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LESSONS FROM HISTORY IN CHINA.
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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[February 16, 1901,
Those who wish to read a really humiliating comment on the influence of civilisation on warfare will find it in Dr. DILLON's article, The Chinese Wolf and European Lamb. Even if it has to be allowed that the writer's burning indignation carries him away, as is evidenced by the occasional excessive violence of his language, it cannot be denied · that his facts, described in calm and unela- borate sentences, are calculated to exitet a terrible revulsion of feeling. We will only quote one of the many stories- some of them are barely within the limits of what can be quoted, so fearful are they to give a slight idea of what a careful observer saw of the work of the foreign troops in North China. first day after I had left Tientsin," says Dr. DILLON, "I was towed by untiring coolies through a land thickly studded over with "what had once been human dwellings, but were now high heaps of smouldering rub. bish. Here and there a gorgeous door "remained standing, one of the silent wit
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ceeded in keeping clear of the old entangle-]ter from another point of view. He says:-- ments, there is already, we fear, some danger Looting has been generally condemned in of a return to old conditions. A very England, and, I believe, partially on the evident attempt is being made, for instance, "Continent, and very strong language has (Daily Press, 11th February.)
to barter off the return, as if it were some- been used in reprobating it. But why It is difficult in the absence of definite in- thing in the interest of the Powers for "this practice should have been singled formation to form more than the most which a valuable payment might be expect- “out from among so many others that are superficial judgment as to what is really the ed; and though we do not at all suggest equally wrong or permissible, is one of tendency of events in Northern China. that the representatives of the Powers have "those puzzles which are always bound up There has always, even in the earliest days taken so very evident a bait, no effort is" with questions of social morality." He of our intercourse, existed in the empire a being spared to find out the particular instances the general commandeering of saving remnant of men who were anxious to
weakness of each in turn. On the other natives, irrespective of their work or rank, do the best for their country, and who per- hand, with our eyes open our representa. by ignorant soldiers to perform the most ceived the necessity of following in the path tives are permitting themselves to be menial offices, and the general assumption of free intercourse in the interests of China drawn into interminable discussions on by these soldiers of the absolute power of rather than of foreign states. Such a man subjects irrelevant to the main issue. life and deat. over defenceless citizens, and was apparently ILIPU, one of the two Man- The evacuation of Peking is a case in asks if such acts be right, how can it be chu Commissioners appointed by the Em-point, and the Chinese commissioners wrong to take the victims' property? peror TAO KWANG to negotiate the Treaty are seeking to barter off the evacuation of Nanking; and such in the recent
as a condition of return. On the other hand, troubles has been the old Viceroy of
every statesman in China, including amongst Nanking, LIU KUNG-YI. Unfortunately others the Yangtze Viceroys, is well aware such men have never been acceptable to that unless the seat of government is either party, and in every case the indivi- brought back to some central point, and duals who have floated to the top have been that quickly, the little authority that re- those who were ready to make the wildest mains in the Empire will from the very promises, and accept the most compromising nature of the case disappear. We are, in conditions with the assured intention of fact, in listening to these suggestions from repudiating the entirety as soon as the op- the agents of an effete Court, really only has portunity arrived. It was thus that in our tening on the catastrophe, weich they pro- early intercourse Sir JOHN DAVIS, our Chief fess to dread, but are in eality intriguing Superintendent of Trade, was imposed on
for. In the eyes of the Empress Dowager, by KIYING, a fact the true significance of the restoration of China is a matter of per which was shown afterwards in KIYING's own fect indifference, except as a means of her Memorial to the Emperor, where he boasted
own return to the power of mischief, and the of the game he had succeeded in playing continued exclusion of the Emperor; and in on the barbarian." It was thus that order to gain this she is ready to make any LI HUNG-CHANG played with the late Sir sacrifice at the moment. It is not the first THOMAS WADE at Chefoo, when he persuaded time in the history of foreign intercourst the English Minister into sending his with China that t'e same game haa celebrated telegram, War is averted ".
