nčanuary 21, 1898]
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
This is after he has complained of being taken I should now like to say a word as to the as to the British sphere being the whole of Chinese soldier being equal to any other if he Yangtsze Valley, which he had felt thank-efficiently led and as to his prowess in the past. ful we had to fall back on as a sphere of in- A careful study as to when and where the fluence. Further on he makes the following Chinese soldier developed the fighting powers statement: 'On the other hand the French attributed to him fails to unearth any sub- sphere of influence comes in ander a term whiobstantial reason for such a strange beli f. The I could never understand called the hinterland; whole delusion seems to have arisen with the and the hinterland in the South happens to force termed the "Ever Victorious Army." border on Hongkong." It is true the above is This army, I believe, never exceeded 10,000 men, at variance with other of his Lordship's utter. in fact rather more than half that number ances, but that is only one of his trifling little would about cover the numerical strength of inconsistencies, a mere matter of detail. By the force. This small force crushed a rebellion the way, these utterances were loudly cheered which had wrested more than half the Chinese by his audience, as were on other occasious state- Empire from the failing Manchu Dynasty and ments of a diametrically opposite nature. It which would, but for foreign intervention, have seems it is merely necessary for his Lordship | driven out the Manchus from the other half and speak in order to be vociferously cheered, established a purely Chinese Emperor on the sewhere I note a press statement, not que Dragon Throne. Lord Charles Beresford, that Germany was
We know the use the Manchus have made of the fresh lease of power opposed to spheres. There seems, however, no given to them by British aid. ground for such a statement.
The above only proves my assertion as to the small force necessary to control the British sphere.
Open Door" then asks dramatically what does Wideawake" mean by the Yangtze Val- Jey? Well, he means the Yangtsze Valley, nothing else. If "Open Door" desires a geo- graphical definition of a river valley I might | say that in this case it is the valley watered by the Yangteze and all its tributaries, large and small.
As to the stupendous nonsense of governing 100,000,000 people with a few native troops stif- fened with one regiment of Europeans, I did not go into certain details of my suggestion, which, after calling attention to another of Lord Charles Beresford's utterances, I DOW propose to do, for "Open Door's" edification.
In a Hongkong speech Lord Charles Beresford makes the following statement as to the Chinese Government :-"They have no navy, their ships are not worth the name-they have only one army of 7,000 men in the whole of this gigantic population of 400,000,000 people." I uclude that his Lordship had. his great big book to guide him before he made this pregnant ut terange. Is "Open Door," then, going to style this stupendous nonsense.
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All the world has heard of the Ever Victorious Army, hence the assumption that the Chinese brave properly led is a great fighting factor. I will now mention one fact to which due weight should be given. At about the same time as the Ever Victorious Army was covering itself with lanrels a Chinese force, estimated at between 10.000 and 20,000 men, in the neighbourhood of Shanghai began to give the European residents serious trouble; these men were Chinese Imperial troops. Well, a body of about 40 European Volunteers engaged this force and hunted it com..letely ont of the neighbourhood. I his engagement is well known to Shanghai residents and is termed the battle of Muddy Flat, owing to the nature of the locality at which it was fought. It is utter rot to extol the Chinaman as a warrior.
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Open Door" says that as long as Britain is supreme on the seas she can, in spite of Russia's immense armies, block her ice free port, of the whole Gulf for that matter. True, but,
positive hindrance. I am not speaking of in- dividuals there are exceptions-but of British Consuls generally. There are very few ir deed- who could write their annual trade report from Chinese and the Chinese language, then their personal knowledge, but when it comes to
the China Review for instance, prolonged are all there. ́It is a common thing to find, in they
squabbles between Consuls as to the pronuncia. tion or interpretation of some antediluvian Chinese character. I know for a fact that Lord Charles Beresford was greatly surprised whep, at two of the treaty ports, he got a very straight opinion on Consuls and their uses, in Chamber of Commerce. each case from a committeeman of the local
how I got it) a succinot account of Lord Charles I happen to have before me (it matters not Beresford's tour from the time he arrived at Newehwang until his arrival in Hongkong, what be saw, and what he said, it would surprise those who see in the gallant Lord the saviour of much of his time was spent in calling upon British interests in China if they knew how Chinese officials, inspecting forts, arsenals, docks, etc., and how much in really trying to study matters of vital commercial interest to the different communities he visited. Charles Beresford has done bis country excel- lent service in the past, and will doubtless do so in the future, but it does not necessarily follow that he is able to grasp and solve all or any of the many commercial problems which have been put before him during his tour. Ne sutor ul tra crepidam is an ancient but excellent pro... verb.
Lord
And has Lord Charles told us anything new, has he told us in his many responses to the toast of bis health anything that we in China- could not have told him? Has be even com.i mitted himself to any particular policy? I can not find that he has, and it is possible the Open Doorites may find themselves wofully mistaken in Lord Charles.
methinks, that would savour of the processing glibly "about spheres of influence. It seems "Upen Door" aconses" Wideawake" of “ talk- termed "cutting off one's nose to site one's to me that the boot is on the other leg.“ face." Russia's objective is China, and blockad- ing the Gulf of Pechili will not keep Russia China, and will grow, whereas the "
Spheres of influence" have been already formed in oat of China, but it will keep British trade out of the northern area occupied by Russia.
