RUSSIA, FRANCE, AND ENGLAND IN THE FAR EAST IN 1895–97
The immediate results of the war—Issue of an important Chinese
loan—Russia becomes guarantee for China, and in return obtains the
right to construct the Manchurian Railway—Ability of Russian
diplomacy in Korea—Faults and abuses of the Japanese in that
country—Revolution in the Korean palace at Seoul—The King of Korea
under the protection of Russia—Preponderance of Muscovite
influences in the Far East at the beginning of 1897—Important
advantages obtained by the Tsar’s allies—Apparent
disinterestedness of Germany—Treaty with France signed on June
20th, 1895—Energy of the French Minister—French protectorate over
the Catholics of the East—Efforts made by England in 1896 to
regain her influence at Peking—Anglo-Chinese Convention, February
4th, 1897—Opening of the West River to European navigation—A few
fresh concessions granted to France in 1897.
In the events which have transpired in the Far East since the War, and
which have led to the present situation, two distinct phases mark the
violent aggression of Kiao-chau. The first extends from the spring of
1895 to the autumn of 1897, and is that in which the Powers, after
having come to China’s assistance, obtained from her concessions in
return for their good offices, whilst pretending moderation in their
demands.
Altogether, the most important consequence of the War was the
establishment of a heavy foreign debt. Hitherto China had only
contracted in Europe insignificant loans of a few millions of francs.
During hostilities her foreign indebtedness rose to £7,000,000, a mere
trifle, and, moreover, the lenders were in possession of excellent
security; but the War Indemnity and other urgent expenses necessary for
the rehabilitation of the country mounted up to £48,000,000, so that now
the interest on this debt, taking the rate at 5 per cent., would absorb
£2,400,000, and, by adding the arrears of already existing loans, this
figure would attain about £2,800,000, equivalent to nearly the whole of
the Customs revenue. The Customs duties are paid in silver, but it would
be absolutely necessary to stipulate, if a considerable loan is to be
floated on the European market, that the interest should be paid in
gold. The question, therefore, very naturally arises whether, in view of
so small a margin, the fluctuations in the value of silver, which have
already caused the _hai-kwan_ taël to fall from 6s. 7d., its value a
quarter of a century ago, to 2s. 10d., the average rate since 1897, will
not sooner or later result in the Customs receipts proving insufficient
to cover the payment of the arrears. Nobody in his senses would dream of
lending money to China on the mere security of her general resources,
and she would, consequently, be obliged to assign to her creditors new
securities, and place in their hands the administration of new branches
of revenue. On the other hand, stripped of about £2,800,000 from the
total revenue, which the most optimistic estimate gives at £24,000,000,
she would have to look for new channels to add to her income, either by
increasing the taxes, or by permitting foreigners to exploit the
resources of the country, conceding to them railway and mining
concessions on the basis of leases or joint profits. The first proposal
ran the risk of unpopularity; the second was more tempting, but it meant
the introduction into the country of that very Western civilization
which the Chinese Government had opposed with all its might for the last
fifty years.
The monetary difficulties of the Celestial Empire brought about a
renewed interference by Europeans in her affairs, if only in the
collecting of the taxes, and, also, a sort of financial embargo, the
dangers of which are sufficiently manifest in countries like Egypt. The
Government of Peking was well aware of this, and, therefore, spared no
effort in obtaining a reduction on the £34,500,000 War Indemnity, and
even attempted to arrive at an understanding with Japan respecting the
retrocession of Liao-tung without supplementary disbursement.
The great importance of this money question was nowhere better
understood than at St. Petersburg, and one cannot help admiring the
boldness and ability of the policy pursued by Russia. That countries
like France and England, literally overflowing with money, should have
ventured to secure a preponderating position in China by means of
financial manœuvrings is not at all to be wondered at; but that Russia,
already heavily indebted with a public foreign debt amounting to over
£240,000,000, should have been shrewd enough to subject China to a sort
of vassalage, through the pecuniary services she rendered her, was
indeed a masterly achievement.
M. de Witte, the Tsar’s Minister of Finance, who devised this remarkable
scheme and conducted it to a triumphant issue over the head of the
Minister for Foreign Affairs, exhibited throughout the rarest political
ability and foresight combined with business acumen. Russia was unable
to lend China money, but she was willing to become her guarantor, and
thus enable the Celestial Empire, backed by the principal banks of
Paris, where Russian funds were at their height, to float a loan of
£16,000,000 at 4 per cent. issued at ninety-four—that is to say, at the
same issue price at which, before this security was granted, the French
and German financial houses had offered to raise a loan at 5 per cent.
