Consuls, Correspondents and Others
Every British subject who attempts any business in China is handicapped
by the apathy of British consuls to individual interests. Owing to
their training they seem to live in a different atmosphere to that
inhabited by the ordinary residents in the treaty ports, are shut off
from the ideals of the people of the settlement in which they live,
have aspirations of quite a dissimilar character, and are absolutely
out of touch with the more enterprising of their own nationals.
For them, the individual, unless he be an offender, does not exist.
They serve some abstract creation of their own imagination, to which
they give the name of Crown, or British empire; their objects in life
appear to be the possession of a mastery over the Chinese language,
and some practice in diplomatic pursuits. They are always gentlemen,
usually men of brains, and occasionally men possessing some force of
character. But they belong to a well-defined high social caste; they
are sinologues, and so full of Chinese, that not only their sympathies,
but their proclivities even, are tinged with the tone pervading the
Celestial empire.
There are no consulates in China possessing the aloofness which
characterizes the British; all Consuls but the British consider
the needs of the individual out in China; they guard the interests
of their nationals, and do all they possibly can to push ahead
their enterprises, and so help the individual to become wealthy
and influential, and thus valuable to the country to which he owes
allegiance. The American Consulates are in marked contrast to the
British, because the American representatives are first of all American
citizens, men who have a knowledge of the world and its ways, who look
upon commerce and business as things deserving interest, attention,
and development. American Consuls have not even a nodding acquaintance
with the Chinese language, and know next to nothing of Chinese customs,
laws, literature, or ideals; but they do know quite well what the
American citizens need, and they do their utmost to secure for their
nationals all they are justified in obtaining. No business is too small
for their attention, no enterprise too great or too daring for their
consideration. It is because of the aid they are to business men and to
commerce that American trade has advanced so rapidly in the markets
of China. People are anxious to be in American businesses, or to have
Americans in business with them, because of the assistance the American
consular service extends to those of their nationals who are engaged
in lawful commerce, and the American Consul no less heartily than the
British penalizes those of his compatriots who abuse the people of the
country in which they live. I was told that in one treaty port, in
so short a time as two months, more than fifty British subjects had
applied to the American Consul for advice or assistance, or to inquire
in what manner they could become American citizens, or acquire the
right to the protection and support of the American flag.
The reason for the preference is appreciated at once by those who have
had experience of both. If you call on the American Consul, there is
no one to bar your way; you walk straight through into the office and
sit down; if you speak English, no other passport or introduction is
required, and you start right in and talk to a man who does understand
your position, does know what you want to do, for he knows men,
and the world, and life, and has not been reared in a cold storage
establishment grappling all his days with Mandarin Chinese and fine
print. And being a man, he is interested in you and in what you say.
Then he says: “I can’t advise you, because you are a British subject;
but if you were an American citizen, I should tell you to do what you
want to do, and you would get through, because, if any Chinese official
wanted to stop you, I should see he didn’t.”
If you call upon a big British Consul on business, it is as well to
be sure that you have all your identification papers on your person,
for you are liable to want them before you reach an inner door. At the
Consulate you are confronted by an array of stalwart Chinese in gaudy
uniforms, and flaunting the red cockade of official employ. There are
corridors and passages, and boards with printed notices thereon; and
doors painted “Private,” and “Judge’s Entrance,” with other legends
forbidding your progress; there is a real British constable, and men
in khaki, and a waiting-room like that of a club doctor’s surgery. You
wait. The place suggests in turn a petty sessions court, a railway
station waiting-room, and the vestry of a Nonconformist Chapel. You
expect to see horse-hair wigs, and horse-hair furniture, and wonder
which is the way to the cells, and whether the Consul has the “Black
Cap,” and if so, where that is kept. After the usual formalities you
may see the Consul; as likely as not he will seem old and careworn,
and look as though it were Sunday and he was not where he ought to be,
but you had caught him. He will fidget with a monocle and shuffle
papers, and gaze round at the plainest of plain official furniture
as though searching for the logograms which his eyes love. And you
will see that his hours of sunshine have been spent under an umbrella
poring over books, and his evenings in gazing at the dust a few feet in
front of a bicycle wheel. And the man will be stiff, and frigid, and
metaphorically covered with the dust of ages, but only metaphorically,
for from the way of him you know that he washes in cold water many
times a day. You know that he goes to bed early, and to most things
has a conscientious objection, and to all enterprise is a passive
resister. You will bore the consul--and he will bore you, for he knows
not your world, nor is he acquainted with the age you live in. He
awes you. It may be 120° F. outside in the sun, but this office and
its occupant produce a soul-chill; you get up and steal silently away
before something breaks, and you emerge into the sunlight with the
same feeling you have when you get out of your cold bath after having
remained in it half an hour too long. When you are really outside
and hastening away, you turn to see if the motto under the British
coat-of-arms over the doorway does not read “_Non possumus_,” and you
wonder what the Consul does besides sentencing British subjects to
deportation, and why they are deported, and how, and when, and whether
it is done in public like a Chinese execution. And if you can help it,
you do not go to that dreadful place again ever.
