CHINA—PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE
Looking upon the map of China to‐day, England might well say with
Clive, “I stand amazed at my own moderation.” If thirty years ago she
had seized upon the whole of that vast empire, no other Power in the
world would have dared to say her nay. She was undisputed mistress of
the Eastern seas. Russia had not then reached the shores of the Pacific
and her hands were busily employed in the centre of Asia. Germany had
only just become a nation, and had not yet dreamt of contending with
England for the commerce of the world. France lay crushed beneath the
weight of an overwhelming defeat; and her voice was unheard in the
councils of the nations. The United States of America had no thought
of realms beyond the sea; their fleet was small, and the markets of
Asia held no temptation for their merchants. Japan was but a name. The
Meiji, the eventful revolution that freed her from the iron fetters of
hide‐bound ignorance, was scarcely ten years old; and even its authors
scarce dared to hope that their little islands would one day rank high
among the civilised Powers of the world.
And China itself, that unwieldy Colossus, lay a helpless prey to any
strong nation that placed aggrandisement before the claims of abstract
justice. The prize was tempting. An immense empire that stretched
from the snows of the North to the burning heats of the torrid zone;
a land of incredible fertility, of vast mineral wealth, the value of
which can even now be only vaguely guessed at; a teeming population of
industrious and easily‐contented millions; an enormous seaboard with
natural harbours that could shelter the navies of the world; navigable
rivers that pierced to the heart of the land and offered themselves as
veritable highways of commerce; all the riches that the earth could
bear on its surface or hide in its bosom—what a guerdon to the victor!
The conquest of China might daunt the faint‐hearted from the apparent
immensity of the task; but few countries would have proved an easier
prize. Her army was composed of a heterogeneous collection of ill‐armed
militia, whose weapons were more frequently the spear and the bow than
the modern rifle. The Chinaman is, by nature, a lover of peace. War he
abhors; and the profession of a soldier, honoured among other races, is
held by him in utter contempt. Unpaid, uncared for, ill‐treated, and
despised, the troops had to be driven to battle and could not withstand
a determined attack. And behind them was no high‐spirited nation ready
to risk all in the defence of the motherland. Patriotism is unknown.
The love of country, so strong in other peoples, is non‐existent in
the heart of the average Chinaman. With aught beyond the limits of
his village, he has no concern. No other race in the world can boast
so deep a love of family. To save his relatives from poverty, the
Celestial will go willingly to his death. According to their laws a
criminal cannot be slain unless he has confessed his crime. To wring
this confession from him, tortures inconceivable in their fiendish
malignity are heaped upon him. A speedy death would be a boon. But to
acknowledge his guilt and die by the hands of the public executioner
would entail the forfeiture of all his property to the State, and
his family would be beggared. So, grimly uncomplaining, he submits
for their sake to agonies that no white man could endure. A rich man
condemned to death can generally purchase a substitute, can find a
poverty‐stricken wretch willing to die in his stead for a sum of money
that will place his starving relatives in comparative affluence.
All this the poor Chinaman will do for those he loves. How many white
men would do the same? But why should he die for his country? he asks.
Why sacrifice himself and those near and dear to him for the honour of
a shadowy Emperor? Why should he lay down his life that the officials
who oppress the poor and wrest his hard‐earned money from him may
flourish unmolested? He is told that the Japanese, yellow men like
himself, have invaded the land and defeated the Imperial troops. Well,
the enemies are thousands of miles away from _him_, and the soldiers
are paid to fight. What is it to him that strangers have seized upon
some seaport, the name of which he has never heard before? Let those
whom it concerns go out and fight them. _His_ duty is to stay at home
and till the ground that his family may not lack food.
A few of the more enlightened Chinamen of the upper classes, those
who have lived abroad in Europe or America, in Australia, Hong Kong,
and the Straits Settlements, or who have been educated in European
colleges, may be inspired with the love of country as we understand
it. But have the leaders of the nation, the nobles and the mandarins,
ever been ready to sacrifice themselves for China? They batten on
its misfortunes. The higher in rank they are the readier they prove
themselves to intrigue with its enemies and sell their country for
foreign gold. They drive the common folk to battle and stay at home
themselves. The generals and the officers, with few exceptions,
are never found in front of their troops in action, unless when a
retirement is ordered. Occasionally isolated cases occur when a
defeated commander commits suicide. But it is generally because he
prefers an easy death by his own hand to the degradation and tortures
that await the vanquished general.
To prate of the patriotism of the Chinese is as though one spoke of
the “patriotism of India.” Still, the latter is a favourite phrase
of some of our ignorant politicians who pose as the champions of
“the down‐trodden black brother.” They talk of India being made
self‐governing and wish to fill its Civil Service with “enlightened
natives.” They fail to see why a Calcutta Babu or a Bombay Parsee, who
boasts a university degree and has passed a brilliant examination,
should not be set to rule over a Punjaub district or to deal with the
unruly Pathans on the frontier. They do not realise that Englishmen
would sooner submit to be governed by the knout of a Russian official
than the haughty Sikh or fierce Pathan would endure the sway of men
they regard as lower than dogs. Our Indian Empire is composed of a
hundred warring nations, all different in speech, in blood, almost
in religions. We, the dominant race, hold them all in the _Pax
Britannica_, and keep them from each other’s throats.
