CO129-372 - Public Offices - 1910 — Page 73

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intention to reduce the pay of the soldiers, and that if this was done trouble was sure

to come.

Early in January there was a mutiny of soldiers in Yünnan, and their flight into Tonquin resulted in an encounter with the French troops. This mutiny was reported by Mr. O'Brien-Butler in his despatch No. 4 of the 13th January.

The mutiny at Canton in the early part of February, and the prompt measures taken for the protection of foreigners were fully reported on in my despatch No. 69

of the 8th March.

His Majesty's consul at Nanking reported on the 12th January that there had recently been considerable disaffection in the 36th Regiment stationed at Kiang Yin, which culminated in the desertion of about 100 men.

On the 11th February there was a disturbance at Soochow created by mutinous As four British Chinese soldiers. Shops were pillaged and passers-by assaulted. subjects were assaulted, one suffering serious bodily harm, His Majesty's consul- general at Shanghae immediately made representations to the Chinese authorities, who offered a humble apology and paid an adequate indemnity, while I obtained from the Wei-wu Pu a promise that the ringleaders should be punished.

Quite recently I have received through His Majesty's Consul at Chinkiang an account of a serious revolt of a large body of soldiers at Huaianfu and Tsingkiangpu, in Kiangsu, towards the end of February, owing to a reduction of pay and a cruel punishment inflicted on a soldier for a minor offence. The rioting at both places was very serious and lasted for many days, and the officers had to make every kind of concession to the men, but a Catholic missionary at Huaianfu reports that the gates of the mission were not even closed, that the foreigners had nothing to suffer and were not even threatened for a single moment.

Still it is evident that the newly raised troops in various parts of China constitute a source of danger to Chinese and foreigner alike, and the military authorities are in I most cases afraid to take strong measures for fear of stirring up further trouble. shall ask Colonel Willoughby, who is at present inspecting some troops in the Yang-tsze valley, to draw me up on his return a short memorandum on the various military mutinies that have occurred lately, whether they are symptomatic of a general spirit of discontent and insubordination, or are caused by specific causes of complaint. It would also be interesting to know how far the troops might be relied on to protect foreigners in case of a riot.

Of disturbances other than military there have been very few. I have already mentioned the attacks by bands of armed robbers in the neighbourhood of Fushun, Szechuan. There were also small disturbances in the Wei Yuan district of the same province last November, while in December there was a serious fight between junkmen and some patrol beats at Suining on the "Little River" of Chungking, but in none of these cases were foreign lives or property threatened.

Rumours reached me of troubles at Ping-ho IIsien, a place on the Fukien side of the Kuangtung frontier, about 70 miles west of Amoy. Troops were at once dispatched to the spot, and must have been successful in quelling the disturbance, whatever its nature was, as I have had no official information on the subject.

Early in March Ilis Majesty's consul-general at Yünnan-fu reported that there was considerable unrest in the Chaotung Prefecture in the north-east of the province on account of increased taxation and the census, and that meetings had been held to plan the murder of officials and foreigners. I at once requested that proper steps should be taken to protect British lives and property, and troops were promptly dispatched and effective measures taken to suppress the disturbance.

I have already stated that I cannot agree with Mr. Little that the Government are encouraging the anti-foreign movement among the student classes. They would appear rather to be fully alive to the danger to themselves and to China of allowing any disturbances that might endanger foreign lives or property to get beyond their control. How far they are and will continue to be in a position to exercise this control is a question on which I would hesitate to offer a definite opinion, as it must largely depend on the loyalty of the troops, about which, as Mr. Little remarks, doubts are expressed in several quarters.

Mr. Little refers at considerable length to the opposition to the various railway loans. The existence of this feeling is nothing new, and has been known to His Majesty's Government for many years. Its effects have already made themselves felt in regard to the Shanghae-Ningpo Railway loan, and wili assuredly make themselves equally strongly felt in regard to the proposed Hukuang Railway loan. movement, however, is directed against foreign capital, and not against foreign

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lives, and I need not, therefore, comment on what Mr. Little says in regard to the agitation being conducted in Hupei in favour of raising money to exclude the use of foreign capital.

