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SETTLEMENT AND DELAY IN CHINA.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
to make what arrangements she could on | her private account with China, so long as these arrangements did not bring her into hostile conflict with the other Powers; but Daily Press, 16th February.)
she has been assuming more, and been at The negotiations between China and the tempting to act of her own motion as arbi- nations regarding the steps to be taken to trator between two interests, neither of extricate her from her unenviable position, whom has sought her intervention. To consequent on her little excentricities of last China she has been posing as possessing the June, do not seem to make much progress; means of compelling the Powers, and to the and rumour points to certain of the Eu- Powers she has been putting forward her ropean Powers as not so anxious as they claims on China as a ready method of set- profess to have the case closed. There is tling their demands. It is on record that in little doubt that the Chinese themselves are | 1860 she successfully adopted similar taċ- ·rages and murders or are beginning to get anxious on the subject, tics. Unfortunately for all parties Prince and would willingly enough yield the points KUNG, who had charge of Chinese affairs, at issue, including the execution of the accented General IGNATIEFF'Sassurances that principal culprit Prince TUAN; but are pre- Russia was China's only friend, and took vented by the kind interference of certain the bait. All General IGNATIers required officious friends, who without invitation have was a little slice of useless territory, which assumed the part of counsel for the defence, turned out to be the Primorsk, and so and in recompense for this self-assumed Russia got access to the Pacific and a task would claim the privilege to fix their position which has enabled her to interfere fee at a rate to be dictated by themselves. not only in China but to put her fingers into Personally, of course, nobody cares for any the affairs of Japan and Corea. Surely in of the actors in the recent tragedies; though vain," said a wise man, "is the net spread in the attempt has been made in interested the sight of any bird," and we might natur- quarters to whitewash the Empress Dowager, ally expect that China, having been caught it has not borne much fruit, and most sen- once, would a second time be cautious. Un- sible people are content to take her as she fortunately, too, the United States, buoyed isa vulgar, ignorant woman. Of course it up with the hope of obtaining some separate is not always to be expected that monarchs " concession in which others were not to and princes are altogether as refined and join, has been committing a similar error virtuous as for reasons of state they are to that fallen into in 1858, and has to all represented to their subjects, loving or appearance acted as the abettor of Russia, otherwise, and it would be extremely in- so that a very simple situation has been convenient were the world at large, in mak- complicated by extraneous issues. In the ing a treaty with any particular country, to middle stands China, anxious daly at any have to make private enquiries into the cost to get out of the mess she has got into, personal character of its chief. The Great but like an old woman who has just hailed Real has to cover a multitude of offences, a cab, utterly unable to decide between the and the axiom that the King can do no various applicants for the job. Such is the wrong has to be accepted with a very wide situation, and it would be ludicrous were reserve. The peculiarity of the present case it not for the importance of the interests that no such immunity can be pleaded involved. It is abundantly clear that for the perpetrators of those eccentricities, the Allies hold at present the trump as the crimes of China as a state are in-card, but they have made so many timately mixed with the crimes of the per- mistakes that it is by no means clear petrators as individuals. The murder of a that they are prepared to take advan- Minister by a state is no less a crime tage of it. The crew at Hsianfu have than his murder by an individual, and as learned from rough experience that that city the quondam Empress Regent, and her of refuge has not proved an Elysium, and accomplice Prince TUAN, are personally re- would gladly after their wanderings find sponsible for the crime against the law of themselves back again in the Forbidden nations, it becomes an indifferent matter City at Peking; that, however, is a privilege under which code they are to be punished. worth paying for, and it remains for the This is altogether beyond the question Allies to name their terms. Unfortunately of the illegality of the Dowager's position they have been acting as if the position were
