62
THE CRISIS IN NORTH CHINA.
(Daily Press, 21st July.)
Spite of the ingeniously constructed case laid before the Powers by the Chinese Go- verment through the medium of their am- bassadors abroad, an admirable translation of which we reproduced on the 19th inst. from our Shanghai morning contemporary, there is continually growing evidence of the fact that the Peking Authorities have been neither blind nor helpless during the growth of the I Ho Chuan blister. When they state that the local " authorities con-
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[July 28, 1900.
| really desired to avoid war, the commandant markable, too, if the Chinese Government are of the Taku forts would have been instructed really convinced of their inability to take on to hand them over to the Allied Forces, simply all the Treaty Powers, that they should be because it would have been a proof of their actually carrying the war into the enemy's bona fides in desiring to preserve peace country at the present moment. Yet this and to work with them in securing the is what they have done. Chinese troops safety of the foreigners in Peking. There have attacked Blagoveschensk, they have would have been no loss of prestige stopped Russian steamers from ascending the involved in handing the control of the en- Amur, and they have had the audacity to trance to the Peiho temporarily to the Treaty erect batteries along the river. These are Powers, since no one-to use their own argu- developments which were never expected, ment-would expect the Chinese to be guilty and they have, REUTER tells us, produced an of the folly of fighting the civilised world. intense sensation at St. Petersburg. It has But the Chinese frequently do exactly that been the fashion of late years-and with a which reason and
commonsense would good deal of reason-to depreciate Chinese sternly forbid, as in the present case. There troops and regard them as a quantité is certainly a touch of grim bumour in their negligeable, but it is evident that they attempting to build an argument in support are, after all, a force to be reckoned of their own innocence out of what naturally with so long as they carry effective arms. appears an act of gross folly.
There are many
"cerned failed to awake to the seriousness "of this movement or to suppress it in its "infancy they forget to add that they were repeatedly warned by the Foreign Ministers of the nature of the agitation, and that they took no measures to compel the local authorities to repress the move- ment. In the specious account of the ad- mission of the foreign guards to Peking and the bad feeling alleged to have been created by some of these soldiers endeavouring to enter the Tung-hua Gate of the Prohibited City, it is sought to make it appear that the foreigners were themselves responsible for the fate, which we fear has overtaken them, and that the Imperial Government were powerless to stem the tide of disor- der and prejudice which had got utterly beyond their control. Even the dastardly and unprovoked murder of Baron VON KET- TELER, the German Minister, this Decree seeks to show, was accidental and due to his own obstinacy, for it states:" It appeared that the German Minister had the day be- "fore notified by letter the Tsungli Yamen that he was going there the next day, but that owing to constant disturbances occur- ring on that route the Ministers of the said "Yamen refused to consent to a meeting "with the said German Minister on that day." This is a transparent attempt to shift responsibility. If the Taungli Yamen knew the route was so dangerous why did they not warn the Minister, who could then have taken his Legation Guard to protect him, or he could have requested an escort of Chinese Imperial troops, of whom there were thou- sands in the capital? Instead of declining to receive the Baron-if they really did de- cline to do so, which seems improbable, as His Excellency would hardly have attempted to make the call under such circuinstances -why did they not ask him to proceed by another route or send a strongly armed guard to escort him on that taken on the fatal occasion ? It is mere nonsense to pre- tend that they had not the power to control the mob or to prevent the Imperial troops from joining the Boxers and directing cannon on to the Legations.
thousands of Chinese troops at Kirin and on the Manchurian frontier, and the Arsenal at that city is able to turn out large supplies of arms of pre- cision. The chances, therefore, seem to be that unless the Russians receive reinforce ments they may be outnumbered and over- powered and the Trans-Siberian Railway torn up. It is not altogether impossible that this unexpected crisis in China may be connected with the approaching completion of that When the Chinese Gov- great highway.
80 much concerning ernment protest
we cannot the folly of recklessness, avoid the impression that calculated rock- lessness may prove a convenient way of throwing dust into the eyes of the Powers case the act should really prove the folly that it looked.
