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THE SECRET TREATY AND LI HUNG-CHANG'S MISSION
TO RUSSIA,
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
ceeded in securing such good terms for his country. No doubt the veteran ex- Viceroy of Chihli owed no little portion of his success to the Bullet of his would-be assassin-an unfortunate episode which rendered the Japanese more disposed to concede to the victim of the attack-but it cannot be denied that he showed throughout the negotiations the craft and subtlety for which he has always been famous. He con- sented, it is true, to the cession of Formosa, for that was inevitable, and to that of the Liaotung peninsula, but who will say he had not already counted on Russian intervention in connection with the latter? On the other hand, he induced the Japanese Commissioner to forego all the more important commercial concessions first demanded, although he was in a position to insist upon them all. The wily old Celestial, who thoroughly outwitted Captain FOURNIER and other French diplo- mats, had lost nothing of his cunning when he went as China's forlorn hope to Japan to endeavour to obtain peace without too vast a sacrifice of face and specie.
The report that a secret treaty has been concluded between China and Russia is denied by the Peking correspondent of our Shang- hai morning contemporary, though not with any great confidence or apparently on any first class authority. His only authority appears to be Chinese rumour or report, but concerning the mission of LI HUNG-CHANG he is somewhat more explicit and positive. He says:"It is positively denied that the ex-Viceroy Li goes with any authority to 'sign, ratify, or exchange any such treaty "[as the reported secret treaty]; he proceeds to Russsia simply and solely in connection with the coronation. The "Chinese say the EMPEROR would never have deputed LI HUNG-CHANG to conduct such a measure after the fiasco of the Japanese war. This may or may not be true, but whatever may have been the case in connec- tion with the conduct of the war, we fail to see that the veteran Viceroy made any fiasco of the peace negotiations. He more than any man was certainly responsible for the state of unpreparedness in which the war found China. He it was who armed the troops with worthless rifles of various makes, obsolete in design and supplied with cartridges that would not fit; he was the creator and maintainer of the fleet, respou- sible alike for its existence and its numerous and it was at his direction that the forts were erected and armed with guns more or less unsuitable and manned by coolies who knew nothing of the working of artillery. To some extent this deplorable all round failure was the fault of the system of administration, but LI HUNG-CHANG had large powers and used them freely. The materiel was purchased, but of the money voted how much really reached the mann- facturer ? Li himself has grown rich beyond the dreams of the most insatiable avarice, and his relatives and creatures have simply battened on contracts and squeezes. The marvel is, not that so little was achieved during the war by the Chinese forces as that they ever made any stand at all. A certain number of war vessels, of heavy guns, and of arms for the troops had been collected, but there was no system, and every branch of the public service--such as it was-was honeycombed with corruption.
defects;
April 15, 1896.
Europe and America for nothing. It is true their country has profited little from. any knowledge of Western _civilization they have gained; but their Government has learned how to play upon the jealousies and take advantage of the weaknesses of the Western Powers through the knowledge and experience garnered by its Repre sentatives.
THE OPENING OF THE INTERIOR OF CHINA.
