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OUR TASK IN CHINA.
(Daily Press, 11th September.) The suggestion that we made a short time ago, that Great Britain should not hesitate to send out to China with full powers the very ablest of her sons, has not lost its force through the current of recent events; rather, we should say, it has been considerably strengthened. We have not a word to say against Sir CLAUDE MACDONALD, but Sir CLAUDE's powers for good have been very seriously compromised by the persistent manner in which all his recommendations have been treated by Lord SALISBURY, who has not hesitated on every occasion, when they contravened the Prime Minister's private views, to set aside the advice of his Minister in deference to the interested assertions of the Chinese Minister at Port- land Place. It is no new phenomenon, older even than the BURLINGAME Mission itself, that the most reactionary of govern- ments on the face of the earth should desire to find itself represented in London by an agent asserting himself as the friend of the most progressive measures; but it is well to remember that hitherto not only have these declared sentiments borne but little fruit, but in each case have been the actual pre-
[September 15, 1900.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
considered as annexation. So also the modern | credible that, with such a reckoning against phrase "sphere of influence" has very differ- them, any Power could be found to propose ent interpretations as rendered by one or the even to consider any terms until the officials other. It will, however, be on apparently primarily responsible for these injuries and minor topics that most discussions will take outrages had been first secured. It may be place, many of which will be subjects that urged that as civilised States we should not, have to be settled on the moment before time now the Ministers have been rescued, seek whole the task will be one needing not only Christian religion we should show our su- is afforded for reference to Europe. On the for vengeance, but as exponents of the the local knowledge which residence in periority to the heathen in forgiving these China can alone supply, but that infinitely trespasses against us. We do not feel quite more delicate and shaded perception of fu- ture effects only to be acquired from a close and intimate touch with current events and tendencies at the chief centres of political life. It is daily becoming more evident that the Foreign Office has not the necessary grasp of the situation; and has permitted the old traditional fallacies to warp its judg- ment in the present crisis. Had it any suc cess to show for the past, it might have pleaded its former prestige; but, as a fact, it has been steadily and surely retrograding. What by force of arms it gained in 1860 by the weakness of its diplomacy it has since lost; and England, as far as her per- sonal influence in China is concerned, at the instant may be said to rank very low among the Powers. The whole course of policy inaugurated by Lord ELGIN has been a bit ter mistake, and to the persistency with Those in China who had carefully watched which our Foreign Office has followed his the progress of the present Minister, aud errors must be attributed its present want carefully noted his words when on tour of success. Only a strong man can inau- through the provinces, did not fail to sound gurate a new policy; and by a strong man the warning note; but, as none are so blind
we imply not merely a strong personality, as those who do not desire to see, their but a man possessed of the weight that words passed unheeded by the crowd, who, position and previous success can give. The mistaking wishes for facts, were willing to
situation is serious on the one hand, but on accept at the word of its clever representa- the other the rewards of success are great tive these flowery promises of an amendment-sufficiently great to be worthy the ambi- never intended to go further than mere words. tion of our noblest and wisest.
cursors of some deed even darker than usual.
THE TWO POLICIES IN CHINA.
