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THE SITUATION AT PEKING.
progress
(Daily Press, 21st September.) The insincerity of the professions made by the Empress Dowager in favour of and reform on her return to Peking from her voluntary exile to the North-west has quickly been demonstrated. On the principle, no doubt, quaintly embodied in the lines-
The Devil was sick, the Devil a monk would be ; The Devil was well, the Deyil a monk was he-
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
danger of a further outbreak against foreigners at Peking. The reactionaries have been greatly encouraged by the attitude assumed by the Empress Dowager and her creatures, and the reappearance of Prince TUAN and others in the capital is regarded watch with uneasiness by those who developments there. It is true the Legations are fortifiel and guarded, and that garrisons of foreign soldiers are still maintained, but if the foreign-drilled native troops are only properly equipped and led, it would go hardly with the foreign representatives if another coup d'état were to be resolved upon by the Empress or the Palace favourites. It may not actually be, as some writers seem to think, that the Ministers are living on the crust of a volcano, but it is at least certain that there is a sense of unrest and unquiet in the Chinese metropolis, which is accentuated with every fresh snub adminis- | tered by the Empress to CHANG CHIH-TUNG and the advocates of a policy of progress. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the Foreign Ministers will not live in a fools' paradise, but that they will keep a smart watch on the movements of the anti-foreign party in the Government, and, if necessary, demand the banishment of suspicious characters. The memory of th events of 1900 is still too fresh in the minds of foreigners for them to put much faith either in the good inten. tions or the goodwill of the majority of the Chinese or Manchu officials.
AFFAIRS IN THE NORTH.
[September 26, 1903.
lists of demands, including an engagement by China that imports via Russian railways shall never be taxed more than 4.7 per cent. ad valorem, says that Japan asks nothing in Manchuria except that the treaty rights of the Powers shall not be impaired, and that the province shall remain open to the trade of the world without any unfair discrimina- Russia has tions in favour of one nation. obtained certain interests in Manchuria, and Japan has not the least idea of objecting
to
any arrangements essential to the protection of those interests. She cannot consent, however, to have the gates of Manchurian trade closed in her face. This appears to be an eminently just and reasonable attitude, to which it is difficult for Russia to take exception, however pre- eminent are her interests in Manchuria. The Japanese Minister at Peking, Mr. UCHIDA, is said to have stated the case very strongly indeed to Prince CHING, China's vacillating representative. He claimed that the Russian demands ignore Chinese inte- grity as well as the rights of other Powers, and warned the Prince that the only possible result, should these be granted, will be that Russia will permanently occupy Manchuria. Should the Chinese Government comply with the Russian demand, the Powers would naturally lodge similar demands, which would place China in a very dangerous position. In view of this, it will be advisable for China to reject the Russian demands. On the other hand, it is said that the Russian Minister has threatened the Chinese Government and said that his country will not withdraw a single soldier from Shingking if the Chinese Government does not comply with the recent demands. It is not to be wondered at that Prince CHING is said to feel the awkwardness of his positiou. But he must be almost used to it by this time. After all, his experience is only the customary lot of the usual flabby school of Chinese diplomatists. It is stated in Manchuria and Corea." In the mean by one of the Japanese newspapers that the time the tone of the Japanese Press has British, as well as the Japanese, representa. become very much more moderate than it tive at Peking has been conspicuously was a few weeks ago. The violence of active just recently. We may perhaps hope the that Sir ERNEST SATOW is devoting some language which characterised even utterances of prominent vernacular journals little attention to affairs in Manchuria.
This is not, has abated "cousiderably, however, from any false
optimism, for the gravity of the situation is fully recognised. One of the best of the native papers of Japan, the Jiji Shimpo, distinctly states that the St. Peterburg negotiations have not made any progress at all, that they cannot be said even to be moving, and that they certainly have not reached a stage indicating any prospect of satisfictory settlement. Mean while, the Jiji continues, Japan's attitude remains unchanged; she is determined to maintain her policy of achieving security for a country in which she has the strongest interests, geographical, commercial and political, and she will assert that policy even though Russia persist in her present law less course in defiance of frequently proclaimed assurances and deliberately concluded agreements. The Japan Mail pins its belief to the Jiji's statements and considers that without some marked change things cannot be said to be in a very hope ful condition, though it does not feel justified in despairing of a diplomatic settlement.
