38
WHITEWASHING YUNG LU,
|
were
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[January 18, 1902. compelled to draw the cover off his neigh | Chinese, we venture to affirm that the m. hour. It was not he who advised the pression created on their minds by the massacre of the foreigners; he never made passage of white troops through their midst (Daily Press, 13th January:)
the Manchurinn convention; on the coù- is not one of admiration for their civilisa- The present is an age of Whitewash, and trary, it was due to him that the Yangtszetion. We cannot suppose that Count VON it is not surprising to find YUNG Lu, whom Viceroys telegraphed to the Emperor BuLow or anyone else honestly thinks the we have been brought to look upon with expressing their strong. disapproval of inhabitants of the Chibli villages look back the Dowager Taz'HI and the late T HUNG- the proposed convention being rushed on on the punitive expeditions of 1901 with CHANG as one of the chief authors of the the country by the Dowager Taz'Hi and other feelings than hatred. It unfortun- present degradation of China, desirous of her late henchman LI. The Pokfolum ately seems to be a fact that cant is inseper- appearing as one of the distinguished lights Waterworks were no design of his, or did able from political speaking. We are quite of the age. For the future we are to look be lay out the drainage system of Hongkong! ready to admit that there has been much upon YUNG LU as one of the benefactors of All these, and a great many more objection- cant talked about the South African War. his time and country, who in the direst hourable things, were done quite contrary to his We think, however, it must be allowed that of darkness suddenly came to the rescue of wishes. He had inspired the mass there has been much more about the allied China, and led the way to her rehabilita- meetings in CHANGSHUHO'S garden at expedition to China. And it is not by the tion in garments purged from the ugly stains Shanghai which had sent strong protests professors of religion that the bulk of this that since that untoward day in September, to the Viceroys, and he vas ready to talking has been done, but by the statesmen, 1898, when the Emperor was sent into his adopt the young Chinese lady who spoke who are less to be excused. That an private apartments in the Palace, have un- so eloquently on the subject. It was, he evangelist should insist on the benevolence fortunately clung to her. It is not many would bare us believe, quite contrary to the of his mission to the Leathen is natural; months since General TUNG FUUSIANG, one fact that he, YUNG LU, had at any time that a diplomatist or a politician should do of the immaculate cherubs who surrounded designs contrary to the well-being of his so is hypocrisy. Commercial men have the Court of the Dowager, had equal reason country, or her continuance on friendly come to China primarily to take money to complain of the unfounded charges being terms with her very good neighbours. It therefrom; the advantages to the Chinese mude at the expense of the unalloyed purity is of course no fault of YUNG Lu's that are merely incidental. The diplomatists of his motives. Unfortunately the total in showing the particular brightness of his follow either to protect their nationals quantity of white paint available is insuffi- own character he has been compelled to (more or less efficiently) or to gain some cient to entirely cover the premises, and cast a very ugly shade on that of his chief political advantage over rival countries. It TUNG could only get coated over at the associates, the late LI HUNG-CHANG and would clear the international situation expense of YUNG Lu. A little billet dour the Dowager Tsz HI: the former is dead, immeasurably if the insincere protestations addressed by him to the other last April is and in angels of Yuxo Lu's type dead men of the "mission of the Western Powers" interesting as exhibiting Tuna's view of count for nothing; and as to the Dowager. to the East
abandoned. China the affair. He complains seriously of the she is already so black that an other tinge undoubtedly stands to gain by intercourse aspersions cast on his private character, and will not matter. Still, it is not a nice with the West, and this can be proved by of his having in consequence lost his official thing for the future of China to find rational argument. There is therefore no post. He was a soldier, and it is the duty of that even her brightest ornament, the need to conceal the real issue by declara- soldiers to obey without daring to assume rartriot YUNG Lu, has to associnte with one tions, which do not deceive the Chinese, discretion; but he felt assured that H. E. who by his own showing is so entirely of our anxiety for China's welfare, The was so patriotic that he was prepared to wicked at all points that even YUNG LU basis of international intercourse is mutual rescue the Empire, though it were at the the righteous has to hold up his pious profit, and there is in existence no nation of sacrifice of his own life, and therefore as a hands in horror at her impiety.
benevolent philanthropists such
as the dog he followed His Excellency's footsteps.
