CO129-373 - Public Offices - 1910 — Page 130

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]

AFFAIRS OF CHINA.

CONFIDENTIAL,

C

[33119]

No. 1.

[September 2.10

SECTION 2.

3.00 10

Mr. Max Müller to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received September 12.)

Peking, August 25, 1910.

(No. 290.) Sir,

IN reply to your despatch No. 245 of the 19th ultimo, I have the honour to state that enquiries made here have failed to elicit any confirmation of the report, alluded to by Sir E. Goschen, of the engagement of German military instructors for the Chinese army.

From the euclosed memorandum drawn up by Colonel Willoughby, Military Attaché to His Majesty's Legation, it will be seen that, although there are a certain number of Germans and Japanese holding instructional or supervisory posts in military schools, there are no foreign instructors actually with troops of the regular

I have, &c.

army.

(In the absence of His Majesty's chargé d'affaires),

E. SCOTT.

Enclosure in No. 1.

Memorandum by Lieutenant-Colonel Willoughby.

IN a speech recently made at Berlin by his Excellency Yin Ch'ang (late Chinese Minister to Germany), who is now on his way back to China to take up his appointment as War Minister, he mentioned his admiration for the German army and its methods, and said he hoped on his return to manage to obtain the services of some German military instructors for the army in place of the Japanese, who, he added, were cheaper to employ. Yin Chang is perhaps (from being in Germany, and married to a German wife) a little out of touch with the present-day Chinese feeling as regards foreign tutelage. The tendency to dispense with foreign guidance and instruction is very marked. Foreign instructors in the Chinese army are now entirely limited to purely instructional or supervisory appointments in military schools and manufacturing establishments. Officers of the Luchun Pu, general staff, and local war boards, wherever I have been, assure me that there are now no foreign instructors actually with troops of the regular army. In the north, even the schools are almost entirely taught by the Chinese instructors, even in the case of foreign languages.

In the Yang-tsze provinces I have come across a certain number of foreign instructors in the military schools, viz., at Wachang (Hupei), Nan Chang Fu (Kiang Si), and at Nanking. Japanese are still a good deal employed in topographical instruction and Germans (some ex-officers) in topography and sciences.

M. E. WILLOUGHBY, Lieutenant-Colonel,

Military Attaché.

Peking, August 20, 1910.

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