Her Majesty probably thought it might, on her reappearance in the capital, be well to take a little Western Reform physic, and at first, while in a state of nervous insecurity, she may live fancied the medicine agreed with her. But now that she has regained confidence, and feels that her feet are once more on solid ground, she is ready to throw physic to the dogs, and resume with all fervour the autocratic rule so congenial to her tyrannical spirit. For some time previous the Empress Dowager had been showing that she was impatient of criticism, and upon the arrest and trial of the reformer SHEN KE-WEI he openly threw off the mask, and came out again in her true colours. Nothing short of a most vindictive punishment for the unfortunate man could satisfy her desire for vengeance, and she accordingly decreed that a sentence should be passed which, while without precedent, was most barbarous and cruel. The wretched man was savagely beaten to death in prison on the direct instructions of this savage woman, whom the Powers, in a moment of equal imbecility and weak- (Daily Press, 23rd September.) ness, allowed to return to Peking to again To a great extent affairs in the North may set back the clock of progress and probably be said to have come to a standstill. All hatch new projects for driving out the hated appears to be awaiting the outcome of the foreigner from the Celestial Empire. She Russ-Japanese negotiations, of which the has not been long showing her true spirit | Times correspondent at Peking says that after first cleverly imposing upon the ladies they are based on a " Japanese memorandum of the Legations, and to their lasting shame providing for the mutual recognition of the inducing them to accept gifts from her blood-respective ra lway rights of the two Powers stained hands, she has gradually developed all her old predilections and has set herself to check all tendency to progress, to undo all efforts in the direction of reform. Among other achievements of the kind, the latest act of the Empress Dowager has been to veto the scheme of the Viceroy CHANG CHIH- TUNG and CHANG PEI-HBI, the Chancellor of the Peking University, to abolish the literary examinations after the old style of competition, and has made it exceedingly plain to those officials that she will never allow such an innovation! On the contrary, secret instructions will, it is said, be given to the examiners to bestow the Hsius'ai and Ohujen degrees upon those only who show in their essays a desire closely to adhere to the old order of things. The examiners have been selected from the ranks of the reacti naries, and may be trusted to carry out the Imperial orders. Conscious, however, that a the Emperor is still alive and representing the TA TSING dynasty, she keeps up a pretence of still intending to retire when she bas put the Imperial house in order and blotted out the Reformers. She plays her part, it must be admitted, with great cleverness, and succeeds in hood- winking most of the officials if she does not entirely impose on the Emperor and his fr.en (s. So far the Emperor has been content to accept the role of imbecile, and his energetic aunt is therefore not afraid of him, but there must be an end of this by-and-bye. The Emperor's friends will ere long begin to grow weary of waiting for an emancipation that never comes, and the spirit of progress which the Empress Dowager fondly thinks she has stiffed will break out the more strongly for being repressed and kept down. Meantime, however, there is said to b
Reports of new or amended demands of Russian with regard to Manchuria are continually being published. We have drawn a tention to some of them recently. There is, however, little demonstrable bisis, as a rule, for the reports. The same Japanese paper which we have quoted above, the Jiji Shimpo, discussing one of the latest
The other branch of the Northern ques- tion, relating to Corea, does not concern Great Britain so much; but it is obviously impossible for us to neglect the fate of the peninsula or disregard the aspirations of our Japanese allies in the matter. According to a Seoul despatch of the 8th instant to the Mainichi, the British Minister to Corea on the previous day male a statement to the Corean Government with regard to the opening of Wiju and closing of Pingyang. He pointed out that, as Japan has the most important interest in Pingyang, the fate of the city should be decidel by the attitude of Japan. The British Government have no choice in the matter; but they recom- mend that Yong-ampho should be opened as well as Wiju, a proper office being established at the former place for the control of the trade, as it may be difficult to send large ships up to Wiju. attitude of our representative will probably commend itself, though possibly a still warmer support of their aims might have been preferred by the Japanese. Coren is chiefly, almost entirely in fact, the coucern of Japan. We note, by the way, that, according to another telegram to the Mainichi, the Times in its issue of the 7th instant expressed a hope that Japan will invite Russia to accede to a precise definition of Japanese railway rights in Corea, as stipulated under the ROSEN-NISHI Protocol of 1898, and went on to applaud Japanese action regarding
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