It is a deplorable state of things in any British settlement to have
British residents dislike meeting their Consul, to be uneasy in his
presence, dissatisfied with his work, and, for practical business
purposes, regardless of his existence. Every one out East knows that
the British consular service needs remodelling, modernizing, and
vitalizing with a new spirit--the spirit with which the British nation
of to-day is imbued. It is useless blaming the system, or the men, or
attempting to tinker with the existing service. In the State as in
factories to retain and attempt to work with worn-out tools is false
economy, and gives an advantage to better equipped competitors. We
advise our manufacturers to throw their old-fashioned machinery on
to the scrap heap, and start in with new machines and new methods,
as being the only sensible way in which to attain success. So with
the Chinese consular service, we cannot expect these men to adapt
themselves to new conditions, to cut out their high faluting with
international high diplomacy, and come down to brass tacks.
Fortunately for British newspaper correspondents, Consul-General
Miller, the United States representative at Newchwang, was of the
right type, and drew no fine distinctions between British subjects and
American citizens. War correspondents of both nationalities seemed
equally welcome, and both stayed in his house. His exertions on their
behalf were so strenuous and constant that had he made any marked
difference because of nationality alone, those correspondents who were
British subjects might as well have left Newchwang. Only one of the
many correspondents he worked for so hard succeeded in exhausting his
patience. This was an American, a man of tireless energy and unlimited
push, who was first on one side, then on the other, and consequently
continuously in hot water, and needing his Consul’s interference. Said
the Consul one day: “You will not follow my advice, you do what you
know you ought not to attempt; so henceforth I wash my hands of you
entirely; I do not know you, and I will not interfere again on your
behalf.” And the journalist answered, “Consul, you cannot be rid of
your responsibilities so easily. If I am in any difficulty here with
either the Russian or the Japanese authorities, I shall be brought
to your consulate, and as an American citizen I shall claim your
protection, and you will refuse it at your peril.” And he got into
trouble again, and was taken to the consulate, and the Consul helped
him. Would a British Consul have done so for one of his own nationals
in similar circumstances?
The doyen of the consular corps at Newchwang was the British Consul,
Mr. H. E. Fulford, C.M.G., and the difference between British and
American consular methods is afforded by the _Fawan_ incident. Early
in the war the _Chicago Daily News_ chartered a British steamer, the
_Fawan_, as a press dispatch boat, and she cruised in the Yellow Sea.
In April she approached the Liao river, and, as required then by the
regulations of the port of Newchwang, lay to, off the outer bar, for
inspection by the Russian authorities. After being twenty-six hours at
anchor there, the Russian launch came off, boarded her, and finding
that she was a press boat, informed the correspondents that Newchwang
being then under martial law their boat could not proceed up the
river. But the Russians ascertained that there were two Japanese on
board, engaged in the capacity of cabin boys. Thereupon they declared
that they seized the boat, and ordered her captain to follow them up
the river. The captain wished to take a pilot, but this request was
not granted, the officer in command of the launch stating that the
launch would pilot the _Fawan_. Soon the Russian launch ran on to a
sandbank and remained fast; the _Fawan_ also ran ashore, but got off
again quickly, and continued her voyage up stream. She landed the two
correspondents, Mr. Washburn and Mr. Little, and they proceeded to the
British Consul to place particulars of their case before him, as the
boat was under the British flag, and, though complying with the port
regulations, had been arrested, and they feared that the same fortune
would be theirs, and they had been informed that the cabin boys might
be treated as spies, and possibly shot.
