasury. It was hard, he remarked, that the brunt of settling this case, which should have been settled long ago by the Viceroy Chou and the Taotai Yuan, should now fall upon himself and Taotai Jui, neither of whom had anything to do with it. This led him to speak of Yuan
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