As in the former case of a BURLINGAME these cheap words of world-wide benevo- lence ended in the massacre of Tientsin and a general uprising, prevented by mere ac-
Daily Press, 10th September.)" cident from becoming universal; so in the
In the absence of a definite assurance that present the shoddy speeches of the Minister Great Britain has no intention of joining in were followed by the most diabolical plot the policy of scuttle and back down initiated of modern times-aiming at nothing less by Russia, the telegraphic announcement than the murder of all the Ministers at that the Fourth Indian Brigade has been Peking and the slaughter of every for- ordered to proceed to China is certainly eign resident. These facts are not denied comforting. The idea that when the Powers even by the would-be perpetrators them- had delivered the beleaguered foreigners selves, and yet in the face of these undeni- from their hazardous confinement in Peking, able facts we find more than one government they had accomplished all or even the main not only prepared to treat with the actual business for which they had been despatched perpetrators, but desirous of inducing the was one that could hardly be entertained by others to condescend to an equally purpose- any self-respecting State. The siege of the less act of self-annihilation. Yet perhaps we Legations by fanatic Boxers, assisted by are wrong in denominating the proposal as Imperial troops and openly encouraged by purposeless. Russia is not given to act in this the Chinese officials, was assuredly an un- magnanimous manner, unless some set pur- paralleled crime against international law, pose be in view, and we are justified from the but it is only an item in the indictment past in concluding that the very unseemly against the Manchu Government of China. surrender which would withdraw from Pek- They have been convicted of a design to ing the troops only arrived in time and extirpate all the foreigners in China by after severe loss to prevent a horrible massa- murder and violence, the same to be carried cre was dictated by motives far otherwise out in a cold blooded and cowardly manner than mere benevolence. These are some of by the deluded and ignorant Boxers, poor the circumstances that show the necessity of tools of the base and brutal mandarins. a strong and capable representative on the The same Government are responsible for spot, and which require a power of grasp the bloodshed involved in the capture of the and administration not inferior to what has Taku Forts, for the fighting at Tientsin, been shown feasible in Egypt and South and for the armed opposition to the advance Africa. The task in China, even more than of the Allies on to Peking. They have in Egypt, is not only one needing a capacity caused the enormous outlay attending the for dealing with the situation as concerns despatch of foreign troops from Europe, China itself, but is complicated by the very India and America to China, and are re- different views exhibited by the European sponsible for a dislocation of trade on a states, and must be attacked by some one gigantic scale and a tremendous pecuniary with a profound knowledge of the inner loss in consequence. They stand convicted workings of European politics. At the of the dastardly murder of at least 59 mis- moment, it is true, all repudiate, and doubt-sionaries, of the infliction of torture and less conscientiously, the idea of annexation sufferings of various kinds on many more, in any shape or form; but unfortunately and they are responsible for some 80 or 100 ideas differ as to what island what is not to be more missing or overdue. It is almost in-
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sure that even the friends of the martyred missionaries would, in actual practice, go quite so far as that; but whatever they may we are notpavocate, disposed to deal in sen- We do not want vengeance, as it timent. is understood in China, where it would mean the wiping out of a host of more or less ignorant coolies, who may yet be in the main deserving of what they get; but we sternly demand justice, that justice which in like circumstances we should expect to be meted out to us. We want the promoters of the murder, outrage, and torture of foreigners to be hunted down, regardless of their rank or position and awarded punishment fitting for such crimes. We desire to have an end made of the Gov- ernment that could originate, sanction, and aid the perpetration of such atrocities. We insist upon guarantees against the repetition of such enormities, and provision made for the safety of peaceable foreigners in China. We demand an indemnity to cover all losses and the expenses of the war and the pay- ment of all old outstanding claims. claim as an olden right under the Treaties the proper observance of the stipulation of those Treaties. We should also require the just administration of the fiscal service and the abolition of the corrupt system of col- lecting taxes which converts them into im- possible barriers to our trade and restricts it to limited areas.
to
We
One
All this we want and it was generally sup- posed we meant to have it. But how is it possible to secure the most elementary of these desires from China, if at the very out- set it be seen that we are divided and dub- ious? Any weakness in dealing with Ori- entals is invariably construed by them as a confession of defeat. We shall have enough trouble
ring from the so-called seek with- Government the justice we out putting a weapon into their hands with which to flog or deride us. Even now the Chinese journals and the teashops are doing their best to explain away our victories and to convert them into defeats. paper stated, only the other day, that the allies had about twenty thousand men killed and drowned at Yangtsun; and, when the continued advance on Peking had to be admitted, informed its readers that a few of the foreign troops had been suffered to proceed to the capital to escort the Ministers and their staffs to Tientsin. The Chinese are naturally ingenious, and in no direction more so than in the invention of excuses for their own shortcomings. If this is the sort of misrepresentations they are guilty of in the presence of actual facts, what sort of statements would they be likely to foist on the people if the foreigners voluntarily vacated Peking? They would be depicted as running away, as having been vanquished by the prowess of the invincible troops of the Son of Heaven, and much more in the same strain. The people would really be- lieve these fables, and would regard all foreigners as only worthy of contempt, and residence in any part of the Central Kingdom would become practically unbear- able until after another unmistakable drub- bing had been administered to the vain sons of Han. To scuttle now, or to consent to make terms before the Government, or those
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