The British Consul listened to the facts, and stated that he could not
do anything in the matter. It was true that the _Fawan_ was a British
ship flying the British flag; it was true that Great Britain had a
treaty of alliance with Japan, but he thought the correspondents ought
not to have brought the _Fawan_ where they did; and he thought that,
as they stated, the Russians would arrest them, and possibly send them
home by way of Moscow; that they would confiscate the _Fawan_, and
might treat the two cabin boys as spies. He thought the Russians would
be within their rights if they did as the correspondents feared they
might do; and if they did do so, he could not interfere.
The correspondents went next to the American consulate. Mr. Miller
obtained release for the correspondents from arrest, the _Fawan_ was
set free, the correspondents were on board her when she left Newchwang,
and the two Japanese were allowed to proceed to their own country by
the usual route.
Shortly after this incident closed Mr. Fulford was promoted to the post
of Acting Consul-General at Tientsin. It is usual in North China, when
any resident leaves a settlement, for the Chinese and others to let off
many crackers, and to gather at the point of departure to wish him a
safe and prosperous journey. This is more particularly the case when a
resident leaves a locality on promotion to higher office. At Yingkow I
have several times seen the railway platform crowded when a European
has been going simply on leave, or for a change of air. On the occasion
of Mr. Fulford’s departure the only persons present to wish him “Good
luck and God speed” were a clerk from his office and myself. I was
astonished at this lack of courtesy, but soon I was to meet the Consul
again.
At this time there were about twenty correspondents at Newchwang, and
naturally each of us who had any item of news was jealous of it, and
guarded the secret carefully until some hours after it had been cabled
away. Both Etzel and myself were aware of a leakage somewhere, but we
were unable to discover in what way news we believed to be ours only
had proved to be commonly known elsewhere. We adopted every precaution,
had the privacy of the telegraph room respected as far as we were
able, and Etzel went to two relay stations to investigate conditions
there; messages were forwarded from different places, and the usual
means adopted to have exclusive news got through to its destination at
the earliest possible moment. I have already stated that any Chinese
coolie taking a message could be made to show it to a European who
offered a sufficient bribe or threatened bobbery, but this does not
indicate the general lack of secretiveness amongst the Europeans
resident in North China. It is a common practice to send round an
“express,” or open letter, by a Chinese carrier, who shows it to any
and every European who is minded to read its contents. This possibly
has something to do with the general publicity given to all matters in
China. It does not account for some of the practices of the Europeans
themselves. For instance, in Chifu ship-masters who had undertaken to
deliver messages at a given address offered to sell the news these
messages contained to news correspondents stationed in that port;
men entrusted with messages to wire from within the Great Wall would
open them in the presence of correspondents and read aloud the news
the other correspondent was dispatching. The whole business was beset
with difficulties, and neither belligerent would permit code or cipher
messages to be dispatched.
Early in June I had occasion to visit Tientsin, and on the afternoon
of my arrival I met Mr. Archibald, of _Collier’s Weekly_, who told me
that he had just seen in the telegraph office a notice directing copies
of all cables to be sent to a resident in Tientsin. Whatever may be
the law and usage in China, I had always regarded the contents of a
telegram once in the office for transmission as secret. It seemed to
me that the case was equivalent to the conveyance of animals or goods;
the owner was responsible for their safe keeping until delivery had
been made to the carriers, when his liability ceased, and that of the
carriers commenced. This Chinese method of dealing with messages was
new to me; Dr. Morrison had never mentioned its existence.
Subsequently we two correspondents were joined in Tientsin by Mr.
Richard Little, representing the _Chicago Daily News_, and together we
went to the head office of the Imperial Chinese Railway Telegraphs,
where we saw in the instrument-room the notice directing that a copy
of telegrams from Yingkow and other places, intended for the Eastern
Telegraph Company was to be sent to Mr. Fenton, of the _Tientsin
Press_. The notice was signed by Mr. N. F. Huang, who is the director
of telegraphs, and it is a striking instance of the laxity of Chinese
Railway Telegraph administration.
[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF AN ORDER IN THE CHINESE TELEGRAPH OFFICE AT
TIENTSIN.]
At the date the notice was signed there were in Yingkow L. L. Etzel,
of the _Daily Telegraph_; W. O. Greener, the _Times_; F. MacCullagh,
_New York Herald_; Dr. G. E. Morrison, the _Times_; Lieut.-Col. C.