In like manner few realise that China is not a united and homogeneous
nation. It consists of many provinces, the inhabitants of which belong
practically to different races and speak in different tongues. They
have little intercourse or sympathy with each other. Inter‐village
wars are almost as frequent as among Pathans. Rebellions are common
occurrences. The Mohammedans hold themselves aloof and regard the other
Chinese with little love. The written language is the same throughout
China; but the man of Canton cannot speak with the inhabitant of Pekin
or the coolie from Amoy. Occasionally the curious sight may be seen of
two Chinamen from different provinces holding converse with each other
in pidgin‐English, the only medium of intercourse intelligible to both.
In the outbreak of 1900 the Boxers and the Pekinese showed themselves
almost as hostile to the Cantonese trading or residing in the north
as they were to Europeans. They considered that the southern city’s
long intercourse with the white man must have rendered its inhabitants
favourable to foreigners; though, indeed, this is very far from the
truth.
So the Chinaman can have no patriotism. To any but the most
enlightened—or the mandarins from more sordid motives—it is a matter
of comparative indifference who rules the Empire. Provided that he
is allowed to live in peace, that taxes do not weigh upon him too
heavily or his religion be not interfered with, the peasant cares not
who reigns in Pekin. Justice he does not ask for; he is too unused to
it. All that he demands is that he be not too utterly ground down by
oppression. Patient and long‐suffering, he revolts only against the
grossest injustice. Not until maddened by famine or unable to wring a
bare living from the ground does he rise to protest against the unjust
officials, whose exactions have kept him poor. If he once realised the
fairness of European rule, he would live content under any banner,
happy in being allowed to exist in undisturbed possession of the fruit
of his toil. The Chinamen in our possessions in the East are satisfied
and happy under the mild law of England. Large numbers of them make
their home there, content to live and die under a foreign government,
and ask only that their corpses may be conveyed back to China to be
interred in its sacred soil.
The average Celestial in his own land feels no pride or interest
in the glory of his country. In its government he has no voice. Of
its history, its achievements in the past, he is ignorant. He is
content with it because it is the only one he knows and so must be
the best. Of other lands beyond its confines he has dimly heard.
But their inhabitants are mere barbarians. Those of them who have
intruded themselves into his country are uncivilised according to his
standard. They worship false gods; their manners are laughable. All
they do is at variance with his customs, and so must be wrong. They
cannot read his books and know nothing of the maxims of Confucius.
So they must be illiterate as well as irreligious. Yet these strange
beings are content with themselves, and scorn his ways! This proves
their ignorance and their conceit. How can they boast, he asks, of
the superiority of their own countries when they cannot stay there
and, in face of contempt and hostility, seek to force their way into
his? And as their coming means interference with customs hallowed by
age and the uprooting of his dearest prejudices, he resents it. They
strive to introduce innovations which he can very well do without. What
sufficed for his father and his father’s father is good enough for him.
The barbarians come only to disturb. They wish to defile the graves
of his worshipped ancestors by constructing railways over the soil in
which their bones rest. The shrieks of the chained devils in their
engines disturb the _Feng Shui_, the tutelary deities of his fields,
and hence follow drought and famine. And that these accursed, unneeded
iron highways may be constructed, he is forced to sell the land which
has been in the possession of his family for generations. The price
for it passes through the hands of the mandarins and officials, and
so but little reaches him. Has he not heard that to secure the safety
of their bridges little children are kidnapped and buried under their
foundations? Out upon the accursed intruders! China has flourished
through countless ages without their aid, and wants them not.
And so, in a measure, hatred of foreigners supplies the place of
patriotism. It binds all classes together. The ruling clique dread
them for the reforms they seek to introduce; for these would overthrow
the frail structure of oligarchical government in Pekin and hurl
the privileged class from power. The mandarins tremble at their
interference with the widespread corruption and unjust taxation
on which the officials now batten. The educated hate them for
their triumphs over China in the past, their continual territorial
aggression, and their constant menace to the integrity of China. The
fanatical hatred of the white man exhibited by the lower classes is
the result of the blindest ignorance. It is stirred into mad rage
by the exhortations of the priests, who naturally resent with true
clerical bigotry the introduction of other creeds. The zealous but too
often misdirected efforts of the missionaries, who tactlessly trample
on his dearest beliefs, rouse the Chinaman to excesses against the
strangers who seem to have intruded themselves upon him only to insult
all that he holds most sacred. Every misfortune, whether it be drought
and subsequent famine or devastating floods, storm or pestilence, is
ascribed to the anger of the gods, irritated at the presence of the
unbelievers. If the crops fail or small‐pox desolates a village, the
eyes of the frenzied peasants turn to the nearest mission house where
live the accursed strangers whose false teachings have aroused the
anger of the immortals. Urged on by the priests and mandarins, they
fall upon it and slay its inmates. But retribution comes swiftly. Their
own Government are forced by dread of foreign interference to punish
the misguided wretches who have, as they consider, wreaked only a just
revenge. The officials are degraded. Heads fall and houses are razed
to the ground. The Imperial troops quarter themselves on the luckless
villagers who pay dearly in blood and silver for the harm they have
wrought in their madness. And a sullen hatred of the white man spreads
through all classes and bears bitter fruit in subsequent graver
outbreaks.
Can we justly blame them? Would we act differently in their place? What
if the cases were reversed? Suppose England to be a weak and backward
country and China wealthy and powerful, with a great navy and a large
army. Her merchants are enterprising and seek to push their trade into
other countries, even against the wish of the inhabitants. Chinese
vessels force their way up the Thames and sell the cargoes they carry
to our merchants in defiance of the laws we have passed against the
importation of foreign commodities. Refusing to leave, they are fired
upon. Chinese missionaries make their way into England and preach
ancestor‐worship and the tenets of Buddha in the East End of London.