been played. In January, 1849, there as it proved to be, by the surrender of
was no difficulty in concluding a truce with every point the Minister had been direct the Commissioner at Canton. Hongkong ed to settle. And it is thus, by the same
was to be ceded, an indemnity of $6,000,000 man and by the same methods, the present was to be paid; for the future there was to dealings of the Powers with China in her be direct official intercourse on terms of infamy are being drawn out, in the hope equality, and trade was to be resumed in that in the chapter of accidents a page may ten days. The British Superintendent Cap- be yet turned over which will afford a safe tain ELLIOTT, after praising the scrupulous retreat for all the chief actors in the outrage. good faith of the Chinese Commissioner, In spite of the ever recurring blunder, it handed him back the substantial guarantee is the best sign of the present crisis that which he held in the possession of the amongst the nation at large men are begin- Chuenpi Forts, commanding the city of ning to recognise the fact that in the first Canton. The Chinese Commissioner had place it has become necessary for the con- tinued existence of China that she should gained all he wanted, the Emperor was reported to have disapproved the cession, gain the goodwill of the chief Powers; and and the weary course had again to be gone in the second that she can only do this by
over at the cost of a war. So much for our conforming to those broad general principles first attempt to negotiate when holding the of mutual respect under which European trump card. Why try it again? states have had leisure to grow to greatness. The policy of seeking to divide her assiduous friends, which was the limit of Chinese statesmanship hitherto, has, as none know better than its chief exponent Lr, broken down, but only after reducing the Empire to the verge of extinction. The Emperor himself, and the small band of statesmen whom he had gathered around him, had clearly perceived this fact, but with the strange halucination which has been the guiding spirit of the foreign Powers in their intercourse with China, it was always to the other type of ministers that they preferred to turn. The ignoble lesson learnt by Captain ELLIOTT in 1839 has been repeated by each Minister in turn; each has refused to take example by the humiliation of his predecessor, only to learn that he in his turn had committed the same cardinal error of bargaining away substantive gains for airy and delusive promises. In the pre- sent negotiations for the return of the Court to Peking, there is an attempt at going over this old comedy; and though up to this England and Germany, as the Powers principally interested, have fairly suc
"THE CHINESE WOLF AND EUROPEAN LAMB."
(Daily Press, 13th February.)
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nesses to the thriving community which "had lived here and died. Many a sign- "board and placard was still intact, and there was a touch of terrible humour in the singing-hall poster which I saw on the entrance to a maze of ruins, for it might have just been stuck up, so fresh and bright were its colours and illustrations. "Beside the door sat a human form with
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leaden eyes bulging out from their orbits, "and a few houses lower down loomed a large "inscription: 'Perpetual peace.' We were traversing an improvised city of the dead. One dwelling, which had the appearance "of wholeness, aroused my curiosity, and, 'utilizing the time afforded me by the snap. ping asunder of the tow-rope, I jumped "ashore and entered it. It had been gutted. Everything within had been destroyed 'except in one room. There the stale re- "mains of a frugal meal were still recognis- “able, but on the ground, beside two stools, lay the man and the woman who would The French Government has decided to have shared it. They were horribly return to China the loot sent to France by slashed up; three chopsticks lay at General FREY, and our Indo-Chinese con- their feet. In the courtyard was a little temporaries are rejoicing to see the Re-
child, its hair done up in four plaits public take the lead in condemning, by this
interwoven with red ribbon, its head. action, the "cruel and out-of-date custom" "crusted with black clotted blood; and of pillaging captured towns and villages. "shrouded by a swarm of flies. Nor was That the example of France will be followed this by any means the only scene of its to any great extent we have strong doubts.
kind. And yet throughout this weird Possibly some of the spoil which has passed necropolis there had lately been heard the into the hands of other foreign Governments" sounds of laughter and weeping, the lisp- may be returned, but the bulk which fell“ ing of innocent children, the articulate joy into the hands of individuals is now beyond "of mothers and fathers! In the twinkling recall. Many doubt the utility of restoring of an eye it had all been transformed, and the loot, pointing out that much of what "fathers, sons, daughters, and mothers wis taken will not return to the hands now lay hidden in the mould, covered of those from whom it was taken. The "with matting, buried in the rubbish or Chinese Government alone will profit; the 'floating down the river. A wave of death. majority of those robbed, not at all. Dr.
“and desolation had swept over the land, E. J. DILLON, the well-known correspon. washing away the vestiges of Chinese dent, in an article in the January number "culture. Men, women, boys, girls, and of the Contemporary Review regards the mat..."babes in arms had been shot, stabbed, and
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