Norris-Newman, the _Daily Mail_, besides Reuter’s representative and
three correspondents of Continental newspapers. During the three
months and upwards it had been posted over the receiving clerk’s desk
representatives of all the great newspapers in England and America had
visited Yingkow, and the number of cables dispatched from there and
“other places” must have amounted to hundreds, for the transmission of
which thousands of dollars had been accepted.
We acquired that notice before we left the offices, and after it had
been photographed I took it to the British consulate, and showed it
to Mr. H. E. Fulford, H.B.M.’s Acting Consul-General at Tientsin.
I explained to him where I had seen the notice, and reminded him
that when he was at Newchwang there were upwards of a dozen special
correspondents dispatching messages from Yingkow.
He asked me what I wished him to do.
I told him that I should like him to advise me what to do, as it
was a serious matter for correspondents. He answered testily that
he could not advise me. I then asked him to be good enough to make
a note of the document. This he said he did not want to do, and the
notice he returned to me without any comment upon the affair, but with
expressions of annoyance at my appearance. In his words, I “looked as
though I owned the consulate,” and not wishing to dispute proprietary
rights with the man in possession, I withdrew. It was the first time
I had been in Tientsin; I knew that this matter was one which would
be viewed by all special correspondents as affecting their interests
vitally, and it was clear that the British Consul was disinclined to
interfere actively in the business, or advise me how to proceed against
the powerful and influential Chinese corporation, with which H. E., the
Viceroy Yuan-shi-kai himself, is directly connected.
At the same time it was clear to us three correspondents that the
Chinese authorities must be impressed, to a greater extent than they
had shown, with our view of the inviolability of telegrams entrusted
to their care. In this we thought that the local representative of the
cable company might be able to render us some assistance.
Mr. Fenton, in addition to being the representative of Reuter’s agency,
was the director of the Tientsin Press, a company owning a daily
newspaper, the _Peking and Tientsin Times_. The local manager of the
Eastern Cable Company, the assistant-superintendent of the Chinese
Imperial Telegraphs, and the assistant-editor of the _Peking and
Tientsin Times_, all messed with Mr. Fenton--practically they all lived
together--as they had a perfect right to do, whatever correspondents
might think, or wish to have otherwise.
We three correspondents were equal to the occasion. On three different
dates we returned to the north. The local manager of the Cable Company
was transferred to Chifu, and the assistant-superintendent of the
Imperial Telegraphs to Peking. The _Peking and Tientsin Times_, from
being indubitably pro-Russian, showed signs of wavering, and at once
the _China Review_, a new daily paper, was started to voice Russian
opinion in Tientsin.
I have been told that the Russian authorities are claiming a heavy
indemnity from the Imperial Railway Telegraphs; and if any one can
obtain an indemnity, the Russians of all people are most likely to
succeed.
As correspondent of the _China Times_, a daily newspaper published
in Tientsin, I was able to get news of the capture of Newchwang
into Tientsin before the Japanese authorities received any official
notification of the event, and in reporting the subsequent movements of
the Japanese in the north-east, the _China Times_ was so far in advance
of other announcements that I was able to satisfy myself that there
was no leakage of news in the telegraph offices at Tientsin.
The British residents in the Far East are very British, have all the
old-fashioned British insular prejudices, and amongst these they
cherish dearly the dislike of unknown acquaintances. The etiquette of
the settlement is an extension of the etiquette of railway travelling
in Great Britain. The first passenger to occupy a seat in a compartment
resents the intrusion of a stranger; and if two strangers are going a
long journey, half the distance will probably be covered before they
speak to each other; then possibly they get so interested in each other
that both regret they did not start the acquaintance earlier. That is
the China coast. The new-comer, a stranger, a sort of interloper, must
be watched, and taught that there was some one in the country before
he arrived. In the course of time, perhaps not long before he leaves
the country and its residents for ever, he is one of them. He is an old
timer, a Shanghai-lander himself. He forgets then the icy chilliness
of his reception, and becomes as the others. How often you hear your
fellow-passenger on the railway say, “We do not want any one else in
here!” as he assumes his most formidable aspect, and frowns through
the window, glaring at the would-be passengers seeking for seats. And
sometimes people will even give a tip to the railway servants, so that
they themselves “shall not be disturbed.” And the China coast men do
not want new settlers--except the officials Government imposes; they
do not want to be disturbed; do not want Americans, or Germans, or
any other settlers, not even British, and they have a law, long since
abolished in England, by which the British Consul can exile, or banish,
or deport any British subject from the settlement. It is the hoary
penalty of the ancients; it is the practice of Russia, and its survival
amongst British people in their own settlement is an anomaly.