The scum of Whitechapel mob them—as the Salvation Army has often been
mobbed. A missionary or two is killed. The Chinese Government seeks
revenge. A strong fleet is sent to bombard the towns along the South
Coast. Bristol is seized. A demand is made that the Isle of Wight
should be ceded in reparation for the insult to the Dragon flag. We
are forced to surrender it. A Chinese town grows up on it; and the
merchants in it insist that their goods should have the preference
over home‐made articles. The Chinese Government demands that tea from
the Celestial Kingdom should be admitted duty free and a tax put upon
Indian growths. A criminal or an anarchist, fleeing from justice, takes
refuge on a small Chinese ship, which is boarded and the fugitive
seized. We are only an ignorant people, and do not understand the Law
of Nations. We are soon instructed. Again China sends a fleet; a force
is landed and Liverpool captured. To redeem it we must pay a large
ransom. To obtain peace we are obliged to grant the Chinese settlements
in Liverpool, Bristol, and Southampton. This inspires other Asiatic
Powers—Corea, Kamschatka, and Siam, which we will imagine to be as
progressive and powerful as our supposititious China—to demand equal
privileges and an occasional slice of territory. Kent, Hampshire, and
Norfolk pass into their hands.
Buddhist and Taoist missionaries now flood the land. The common people
regard them with fear and hatred. The clergy of the Church of England
preach against them. The ignorant peasantry and the lowest classes in
the towns at last rise and expel them. A few of them are killed in the
process. The flame spreads. The settlements of the hated intruders
are everywhere assailed. The Asiatic Embassies in London are attacked
by the mob. Our Government, secretly sympathising with the popular
feeling, are powerless to defend them. Even if they wished to do so,
the soldiers would refuse to fire on the rioters.
Then the Allied nations of Eastern Asia band together; a great army
invades our unhappy country. A dire revenge is taken for the outrages
on the missionaries and the attacks on the Embassies. Middlesex is
laid waste with fire and sword; neither age nor sex is spared. The
brutal Kamschatkans slay the children and violate the women. London is
captured and looted. The flags of China, Corea, Kamschatka, and Siam
fly from the roofs of Buckingham Palace; Marlborough House shelters
the invaders; Windsor Castle is occupied by a garrison of the Allied
troops. Flying columns march through the land, pillaging and burning
as they go; the South of England is occupied by the enemy. Before the
Allied nations evacuate the devastated land a crushing war indemnity is
laid upon us.
Would we love the yellow strangers then? True, we are backward and
unprogressive. _They_ are civilised and enlightened; and even against
our will our country must be advanced. Still, I fear that we should
be ungrateful enough to resent their kind efforts to improve us and
persist in regarding them as unwelcome intruders.
All this that I have imagined as befalling England has happened to
China. For similar causes Canton was bombarded and captured. The
treaty ports were forced to welcome foreign trade. Hong Kong, Tonkin,
Kiau‐chau, Port Arthur, all have been torn from China. Fire and sword
have laid waste the province of Chi‐li. Death to the men and disgrace
to the women have been unsparingly dealt. Can we wonder that the
Chinese do not love the foreigner?
Our missionaries go forth to earn the crown of martyrdom. But if they
gain it their societies demand vengeance in blood and coin from the
murderers. The Gospel of Love becomes the Doctrine of Revenge. “Forgive
your enemies!” O ye saintly missionaries who are so shocked at the
ungodly lives of your sinful fellow‐countrymen in foreign lands, will
you not practise what you preach? Think of the divine precept of the
Master you profess to serve and pardon the blind rage of the ignorant
heathen!
So much for the China of the present. What of the future? She is now
fettered by the shackles of blind ignorance, by the prejudices and
retrogressive spirit of the tyrannical Manchu oligarchy who rule
the land. Her strength is sapped by the poison of corruption. The
officials, almost to a man, are mercenary and self‐seeking. Extortion
and dishonesty are found in every class. Suppose a tax is laid upon
a certain province. The Viceroy orders the mandarins to collect it
from their districts. They send forth their myrmidons to wring it
from the people, by threats and torture if need be. Enough must be
raised to satisfy the many vultures through whose claws it will pass
before it reaches Pekin. Twice, three times the amount of the sum
asked for originally must be gathered from the unfortunate taxpayers,
in order that each official through whose hands it goes on its way to
the Imperial Treasury may have his share of the spoil. And how is all
the money raised in the vast Empire spent? Not on the needs of the
land, certainly. Few roads or bridges exist. They have mostly been
constructed by charity. The railways—and there are not many—were
built by foreign capital.
Is there no hope for China? Must she remain for ever the spoil of the
strong? Or will she one day recognise the secret of her weakness,
reform and become a power too formidable to be lightly offended? She
has an example always before her eyes. Forty years ago Japan was as
ignorant and prejudiced. Foreigners were hated; the country was closed
to them. The Mikado was then as powerless as the Emperor of China is
now. The spear and the sword were the weapons which the soldiers of
Japan opposed to the cannons and rifles of the Europeans. Foreign
fleets bombarded the coast‐towns and wrung concessions from the
rulers of the helpless land. The country was divided between powerful
chieftains of warlike clans.