The annual interest to be paid by China, thanks to Russian intervention,
was thus reduced by a fifth, whereby the Celestials, although they
obtained a bargain, at the same time committed a grave political error.
In accepting a foreign Power as guarantor, the Chinese Government
rendered itself responsible to that Power only, and placed her financial
and, above all, her political independence in far greater peril than she
could have done had she negotiated directly with individual capitalists
of various nationalities, whose pressure, in case of non-payment, would
have been considerably weakened by the inevitable differences which
would subsist between their Governments. This danger seems to have been
thoroughly understood at Peking, where the necessary documents were not
signed until the expiration of the last day’s delay granted by Russia,
and then only under extreme pressure, because the Chinese Government had
evidently failed to find assistance elsewhere.
The Government of St. Petersburg, well pleased with this success,
proceeded to strengthen its policy in China by further financial
operations, and with the assistance of the Bank of Russia next created
the Russo-Chinese Bank, Parisian financiers supplying the greater part
of the capital, but leaving the direction of affairs almost exclusively
in Russian hands. The Comptoir d’Escompte transferred its agencies in
China to Russia, and the new bank established at the same time branches
at Peking, Tien-tsin, Shanghai, and Hankow. Since then this bank has
continued to be the principal agent of Russian influence in China, and
undoubtedly it was at first almost entirely through its mediation that
Russia negotiated the concession of the East Chinese Railway, which
enabled her to continue her Trans-Siberian Railway southward through
Manchuria, thus shortening the original line by several hundred miles,
and enabling it to pass within 350 miles of the Gulf of Pe-chi-li.
Russia, moreover, obtained the authorization to protect the works by her
own troops, whereby she made herself mistress of Manchuria, whence she
was able to dominate Peking until events allowed her to occupy
Liao-tung.
Whilst she was amply paid for her services by China, Russia made herself
no less active in Korea. The Japanese, who had occupied that country,
perpetrated error on error. They had attempted to impose upon the
Koreans with great abruptness the most varied and radical reforms. Many
of these were possibly useful enough, but they ought to have been
introduced with discretion; others were unnecessary, and greatly
irritated the people by wounding their most cherished customs and
traditions. The Koreans, although not particularly clean in their
habits, are invariably clad in white, are, moreover, addicted to smoking
very long pipes, and to rolling their hair up into a huge chignon, which
they surmount by an enormously broad-brimmed hat, whose crown is so
small that they are obliged to fasten it to their heads by a long
string. The Mikado issued a sumptuary law against long pipes, chignons,
and wide-brimmed hats, and, moreover, ordered that the traditional white
robe should henceforth be replaced by the dark-blue one usually worn by
the Japanese. It is said that this unfortunate incident was the result
of a conviction that Koreans, being obliged to hold their pipe with one
hand, and to balance their enormous hats with the other, could never
become hard workers. Be this as it may, the Japanese sentinels at the
gates of Seoul made life unendurable to the unfortunate Koreans. Armed
with a big pair of scissors, they pounced upon the unfortunate peasants
as they entered the town on their way to market, and cut not only the
strings of their monumental hats, but severed their beloved chignons,
and shortened by at least three-quarters of their length the stems of
their pipes—arbitrary measures well calculated to break their hearts
with mortification and vexation of spirit. It is not to be wondered at
that such impolitic conduct, added to occasional acts of violence, soon
roused the indignation and hatred of the natives, otherwise a very
inoffensive and peaceable people. On October 7, 1895, the Korean Queen
was murdered in her palace by assassins in the pay of the Japanese, and
with the complicity of the Legation. King Li-Hsi, a very poor creature
at the best, whose reign has been one tissue of Court intrigue and
palace revolution, after the assassination of the Queen, fell into a
consternation of abject terror, completely abdicating his regal
authority, and became so degraded that he even consented to sign an
edict insulting the memory of the late Queen, and accusing her of
shameful crimes. Innocent persons were now executed at Seoul as guilty
of the murder, whereas the actual assassins were acquitted by a
self-constituted Japanese tribunal.
