Th
176
WHAT WE OWE TO FRENCH POLICY.
(Daily Press, 10th Maroh.)
We owe a good deal to o our very unamiable next-door neighbour in Europe. The op- portunity for exercising her peculiar talent for slander seemed to have arrived with the outbreak of the Boer war in South Africa, and she has spared no pains in seeking to poison the minds of the whole world against England. To do this she has not scrupled to act the part of jackal to her great neigh bour Russia. It would be expecting too much to suppose that Russia should not take advantage of this very useful piece of self-morifice on the part of her humble ser- vitor, especially as France has asked nothing | back save the platonic reward of gazing at her from a distance; but it is to her honour that she has not stooped to offer her caresses in return for France's obsequious attentions. However that may be, the events of last year have thrown a very unpleasant light into the depths of self-negation to which France, in her pursuit of her aims, has not hesitated to descend.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
|
contr ct
an
e
the recent outrages in Shantung owe their origin, and that British Missionaries have been the first to suffer from the affronts of the mob, incited from the Yamens, who owed to Peking the suggestion. In Barma even before the news of the murderous attack on the boundary Commission came to hand we find the Headman at Panglong threa- tening the escort of the boundary Commis- sion. The Rangoon Gazette of the 27th Jan- uary mentioned a telegram received in Yunnan, to the effect that the British were destroyed in South Africa, followed by the usual result, that the next day by or der of the Taotai an English Missionary was beaten in the streets of the provincial capi- tal close by the Viceroy's Yainen. These, be it remembered, were antecedent to attacks on the Commission itself, regarding which | information seems still to be mysteriously kept back. Nor is this all. We find in Korea a similar position of affairs in full play. Last summer Mr. PRITCHARD MOR- GAN entered into agreement with the Government of that country, giv- ing him permission to select certain Except in the traditional dislike of the localities for the opening of mines. The islander, extending as far back as the wars
was made openly trough the of Edward III., there seems no reason for British Legation, and acting on it Mr. this rooted antipathy. England has always | MORGAN selected a site at Unsan, and refrained from attacking France, and has through the Chargé d'Affaires informed the looked on with sympathy at her distresses. Government of the f·ct, and procceded to This has been met by a spirit of incessant enter on possession. No reason was specified, "nagging" and discontent, and an openly but the Govern nent proceeded to interfere, vaunted striving to take advantage of any doubtless under the impression that, Eng- difficulty in which her neighbour may be in-land being "finished," the time had arrived volved. We need only allude to her exquisite to expel the Englishman. There can enjoyment of the disaster to Hicks Pacha and but little doubt whence the suggestion came hisarmy to illustrate this sentiment of unami- in this instance, and we were glad to see the ability. For many years France carried on, British authorities becoming alive to the even against her own palpable interests, this importance of the case, evidently intended as a feeler from Peking to test the intentions system of "pin pricks" in Egypt, but failed to enlist the sympathy of a single Power. of the British government with regard to The only result in Egypt has been to force similar concessions in China. Everywhere our hand, and to tighten still further our hold
we find the same rumours laboriously i on the land. It is, however, with France's culated. The mob at Younan-fu only action in the Far East generally and with repeated the parrot-cry with regard to the "He is only an China in particular that we are more im- assault in Yunnan : mediately concerned. We have all from Englishman, and has no country." It is time to time been made aware of certain strange that French diplomatists fail to see mysterious telegrams arriving in China, that a mob once excited has no regard to which have professed to report some dire persous, and that what happens to an Eng- disaster as having been undergone by Bri-lishman to-day to-morrow will happen to a tish arms in Africa. By the British communi- | Frenchman. If England be unable to take ties these have been treated with contempt vengeance, the experiences of France in the which in each case has been justified by past might tell her how little capable she is subsequent information, It is only recently herself in undertaking a campaign even that the time, source, aud intention of these against China. lying telegrams has become manifest, and circumstances have seemed to indicate the t those that have been made public in- dicate but a small portion of the whole which have been concocted in Paris and carefully sent to the French Lega- tion in Peking, where they have by underground channels found their way to the Taungli Yamen, From the Tsungli Yamen in turn they have been carefully sent to the provinces, with the suggestion that as Eng- land was hopelessly defeated in Africa there was no further need to pay any atten- tion to her requests, and the time come when
au end could be made to all Englishmen in China. In the pre sent condition of France, it is of course useless to appeal to her better feelings, or point out how injurious to her own interests such a suicidal policy must be. Hodie mihi, èras tibi is a proverb there is little use in quoting. Its effects are unfortunately at the moment confusing the whole of our in- tercourse with China, and not only with China, but with the surrounding peoples who are apt to take their inspiration to Peking. There is little doubt it was from inspiration thus received from Peking that
was
INSPIRATION AT PEKING.