Yet at one stroke of a magic wand all was changed. Japan now ranks
among the Great Powers of the world. Her army commands respect
and fear; on war‐footing it numbers over half a million—and the
Japanese have always been gallant soldiers. Her navy is as modern
and well‐equipped as any afloat. The resources of the country have
been developed. A network of railways covers the land; telegraphs and
telephones link the important towns. Her manufacturers compete with
Europe in every market in Asia. Her merchant ships are all but built in
her own dockyards. The fleets of her steamship companies, such as the
Nippon Yusen Kaisha, would not discredit Liverpool or New York. Lines
of splendid passenger steamers, some of them over 6,000 tons, run to
Europe, America, and Australia. Smaller lines keep up communication
between Japan and the coasts of Siberia, Corea, and China. Education
is widespread; universities and schools abound. Manufactures are
encouraged by a liberal policy. The forest of factory chimneys in Osaka
gives that town the semblance of Birmingham as one approaches it in the
train. The water‐power universal throughout the islands is utilised
freely. Electric light is found in almost every city in the empire.
It is installed in even the smaller private houses. Automatic public
telephone kiosks dot the streets of the capital. In provincial towns
like Nagoya electric trams run.
All that Japan has become, China may yet be. Nay, more. The former is
poor, her territory small, the greater part of the country encumbered
with unprofitable mountains. The undeveloped wealth of the latter is
enormous. Gold, silver, copper, iron, and coal are all found. Vast
stretches of forest cover the interior. The soil is incredibly fertile;
and her people are naturally intelligent. The Chinese in Hong Kong and
elsewhere, as merchants, as shipowners, as professional men, prove
it. The schools and colleges of our island colony are filled with the
clever, almond‐eyed students. In the Straits Settlements, as in Hong
Kong, they compete with the Europeans in commerce and vie with them
in wealth. All that he is in other countries the Chinaman can become
in his own under the liberal rule of an enlightened Government. The
foreigners who trade with the Chinese say that the latter are far more
trustworthy in business than many a white man. The Chinese merchant’s
word is his bond. The Japanese are not so reliable; and their artisans
are by no means as industrious as their Celestial neighbours. The
latter, under no compulsion, will toil day and night to complete some
work by the time they have agreed to finish it.
The Chinese soldier is regarded with universal contempt. His
achievements in the past, when pitted against European troops, have not
exalted his name. But in 1900 he first showed what splendid material
he is. With the passive courage of fatalism, incomprehensible to more
highly strung races, the Chinaman will face death without a struggle.
When roused by fanaticism he will fight blindly to the end; but in cold
blood he has no ambition for military glory. When led to battle for
a cause of which he knows or cares nothing, he is ready to save his
life by a timely flight with no feelings of shame or self‐reproach. He
has never been taught otherwise. In China moral suasion or deceit are
looked upon as more glorious weapons than sword or gun.
But if he were well disciplined and led to understand the meaning
of _esprit de corps_, well treated and well led, he would prove no
contemptible soldier. The Boxers who with knives and spears charged
up to within fifty yards of Seymour’s well‐armed men and faced the
withering fire of magazine rifles with frenzied courage; the Imperial
troops who harassed his brave column day and night; the students who
fought their guns to the last when the Tientsin Military College was
taken by the Allies—were these cowards?
What the Chinaman can be made to do with proper leading may be seen
in the behaviour of our Chinese Regiment, little more than a year
raised, all through the campaign of 1900. When the British, American,
and Russian stormers had captured the Peiyang Arsenal, on June 27th,
an attempt to cut them off from Tientsin was made by a large body of
Imperial troops and Boxers who tried to get between them and the river,
across which they had to pass on their return. Lieutenant‐Colonel
Bower, intrepid explorer and gallant soldier, led out his Chinese
Regiment and drove off the enemy. The conduct of the men under fire was
excellent.
It is absurd to suppose that the Chinaman cannot learn the art of
modern warfare. The example of the Imperial troops who attacked Seymour
and besieged Tientsin amply proves this statement. They took advantage
of cover with cleverness and knowledge. They used their magazine rifles
with accuracy and effect. Their gunners were excellently trained.
Their shooting was so good that at first it was falsely supposed that
the guns were served by renegade Europeans. The arms with which they
were equipped were excellent. The troops were well supplied with
quick‐firing Krupps and magazine rifles. That they could use these
weapons was proved by the heavy losses among the Allied sailors and
soldiers in the early part of the campaign.
The Chinese offered so little resistance to the Allies on the march to
Pekin, the war collapsed so suddenly on the fall of the capital, that
scant justice has been done to the courage displayed on both sides
during the heavy fighting with Seymour’s column and around Tientsin.
The losses among the Europeans show how desperate it was. Admiral
Seymour’s column, out of less than 2,000 men, lost 295 killed and
wounded in sixteen days. The casualties among the British contingent of
900 bluejackets and marines, amounted to 27 killed and 97 wounded. The
Americans out of 120 men lost 4 killed and 25 wounded. The stormers of
the Taku forts also lost heavily.
In the beginning of the attack on the Peiyang Arsenal by the Russians,
they lost over 200 men and had to send for help to the Americans and
the British.
In the Boxer night attack on Tientsin railway station in July, the
British, French, and Japanese defending it had 150 casualties.
Out of a total of 5,000 men engaged in the taking of Tientsin native
city on July 13th and 14th, the Allies lost nearly 800 men.
The Egyptian _fellah_ was once considered to be utterly hopeless as a
fighting‐man. But British officers nursed him, strengthened his moral
fibre, and then led him into battle. Witness his behaviour at the
Atbara and at Omdurman. The army that the genius of Lord Kitchener had
moulded so skilfully proved invincible; and the _fellah_ did his fair
share of the fighting.