Two dangerous factors in the present situation are the weakness of the Govern- ment and the spirit of disaffection towards both the dynasty and the Government, which is gradually spreading all over China and growing stronger and stronger. I have already referred to certain factors which tend to foster the growth of this spirit of disaffection; other factors I would mention are the ever growing burden of taxation, the disordered finances, the suffering caused by debased coinage and worthless bank-notes, the feeling of opposition that animates the provincial gentry and the provincial assemblies, the false ideas prevalent as to the best means of assuring the progress of the country to enable it to assume its proper place among the nations, and last, but not least, the spread of education which, by providing standards of comparison brings forcibly before the eyes of the people the vices and inherent weakness of their present system of government and of the effete Manchu dynasty.

To contend with such a dangerous situation we have a weak and inexperienced Regent and a Grand Council and Central Government composed for the most part of sycophants and time-servers bent on feathering their own nests, none of whom dare to express an opinion or assume any responsibility for fear of meeting with the fate that has overtaken Yuan Shih-kai and Tuan Fang, while their one idea of dealing with provincial opposition is to temporise and even to divert the feeling of discontent against the foreigner instead of taking a firm stand while it is still time to do so. That there is a revolutionary and anti-dynastic spirit abroad has been shown during the last few days by the plot against the Prince Regent's life reported in my despatch No. 103 of the 8th April, and many people feel that if disturbances do occur in the near future, they will be primarily directed against the throne and the Government rather than against foreigners, though it is evident that in the event of anything like a civil war, the lives and property of foreigners would need foreign protection. But about the probable outcome of a revolutionary movement it is quite impossible to prophecy.

I do not know on what grounds Mr. Little states that there is a feeling that Japan is fomenting this trouble for her own ends. My impression is rather that the fear of Japan is one of the principal deterrents against a repetition of any violent anti- foreign outbreak. I am much more inclined to agree with Mr. Little when he says: "Should there be a recrudescence of trouble as in the Boxer year, a division of Japanese troops would be poured over into China." The Chinese Government are fully alive to the fact that there would be no waiting for the mandate of Europe on the part of Japan, and that the punishment would be swift and sure.

To sum up, there is a strong anti-foreign feeling, which tends to grow stronger every year, but it is a different feeling to the blind hatred of the foreigner that led up to the troubles of 1900. It is, if I may use the expression, a more civilised feeling, and is directed not so much against the foreigner as such, as against his privileged position and boasted superiority. This feeling is more likely to find expression in determined attacks on his privileges, whether secured by treaty or otherwise, than in violent and bloody outbreaks as in 1900. The hatred of the foreigner is there, the question is whether it will find expression in the same manner as in 1900. In answering this question we must remember that in 1900 the Court "ran amuck," and took the lead in the attacks on foreigners, whereas the impression I have gathered from my conversations with our consuls, with missionaries and with Chinese officials, both here and in the provinces, which impression has been confirmed by the prompt measures lately taken by the authorities to protect foreign interests wherever they have been threatened by local outbreaks is that the Chinese authorities from highest to lowest are keenly alive to the inevitable result of any outbreak on a large scale directed against foreigners. In their eyes the inevitable result would be a Japanese invasion and a loss of some of their most valuable provinces. In a country like this, local outbreaks may occur from a variety of causes, and foreign interests may suffer accordingly, but the Government will do all it can to prevent à general conflagration, not for love of the foreigner, but from fear of the consequences.

While I was finishing this despatch, I received the news of the serious distur- bances in Changsha. It is too early for me to form a definite opinion as to the causes which led up to the riot, but all the information I can gather goes to show that though foreign property has suffered subsequently, the riot was caused by distress, and was primarily directed against the local authorities. Moreover, such measures as

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