CO129-362 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 175

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independent of all control and did what they liked. Their own telegrams sometimes took days to reach Peking. In view of the delays which occur in the telegraphic system between Kashgar and Peking and which can hardly be due to the pressure of work but more probably to the inefficiency of the staff and their dilatory habits of working, would it not be well to make a serious complaint to Peking? There is only one wire and it often gets out of order and the same delay occurs in getting it meaded. The Russian Consulate have their own wire to Bakhti and the frontier.

I lunched at the Consulate. There seemed plenty of work to do as Chinese officials kept calling all the afternoon on business, A Chinese merchant told me in the afternoon that there was not enough business for a Chinese Government Bank here. (There is, however, 100 times more business here than at Uliassutai.) The merchant said that the Governor lent money himself which helps to explain why there is no State Bank. The money difficulty seems a serious one in Chuguchak for the Russian Hassacks (and it must be remembered that the trade is principally in the hands of these) refuse to take Chinese silver however good except at a great loss to the Chinese (as much as 60 cents for 1 tael. One tael of Chinese silver is therefore the equivalent of as much as 4s. 6d. instead of 38.

There is one Chinese coin in circulation, the silver half-tael. It has only just been introduced and is not popular. The result of this seems to be that the road is paved for the introduction of the extensive Russian coinage in use in Urga. Russian bank-notes are already in circulation and are popular.

He is an amiable old man of 65, October 2.-I called on the Prefet of the town. long past work. He is an opium-smoker. He is a native of Hunan, and talks the dialect broadly. He has been here twenty years. I thanked him for the presents which had been made me, and explained why I could not accept them. In the afternoon he returned my call and pressed me to dine with him; as he would take no excuses and in view of the fact that I had returned the presents which had been made me, I reluctantly consented to do so. The arrival of the reply telegram from Peking earlier than I had expected, enabled me to leave Chuguchak before the banquet took place.

The Prefet told me that few foreigners visited Chuguchak. Last year an Indian came and stayed two months in an inn doing nothing." He gave himself out as a Mahommedan missionary and subsequently left for Kashgar. A German Catholic missionary also came last year.

open one soon.

The Prefet said there was no Chinese school at present, but that he was going to The Russians have a school of their own. He said that the Hassacks gave plenty of trouble.

Russian subjects were sent to Bakhti for punishment, but he was not at all sure that the sentence given was carried out.

On leaving the Prefet's yamên, I looked into the guard-house at one of the gates of the city. It is a squalid building and very dirty inside. Here, an officer and three soldiers live; all are opium-smokers and old men. There are three such guard-houses in the north city. An officer gets 8 taels and a man 3 t. 60 c. a-month.

The only Bach things found are a scarlet black-edged uniform jacket, and an old-fashioned gun. man is said to have a gun, but only one, a mouldy dilapidated one, could be produced at the guard-house. On a stand outside were hooks and old-fashioned lances and scythes. Food is deducted from each man's pay.

During the afternoon the telegraph clerk called and tried to appease my anger about the delay in dispatching my telegram. He told me there was only one Russian shop here, the rest being Russian -Hassack or Andijani shops.

square

Chuguchak, or Tacheng, or Tarbagatai, or Beyar as it is still more frequently called locally, consists of two walled towns lying half a-mile apart. They are connected by a long street, with a few other streets running off it, and this forms the trading portion of the settlement. North of this and east of the furthest town, is the quarter where the Russian Consulate and bank, and the houses of the Russian merchants are situated.

Hsincheng, the most southerly of the two walled cities, is a town of the usual Chinese pattern, with a strong mud wall 25 feet high, and 15 feet broad, with an additional 6 feet of battlement, pierced with shooting holes. The town is with a side of 500 yards. There is a gate on each side, that on the north being permanently closed to prevent the passage of evil influences. There are small towers on the walls above the gates and a small building at each corner, and also between the gate tower and each corner. There is a Chinese temple where the north gate should be, and behind it in a strong recess, which should be the outer gate, is a small building containing ritles. The only access to this is from the top of the wall. A shallow dry moat, some 10 feet deep and 20 feet broad surrounds the town. There are guard-houses of the pattern described, at each gate-way. The interior of the city contains the Governor's

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yamên, and a few other buildings, but a large portion of the area is covered with ruins of small houses which no one will remove and where no one will build because of evil spirits. There is abundance of water in and around the town, and the streets are lined with magnificent trees.

