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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT, huge country, they include many tribes having little sympathy with each other,
on a loan of £70,000,000. The reluctance of having diverse tastes and qualities, the
that section of the investing public which immense majority of whom are a sheep-like good security above high interest, to take affects Government bonds, and which values pople wholly averse to fighting of any kind up the new Chinese loan is therefore quite they are greatly disinclined to military ser comprehensible, for there is a chance, vice, and abhor the restrictions of discipline.though we think a small one, that payinent They have shown during the present war of the interest might have to be deferred. of what calibre they are made, and though Japan, if she had an entirely free hand in the there is no doubt that if better drilled, mater, might take over the administration better fel. better led, and better paid they of the Customs until her claims were fully would have exhibited greater courage and satisfied, and might with some show of constancy, it cannot be doubted that they rasou say that the obligations incurred by have none of the instincts of a military China for the purpose of waging ber peopl, and are not made of the material unsuccessful war must stand over. from which have sprung the conquering view of the foreign interests at the treaty But in races of the world. All their past history ports it is not at all likely that Japan will proves this to be the fac; they have been seek to interfere with the ad repeatedly conquered by very
dministration inferior of the Customs: what is more probable numbers and have invariably bowed meekly is that she will hold territorial security to the yoke. They have, however, by passive until her demands are satisfied and leave weight and persistence succeeded therefter China to raise the money as best she in absorbing the conquerors, who have scarcely made any impress upon them. In remain the first charge on the Customs, and In that case the foreign loan will still like manner they have too often exercised a detrimental effect on European officials more of the paper left on their hands than they the underwriters, though they have probably accredited to Peking. Some of the Foreign expected, may be congratulated on having a Ministers have certainly been inoculated very remunerative investment. with the Chinese habit of procrastination however, that China has come to the end of It is evident, and have learned only too well the fatal ber borrowing powers for the present and gift of how not to do it, wheu the interests that it would be impossible to float another of their countymen have demanded active loan during the continuance of the war. exertions. Lord WOLSELEY must bare come When peace is restored her financial neces- under the spell during his brief campaign in sities will be very considerable, and Eur Northern China. At any rate it is evident opean capitalists may then be found once he has taken Chinonania very badly indeed. more ready to accommodate her, provided the political stability of the empire seems fairly assured. But her present Customs revenue will scarcely afford sufficient cover for all the borrowing she will have to do, and that revenue will itself be impaired to the extent involved by the lopping off of Formosa. Under the pressure of necessity, therefore, China may bo led to place ber internal revenue system on an honest basis, similar to that of the Foreign Customs, in order to render it available as security for such accommodation as may be required.
March 14, 1895.1 people generally, though he does not hesitate to dogmatise on the subject. It is true that he is not wholly blind to the causes that have rendered China so helpless when brought into collision with Japan. He ad- mits that the contempt with which the edu- cated Chinaman has for generations viewed the military profession has been of itself a complete bar to military efficiency. The rank and file have for ages been drawn from the lowest, most idle, and most dangerous classes in the Empire. His lordship also admits that there is no aristocracy to draw upon for officers, "a fact which has much to do with the want of all healthy military spirit, all feeling of personal honour, pride of race, or even pride in their calling amongst Chinese soldiers of all ranks." But though our "only general" so-called sees that there will be an insuperable difficulty in officering and ruling a Chinese army, he does not despair of some day seeing his prognosti- cations realised. He writes, referring to the future of China after the war:-"What
ever may be the form of government evolved through her defeat, I think it may be as- sumed that she will, without loss of time, create a regular army upon European lines, I can see no limit to the size of the army she could raise, and, according to my estimate of the fighting qualities of her men, I think it ought soon to to be the first army in the world. Indeed, I can see no good rea- son why, in the next few generations, it should not, if properly led, turn out of Asia every European Power now bold- ing territory there." His lordship goes to expatiate at length on the admir. able qualities of the Chinese race. "I believe," he says, "the Chinese people to possess all the mental and physical qualities "required for national greatness. They love the land of their birth with a superstitious reverence; they believe in their own superi- ority, and despise all other races. They are fine men, endowed with great powers of "endurance; industrious and thrifty, they "have few wants and can live on little, and "that little poor food. Absolutely indiffe- rent to death, they are fearless and brave, "and when well trained and well fed make "first-rate soldiers. I have seen them under fire, and found them cool and undismayed "by danger." Lord WOLSELEY then proceeds to recommend that China should remodel her army, engaging English officers to train it as the Egyptian army has been trained, in order presumably that a weapon should be forged wherewith his countrymen may first he dispossessed of their Asiatic colonies and eventually evicted from India.