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[February 23, 1901. maintain a firm and unbroken front on this question, the principal offenders will, after all, escape the sword of justice. If it wers a mere question of leniency, a concession might well be made. The Chinese Gov ment and the people of the metropolitan province of Chihli have no doubt suffered severely for their sins; but it is not matter where mercy can, with justice to the survivors, be allowed to have its benign sway. A great principle and a great lesson are at stake. The principle is that Chinese officials who either provoke out- responsible, by laxity, for them, shall be n made to bear the penalty of their crimes or mistakes. lives of hundreds of innocent foreigners were sacrificed to satisfy a craving for slaughter by the mob, encouraged and hounded on in many cases by the official class, whose duty it was to restrain them The lesson is that the murder of the sub jects of friendly states, whether instigated or connived at by the officials, will in future have to be atoned for, , not by the execution of a few coolies, who at most were but the instruments of the murderers, but by the death of the instigators themselves. It may seem very shocking to the Chinese Government that the head of a Manchu noble should be demanded as the forfeit for the lives of a few missionaries, but the de- mand is more just and more sensible than that for a large indemnity which, if paid, would be squeezed out of the poorer classes, while the really guilty persons would escape to repeat the action another day, when a sufficiently long interval had passed to al- low the indignation of civilised peoples to cool down. We trust therefore that all the Powers will resolutely back up the demands of Great Britain and Germany, who would appear to have determined that the authors of the horrors which have brought so much dis- credit on China and her Government shall not be repeated. No penalty that could be demanded, no indemnity that could be asked, from the Chinese Government could possibly prove so deterrent as the demand for the heads of the responsible officials. The mandarins love their squeezes and cling to them with the tenacity of leeches, but they value their heads at a still higher rate, and the Government shrinks from the disgrace that is involved in a Manchu prince being brought to the block. That they will exhaust all the resources of Oriental diplo- macy to evade such demand goes
without
at the date of the massacres. For obvious reversed and it were incumbent on them to saying, but the Allies will have to oppoza to
hold out inducements for the Imperial return.
PUNISHMENT OF THE GUILTY OFFICIALS.
(Daily Press, 22nd February.)
may
their pertinacious procrastination an insis- tence as absolute and as untiring. It involve some
prolongation in the pourparlers at Peking, but this should not be allowed to influence the Foreign Governments in the slightest degree. A great crisis has occurred; it has had to be met; its recur- rence must, at all costs, be prevented.
reasons international law recognises in principle the de facto ruler as the ruler de jure, but international law has at all times in exceptional cases recognised the right of displacement. The Regency had long expired,
1, the Emperor was not only de Jure, but de facto ruler, and the coup d'état of the 22nd September, 1898, by In view of recent intelligence from Peking no means compelled the Powers to acknow- with regard to the punishment of the ledge the irregular ost-regency, beyond Chinese officials responsible for the mas
Anent the proposal to establish a Japanese their own convenience. Had the outside sacres and atrocities in North China last Government Steel Foundry at Kure, some Powers then been desirous of coming to
year, it is satisfactory to learn, by our opposition is being evinced at the ides now that understanding with regard to China, there telegrams, that the Treaty Powers still the investigations of the experts in Europe was no international difficulty to be over hold that this demand must be complied have been sent out. The result of the on- come, and Russia especially has always with before any settlement can be arrived quiries is that the 6,300,000 yen, asked for by upheld the right to withhold acknowledg-at. It was stated on the 8th instant by our the Naval Department, is considered sufficient It therefore comes with peculiar in- special correspondent at Shanghai that the to establish a steel foundry at the present Iron Works, and that it would be advisable to enter consistency that Russia should seem to be Foreign Ministers had demanded the deaths into an arrangement for the use of Kra using her influence
indivi- of eleven officials, among them being those patent rights and employ foreign experts. The dunls from the natural consequences of of the mandarins primarily responsible for Minister for the Navy explained at a rece their own actions; we say seem, because as the massacres at Chuchow. Two of the meeting of the Budget Committee that sin yet we have only got the Chinese version of officials denounced, who were in concealment Mr. Ogohira had invented a method of making a very curious instance of alleged assump in the capital, have been arrested, but the steel they had many experts in its manufact tion of superior right. Russia has not Chinese Plenipotentiaries (Prince CHING already in the Department. It would throughout the negotiations attempted to and LI HUNG-CHANG) are exercising all necessary to acquire Krupp's patent
Japan had already her own method of manu, liste a s settlement. Such a course their subtlety to evade the actual fulfilment facture. It is rumoured that the ● ques
her and no one had the of the penalty, and there is every reason to will be pastponed to next semiam of the right to complain, She had also the right fear that unless the Foreign Ministers Dist.
ment
open t
to
Bave certain
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