The Chinaman in natural courage, in physique, and in stamina is far
superior to the Egyptian. Why should he not become a more formidable
fighting‐man? Think what the Celestial Empire could do if its soldiers
were properly armed, trained, and led; if the spirit of self‐respect
were instilled into them and their natural passive courage fanned into
active bravery! Think of a warlike army recruited from a population of
400,000,000; and at its back a reformed China, its resources developed,
its immense wealth properly utilised, its people free and filled with
patriotic pride!
What Japan has accomplished, China, once her leader and her conqueror,
may yet achieve. And signs of the Great Awakening are at hand!
INDEX
Aberdeen, 181
Admiral Ho, 201, 214, 215
Admiral Seymour at the siege of Tientsin, 24;
his advance on Pekin, 30
Affleck‐Scott, Mr., 216
Ah Ting, Naval Dairy Farm, 4
Alarm in Hong Kong, 204
Alarm in Macao, 242
Allied Armies, men and methods of, 34
Allied Commissioners in Canton, 259
Allied Fleet at Taku, 8
American Army, Continental criticism, 51;
excellence of the men, 51;
elastic discipline, 51;
courage of, 52;
gallantry at Tientsin, 53;
comradeship with British troops, 53;
contempt for Continentals, 53;
discomfiture of British subaltern, 54
Army, American, 50;
Chinese in the past, 280;
of the future, 298;
Dutch, 54;
French, 42;
German, 34;
Indian, 55;
Japanese, 47;
Russian, 44;
Italian, 54
Arrest, in Japan, 252;
in Macao, 246;
of an English colonel in Macao, 251
_Arrow_, incident of the, 258
Astor House Hotel, Tientsin, 22
Barracoons in Macao, 255
Barrett, Lieut., Hong Kong Regiment, 199
Bathing parties in Hong Kong, 191
Bayly, Captain, R.N., gallantry at Tientsin, 45
Belcher’s Fort, 176
Belgian Legation in Pekin, 78, 80
Bella Vista, Macao, 240
Bengal Lancers, 1st, 59
Bersagliere, 54, 176
Bikanir, H.H. the Maharajah of, 180
Black Flags, 204
Boa Vista Hotel, 238
Boer Campaign, lessons of, 34;
foreign ignorance respecting, 41
Bogue Forts, 277
Bombay Light Cavalry, 3rd, 60;
a sowar’s opinion of the Russians, 164
Bombay Infantry, 22nd, 200, 204, 208, 229
Bombay Pioneers, 28th, 57
Bower, Lieut.‐Col., Chinese Regiment, 296
Boxers, night attack on Tientsin station, 15;
courage of, 24, 295;
losses, 25;
hostility to Cantonese traders, 284
Brigands, 136
Bridge of boats at Tientsin, 19
Bridge, marble, at Summer Palace, 127
Bronze Pagoda, 130
Bronzes in Forbidden City, 90, 93
Browning, Major, 48, 135, 168
Buddha, images of, 109
Buddhist monks, 108
Buddhist temple, 107
Burke, Lieut., 22nd Bombay Infantry, 208, 229
Cable tramway to the Peak, 181
Camoens, Gardens of, 254
_Cangue_, punishment of the, 269
Canton, history of intercourse with foreigners, 257;
food supplier to Hong Kong, 171;
projected railway to, 171, 196;
turbulence, 204;
reformers in, 206;
land and river approach, 278;
description, 261;
population, 263;
its streets, 264;
its shops, 265;
prison, 269;
its trade, 275;
its importance to English commerce, 275;
an attack on, 277;
energy of French consuls in, 276
Cap‐sui‐Moon Pass, 209
Carvalhaes, Senhor, A.D.C. to Governor of Macao, 244, 250, 251
Casserly, Lieut., 208
Cathedral, Roman Catholic, in Pekin, 95;
its siege, 97;
at Canton, 263;
San Paulo at Macao, 254
Cavalry, French, 43;
Japanese, 47;
Indian, 59;
in Hong Kong, 200
Cemetery at Wei‐hai‐wei, 4;
Macao, 245
Centre of the Universe, 70
Cession of the Kowloon Hinterland, 197
Chasseurs d’Afrique, 43, 66
Chifu, 6
China an easy prize, 280;
her sufferings in the past from foreigners, 290;
of the present, 291;
of the future, 293
Chinese Army of the past, 280;
want of patriotism, 281;
family love, 281;
Mohammedans, 283;
difference in languages, 283;
dislike to foreigners, 286;
extortion of mandarins, 291;
as merchants abroad, 294;
trade honesty of, 294;
splendid material for soldiers, 296;
in modern warfare, 296;
soldiers in the South, 227;
in the North, 228;
examinations, 273
Chinese Arsenal at Tientsin, 15;
guns made at, 217
Chinese Regiment, guard at Wei‐hai‐wei, 7;
barracks, 6;
behaviour in action, 295, 296
Chinese workmen, 97
Chong Wong Foo, 83
City Hall, Hong Kong, 176
Clocks in Emperor’s palace, 91
Club, Hong Kong, 176;
Tientsin, 20;
German at Tientsin, 22;
English Tennis at Macao, 244;
Portuguese Naval Tennis Club, Macao, 251;
Military Club, Macao, 241
_Cloisonné_ in Pekin, its manufacture, 111
Coal Hill, Pekin, 74