The city has a desolate appearance compared to that of the trading quarter outside. Here, there is also abundance of water and trees, among which are a great number of shops. The streets are full of life; carts, oxen, riders, Hassacks, Mongols, and Chinese are constantly moving about, and there is a general appearance of activity. Behind the houses every one grows his own vegetables, and also a little tobacco and Indian corn.

The north city resembles the former except that it is smaller. It is also surrounded by a shallow dry moat. In it live the Prefet and a Colonel, and it is here that the telegraph office is to be found. There is as entire an absence of life as in the southern city.

October 3.--The Chentai (General) from li is expected here to-morrow, to inspect the soldiers, registers, &c., and will stay a week. I called on the Colonel in the morning in his yamên in the northern city. Be is a most friendly elderly man, with thirty years' service in Chinese Turkestan. He has only charge of 100 soldiers, all these living in the northern city-in his yamên indeed. During the day they act as watchmen in the town. If he wants more men he can get them from Lanchow, and he told me he had written to have some who were old and opium smokers replaced. It is he who has found coal in the mountains, 20 miles to the north-east. He showed me some, and was as pleased with it as if it was entirely a new discovery of his own that coal could be used for burning. It is soft and bad, but he said there was abundance of it. He said a few soldiers would act as escort for me on the road. I deprecated this, and said that I had found the roads as safe as any in England. He said, however, that it was the custom,

At noon the Governor sent his carriage to the inn to fetch me to the yamên to dine. I refused to be bullied into doing what I had already refused to do, so sent my servant to explain matters, and also to get some of the Chinese half tael coins for use on the journey. They can, it seems, be only obtained in any quantity from the yamên; the Russian Bank refuse to keep them. The Governor gave the coins himself and was not above giving ten too short, and including twenty which were so bad that no one wished to accept them. In addition to which he did not give fair exchange for the Russian paper money.

In the afternoon I continued my inspection of the defences of Chuguchak, and driving over the plain towards the north-west crossed two small streams by good bridges and reached a fort a mile away. This was a minature city, the length of the side of

the wall being 200 yards. It was surrounded by a shallow dry moat, and entered by one gate (single) facing south-west. The mud walls are 15 feet high and on the inside is a narrow walk round, 8 feet above the ground, the rest of the wall being pierced with firing holes.

Inside the fort is a kind of yamên, and on either side of the court-yard approaching this are the soldiers' quarters. These consist of low mud buildings containing several rooms, so dark that it was impossible to see inside them. They resembled pictures of prison cells in the middle ages. The soldiers number 100. The officer of the yamên is a Major, whose pay is 50 taels a month; a soldier's is 3 taels 60 cents; a sergeant's 8 taels 60 cents. There were some half dozen loafers about who resembled coolies, but who were in reality soldiers. I asked where the others were, and heard that they were at work for themselves, collecting firewood for sale, or in the fields earning a little more than their pay. I asked if they wore uniform, and was told yes, on parade in the morning, but never during the rest of the day. Parade consists of roll call, nothing more. Their rifles were locked up in yamên. Asked. whether they ever had any rifle practice, they replied two months in year, one in spring, one in autumn, when they (most, not all) went out after roll call. They showed me the target, a board 5 feet high and 2 wide, stuffed at the back with straw. it were three round red spots. Each man fired three rounds. They had only one board, and it looked a very old one, it was almost free from holes. All the people left in the yard, except the sergeant, were opium sots. I asked them what they would do if an enemy came, and one man bravely answered that it was their duty to die at their post. That they would shut the gate of the fort and man the walls. They certainly would not go and help the city which presumably must defend itself. I asked if there was any artillery, and heard that the Governor has had four big guns (German, he thought) sent from Urumtsi; they were locked up in Governor's yamên. No hospital;

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