—well, as the so-called "Member for China" puts open door" it, there is no open door."
I had not intended to write so much when I settled down to reply to "Open Door," but to condense what I have stated above would be to fail to make the points I have aimed at. shll in future leave Open Door or other critics unanswered, for the subject might easily
become an endless one.
WIDEAWAKE.
Hongkong, January 16th, 1899,
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THE OPEN DOOR AND SPHERES OF INFLUENCE.
expresses.
་་
DAILY PRESS.
that he
I see by referring to several encyclopædias that China is credited with a standing army of from 500,000 to 600,000 men; for all the use they are as a fighting force they might be only 500 or 600 men. I shall accept Lord Charles Beresford's estimate as fairly correct. As to their fighting capacity, I may say I have had the amusing experience of having observed a few half-naked savages, poorly armed, hold back a force of 2,000 fairly well armed Chinese braves for months from the foot-bill of one of China's southern provinces. There are large areas in the heart of China inhabited by aboriginal races who hold their own against the invincible Chinese brave with the greatest of ease.
In these areas an armed Chinaman dare not show his nose. The few thousand native troops I proposed to use as a police force TO THE EDITOR OF THE for the Yangtze Valley I should have stated were Indian troops, at least half of them I had years' residence in the East, but have a word or SIR-I cannot lay clain to more than fifteen in my mind as such. I also had in my mind a railway from Shanghai up the Yangtze Valley,
two to say to "Open Door." First, I would assure “ linked on to the Indian railway system, with a stands very far from alone in the views be
Wideawake" branoh from Hankow to Kowloon. Both these lines are, I may say, projected. I also saw,
Let him be patient and he will soon find out that there are strong influences at Home mentally, a flotilla of river gun-boats. controlling which favour a like policy, and the nearer the the Yangtsze and its navigable tributaries. I date for the assembling of Parliament ap- likewise had in mind each province self-govern-proaches, the greater likelihood is there that ed by native officials belonging to the province they ruled over and controlled or advised by a number of British officials associated with them. such local governments having their own police forces but no army. The presence of the army alluded to, which might number anything from 8,000 to 10,000, or more, would be to sap- port the native governments or, in the event of any attempt at resisting the supreme power, Great Britain, to hold such rebellion in check whilst reinforcements were pouring in by: rail from India, or from England, Canada and Australia by sea. Should Chinese troops. be raised I should have no hesitation in using the men from one province to control another province, as the Manchu Government has always done. As to the inconsistency "Open Door" Bocuses me of as regards the Chinese brave, I beg to point out that iron will not out the diamond, but diamond can ent diamond and iron out iron; therefore there is no great in. consistency iu proposing, the use of Chinese troops to control a, Chinese population.
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A word or two now on eulogy on the Chinese soldier. Are we always Open Door's"
to have the victories of the Ever Victorious Army against the rebels rammed down our throats as shewing what a brave man the Chinese soldier is when "efficiently led"? Does Open Door" imagine, for instance, that, had the Sirdar been in command of the Chinese army during the war with Japan, the result would have been sny different ? Fanoy the Yamen nudertaking by itself the financial and military reform of China! The date on which the Yamen is likely to begin even to think of anything of the kind may be put down as so newhere near the Greek Kalends. They may, however, have to do it, or it may be done for them. Russia is already shewing them how to do it in the North and cannot be long before Germany and France follow suit, And here I would recall the able letter of "Sinensis **
(whose identity is well known to us all) in the. China Mail of 12th February, 1887. He says," inter alia :-
these influences will be shown in the Press.
"Let those Chinese who have a mind A little time will shew if I am not correct. to raise themselves and their nation along with Although there is much irrelevant matter in them first find out the true cause of their "Wideawake's " letter as the latter has a very “tall order" on hand if he proper remedy. Do not rely too much upon Open Door" says, country's degradation and then apply the undertakes to shew that Sir Thomas Wade's the reorganisation of your army nor the in- policy in China Every mercantile man who has ever made the and guns, the want of which has, without was entirely successful." crease of your navy, nor upon your new forts. slightest pretence of studying the history of our doubt, reduced the strength and position of commercial relations with China knows other-China, but to a limited extent only. The real wise. Perhaps "Open Door," in spite of his lengthy residence in China, has never heard of morality and evil habits, both social and politic weakness of China, however, lies in loose the Chefoo Convention and all the trouble it | al. has caused, or, if he has, he probably looks upon it as a British diplomatic triumph. "Open Door" also asks, "What the Consulates were doing at the treaty ports?" Well, they were doing then as little as they do now to further British interests. It is a notorious fact, and a patent one to any Britisier who has ever resided at a treaty port. that our Consuls are not only unwilling to help a Britisher in developing British trade, but are at times a
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political. Righteousness becomes a nation, but My object now is to deal with the it does more. It is her vackbone and fountain of strength.
Where is China to find all the funds to pay for her increased armament, to work her mines, to run her railways; and to establish and maintain ber factorien P. Her credit is good at present in the foreiro market, yet that has a limit, and that limit will soon be reached. When the revenue derivable from the Imperial Customs becomes fully pledged,
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