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September 16, 1899 1
THE CHINA ASSOCIATION ON ENGLAND'S SPHERE OF IN- FLUENCE IN THE YANG-
TSZE VALLEY.
The following letter from the Hongkong Branch of the Ubina Association to the parent Association in London is published with the local Branch's report for 1897-991-
Hongkong, 23rd May, 1899. The Hon. Sec., China Association, London.
SIR, My Committee desire to call your at tention to one aspect of the present position in China to which no consideration has as yet, so far as the members of this Branch are aware, been given, but which is nevertheless of impor. tance in connection with the policy of spheres of influence recently adopted by our Government and embodied in the Anglo-Russian Convention just concluded.
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2.The Association's letter to Lord Salisbury of July last year, and your communication to the Times of the 14th April, in which you em. body some pregnant extracts from that letter, emphasise the very different positions taken up by Bussis and Germany in Manchuris and Shantung, and by Great Britain in the Yang. taze Valley.
Russia and Germany, claiming spheres of influence in these portions of China respectively, are making that influence effective. They are excluding all interference whithin these regions by any other Powers. They are monopolising or claiming the right to monopolise all railway mining, and special commercial privileges within their boundaries. They have at band sufficient force to make their claims respected, and they have no hesitation in applying that force when need be to put down all opposition and prevent any. disobedience.
England, in the Yangtze Valley, which can hardly be said to have any definite understand. ing with Chins as to her so-called sphere of influence, has, as the German Minister so clearly pointed out to Lord Salisbury the other day, taken no steps whatever to give effect to such understanding as she may have with the Chinese Government and has permitted, as you have so well pointed out, her sphere of influence to be invaded by the Russco-Frauco-Belgian combina tion to whom the construction of the Peking Hankow Railway has been ceded.
3. In a country like China, so hostile to foreigners and to foreign ways, broken up into so many semi-independent governments, with the Central power so weak, troubles and dis- turbances of all kinds may arise at any moment and from many sources, and attacks may be made on the persons and properties of foreigners engaged about this railway and on the railway itself during its construction. Such attacks, such disturbances, will give rise to claims for redress, to demands for more effective protec- tion, to requests for compensation. The central government is too weak to give either defence or protection. The provincial governments will do nothing except under compulsion. The Foreign States whose subjects have been at tacked and whose rights and properties have been interfered with will, if no other means are available, speedily send their own forces to protect their subjects and compel attention to their rights. If once Russian, or German, or French forces are moved into the interior of China for such purposes, they will remain there and be justified in remaining there, for the weak- ness and inability of the Chinese Government to control its own Viceroys and its own,subjects is becoming greater and more marked every day. China is fast disintegrating.
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
to have that sphere recognised and respected by other powers, our Government must make up its mind that that influence must be made effec- tive within that sphere for the protection of life and property; not merely of her own subjects but of the subjects of all foreign Powers,
Committee want to call your attention to the 5.—And this brings me to my point. My fact, and to press it upon you, that there is no military force available in or near China by which our Government can make its power and influence in China effective. Gunboats can only operate on main rivers, and there are only four gunboats on the station really effective for up-river work No large body of men can be safely detached from the feet for more than a few days. Wei- haiwei has only, if one may put it so, a corporal's guard for its own defence. The garrison in Hongkong is barely sufficient, if suficient, for the defence of the Colony, and no body of men, however small, can be prudently detached for operations at a greater distance than 24 or 48 hours or for any length of time. Recent opera- tions in connection with the taking possession of our new territory has shown that clearly. To occupy Sam Chun and Kowloon eighteen hun- dred men were moved over to the mainland, leaving a very slender garrison in Hongkong; The Volunteers were turned out and utilized at Kowloon, and 300 men had to be borrowed from the fleet.
6. The disintegration of China is proceeding rapidly. The central power is weakening daily. Rebellions are springing up or are threatened in nearly every province. All the elements of unrest and disturbance are being let loose. Any of the open ports may need assistance at any moment, and there is no movable column of troops available anywhere to send to their pro- tection. The interior is full of foreigners prospecting in all directions and liable at any moment to be attacked. If there is a call for
protection from our own subjects, they must be protected If the subjects of other Powers are plundered and murdered, or in danger, especially within our sphere of influence, the Yangtsze Valley, they must be protected or avenged by us and by our forces, or their own country will send armed men to do so. If that happens, our influence is gone.
7.-There should be in Hongkong; not neces-
GENERAL GASCOIGNE ON THE. MILITARY OPERATIONS IN A THE NEW TERRITORY:mod
OFFICERS MENTIONED IN DESPATCHES
In Saturday's Gasette are publishedṣfurti papers relating to the military, operatio in connection with the disturbancess on tion of those already published. The further taking over of the New Territory in continua.
