354
THE BRITISH MINISTER AND
BRITISH POLICY.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND duty and excess of work; we believe that both of these claims would be better met from home can be intercepted, and the by leaving Peking for a time. Despatches very able and experienced staff at the legation can be confidently trusted to see to the daily routine in connection with the Tsungli Yamen. This suggests another phase of Sir CLAUDE's duties: how to deal with this invertebrate body. He will of course find their very peculiar methods heartbreaking and totally destructive of all the ideals he has formed on the diplomatic art. His Excellency should if possible start with no delusions on the subject of this august imbecility, which lives but to defeat the ostensible object of its creation,
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Sir CLAUDE MACDONALD has reached Pe- king and is now gathering up the reins of his important office. Both Shanghai and Tientsin have followed the example of Hongkong in addressing His Excellency en passant as to the most urgent needs of the foreign communities, and, as might have been expected, their requests have taken much the same form as our own-extension of territory, transit pass questions, and commercial facilities in general. As Sir CLAUDE'S predecessor said, there is no reason why these questions should not be come practical in the immediate future, for the Chinese have already yielded up the principle involved in each. To secure theme, to hinder instead of to further the relations between China and the powers. To is largely a matter of diplomatic finesse and fight it or to reason with it is, according to concerns the tact and personal qualifications Sir HARRY PARKES, like attacking a bolster of the Minister rather than high policy. Sir
or convincing a row of books, and the mere CLAUDE MACDONALD will find the celestial daily intercourse with it is terribly apt to capital a curious contrast to the scenes of degenerate into a question of bodily strength his previous efforts in diplomacy and admi- and staying power. The weapons of Chi- nistration. His lot is now cast in an envi-
nese diplomacy, notwithstanding a lot of ronment of petty intrigue and ignoble chi- rubbish written to the contrary, are passivity, cane, where shifty procrastination is mis- patience, laisser-faire, and a Micawber-like taken for statecraft and cunning is con- founded with policy. Even in ordinary proclivity to await what will turn up, and against a man unused to dealing with times Foreign Ministers have great difficulties
them they are very powerful weapons in carrying out the daily routine of their indeed: in conflict we could vanquish them, work in Peking. But just now these diffi- without conflict they vanquish us. Two culties are raised to the nth degree by the decades ago English statesmen knew the 1 general political outlook and by the
one efficient means of combating and circum- peculiar local situation. France, is repre- venting Chinese statecraft, just as Russian sented by an Anglophobe who not only statesmen know it now, viz., by fixity of thinks it his duty to oppose us, but who policy and a constant display of material also, by the exigencies of the dual alliance, force in the safe background. can carry with him the one strong man of the situation, Count CASSINI. The extreme tension in the recent colonial relations of England and Germany will naturally be re- flected everywhere, even in Far Cathay, and we fear that Sir CLAUDE will not find Baron VON SCHWEINBERG an enthusiastic colleague in the removal of grievances. In Colonel DENBY alone may our Minister look for that cheerful support which attends unity of in- terests and sympathy of feeling. The incon- trovertible fact that the extension of British privileges is and always will be the exten- sion of the privileges of all makes no dif- ference in the attitude of our rivals; the present trend of general Western policy towards China is to secure exclusive pri- vileeges and it is by no means certain that the ingenuity of diplomatists will not find a way through the large mesh of the favoured nation clause" of the existing
treaties.
very
The new Minister has come to China full of zeal and while the fine flush of youth is still with him. As a diplomat he is still in the sap stage and his vitality, does not run to pith. We are glad of it, as we have a general belief in young men. Age has never had the monopoly of wisdom. A young man is less likely to stagnate in Peking than one of riper years.
We hope Sir CLAUDE will make it a sine qua non of his official conduct to quit the close and enervating atmosphere of the capital once a year, and make a round of the outports.
Personal touch with his fellow countrymen, especially with his unofficial fellow country- men, will do him endless good and will be like the inhalation of ozone into a jaded system. All his predecessors have done themselves and the interests committed to their charge great harm by their seclusion in the Imperial city, and as a mere matter of personal hygiene he should make it an imperative duty to leave it for a mouth or two every year. It is all very well to talk as the late Minister did of the exigencies of
[April 29, 1896.
