874.
THE EFFACEMENT OF THE EM-
peror And THE FATE OF CHINA,
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[May 7, 1896,
*
the advantage of British trade that China should remain intact than that she should be split up and parcelled out to various Powers or become a congeries of feeble. states. But she appears doomed to decay from her own inherent rottenness and it is problematical whether any attempts to pre- serve her autonomy would be worth the making.
FRENCH DESIGNS AND FOREIGN TRADE IN CHINA.
•
most wounding blow to Chinese vanity, the loss of part of Manchuria, was spared to them through the intervention of the three great Powers, Russia, France, and Germany, and for the rest, what matters the loss of Formosa, an island that was always more trouble than profit; while the interposition of the Powers to baulk Japan of part of the spoils of victory is gratifying proof that Peking can always rely on international jealousies to save China from becoming the prey of one aggressive nation! So at least, we may fairly take it, the man- darins argue, and the corrupt Ministers of The report of what was said in the French the Tsung-li Yamen no doubt hug them-Senate on the 31st March in reference to selves with the belief that, when time of French relations with China, telegraphed to trouble comes round, they can play one our San Francisco contemporary the Chron- Power off against the other, and reject, in icle, forras interesting if not agreeable reading. turn, all demands for redress or reparation M. BARDOux, it seems, put a series of ques- for injuries done. And, to a certain extent, tions to M. BOURGEOIS and complained their reasoning is pretty sure to prove that, amongst other things, the Government correct. The old concert between the had bungled in China, pointing out that the Powers has for the nonce disappeared, and opening of the West River to European for the moment mutual jealousy, distrust, trade had destroyed the advantages of the and greed prevent the Foreign Ministers from French railway from Langson to the exercising the influence they would, if frontier, that the Chinese loan had been united, be able to exercise at Peking. But obtained by Great Britain, and also re- this position, though it has unfortunately ferring to the fact that Sir ROBERT HART, lasted for some years, will not always an Englishman, was the head of the Chinese endure. The Chinese Government, blinded Customis service and postal department. by a belief in their own powers, will per- The Senator appears to-think that the West severe in their present policy until one day River should be kept closed in order to they will find they have presumed on benefit a French railway not yet con- Western forbearance too long. The situation structed, in short, that the opening of China will become intolerable and the Powers, should be opposed, instead of encouraged, unable to endure being flouted longer by except in particular directions which may an arrogant but feeble barbarian, will tend to the exclusive advantage of France. determine to provide an effective cure for This is the tone adopted by a large section this Sick Man of the Far East. China will of the French press, but it is curious to find ultimately have to be either administered it or partitioned. The Western Powers can not afford to ignore China; she cannot, because of her vastness, become a quantité négligeable, but she is too inert, too corrupt, to be allowed to block the wheels of the car of progress for ever and prevent all develop ment in Eastern Asia. There is, so far as can be seen, no coming man in China, no possible regenerator of society, no saviour of the Empire. The vast body is cankered to the core and nothing but a surgical operation will avail for the cure. There are no chances of any successful revolution. Weak as the Central Government un- doubtedly is vis-à-vis a foreign foe, it is strong enough to repress any attempt at revolt, since it holds the command of the sea, and still has a treasury to fall back upon. Meantime foreign commercial in- terests in China continue to grow and the desire for extension of territory on the part of Russia and France at any rate is becom-
In a recent issue we reproduced from the columns of the Shanghai Mercury a very suggestive and striking article on the efface ment of the EMPEROR at Peking. Our con- temporary roundly asserts that the rule and influence of the Empress Dowager during the past thirty years have been disastrous for China. What has hitherto been mentioned as matter of speculation or rumour is now stated as actual fact, and the woman who as Regent so long exercised supreme power at Peking is accused of scheming even now to recover the power she nominally resigned on the Emperor KWANG SU attaining his majority. Without pretending to possess any information on this point, we are bound to admit that circumstances seem to bear out the presumption. The mysterious death of the late Emperor TUNG CHIH, the tragic end of his youthful bride, the selection of another child of tender years as his successor, in order apparently to secure a second long regency, and the care shown during his minority to seclude him in the Palace, and bring him up under the enervating influ- ence of the harem, all