Officer Commanding to H. E. the Governor papers consist of a despatch from the General and the Under Secretary of State. In cluding his despatch to the latter, General Gascoigno says she despatch of great military importance, but I It is not my desire to write thin letter confident that if this rising had not been promptly met from all sides as it was, it have assumed very formidable proportions. is now discovered that it had been most fully planned beforehand, and a small might have created very serious complication if not a rising, in the whole Southern Provin As it is, a grave impression, has been created of China, which are always ripe for rebellio and that without any serious loss, of life. It h only right therefore that I should bring - t your notice the names of those officers to whom O'Gorman first of all, who, by, his- untiring the credit of this is due. Lieut. Colonel The pertinacity in keeping tough with and following up the insurgents, contributed in great menante to the early, quelling of the troublen Cap Hongkong Regiment, who were acting, under tain C. B. Simmonds, E.A., and Captain Bergese
both handled their men with marked ability command of Lieut. Colonel The O'Gorman having considerable dash and yet keeping them well in hand. Lorde vara vahetii et pony by
small operation entrusted to him with consider. Major M. M. Morris, R.A, carried out this
R. E., deserves great credit for ther able tact and judgment; Captain Desi Vny
rspid
with which he, under the greatest dificulty, lain a telephone line from Hongkong to Taipołu -a distance of over 13 miles in a hilly and difficult countrysanthinly
Lastly, I would mention Captain 8. 8: Long my acting C.S.O., who not only carried out a several camps at great distances from each other, somewhat difficult duties of supplying the, but to whom the credit of the night operations above referred to is entirely dãe.” I have no more able officer in my Command, and I wish to bring his name to the notice of the Com mander-in-Chief.
sarily forming part of the garrison proper, but under the command of the General and subject to the requisition of our Minister at Peking, a email but complete force of all arms, mobile in all respects, ready to answer any call, whether from Wuchow or from Hankow. Fifteen hundred men is probably the smallest number that would be fully effective for the purposes in view. Two thousand five hundred would be ample, and they might all be Indian troops, but they must be complete and prepared to take the field at any time. Our troops here are not capable, for want of proper camp equi-year the cost of the same. page and transport, of any expedition to any distance or for any time. This additional force is required anyhow, for our own protection at the open ports in the event of any rebellion or serious disturbance. It is indispensable if we are to maintain an effective sphere of influence anywhere in China, for we must be prepared to make that influence effective for protection not only of our own people but of all foreigners, or else see Russia or Germany or the French installed within our sphere doing the work we ought to be ready and willing to do.
In conclusion, I would point out that: some expense has been incurred; but the extent there
of I will report fully later, as I presume the question. will require decision as to who will
HONGKONG SANITARY BOARD.
The usual fortnightly meeting of the Hong- kong Sanitary Board was held on Thursday afternoon. The President (Dr. J. M. Atkinson. Principal Civil Medical Officer) occupied chair, and there were also present, the Vice- President (the Hon. F. H. May, Captain Să- perintendant of Police), the Hon. R. D. Ormöy (Director of Public Works), Mr. B. Osborne, Dr. Clark (Medical Officer of Health), and Mt. 8-May we in conclusion beg of you to lay] C.-W. Duggan (Secretary),SZ ZEMUMM this matter speedily before the Executive of the Association, and before the Foreign Office. To us out here the question seems pressing and im- portant.-I remain, sir, yours obediently,
Jno. J. FRANCIS, Chairman.
What is the only remedy? Great Britain must be prepared, within her so-called sphere of infinance, to coerce the Chinese Government and its officers, and to afford adequate pro- tection, within that sphere, to all foreig It is stated by a vernacular paper that Mr. ners and foreign enterprises properly there. d'Aro, who recently attempted to exhibit his Only by so doing can she claim or exercise the Marionettes in Peking, was prevented from right to exclude foreign, flags and the armed doing so the other day by the Commandant of forces of foreign nations, and maintain her the Peking Gendarmerie, who arrested and sphere of influence untouched. No foreign punished the Abbot of a monastery which Mr. power will allow her subjects to be murdered d'Aro had rented and in which he had put up a and their properties destroyed without inter- stage. Mr. d'Aro was
was also notified that no fering for their protection. The danger is tha permission had been given him to show his they will seek to interfere and to introduos Marionettes, the result of which was that he has troops and gunboats on the very slightest
made a claim on the Chinese authorities for text or on no pretext at all. If Great Britain Tls. 800 for his expenses from Tientiam to the claims a sphere of infiuenos in China and hopes - Capital –W. C. Daily News.
INSANITARY: DWELLINGS. Papers were submitted as to 24-30, Ciroular Pathway. It the places were unfit for human their present condition, and it that the owners should be given render, them habitable, and if not complied with to apply for an order declaring the man habitation.
On the motion seconded by the Pri ask the Medical Ome steps before the Magis
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The Hon. B. in future the into all the Govern
tho pri for public use.” He
ded for adoptio
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