The British residents tell you they are there for business, and not
for their health; they are intent on making money, and in making
money there are methods practised in the Far East which would not be
tolerated in Great Britain; but neither would banishment, nor hundreds
of things accepted as correct in China. Their love for the home country
is purely sentimental; it does not enter into business matters. I was
talking trade with a big importing commission merchant one day, a
respected British resident, and I asked him why, as a Briton, he did
not sell, or try to sell, more British manufactures, and so help the
people at home, who are struggling against poverty because they cannot
get work. His reason I had never heard adduced by any one. “I should
like to handle more British manufactured goods, and so would we all,
but we cannot prevail upon British manufacturers to make goods of such
bad quality as Germans and others make. We are commission merchants;
we want as many transactions as we can get. We are not going to sell
English stuff goods, because they will not wear out soon enough; nor
English-made goods, because they do not break. If English manufacturers
will put in rotten material, and make flimsy articles, so that very
soon after the buyers use them they are finished, and the buyers want
more, then we will purchase English goods, but not until they do! We
buy German, Belgian, and even American products in preference.”
Perhaps those experts who are so constantly advising the British
manufacturer to produce goods the foreign buyer wants, will tell him
now not to attempt good work, but give shoddy and Brummagem goods, and
thus increase British exports, and make trade flourish.
The foreign resident renders less to Great Britain than he takes from
her. He contributes nothing in the way of taxes; he expects to have a
British gunboat, or the British fleet, to protect his property whenever
it is threatened, and the use of British subsidized steamers for the
regular conveyance of his mails and himself, and bring him foreign-made
goods, and take home tea, which competes with British produce, and a
lot of other things we do not find necessary either to our comfort or
our existence.
The foreign residents, even of British nationality, take the Russian
side in this war; they believe in a white race; they have a decided
bias against the “yellow man”; they do not and cannot understand the
Japanese victories.
In April the German Consul-General went to Newchwang to advise his
nationals on their attitude during the war. He was asked as to the
protection of the property the German subjects there possessed, and
if it would be possible to obtain compensation for damages sustained
during the war. He answered that if the damage to German property
resulted from Japanese action, then he thought compensation would be
obtained, because Japan, being the weaker Power, could be coerced into
indemnifying German subjects for such losses as they might sustain. But
if the damage was due to Russian action, then in his opinion it would
be a much more difficult matter to obtain any compensation. After his
departure the British flag over various properties was lowered, and the
German ensign hoisted in its place.
In neutral territory one had opportunities for the study of human
character, of observing the policies of both belligerents, gauging the
temperament of the Chinese, and noting the peculiarities of the foreign
residents. Taken altogether, the newspaper correspondents themselves
were more interesting from the point of view of the student than were
the men of any one class. For the newspaper men had more individuality,
wider experience, and deeper sympathies. There was more to them than
to men of any other category. It is said, playfully perhaps, that the
_Times_ men form a distinct class; that in no possible circumstance can
one be quite an ordinary individual or ever act as one. However this
may be, the men themselves do not much resemble each other, and afford
strong contrasts. Dr. Morrison, essentially the schoolmaster, never
forgetful of the dignity of his position and faithful to commonest
conventions; Captain L. James, dashing, adroit, robust, so intent on
his work that he forgets self; but Kand. J. Hoeck possesses a spirit
cast in a different mould. Few persons could carry his learning without
losing their individuality, but it merely enhances his characteristics.
