Directory_and_Chronicle_1906 — Page 683

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CHINA

It is to be noted that the Chinese census, following all Oriental methods of calculation, is not to be trusted. There is no subject on which foreign and native statisticians are more contentious than that of the Chinese population. Experts vary in their estimates between 250,000,000 and 440,000,000.

The total number of foreigners in China in 1898 was 13,421, of whom 5,148 were subjects of Great Britain, 2,056 of the United States, 920 of France, 1,043 of Germany, 200 of Sweden and Norway, 141 of Italy, 395 of Spain, 162 of Denmark, 1,694 of Japan, and 1,082 Portuguese, almost entirely natives of Macao, all other nationalities being represented by very few members. Of 773 mercantile firms doing business at the treaty ports, 398 were British, 107 German, 43 American, and 37 French.

The principal dependencies of China are Mongolia, with an area of 1,288,035 square miles, and some 2,000,000 people; and Manchuria, with an area of 362,312 square miles, and an estimated population of 15,000,000. The latter has in recent years been steadily and rapidly colonised by Chinese, who greatly outnumber the Manchus in their own land. Thibet, which is also practically a dependency of China, has an area of 643,734 square miles and a population of 6,000,000 souls.

It is ruled by the Dalai Lama, but subject to the Government of Peking, who maintain a Resident at Lhassa.

ARMY AND NAVY

The standing military force of China consists of two great divisions, the first formed by the more immediate subjects of the ruling dynasty, the Manchus, and the second by the Chinese and other subject races. The first, the main force upon which the Imperial Government can rely, form the so-called troops of the Eight Banners; they garrison all the great cities in such a manner as to be separated by walls and forts from the population. According to the latest but entirely untrustworthy reports, the Imperial army comprises a total of 850,000 men, including 678 companies of Tartar troops, 211 companies of Mongols, and native Chinese infantry, a kind of militia, numbering 120,000 men, but these figures, derived from Native sources, are altogether untrustworthy. In organization, equipment, personnel and commissariat, the Army is utterly ineflicient and with the exception of a few brigades of foreign-drilled troops is little better than rabble as far as concerns opposition to European, Indian or Japanese troops. The native soldiers do not as a rule live in barracks but in their own houses, mostly pursuing some civil occupation. The Army of Chih-li, undoubtedly the best in the whole Empire, utterly failed to withstand the foreign troops in 1900 except in the cases when the disparity in numbers was over five to one. Disorganisation was supreme: although the arsenals around Tientsin and Peking were known to contain more than 200 modern field guns and to be replete with machine weapons, very few were forth- coming in the day of battle. These arsenals, together with the forts at Taku, and all camps and fortifications between Peking and the sea, have now been demolished. Sir Robert Hart has formulated a scheme for the reorganisation of the Army, providing for four army corps, each consisting of 50,000 men, and a first and second reserve. He calculates that at the end of ten years China would have an army on peace footing and in reserves of 500,000 men at an annual cost of Tls. 47,400,000.

The Chinese navy consisted, prior to the Franco-Chinese war of 1884, mainly of small gunboats built at the Mamoi Arsenal, Foochow, and at Shanghai, on the foreign model, but was afterwards greatly strengthened. Five ships were lost, however, in the battle of the Yalu, when the Japanese inflicted a severe defeat upon the Chinese, and the remainder of the fleet was captured or destroyed at the taking of Weihaiwei in February, 1895. Three cruisers of 2,950 tons. displacement were secured in 1895 from the Vulcan Works at Stetten, and two very fine Elswick sloops of the same size were added in 1899. These, with two corvettes and two training vessels, supplemented by four Elbau "destroyers," comprised the Pei Yang. Squadron or Northern Fleet. These vessels might be of real value for convoying troop- ships, shelling rebellious towns, &c., but as the Chinese have no naval base and no docking facilities in Northern waters, and as the ships are ill-found and with indifferent personnel, they would be of little use against a resolute foreign enemy. The destroyers were captured at Taku on June 17th, 1900, by the British "destroyers" Fame and Whiting and appropriated by the allies. The Chinese flagship at the Bar while not actually seized was rendered useless by removing the breech-blocks of the guns and by being placed under rigorous supervision. The remainder of the Fleet fled to the Yangtsze. Sir- Robert Hart in a scheme of military reorganisation prepared in 1904 recommended_the creation of three naval squadrons, the Northern, the Southern and the Central, each to consist of 10 battleships and first-class cruisers, 10 second-class cruisers, 10 torpedo-boat.