THE DEMOCRATISATION OF DIPLOMACY.
One of the most sacred traditions of the diplomatic service is the observance of strict secrecy in relation to pending negotia- tions upon international questions. Like many other time worn traditions, however, it seems not improbable that this may have to go by the board. In connection with the Transvaal difficulty Mr. CHAMBERLAIN frankly took the nation into his confidence and never was a Minister more firmly sup- ported at home or more respected abroad. There may at times be special reasons for secrecy, but speaking generally we believe nearly all England's diplomatic blunders. would have been avoided had a little whole- some light been let in upon the negotiations that led up to them. In our own local field we may find one or two instances in support of this belief. When Sir RUTHERFORD
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ALCOCK negotiated a convention with China the Government of the day took the opinion of the various Chambers of Com- merce in China and throughout the United Kingdom upon it, with the result that the treaty was not ratified. Had rati- fication taken place foreign trade would have been greatly prejudiced. It is true there is at the present time a disposition to revert to the principles Sir RUTHERFORD ALCOCK worked upon, especially with regard to increasing the import duty in return for the total abolition of likin and all other inland charges, but a good deal has happened during the interval and it would now be more feasible to compel China's observance of her part of the bargain than it would have been at that time. It is doubt- ful whether such an arrangement might not be premature even now; it would certainly have been premature in 1869. The question, however, was referred to the Chambers of Commerce, and the danger was avoided. Had the Chefoo Convention been referred in a similar way it would no doubt have been greatly improved, for as it stands it is an exceedingly unbusiness like instru- ment and one that could not have stood detailed criticism and remained unaltered.. When the last treaty with Japan was! published British residents in that coun try felt very much aggrieved that they had not been consulted, and with some reason, for their interests were vitally If affected. The Japanese Government was specially solicitous for the observance of secrecy in that instance, on account of the excited state of feeling in Japan upon the Government met its wishes in the matter. But subject of treaty revision, and the British if it be admitted for the sake of argument that the reasons for secrecy were good, so far as regards the political part of the treaty, there was certainly no reason why the Chambers of Commerce should not have been consulted upon the tariff. Had that been done we would not have seen the 'extraor- dinary solicitude of the British negotiator on the subject of hats, and his indifference to the vastly more important article of sugar. At the banquet given to Sir CLAUDE MAC DONALD at Shanghai the other day Mr. R. M. CAMPBELL, the Chairman of the Shanghai Branch of the China Association, in pro- posing the health of the new Minister ex- pressed the hope that he would take the Association into his confidence instead of merely promising "favourable considera- tion" for the matters urged upon him. Sir CLAUDE MACDONALD will do well to act upon the suggestion, for that way safety lies, both as regards the interests of the country he represents and his own official reputation. As Mr. CAMPBELL said, the glorious
There really are but two efficient methods of dealing with a Government such as that of China now is—and, happily or unhappily, the recent state of public opinion in England has justified neither-military force and the power of the secret service fund. Both of these are probably available to the dis- tinguished Russian who now moves the puppets in the Imperial city; without them our Minister's only weapons consist in tact and personal adroitness. These if dovetailed into opportunity may do something, but not much. With Mr. CURZON as Lord SALIS- BURY's henchman at the Foreign Office it may be possible to stiffen British policy in China, especially as the nation is now keen on foreign affairs and as the equipoise of party strife at home is destroyed. Downing Street could but be persuaded to tolerate more collusion between the Admiral and the Minister things would soon take Our diplomatic sys turn for the better. tem of late years has been wrong and now that the brilliant success of another policy differing in toto from ours has been exem- plified by Count CASSINI We trust there will be a change in its direction, all the more so as it means a reversion to a policy eminently successful in our own past. Sir CLAUDE MACDONALD'S arrival in Peking is a happy opportunity of renewing it and of abolishing that shilly-shally which has for so long impaired our self-respect and our material interests, to say nothing of minifying the progress and weal of the
Chinese.
At Shanghai on the 21st April, we learn from the Mercury, a coolie employed at the New Electric Light Station was killed by an electric shock. It appears he went into the engine house, where he had no business, and placed his hand on one of the terminals, which resulted in instant death, his fingers being burnt off to the first joint and the palm of the hand badly scorched:
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