14
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
The
UNDESERVED HONOUR FOR
THE LATE LI HUNG-CHANG.
:
April 7, 1902.1 importance of the mutual bearing of the British dominions. The writer in the two agreements lies in the question of Man- Novosti may therefore be dismissed as 8 churia. In the "China" whose integrity mere Chauvinist. It is possible that, had is to be maintained, Great Rritain and Russia's policy in the East ever been aught Japan include Manchuria. The Russian but a series of acts of bad faith, her Government remains silent, but the Russian presence on the Persian Gulf might have and French Press for the most part write been regarded with equanimity. Such a as though the idea of any other Power state of mind is not possibly now. being concerned in Manchuria were intoler- Manchurian question must be regarded able. The protest which certain Russian apart from any such complications. The journals urge the Et. Petersburg Govern-Tsar's Ministers have still their pledges ment to make at London and Tokyo against to fulfil with regard to this portion of the British and Japanese espionage in Chinese Empire, and no amount of St. Manchuria is significant. According to all Petersburg cloud-blowing must be allowed reports which reach us from the North, to obscure the issues, British and Japanese travellers have every obstacle put in the way of any journey through Manchuria, if indeed Japanese are not actually kept off the railway, as some despatches to Japan assert. Such conduct
(Daily Press, 31st March.) toward the subjects of two Powers at peace It is not always easy to comprehend the with Russia, the Russian guardians, for the actuating motives that lead Chinese states. time, of Manchuria have no right to exhibit; men to put their names to memorials to the and it is an additional reason for disbelieving Throne; and one of the most incomprehen- previous assurances from St. Petersburg as sible of these that we have lately met with is to Russia's intentions in Manchuria. We a memorial from the Viceroy of Nanking do not know what is meant by the charges praying for permission to collects funds for of "espionage on the Manchuriau coast," the erection of a votive temple to the unless it signifies that Britain and Japan, memory of the late L HUNG-CHANG. The seeing the dishonesty of the policy of memorial is in many ways peculiar, and Russia in this dependency of the Chinese probably may be taken as indicative of the Empire, naturally keep as strict a watch style of pressure that has been recently as possible on proceedings.
brought to bear on the old Viceroy it is It is not a matter for surprise that a true that as Li was a former Viceroy, and section of the Russian Press should discuss nominally at least connected with the the question of the effect on the situation recovery of the city of Nanking from the in the Far East of recent developments Taiping rebels, H.E. LIU KUNG-YI may with considerably more acrimony than is have considered himself the natural spokes- permitted to strictly official organs. The man to be looked to by those desiring threat of the Novosti, which is reported by to honour the memory of the late our London correspondent, must not be esti-Imperial favourite. Still there are memo- mated at more than its proper worth, but rials and inemorials, and we would hardly it shows at least the sentiments of one expect the one to which H.E. has permitted portion of the Russian nation. Owing to his name to be affixed to represent his own the difficulties which England and Japan private opinions on the subject; and this place in the way of Russia securing a base is made somewhat more apparent when we of action on the Pacific Ocean, we are told, come to learn the suggesting cause of the Russia must endeavour to reach the Indian memorial. In Nanking, it seems, there is Ocean, destroying the independence of an Expectant Tuotai named PU WEN-KWAN, Afghanistan and Baluchistan if necessary. who as Prefect of Nanyong in Honan was Now, in the first place, Russia already has formerly acquainted with L1, and he, we at Port Arthur and Dalny her base of take it, rather than H.E. LIU, is to be action on the Pacific. This concession has accepted as the real author. At all events been made to her before. What is objected Pu does not seem to have far advanced to by Britain and Japan is a further en- since the time when his patron was all croachment, resulting in the absorption powerful on the Yangtsze. He still re- into the Russian Empire of the whole of mains, as he was on Lr's advancement to Manchuria, where other Powers have con. Chihli, a mere expectant of the next office siderable commercial interests at stake, and in rank; and is doubtless anxious to pioneer the loss of which to China seriously menaces a path into Imperial favour through singing Peking. With regard to the question of the stale praises of one whom that court has Russia gaining an outlet into the Indian declared itself ready to honour by conferr- Ocean, there are not wanting those who ing on him a Tolo Pall' 'as on the con- think that this is desirable rather than other-tinent of Europe a deceased subject might wise, as conducive to commercial develop-be honoured by the repetition of a state ment. Unfortunately for such reasoning, Requiem Mass. It is, however, instructive the analogy of Russia's