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THE WAR AND CHINA'S FINANCIAL CREDIT.
The extent to which the financial credit of China has suffered from her defeat by Japan may be gathered from the fact that of the recent six per cent, loan of three million sterling issued on the London market only a little over one-third was subscribed by the public, the remainder being left on the hands of the underwriters. It is said that the reason why the loan did not go is that the public does not comprehend the posi "tion and strength of the security, while
IS 1 HERE SEDITION IN CHINA? "it is uneasy about its value under the The fact that no serious attempt at in-
repeated defeats of the Chinese." readiness with which previous Chinese loans the progress of the disastrous war with The surrection has been made in China during were taken up, however, would go to show | Japan has excited that the character of the security, when among many observers of events in the Far no little astonishment unencumbered, was fully appreciated; that East. portion of the explanation put forward for more than once been confidently stated, It was generally believed, and had the unpopularity of the recent loan therefore that the whole of the central provinces of appears insufficient. The true explanation the Chinese Empire were not only disaffected Now Lord WOLSELEY may be able to alteration that has taken place in China's kwang in particular were literally honey- evidently is that the public recognise the to the reigning dynasty, but that the Hu- regard this contingency with complacency, financial condition. The Customs revenue combed with sedi ion, in the comfortable conviction that he will would be much more than sufficient security rested not alone
This statement not live to witness it-après moi le déluge for the loan of three millions sterling and foreigners supposed to be well acquainted the testimony of but the coming men can hardly be expected the recent silver loan, if the Chinese Govern-with the disposition of the natives but also to look at the matter in the same light. ment were in a position to carry out its under- Still less can they be expected to feel the taking that no loan, charge, or mortgage extraordinary sympathy extended by this "shall be created which shall take precedence eccentric faddist to a race whose good qualities "of or be on an equality with this issue, or are blended with so many objectionable" which shall in any manner lessen or impair traits, and whose rise to power in Asia would be fraught with such unmistakable menace to the higher civilisation of the Caucasian. If there really was any pros- pect of the scribbling general's prophecies being fulfilled we think the very last thing any patriotic Briton, or for the matter of that any sensible European of whatever na- tionality, would dream of doing would be to advocate the training of a vast Mongolian army for the special purpose of ousting Europeans from the Orient. For our part we do not share and have small patience with Lord WOLSELEY's craze. We are ready to concede that the Chinese are as the sands of the sea. for multitude; but they are spread over a
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"the security over the said Customs re- venues so far as they are required for "the annual service of the loan." conquered country with a heavy indemnity But a to pay cannot be considered so completely mistress of her own revenues as to give unimpeachable value to an undertaking such as that above quoted. It is said that Japan will demand an indemnity of sixty millions sterling in addition to the expenses of the war, which may possibly be appraised at another ten million. The readiest means by which China could raise money to meet that charge would be by hypothecating her Customs revenue, but the whole of it would be insufficient to cover the annual interest
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who professed to be greatly alarmed at the on the reports of native officials themselves, progress of the Kolao Hui conspiracy in The activity with which the heads and the towns and cities of the Yangtsze Valley, leaders of this secret society had been credited in 1890-92 seemed to constitute a complicaticu arising the Kolao Hui would probability that in the event of a foreign inevitably prove a very real danger to the State.
peatedly invited to believe that the dis- The foreign residents were re- graceful anti-foreign riots which during the summer of 1891 were so frequent in the Yangtsze Valley resulted from the machina- tions of the secret societies disaffected to the Government, and a great deal of capital connection of the foolish Customs employe was made by the Chinese officials out of the
MASON with the Kolao Hui. It was subae- quently made apparent, however, that the
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