pointed to a determi- nation on the part of the Empress Dowager to mould him to her purposes and create a puppet who would remain plastic to her will. Had His Imperial Majesty KWANG St openly revolted from Palace rule, had he shown a disposition during the late war with Japan to break the bonds that held him within the narrow precincts of the Pro hibited City and gone to see for himself what was happening in his hereditary coun- try of Manchuria, it is to be feared that he would have shared a similar fate to that which overtook his young and more impa- tient predecessor. But KWANG SU is feeble of mind, it is to be feared, as well as puny of body. He is a degenerate descendant of the vigorous Emperor KANG HI, and per- haps he is not wholly to blame for his mental and physical inferiority. Pent up in the four walls of a Palace-a gilded prison at best-from his carliest childhood, with only women and eunuchs about him, and none of the exercises or games that go to harden and develop the boy into a man, what wonder that he should have| grown up with an emasculated mind, a feeble body, and a petulant and peevish disposition! His very nature has been repressed, his intellect dwarfed, his con- stitution enfeebled. The meanest peasant in his vast Empire has no cause to envy the Son of Heaven the possession of his tinsel splendours, his uneasy seat upon the Dragon Throne, or his right to wielding keener. The simple plan the Vermilion Pencil. His Majesty has, it is announced, left the capital for the Sum- mer Palace, where he will presumably ex- will suffice for nations in the twentieth change the teachings of his Mentor WENG century as it did for Border chieftains two TUNG-HO, who, if a slavish follower of the hundred years earlier. There will be no Confucian philosophy, at least sought to be especial tenderness for China when the patriotic, for the selfish promptings of the time arrives for her partitionment. There EMPRESS DOWAGER and her creatures. is no splendid civilisation centred at l’e- There was never much hope of reform or king whose disappearance need be progress being inaugurated by a Monarchgretted. The Gorgeous East was a term never with such a training as that received by the EMPEROR, but in the hands of a really enlightened and courageous Minister even His Majesty KWANG SU might have be- come the patron of progress and the founder of a new era in the Celestial Empire.
There seems scant hope of improvement in the administration under the existing régime. The lessons which the reverses and humiliations suffered by China during the late war ought to have driven deeply home, have apparently passed by and are almost unheeded, if not forgotten. The worst and
That they should take who have the power And they should keep who can
re-
applicable to the Central Kingdom, a land in which there is little that is even pictur- esque, nothing that is splendid or romantic, but on the contrary everything that is ugly, commonplace, and squalid. Who would sigh over the breaking up into eighteen or twenty states of the effete Government of Peking? Even if the territories that now own the sway of the Ta Tsing dynasty were to pass under the yoke of other nations, who can doubt that the change would be for the advantage of the natives? not advocating partition; it would be more to
We are
It was
not
so plainly and openly expressed by one occupying the responsible position of a Senator. M. BOURGEOIS, the Premier, of course could not formally endorse such an illogical position, though it apprenntly commanded his sympathy. correct, he said, that China had ever promised not to open the West River, but he qualified this later by saying that "at "all events, the French Government has "received assurances the river will not be
opened unless we obtain at the same time- for a French company the concession of a railway into China."
In asking that a-French company may be allowed to run a railway from Tonkin into China France is well within her rights. England will also no doubt ask for permission to extend the Kunlon Ferry line, now under construction, into Yunnan, and the use of some pressure in the matter may be justifiable, when dealing with such an inert and utterly unreason- able nation as China; but that any civilized power should oppose the opening of China in any particular direction, unless it receives something for itself in the way of compen- sation, is utterly discreditable. M. BOUR- GEOIS admitted that "should the river be "opened, it would not be a privilege re- "served to any one nation, but that French commerce, which is so important at Can- 'ton, where Lyons buys her silk, would "also take advantage of it;" but never- theless, unless France is allowed to make a particular railway, the opening of the river, notwithstanding the great boon it would be to trade in general, is to be opposed. When France took Tonkin and made fiscal arrangements with China intended to attract trade to the Red River route not objection was raised by England, and there is certainly no more ground for French opposition to the opening of the West River, which would be a concession, › not to any one nation in particular, but to the world in general. A fair field and no
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