Cockroaches as an article of diet, 224
Concessions, European, in Tientsin, 17;
in Canton, 259, 274
Confucius, Temple of, 111
Consulate, British, at Tientsin, 20;
foreign, at Canton, 274
Coolie Corps, 10
Cossacks at play, 163
Customs, Imperial Chinese, station on Mah Wan, 209;
at Samchun, 212;
officers of, 217
Curzon, Lord, _Problems of the Far East_, 69
Dagoes, 53
Daibutsu at Kamakura and Hiogo, 109
Death of a thousand cuts, 271
De Boulay, Major, R.A., 121
Deep Bay, 196, 210
Development of Japan, 293
Dobell, Major, D.S.O., Royal Welch Fusiliers, 85
Docks, Kowloon, 187
Dockyard, Royal Naval, at Wei‐hai‐wei, 4;
at Hong Kong, 178
Dorward, General, his eulogy of American troops, 52
Dowager‐Empress, her pavilion in the Forbidden City, 92;
palace in Pekin, 74;
Summer Palace, 115;
seizure of the Emperor, 115;
supposed plan to entrap the Allies, 206
Dragon Gate in Canton, 274
Drummond, Mr. Ivor, C.I.C., 31
Dutch Expeditionary Force, 54;
their envy of the Portuguese colonies in the past—attempt on
Macao, 232
East India Company in Canton, 258
Efficiency of British officers of the Indian Army, 57;
of the Japanese Intelligence Department, 49
Egyptian _fellah_ compared to the Chinaman, 297
Elderton, Commander, D.S.O., good work at Taku, 8
Embroidery in Canton, 268
Emperor, his powerlessness, 64;
his palace, 89;
throne room, 89;
harem, 90;
private apartments, 91
English Concession at Tientsin, 17
English Legation at Pekin, 78
English officers, friendship with the Americans, 21;
linguists in China, 19;
supposed ungraciousness of manners, 81;
plain campaigning dress, 27
Examinations, Chinese system of, 273
Examination Hall in Canton, 273
Examiners, Chinese, at Canton, 274
Executions at Tientsin, 28;
in Canton, 271
Extortion of mandarins, 291
Fair, Lieut., R.N., Flag‐Lieutenant to Admiral Seymour, 24
Family love of the Chinese, 281
Fans, 106
Fan‐tan in Samchun, 225;
in Macao, 253
Fares from Hong Kong to Canton and Macao, 235
Favrier, Archbishop, defends the Peitan gallantly, 95;
captures a Chinese gun, 96;
introduction to him, 99
Ferreira Amaral, Governor of Macao, refuses to pay tribute to the
Chinese, 232
Fighting races of India, 56
Fireworks, Chinese, 219
Flags of Chinese troops in Samchun, 215, 227
Floating population of Canton, 260;
of Hong Kong, 185
Flora, Governor’s summer residence, 240
Flowery Forest Monastery, 269
Forbidden City, 73, 86
French Army, 42;
intimacy between French and German soldiers in Tientsin, 40;
Infanterie Coloniale, 42;
infantry, 43;
officers, 43;
method of maintaining discipline, 43;
training and organisation, 44;
Zouaves and Chasseurs d’Afrique, 43
French colonial party, suspected designs on Macao, 233;
on Canton, 275
French post‐office in Canton, 276
Frontier Field Force, 208
Frontier of the Kowloon Hinterland, 196
Fusiliers, Royal Welch, attack on a patrol, 23;
in the Hinterland, 198;
Hong Kong garrison, 200
Garrison of Hong Kong, 199;
of Macao, 241
Gascoigne, Major‐General Sir W., 199
Gaselee, General Sir A., K.C.B., 204
German Army, 34;
adherence to close formations and antiquated tactics, 35;
campaigning dress in China, 39;
failure of transport, 39;
soldiers, 40;
their friendship with the French, 40;
officers of, 37
German Club at Tientsin, 22
German Imperial Navy, 40;
mercantile marine, 40
Gordon Hall, Tientsin, 22, 28
Gough, Sir Hugh, attacks Canton, 258
Government of Macao, 241
Governor of Macao, 244
Grant‐Smith, Mr. Ivan, 245, 252
Gray, Captain, 4th P.I., 167
Green Island, 173
Gunboats, allied, at Taku, 9, 10;
at Canton, 274;
British fired at, 276
Gurkhas, friendship with Japanese, 50, 166;
ingratitude of foreign troops sheltered by them, 166;
officers at Shanhaikwan, 138
Hall, Examination at, Canton, 273
Hall of Five Hundred Genii, 269
Hall of Ten Thousand Ages, 123
Happy Valley, 179
Hardy, Rev. Mr., 1
Harem, Emperor’s, in Pekin, 90
Ha‐ta‐man Street, 102;
Gate, 77
Hatherell, Captain, 22nd Bombay Infantry, 208, 229
Heaven, Temple of, 67
_Heungshan_, S.S., 235
Heung Shan, Island of, 233
Hinterland, Kowloon, 194;
character and description of, 195;
projected railway through, 196;
cession, 196;
advantages to Hong Kong, 198;
column guarding it, 202;
want of maps of, 216;
British police in, 198
Honam, Cantonese suburb of, 260, 263
Hong Kong, importance as a naval and military base, 167;
harbour, 184;
menace of famine, 170;
commercial importance, 171;
geography, 172;