In the agitation for the opening of the West River and its affluents, a question that more nearly concerns the trade of Hong- kong and South China, there seems too much likelihood of another similar question being for the moment overlooked. We refer to the opening of the "Siang River or south-western branch of the great waterway commonly known to foreigners for most of its vast length as the Yangtzekiang It was generally hoped after the terrible in- cident of the Kucheng massacre, following Whether or not LI HUNG-CHANG has gone so closely on the heels of the riots in to Russia, as stated, simply and solely to Szechuen, which again were a continuation represent his Imperial Master at the Coro- of the riots and massacres in the cities and nation of the Czar NICOLAS II. we cannot towns of the Yangtsze Valley in 1890-92, · pretend to say. There may be some secret that the central provinces would be opened understanding between Russia and China up to trade and residence. Unfortunately with reference to the Trans-Siberian Rail- the British Government of the day failed to way, and it is quite possible that the Chinese obtain any adequate reparation for the long have tacitly agreed to make, or allow to be series of murders and outrages which cul- made, a railway through Manchuria to minated in the wholesale slaughter of de- connect with it to a port on the Yellow fenceless English ladies and children at Sea. This is possible; but the Chinese have Kucheng, and for which even Lord SALIS no political gratitude, and they are given to BURY-a reputed champion of British rights distrust professed friends equally with open-seemed to think a few pieces of silver and enemies. They never yield anything except the heads of a few wretched coolies a suffi- to forceful pressure, and are far more likely cient compensation. It is true that they to make concessions under a sense of favours were only English ladies and children, the to come than from recollection of past former missionaries, who, in mistaken zeal, services, especially when these have been had gone to teach the heathen a more ex- rendered from obviously selfish motives. cellent way, and missionaries' lives are very The probabilities are all against Li having cheap! Hence it came to pass that this been despatched on his present mission with shocking tragedy went practically unavenged, any ulterior aim. Yet the appointment is for cheap as missionaries' blood may be, rather remarkable and noteworthy for more
coolies' lives are incomparably cheaper. reasons than one. His Excellency is now The opportunity for reading the vile in advanced years and in somewhat infirm promoters of these outrages and murders health. He occupies a most important a severe and lasting lesson was allowed office as Grand Secretary of the Council, to slip by, and the province of Hunan, the and as the adviser of the Emperor on all chosen home of bigotry and anti-foreign matters connected with Foreign affairs ideas, still remains closed to the foreigner stands in a unique position. Nevertheless and impregnably isolated from all progres- this seemingly indispensable counseller has sive influences. Early in the present decade, Even if LI HUNG-CHANG had been an been spared at a more or less critical period when the long series of outrages first took honest administrator instead of a squeezing in China's foreign relations. Why, it may place, there was concerted action among the mandarin, it may fairly be doubted be asked, was not a Manchu Prince deputed Foreign Representatives, and the demand whether the result of the Chinese prepara- on this occasion to represent the Emperor for the opening up of Hunan to trade was tions would have been different in the KWANG SU at Moscow? The Emperor of formally made, but the Powers lacked the end. The Chinese are neither good ad- Japan will be represented by a Prince of energy to insist upon this concessions and ministrators nor good fighters. They possess the Blood, one of the ablest and most distin- were set calmly at defiance by the Peking neither method nor organisation, nor are guished of the Imperial Family Could not Government. The utter rottenness of China they a menable to discipline. CHANG CHIH- China do the CZAR equal honour? She has had not then been exposed by the Japanese TUNG is an instance of how little even an sent her most renowned statesman, but it armies, but none the less it was inexcusable honest official can achieve. He is, and would have been more significant of an inten- for the Treaty Powers to make a demand at we think rightly, credited with being tion to treat Russia on an equality had Prince Peking and then accept a snub. Lord indifferent to money and is reputed to KUNG been despatched to Moscow to be pre- SALISBURY displayed an equal lack of moral be a bitter opponent of the squeezing sent at the coronation ceremony. There fibre after the Kucheng massacre, and the practices of the officials. But his ven- may have been some object in the appoint- mandarins now believe, and with apparent tures, though undertaken from patriotic meat of LI HUNG-CHANG to Russia on this reason, that they can defy any of the motives, and, so far as he is concerned, occasion that is not generally suspected. Western Powers, each of whom grovel at honestly conducted, have not been con- The veteran ex-Viceroy is still the trusted their feet in turn. spicuous successes. Rather the reverse in adviser of his sovereign. He may have fact. He also is unpractical and unmethod-gone to Russia to see something more than ical, and his enterprises have in consequence the coronation. He may have been deputed languished for the most part or proved only to take stock of the country and its apparent qualified successes. What the astute Li resources, to note for the Peking Govern- failed to accomplish the patriotic CHANG ment what manner of Power this great rest- would equally, we feel sure, have been less neighbour of theirs really is; to try unable to achieve, and for the most part for and detect its weaknesses as well as to ascer- very similar reasons. It is quite possible tain its strength. Who can tell? One that had CHANG conducted the negotiations thing at least we know: namely, that the at Shimonseki he would not have suc Chinese Ambassadors have not lived in
Some time last year M. GERARD, the French Minister, after a fine pretence of firmness, which partook, however, more of bluster, sent a French gunboat up the Yangtsze into the Tungting Lake with instructions to proceed up the Siang River, and some of our Northern contemporaries rushed to the conclusion that His Excel- lenoy was about to demand the opening up of that river and the Tungting Lake to French trade. But the gunboat, we
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