But what seems to us, and doubtless to the world generally, the greatest fatuity on the part of China's rulers is perhaps not so foolish in their eyes. Ever since the Chino- Japanese War the Chinese Government have not only been purchasing arms and ammunition on a large scale, but they have been getting large numbers of their troops thoroughly drilled, or at any rate made, as they considered, thoroughly effective. These troops are no doubt intended to be the leaven where- by the countless bannermen and raw levies can be licked into shape. Meanwhile at all the fairly numerous arsenals in the Em- pire there has been great activity, and most of these establishments can now turn out Mauser and other improved rifles and manu-in facture ammunition. There existed, there- fore, a groundwork for defence against if not for defiance of the intruding foreigner. What
(Daily Press, 25th July,) was wanting, no doubt, in the eyes of the The political situation in China grows Government was courage and a cause. These hourly more perplexing and unsatisfactory. have been found in the fanatical movement The fate of the inmates of the Legations at originated so recently and mysteriously in Peking is still shrouded in uncertainty, and Shantung and Chihli by the so-called I Ho the statements on the subject, notwithstand- Chuans or " Boxers," whose great aims are ing the suspense felt by the nations repre- tersely summarised under three heads-sented, remain as vague as ever. On the
to the one hand we are asked to believe dubious- support of the dynasty, death Christians, and expulsion to the foreign- telegrams which represent the foreigners at ers. These fanatics, who pretend to be in- Peking as being alive and well on various vulnerable to attack, have thereby aroused a dates, the 8th, 9th, 11th, 18th, 21st instant; wild enthusiasm among the silly populace, and on the other hand we are bidden to who implicitly believe their assertions, mourn them as dead, since otherwise they and on joining the society are ready would have found some means of communi- to go into action reckless of all dan cating with the outside world subsequent to ger. As we have seen, on the first ap- the despatch of Sir ROBERT HART's last mes- pearance on the scene of the Boxers they sage. If the nine hundred or so foreigners who were treated with most unusual tender were shut up in the Legations on the 1st inst., ness by the Government. Instead of being then threatened by a howling mob and the forcibly suppressed and their leaders de Imperial troops, undergoing all the horrors capitated-the usual short way with rebels of a siege in the centre of a rabidly hostile in China-they were exhorted to keep the population, still indeed survive, then some- peace and to go home, while some mild thing very wonderful must have happened threats were held out as to the consequences to have given them succour. It is possible In the paragraph dealing with the cap- of committing outrages. Next a General is that the usurping Government may, at the ture of the Taku forts, after laying the res- degraded for having fired upon them. last moment, have become alive to the enor- ponsibility of the commencement of the at- Then, Prince TUAN openly commends them mity of the crime they were about to sanc- tack on the foreign officers, and detailing for patriotism. Finally, encouraged by tion, and have delivered the besieged from actual annihilation by making them captives. the refusal of the Commander Lo YUNG- official example, the troops join and co- KUANG to surrender them and their subse-operate with them. The Manchus at Peking Indeed one Chinese report states that quent bombardment and abandonment, the
Prince CHING rescued the Ministers and
to Decree proceeds "A war had thus been
carried them his yamen, but this statement lacks confirmation. If it really "commenced which was not of our begin- "ning or choosing. For you will perceive
is the fact, why does not this same Govern- "that, even if China should, regardless of
ment allow the captives to send assurances "her own power and strength, rush into
of their safety to their respective Govern- war, was it likely or reasonable that she
ments, and put an end to the veritable hor- "should of her own accord elect to fight all
ror of suspense that now holds them? If "the Powers at once? Was it probable
the Emperor KwANG Hsu were ruling he that, granting such recklessness, she would
would assuredly have done this, no matter "have relied on a rebel populace to com-
how his feelings might have been moved by mence a war against all the Powers?"
patriotism. It is stated that His Majesty questions, thus ingenuously put, would
has appealed to the Presidents of the French at first blush be answered in the
Republic and of the United States and to by persons at home ignorant of
the Emperor WILLIAM II to mediate for Chinese wiles and methods of reasoning
him with the Powers, and has promised that If however, the Peking Government had'
the murderers of Baron von KETTELER shall
C
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are not immune from the Celestial vanity: they have a fixed conviction that with suffi- cient troops-and they know that men can be raised in countless hosts in China-they can hold their own against all the forces they think can be brought against them. They have magnified the repulse of Admiral SEYMOUR's force on the way to Peking into a great and decisive victory, and they probably hug themselves with the idea that their troops can hold the approa- ches to the capital against any foreign force sent against them. Who shall say how far the early successes of the Boers in South Africa have not encouraged this conceited govern- ment in the belief that they can fight all the Treaty Powers combined? It is certainly re-
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