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THE ANTI-FOREIGN OUTRAGES AND BRITISH DIPLOMÁCY.
It is to be feared that, in connection with the Kucheng Inquiry, where bad begins, worse also remains behind. Mr. MANSFIELD, by his tardy attention to the case, and the British Minister by his very weak demands, have evidently encouraged the Fukien officials to assume an obstructive attitude in the conduct of this inquiry. If it be refused to allow the British and American Consuls to be present at the examination of the prisoners, it is only what might have been expected. Sir NICHOLAS ('CONOR, in his sweet simplicity and confiding faith, asked and of course obtained for his Consul an escort of "braves" to Kucheng. The "braves 19 on arrival promptly commenced looting the mission premises, and according to accounts have steadily misbehaved them- selves ever since. Why did not the Minis ter procure a large British military or naval. escort to Kucheng, the expenses to be charged to the Fukien Government? Had the Consuls gone up to Kucheng with five hundred men of the Hongkong Regiment and a hundred marines and bluejackets of the U. S. Navy as their escort they would have met with a far different reception from the Chinese officials. An escort of Chinese " braves" Half a score of Hongkong Police Constables would be worth five hundred of these ragged ruffians, whose bravery oozes out of the tips of their fingers, and whose only raison d'être is plunder. Sir NICHOLAS O'CONOR ought surely to know something of the Chinese by this time, and to be aware that inquires conducted under the circumstances attend- ing those now being instituted at Chengtu and Kucheng must, in the very nature of things, prove the merest farces. Cannot he see that the Chinese are laughing in their sleeves at him? Has he already so fallen under the spell that intercourse with the mandarins seems to induce that he has be- come deaf tó reason` and void of common sense? Is he quite incapable of perceiving that nothing is to be obtained from the Tsungli Yamên until dictation is resorted to. The Minister at Peking who argues is lost and should be as promptly superseded as a man who has parted with his reason. The only way to deal with the Chinese is to present a just demand, and then if denied, proceed, after a given time, to enforce it.
Meantime encouragement is being af forded by these temporising measures and lukewarm demands to the Chinese officials to incite to further outrages. Fresh altacks on missions and mission. aries are reported from Szechuen and elsewhere, inflammatory placards have ap- peared in Canton, and in other parts feeling is being aroused against the missionaries. We shall not be surprised to hear, at any moment, of a fresh massacre or outrages. Nothing is so calculated to lead up to these outbreaks as official insolence to foreigners. A rumour has obtained currency in Shanghai that a French gunboat has been despatched through the Tungting Lake up the Siang river to Changsha. If this be a fact it is a proof that the French Government have at least become alive to the situation Nothing could have so salutary an effect on the Hu nanese as the appearance of a foreign gun- boat in the capital of their province; and, if it became necessary, the occupation of that city and the open degradation of the prin cipal officials there would bring home to the minds of tue people the futility of their pretensions vis-à-vis foreigu nations, and shatter their inordinate and intolerable con-
correct that the Chinese mandarins have
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
August 29 1895.
About eleven o'clock a delegation of three English missionaries went to see him, but "he would not return to his Consulate. In
"the afternoon a letter was received from
Western Powers to do something to restore" would not turn back. They might go down foreign prestige in China to its condition "and do what they could, but he would go prior to the disastrous hostilities of 1884-85. | "for his holidays and write to the Viceroy from If she has determined to lower the "the mountain. And this, though he knew crest of the haughty Hunanese she will have" there had been a borrible massacre. taken one good step in this direction, and we heartily wish more power to her arm. It may by some persons be regretted that joint action by the Powers seems now so impossible, but it is at least dubious whether joint action has proved beneficial in the past. It would be very much better if the foreign Powers could agree in the future to withdraw their Representatives at Peking and appoint a Consul-General or Consular officer to each province who would deal direct with the provincial Government and ignore Peking altogether. No satisfaction the Chinese Ambassadors, whose arms are is ever to be got from the Tsungli Yamen or duplicity, lies, and evasions, while punish- ment for outrages and reparation for wrongs can always be quickly exacted from a pro. vincial government by a timely display of force. It is high time to abandon the foolish travesty of maintaining diplomatic intercourse with the rotten, corrupt, and inbecile parody of an administration established in the evil smelling capital of the Manchus.
THE BRITISH CONSUL AND THE KUCHENG MASSÄURE.