description, 174–184;
Club, 177;
climate, 184;
society in, 190;
value of dollar, 235
Hong Kong Regiment, bravery at Tientsin, 15;
barracks, 187;
disbanded, 187
Hong Kong, Canton to Macao Steamboat Co., 234
Hong Kong and Singapore Artillery, 199
Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, ruins in Pekin, 71;
building in Hong Kong, 176
Hong Kong Volunteers, 188, 199
Horrors, Temple of, 272
Hôtel du Nord, Pekin, 71
Hsi‐ku Arsenal, 30
Hsin‐ho, British landing‐place at, 10
Hutchinson, Lieut., R.N.R., 25, 135
Imperial apartments, 91
Imperial Maritime Customs, Chinese, gunboat, 210;
officers, 217;
station at Samchun, 212
Imperial troops, Chinese, 24, 296
Indian Army, 55;
fighting races of, 56;
Lord Roberts chiefly responsible for its efficiency, 57;
its British officers, 57;
organisation of a regiment, 58;
foreign criticisms, 59;
Russian opinion of, 156;
cavalry, 59;
infantry, 60;
impossibility of another Mutiny, 62;
loyalty of the sepoy, 63
India as a training‐ground for troops, 61
Indian Expeditionary Force, 33, 55
Indian Commissariat at Wei‐hai‐wei, 5;
at Hong Kong, 178
Indian Marine, Royal, officers of, 12
Infanterie Coloniale, 42
Infantry, excellence of Japanese, 48;
Indian, foreign criticisms of, 60;
composition of a native regiment of, 58
Intelligence Department, Japanese, 49
Italian Expeditionary Force, 54
Ivory carving in Canton, 266
Japan in the past, 292;
its modern development, 293;
arrests in, 252
Japanese Army captures Wei‐hai‐wei, 3;
transport, 47;
campaigning dress, 47;
cavalry, 47;
infantry, 48;
infantry in action, 48;
organisation, 49;
Intelligence Department, 49;
officers as intelligence agents in Pekin, 49;
excellent discipline, 49;
courage and moderation, 50;
friendship for Indian troops, 50, 165
Japanese Fleet, arrival at Shanhaikwan, 149
Johnstone, Major, R.M.L.I., 30
Junks, marble junk, 127;
junks in Hong Kong harbour, 210;
war junks, 211
Kell, Lieut., S. Stafford Regt., 144
Kettler, murder of Baron, 83;
monument, 83
Kettlewell, Major, commands Frontier Field Force, 208
Kipling, Rudyard, his description of Canton, 256
Kowloon, 174, 186;
docks, 187;
society, 193
Kowloon, Chinese city of, 186, 188
Kowloon Peninsula, 172, 183, 194
Kowloon Hinterland, _see_ Hinterland.
Kwang‐tung, 194;
rebellion in, 207
Labertouche, Captain, 22nd Bombay Infantry, 146
Ladies’ Recreation Ground, Hong Kong, 184
Lama Temple, Great, Pekin, 107
Lampacao, Portuguese settlement on, 231
Language, difference in Chinese languages in various provinces, 283;
polyglot, 20;
British officers as interpreters, 19
Lantau, Island of, 183
Legation Street, Pekin, 70, 80
Legations, Pekin, 78;
defence of, 78;
visit to English Legation, 79;
guard, 79;
new defensive wall, 107
Li Hung Chang, 128, 204
Ling‐chi, torture of, 271
Liscum, Colonel, U.S. Army, his death, 53
Liu‐kung‐tao, Island of, 3
Losses of Allies at Tientsin, 296, 297
Lo‐u, 216
Macao, 231;
its past history, 231;
its present decay, 232;
danger to Hong Kong, 233;
passage to, 236;
description, 237‐40;
public gardens, 240;
government, 241;
society, 243;
affair with police, 245;
gambling houses, 253;
sights, 254
Madrassis, decay of, 56
Madras Sappers and Miners, 56
Madras Light Infantry, 3rd, 200, 204, 208
Mandarins at Samchun, 222;
corruption of Chinese, 228;
extortion, 291
Manchuria, Russian soldiers in, 45
Map of Kowloon Hinterland, 216
Marble junk, 127
Marble bridge at Summer Palace, 127
Marco Polo, 269
Melville, Lieut., 22nd Bombay Infantry, 208
Mikado, 292
Military Club, Macao, 241
Military College, Tientsin, 295
Moji, 253
Monte Carlo of the East, 232
Moon, Temple of, 70
Mosquitoes, 141
Mount Austen Hotel, 182
Mounted Infantry in Tientsin, 26;
usefulness in Hong Kong, 200
Mud of Pekin, 82
Mutiny in Macao, 242
Mutiny, impossibility of another Indian, 62
Nagoya, electric cars in, 293
Naval Dockyard at Wei‐hai‐wei, 4;
at Hong Kong, 178
Navy, German, 40
Newchwang, Russian church parade in, 45;
railway to, 133
Nippon Yusen Kaisha, 293
Ogilvie, Lieut., R.A., 208
Old Kowloon City, 186, 188
Osaka, 293
Outrages on foreigners in China, 287
Pagoda, bronze, 130
Patriotism, want of, 281;
of India, 282
Peak in Hong Kong, 175, 181, 183
Pearl River, 236, 261
Peddlers in Pekin, 102;
in Canton, 261
Peiho River, 9, 19
Peitan, Roman Catholic Cathedral, 95;
siege, 97
Peiyang Arsenal, taking of, 219, 295;
Russian losses at, 297
Pekin, journey to, 65;