|
|
2
[March 17, 1900.
temptuously set aside, not only by the Go- vernment, but even more persistently by the bulk of the Opposition. The result was, as we know, that instead of being in a position to declare war and take the offensive we were compelled to fall back, to have a large portion of Natal overrun, and ourstrength wasted in relieving the beleaguered camp at Ladysmith. Now the same influences which were at work in Pretoria to stir up a serious war, having for its object our final withdrawal from South Africa, have been notoriously at work also in Peking to render our position in China untenable. The ominous reports which we have published from all parts of the Empire fully bear out all that we have previously said, from well-informed sources, on this important subject. The whole of China is now in a state of ebullition, and it is no longer a matter of doubt that large numbers of the Chinese are only awaiting a leader to rise in mass against the Empress Dowager and her crew. The affair of the Emperor has sunk into a secondary place, but by his electing to place himself at the head of his Chinese, subjects it is indu- bitable that the race element is entering largely into the present ferment, and the Dowever, astute in many things as she un- doubtélly is, by ende (vouring to supersede the Chinese element and restore Manchu rule has aided and assisted in provoking an uprising. Had the Manchus preserveĮ anything of their pristine vigour it night have been possible to have overawed the unwarlike Chinese, but the events of the Japanese War, and the utter collapse of Peking, have indicated to the nation at large that is a military force the Manchus are beneath contempt, and the Chinese troops, on whom the suppression of any national rising must eventually fall, are certainly not prepared to take up the cause of the race which, in their eyes, is stil! foreign. Meanwhile the audience, intended to show that the Emperor was still alive, has weakened, rather than the contrary, the Empress's party. The state of his health has revived the old suspicions; and there would seem to be some grounds for the fear that he was being persistently drugged with the intention of reducing him to imbecility. It is now openly stated that he is
to likely survive the course not
|
of treatment to which he is being sub- jected, and the beliet is gaining ground that his death will be the signal for all the disaffected, who, in the centre pro- vinces, and more especially in Hunan, form This is the majority of the people, to rise. stated, in more than one quarter, to have been the information tendered by the old Viceroy, LIU KWEN-1, who, it will be remembered, is himself a Hunanese; and coming from the mouth of a man whose life has been an evidence of his loyalty, it is of more than mere passing interest. This also throws light on much of the recent policy of Russia, to whom a war of race in China would open the gate to still further inter- ference. Nothing would, in fact, be more consonant with the traditional policy of Russia, and nothing is more likely to bring about the opening sought than the recent in- trigues of France. France has been notorious- ly and assiduously backing up the party of the Empress Dowager by representing the Emperor as the minion of England, who, she insidiously presses on the Yamen, is the back bone of the reform movement. England, she has lost no opportunity of ainning into willing ears, has been defeated in South Africa and is no longer a power in Europe. The ouly hope for the Empress is to engage the services of her two friends, France con- | aud Russia, with whose aid she need not
(Daily Press, 13th March.) The news from the North continues to be of a startling nature, and, in the present ex- plosive condition of European politics, is worthy of more consideration than the Bri- tish Government has been disposed to devote to it. The minds of the British public both at home and in the Far East have been so absorbed over the situation in South Africa that there has scarcely been a thought of what was brewing in China and the Pacific generally, and it is in the hope of recalling attention to this very important subject that we have dwelt with so much persis- tency on what to many may seem a trite and insignificant topic. We are well aware of the comments likely to be made in such a case, and of the penalties attaching to the part of a Cassandra, yet with our knowledge of what is being prepare! we should be lacking in our duty did we fail to draw the attention of the public, and of those in power, to the real condition of affairs. We may der ve some cousolation from the example of South Africa. These plain warnings were
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.