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"Foochow, saying that a rescue party was ba
ing organized, and two Englishmen called on him again and showed him the letter, "He pooh-poohed the whole thing, but when "it was suggested that it would not be pleasant for him to be away if such an expedition started he decided to come down, though he pointedly declared that "he was doing so to prevent its going. I "do not hesitate to say this refusal of the "British Consul, R. W. MANSFIELD, to re- "turn to his post at such a time is deserving "of the severest censure, and in my judg.'
ment is sufficient ground for his recall." If Archdeacon WOLFE'S express" be ac- cepted as some exoneration of Mr. MANS- FIELD's failure to return at once, the charge that be again refused at eleven o'clock and that at five o'clock he went unwillingly still remains to be met. Archdeacon WOLFE says Mr. MansfielÓ promised to return "at the earliest moment." If Mr. SMYTH is to be believed, five o'clock in the evening was not the earliest moment, as the Consul had arrived at Kuliang before eleven o'clock and at that hour was solicited to return, but in vain. When Mr. MANSFIELD's own explan- ation is published it is to be hoped it may prove
more complete than Archdeacon WOLFE's. In the meantime it is only fair to suspend judgment, but the case is certainly one that calls for explanation.
TORTURE AT THE KUCHENG TRIAL.
The express issued at Foochow by Archdeacon WOLFE, exonerating Mr. MANS- FIELD, the British Consul, from the charge of having treated the news of the Kucheng mas. sacre either lightly or indifferently, will be read, at first, with a feeling of relief by British subjects. That the Consul should place the enjoyment of a holiday in the hills before attention to his official duties at a time when a number of British subjects had just been foully massacred within his jurisdiction seemed too disgraceful to be credited, but
A Foochow correspondent, telegraphing the charge was made so categorically that it was impossible to reject it without with regard to the Kucheng Commission, states that the two Consuls, meaning the explanation. Archdeacon WOLFE says
British Consul and American Consul, with that he was the person who first met the Consul on his way to Kuliang and other Europeans, were present at the trial of communicated to him the news, and that the persons accused of being implicated in the Mr. MANSFIELD's first impulse was to return Kucheng massacre, and that "torture opened mouths." We await further explanations, at once to Foochow, but that he had dis- missed his coolies and had neither sun hat and in the meantime can only express noi umbrella, and that it was as much as his the hope that the foreigners neither as- life was worth to return to Foochow, a dis-sented to nor witnessed the torture. tance of seven or eight miles, in the broiling they did, it would be the crowning horror sun, and that it was therefore agreed that it of this horrible business and would mflict was best under the circumstances for him to indelible disgrace on all concerned. No one, go on and send off his despatches from Ku. however high his position, who has any part hang and that he himself would return to in the infliction of judicial torture, can him- Foochow "at the earliest moment, which self be considered very far removed from a
he did the same evening." It is said that first thoughts are best, and it is a pity that Mr. MANSFIELD did not act upon them on this occasion and return with Archdeacon WOLFE, We should fancy means of pro- tection against the sun could have been found or improvised on the way, and even if there had been some risk Mr. MANSFIELD would not have been the first British official to incur risk in the discharge of his duty. But assuming it was necessary for him to go on to Kuliang for his sun hat and umbrella, which it appears he had sent on before him, was it not bis duty to return as soon as he got them? A letter has been published in the Shanghai papers over the signature of the Rev. Go. B. SMYTH, in which the writer says:-" On the way he [Mr. MANSFIELD] "met Archdeacon WOLFE and the Rev. Mr.
BANISTER, of the Church Missionary | Society, going down to see him and show "him the letter which was received from Mr. PHILLIPS the night before, telling of the ceit. France owes it to herself and to all the "Kutien massacre. They told him, but he
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state of savagery.
If
FRANCE IN YUNNAN AND THE MOST
FAVOURED Nation CLAUSE.
When the conclusion of the new Franco- Chinese Convention was announced it was said that it gave the French the right to open mines in Kwangtung, Kwangsi, and Yunnan.
The full text of the Convention
has not yet been published, although it seems it has been in Shanghai for some time The N. C. Daily News, however, has past. obtained a summary of it, and according to our contemporary the article referring to mining does not go nearly so far as has been stated. As originally drafted by M. GERARD it obliged China to address herself to French engineers when she wanted mines opened (8'addressera d'abord), but this was altered
may address herself before signature to | (pourra s'addresser d'abord). The case seems to be similar to the railway clause in thə French treaty of 1885. The French wanted
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