simple-minded might deduce from the It was in September, 1898, that H. E. then
utterances of speech-making politicians. Viceroy of Pechili, initiated the coup d'état and ordered, under the instructions of the Dowager, the summary decapitation of the
(Daily Press, 15th January.) six reform wartrys, and on the 29th of the Count VON BULOW's speech in the German previous moon had telegraphed for him Reichstag seems, from the brief account of (TUNG) to come to Peking, which he did it furnished by REUTER, to have been of a on receipt of the order. Since then he blend admirably suited for parliamentary had been entirely at His Excellency's and national taste. An unfriendly critic, it disposal, and bad as instructed kept in is true, might consider that the first part of touch with LI LAI-CHUN, the Boxer leader. it was marked by the" unctuous rectitude" It was therefore, he suggested, by no means
which has been attributed to certain British fair that, while YUNG LU is as well off as politicians and the second by a cynical ever, although the originator of all the admission of Germany's gain out of the trouble, he (TUNG) should be made the recent troubles. An impartial judge, while scapegoat, and be condemned to bear all the recognising that the Imperial Chancellor blame. TUNG winds up this characteristic was perfectly within his rights in pointing epistle by asking, "Will your Excellency give out the benefits which have accrued to his me some explanation of this, and tell me country as the result of his policy, may what right or reason there is in it all?" perhaps take leave to doubt the opinion Most people will agree with Tuxe that his which Count von BULOW expressed so con- protest was well founded, and that infidently as to China's conviction of the unity YUNG LU was to be found, if not the instigator, yet a more guilty criminal, than the mere instrument of a policy of which he was only the instrument. It is a trite yet not altogether untrue saying that when thieves fall out honest men come, if not to their own, yet to a knowledge of things it may be to their advantage to know; and though we should be unwilling to cast aspersions on two such immaculate characters 18 TUNG FUHSIANG and YUNG LU, yet there is a strange irony of fate in the different results that have followed in each case. But, notwithstanding YUNG Lu's perfect innocence, it was unfortunate for t! e latter that he too has been compelled to adopt a similar course of Whitewash, and here too the robe of righteousness has proved too narrow to cover the whole crew. Unfortu- nately, too, YUNG LU has in his endeavours to clothe his own nakedness found himself
FOREIGNERS IN CHINA.
14
of the Powers and their determination to combat barbarism. As we wrote last week, the Concert" of the Powers over the China question nearly succeeded in embroil ing the whole world, and though in the end the Chinese Government has been coerced into displaying tardy reason it can hardly be said that the unity of the Powers was conspicuously displayed. Indeed the Chi- nese Peace Plenipotentiaries showed that they knew well how to take advantage of the boasted unity among their enemies. Nor is it advisable to boast too much about the Powers' determination to combat bar
are Educated Chinamen
not barism. likely to be taken in by talk about the civilising mission of Europe in the Far East. They are quite aware that the massacre of inoffensive foreigners is barbaric, but they also know that what the mass of foreigners come to China for is not China's benefit but their own. As for the ignorant
•
THE WEST RIVER OUTRAGE.
(Daily Press, 16th January.) The now details which have reached us concerning the attack on the British steamer Nanning, belonging to the Hong- kong, Canton and Macno Steamboat Com- pany, on Monday, do not explain the situa- tion out of which the injury to the Rev. C. E. L. COWAN and the narrow escape of Mr. FABIAN arose. The Nanning is on the Canton-Wuchow line and she had reached the Tamchau Channel of the West River about the tiffin-hour on the 18th, when the European passengers, of whom there were a brief holiday, four, two travelling on observing a number of men in Chinese military uniform on the river-bank, some hundred yards inland, stepped out on deck from the salcon to have a look at them. According to our informant, whose experi- ences are recorded in another column, they appeared to be drilling or to be having a field-day. Several hundreds of them were collected together at the spot whither attention was particularly called, and other bodies of men had been observed in the neighbourhood. As the Europeans stood on deck to watch, a volley was suddenly directed at them and two of the four were touched, the Glory's chaplain severely in the leg, and his companion through his clothes. 'he wounds were inflicted by ball-cartridge, which disposes of the idea that evolutions were the object of the soldiers' presence in the locality. After the outrage, the Nanning wisely proceeded until she came upon the gunboats Robin and Sandpiper, whose com- manders were at once made acquainted with the details. Dr. MACDONALD, the Wesleyan missionary doctor, who luckily was one of the four European passengers on the assailed
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