Kand. J. Hoeck is the only correspondent I met who could perceive
clearly and instantly the result of every occurrence; who could look
beyond the war to its effects upon Russians, Japanese, Chinese,
foreign residents and upon the inhabitants of Europe and America. He
perceived the stirring events of the great struggle; from them he
could appraise the ultimate issue. And Kand. Hoeck, of all the men,
was most likely not only to be right, but to champion the cause of
right through thick and thin as long as he lived, however unpopular
and derided that cause might be. A man to whom conventions were idle
as the wind that blows, a man with whom human nature is the only thing
that counts. Personal predilections, tastes, preferences, theories,
all went down before Kand. Hoeck’s reasoning like corks on a pool
table. He discounted individual idiosyncrasies and seized the tendency
of the aggregate of a class, a race, a group of nations and not
one--individual, race, or group of nationalities--but he would be ready
to uplift, to urge onward to better things, to higher and more humane
civilizations--a man to whom the world will yet listen attentively.
By the side of Kand. Hoeck other men appeared superficial, they faded
into insignificance, their very _raison d’être_ seemed trivial in the
extreme.
Of these others, the Americans were the more interesting: as a class
more frank, more generous, men of greater nature and deeper soul;
and they individually varied as much as the primary colours in the
spectrum. There was one, a typical journalist, experienced, clever,
adept and pushful. He came to us accompanied by a telegraph operator
with an instrument and gear for tapping the wires, and a scheme for
the exclusive use of the telegraph lines of North China by newspaper
correspondents. He met a man, the offspring of a Chinese mother and
British father, who clung to his mother’s nationality, and held with
success a responsible position under the Russian administration--a
man of great ability and some erudition, learned in the lore of the
Chinese ancients, and modern Western philosophies. The American
journalist seemed to have been astounded by the antiquity of China,
the remoteness of its civilization, the wondrous perfection of its
scheme of corporate social life. He unburdened himself to the official,
taking him for a full-blooded Chinaman of unusual cleverness and much
learning. He filled that man so full of hot air that he did not know
to which world he rightly belonged, so great became his own idea of
his own importance. The journalist went away, and the man talked to
Etzel as he had talked to the other journalist. Now Etzel was as good
a friend as ever breathed, and loved everything that lived, but he
had an American’s conventional ideas with reference to the proper
place of yellow-skinned men in the scheme of creation, and whether
Chinaman, or half-Chinaman he did not rank this man so highly as the
other journalist had done. The man took offence; he persisted in
pressing upon Etzel the other journalist’s reasoned-out contention of
the superiority of the Chinese; he refused to be assuaged by a friendly
invitation to partake of the rough-and-ready supper they were eating
in the Club; he even became quarrelsome, put his hand into the fold of
his waistcoat; and Etzel, thinking he was trying to find his revolver,
as he had threatened to do, just put out one hand towards that man’s
face, sent him sprawling backwards and senseless on to the floor by the
blow, and with the other hand held out his plate for more sausage. Ten
minutes later that still unconscious man was borne to his room by the
Chinese boys and a friendly newspaper man.
The foreign resident in China is more prone to deteriorate, to become
celestialized, than he is to uplift his Chinese associates to his
manner of living, his way of thinking, his standard of civilization.
And this doubtless is more common in North China, where the residents
do and must speak the language of the country, than it is in the
south, where English-speaking Chinese are far more numerous.
Probably among no alien race does the Englishman so rapidly lose his
essential characteristics as he does in China. In appearance he is
the Englishman still, well clothed, spotlessly clean, groomed to
perfection, affable, courteous, thorough, but _au fond_ tainted with
oriental tendencies. The merchant, owing to closer intercourse and
more frequent exchange of thoughts on matters of common interest,
is more quickly and more thoroughly impregnated than is even the
missionary--with the possible exception of those missionaries who adopt
Chinese clothes and the Chinese manner of living. The intercourse is
deleterious to the foreigner’s character. His children, if educated in
China, are British in appearance and name--in all that makes the man,
in all that differentiates the born Briton from men of other races,
the China-raised resident is wanting. An impressionable personality
perceives the difference immediately; he is face to face with men the
like of whom he has never met. It is said that some are so thoroughly
changed that a person of the opposite sex will shudder at their
touch, just as one would from contact with a Chinaman. In time this
sensibility is lessened; it is never caused by Englishmen not raised in
China, nor by all who are, for it is possible to avoid this absorption
of Chinese ideals, adoption of Chinese manners and the way of looking
at all things from the Chinaman’s point of view; but it appears to
be difficult to continue doing so when one lives constantly amongst
the Chinese. This in my opinion is the real “yellow peril” Europe will
have to fear when she is actually in close contact with masses of the
pure-bred yellow-skinned race--the people who do not, will not, cannot
change.