station, 66;
description, 71;
walls of, 72;
Tartar and Chinese cities, 72;
Tartar city, 72;
Legations, 78;
mud, 82;
Allied occupation of, 83;
Forbidden City, 87
_Pigmy_, H.M.S., takes Shanhaikwan forts, 134
Pioneers, 28th Bombay, 57
Police of Macao, 241;
affair with, 246
Police of new territory, British, 213
Polo ground in Victoria, 180
Polo in Hong Kong, 180
Ponies, troublesome Chinese, 116
Population of Canton, 263
Port Arthur, reinforcements from, 46;
retention of, 156
Portuguese colony of Macao, 231;
tribute to China, 232;
police, 246;
Naval Tennis Club, 251
Powell, Sir Francis, R.N., 178
Pottery, 106
Praia Grande, 238
Punjaub Infantry, 4th, in action with Japanese troops, 48;
guarding the railway, 135;
under Lieut. Stirling, D.S.O., 168
Purple or Forbidden City, 73
Puzzle‐balls, Chinese, 267
Quarto del Sargento, 248
Queen’s House, Wei‐hai‐wei, 5
Queen’s Road, Hong Kong, 248
Railways in North China, 133;
from Tong‐ku to Pekin, 13, 65;
to Shanhaikwan, 135
Railway, projected, to Canton, 196
Railway Siding incident, 32
Railway Staff Officers, British, 14
Reformers in Southern China, 206
Ringing Rocks at Macao, 255
Roberts, Lord, 57
Royal Indian Marine Officers, 12
Royal Welch Fusiliers, attack on patrol, 23;
in the Hinterland, 198;
Hong Kong garrison, 200
Rudkin, Lieut, 20th Bombay Infantry, his tact and firmness, 33
Rue du General Voyron, Pekin, 97
Rundell, Lieut., R.E., 208
Russian Army, 44;
troops, 44;
endurance of soldiers, 45;
piety, 45;
courage, 46;
comradeship between officers and men, 47
Russian Railway Staff Officer at Shanhaikwan, 144
Russians seize railways in North China, 133;
seize rolling stock at Shanhaikwan, 146;
dinner party at Shanhaikwan on the cliffs, 149;
a dinner with Russian officers, 154;
causes of dislike to England, 155
Samchun, 207, 212, 214;
visit to, 221;
river, 217
Sampans in Hong Kong, 185
San Paulo, ruined cathedral of, 254
Satow, Sir Ernest, 128
Saunders, Lieut., R.A., 208
Sepoys, opinion of foreign contingents, 61, 164;
loyalty of, 62
Seymour, Admiral Sir Edward, courage in Tientsin, 24;
his advance on Pekin, 30
Shameen, 259, 274
Sharpe, Captain, 3rd Madras Light Infantry, 208
Siberian Army, 45
Siege of Tientsin, 30
Siege of the Peitan, 97
Siege train, disappointment of British, 26
Sikhs, 61
Silks in Pekin, 105
Shanhaikwan, 138;
strategic importance of, 134;
railway journey to, 135;
town of, 146;
Great Wall of China at, 148;
arrival of Japanese Fleet at, 149;
forts at, 151;
Japanese and Indians at, 167
Society in Hong Kong, 190, 192;
Kowloon, 193;
in Macao, 243
Spirit Path, 88
Stanley, abandoned town of, 181
Stirling, Lieut., D.S.O., 4th Punjaub Infantry, 168
Straubenzee, General Sir Charles, 258
Streets of Canton, 263
Streets of Pekin, 75
Summer Palace, 115
Sun Yat Sen, 207
Tai‐mo‐shan, 183
Tai‐u‐shan, 183
Taku, 8, 9;
forts, 9
Taku Road, 23
Tartar City, 72
Temple of Heaven, 67;
Sun, 69;
Moon, 70;
in Forbidden City, 90, 93;
Lama, 107;
Confucius, 111;
Five Hundred Genii, 269;
of Horrors, 272
_Terrible_, H.M.S., at Shanhaikwan, 155;
gunners, 25
Tientsin station, 15;
concessions, 17;
Chinese City, 17;
Club, 20;
siege of, 30
Tommy Atkins in Tientsin, 27
Tong‐ku, 10, 11;
Allies at, 11;
station, 134
Tong‐shan, 137
Tortures, Chinese, 271
Traders, Chinese as, 294
Transport officers, 8
Transport of Germans defective, 39;
of Japanese, 4;
Indian, 55
Treaty Ports, 258
Triad Society, 207, 216
Tung Chow, 117
Valley, Happy, 179
Vasilievski, General, wounded at Pekin, 118
Victoria, Hong Kong, 173
Victoria Road, Tientsin, 22
Vladivostock, 156
Vodki, 154
Von Waldersee, Count, and our Royal Horse Artillery, 68
Wall, Great, of China, 147
Walls of Canton, 261
Walls of Pekin, 72, 76
Walls of Wei‐hai‐wei, 5
Want of patriotism among the Chinese, 281
Water‐gate of Tartar City, 78;
of Canton, 262
Wei‐hai‐wei by night, 2;
by day, 3;
Chinese village of, 6;
taken by Japanese, 3
Welch Fusiliers, Royal, 79, 85, 198, 200
West River, 276
Whittall, Major, Hyderabad Contingent, 18
Williams, Major, Base Commissariat Officer, 178
Woolley, Captain, I.M.S., 208, 220
Workmen, Chinese, 97
Yamen, Wei‐hai‐wei, 4;
Canton, 262;
Samchun, 221;
British Consuls in Canton, 259
Yangtsun, 66
Yaumati, 186, 209
Yuan Shi Kai, army of, 229
_Zaire_, Portuguese gunboat, 237;
lands sailors, 242
Zouaves, 43
[Illustration: Colophon]
End of Project Gutenberg's The Land of the Boxers, by Gordon Casserly