action in Man to read the official virtues of the departed churia only too clearly shows what Russian statesman, and compare them with the expansion in the direction of India would actual facts. According to the author of mean. The security of our Indian posses- the memorial, he loved his country. We do sions demands that land-grabbing of the not deny that a certain love had penetrated kind characteristic of Russia should be to Li's heart, but it was very much the same absolutely checked in the neighbourhood love that Jack frequently exhibits for his of the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. bottle of rum, or à gourmet feels for some The threat about destroying the indepen- particularly agreeable gastronomic triumph. dence of Afghanistan and Baluchistan With regard to the converse, that the people cannot be regarded seriously. A curtail-loved him, at all events there was little sign ment by Russia of the territory of that Li had ever obtained the affections of Afghanistan will never be tolerated by the Kiangsu people at large; certainly, Britain until that period of decadence when he was called from Nanking to the about which Continental Anglophobes love metropolitan province, there was no sign of to write actually sets iu. As for Baluchistan, any regret, but rather a feeling of satisfac though the country owns the rule of the tion. With regard to Lr's participation in Khan of Khelat, it is under the supervision the campaign that resulted in the capture of the Indian Governor-General's agent, of Nanking, history, according to the writer, and parts of it are already included in the belies itself in the case in apportioning all
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the credit to the old Viceroy TS'ENG KWO-FAN. As a fact LI was at the time a Taotni, and not held in very high estimation either, most of his attempts to act on his own account having onded in not over cre- ditable fiascos. It was not, in fact, till Li had secured the services in the first place of the American WARD, and after his death of the single-minded GORDON, that any stand was made against the rebels in lower Kiangsu, whither they had been driven by the abler and more honest TS'ENG. These little facts are recorded in all contem- |porary history, native as well as foreigu. When therefore the memorialist goes on to say that I had the principal or indeed any part whatever, in the taking of Nanking, he states what is simply a deli- berate falsehood. When the memorial not content with this mere misstatement, goes on to say that the real credit of these operaționa belongs to LI HUNG-CHANG, he is making an attempt to falsify history; not, however, content with this, he goes on deliberately to malign the character of a man to whom Li was but as a satyr to HYPERION, and here H.E. Lau allows himself to be led into a statement unworthy of the man who has been the saviour of his country. memorialist unblushingly states that it is to Lr's credit that he purposely left to his colleague " TS'ENG KWO-FAN, the sole honour of taking Nanking, when he might have easily joined in the seige and shared the glory of its capture. The plainest refutation of this extraordinary statement is that LI was never a colleague" of the Viceroy TS'ENG; and, we may add, was never trusted by him more than he could possibly belp. He did indeed succeed him in the viceroyality, but there was а marked difference in the manner in which the two men were looked upon by those over whom they ruled. TS'ENG was given an ovation, in which all classes from the highest to the lowest joined, on his departure, and his funeral was a still more pronounced testi- mony of the love and almost adoration with which he was looked up to by all classes alike, while the other, beyond the bounds of his own immediate home at Luchowfu, was treated by the people with a coolness that rather bordered on contempt. In the suppression of the Nienfei rebellion what principally distinguished I were
his failures; the rebellion itself died a naturl death, having never developed a leader or a cause. Lr's action towards the Boxers, like all his other exploits, was merely wait ing for the turn of events, and LIU, who was the real cause of the collapse of that movement, could hardly have read the remarks which he is supposed to have written. The whole document is a most curious instance of the influence at work in China, and a strange comment on its system of government.
The Australian Government has decided not to recommit the question of import duty on tea. The Melbourne correspondent of the Times states that there is the strongest possible protest from all the States against the abelition of the duty, but that the prospects of a reversal of the decision are alight.
I
Mr. Rublee, the U.S Consul-General, received a telegram on the 29th alt. notifying the death from typhoid fever of Mr. Wright, pay-director of the U. S. Naval Pay Office. The late Mr. Wright was stationed here for some time, and was subsequently transferred to Manila when the U. S. Pay Office was closed here. The
deceased gentleman passed through Hongkong on his way home via Europe by the Sachsen, which left here on the 5th ult. Mrs Wright accompanied her husband, and much sympathy is felt for her sad and untimely lows,
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