In the meantime Russia very ably exploited the general discontent, and
in an underhand manner offered her services to the timid King, who was
not only terribly afraid of the Japanese, but also of his father, the
Tai-wen-kun, a ferocious old gentleman, whose ambition had disturbed
Korea for over twenty years, and who had been raised to power by the
natives. His Majesty seemed disposed to accept the Russian proposal, but
dared not leave his palace, in which he was kept a close prisoner. A
riot ensued, whether spontaneous or provoked has never been divulged,
which, on the night of February 11, 1896, offered him a chance of
escape. The Tai-wen-kun was killed, and Li-Hsi obtained shelter at the
Russian Legation, then guarded by a detachment of sailors fresh landed
at Chemulpo, the port of Seoul, without any attempt on the part of the
Japanese to prevent them. Li-Hsi, once safe in the house of the Russian
Minister, where all the members of the Korean Government had found
shelter, acted like a King in a comic opera, and became the plaything of
Russia, precisely as he had recently been of Japan. He forthwith revoked
all the reforming edicts he had previously signed, and annulled the
decree degrading the memory of the unfortunate Queen, the trial of whose
assassins took place in a High Court presided over by judges selected
from various European nationalities, with the result that the
responsibility for her murder was thrown on the Japanese.
The reactionary movement now became violent, and many useful reforms had
perforce to disappear. A committee, composed of the highest native
functionaries, the British Controller of Customs, and a few Americans,
was appointed to study measures of reform, but they only met two or
three times, and nothing came of it, so that in a few months all the old
abuses reappeared. Nevertheless, by her sagacious conduct, Russia had
the ability to win over the foreign representatives in Korea to her
side, and Japan, in order to preserve the remnant of her influence in a
country whose commerce was mainly in her hands, and where not less than
10,000 of her subjects resided, was now obliged to arrive at an
understanding with Russia. The Convention of Seoul, signed May 14th,
1896, by the representatives of the two Powers, completed by that of
July 29th, concluded at Moscow at the time of the coronation of Nicholas
II., and drawn up by Prince Lobanof and Marshal Yamagata, accorded Japan
merely the right to keep 1,000 troops in Korea for the protection of the
Japanese telegraph wires between Fusan and Seoul and of her subjects
settled in the capital and in the open ports of Fusan and Gensan. Russia
also obtained the same rights, and, moreover, a concession to construct
a telegraphic line from Seoul to the Siberian frontier.
The two Powers further agreed to lend the Korean Government their
support for the reorganization of its finances and a sufficient police
force to maintain order, and to permit, as soon as possible, of the
withdrawal of their garrisons. In appearance it was a sort of
Russo-Japanese _condominium_ that was established in Korea; but Russian
influence, now all-powerful with the King, met with no further obstacle
after the restoration of that Sovereign to his palace in February, 1897.
A decree, ordering that all railways to be constructed in Korea should
have the same gauge as that of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and that the
debt of £300,000 contracted by Korea with Japan should be repaid, and,
moreover, that none but Russian instructors should be engaged in
reorganizing the Korean army, was also issued, which Japan considered a
distinct breach of the Treaty of Moscow.
Russian influence was therefore, at the beginning of the year 1897,
absolutely preponderant in Korea as well as in China. In both countries
the Tsar’s Government had played, with extraordinary ability, the part
of protector of the conquered against the abuses of the conqueror, and
also that of a redresser of wrongs, whereby it won universal approbation
throughout the Far East. The Japanese victories now appeared only to
have been obtained for the benefit of Russia, who substituted herself
everywhere for Japan, in Manchuria as well as in Korea, and thus
profited very considerably by the War without having to pay any of its
expenses. If at its close Russia had the discretion to perceive the
advantages which she might derive from intervention, and if she acted
with energy and decision, she also knew how to curb the impetuosity of
her admirals, who were eager to commit those very faults into which
Japan had fallen, which undoubtedly would have brought about very
serious European complications. She therefore at first abstained from
annexing the peninsula of Liao-tung and the important stations of Port
Arthur and Talien-wan, which she had compelled the Japanese to evacuate,
and officially she made no annexations in Korea; but, possessing the
right to construct a railway through Central Manchuria and to protect
its works by her own troops, and being at one and the same time mistress
of the situation at Seoul, Russia was able at the right moment to annex
either Korea or Liao-tung, and bring the Trans-Siberian to the open sea
through one or the other of these two peninsulas. She hesitated as to
which she should select; the first was nearer Peking, the second brought
her more directly to the Pacific, whence she could menace simultaneously
the mouth of the Yang-tsze and the South-east of Japan. At St
Petersburg, however, it seemed that the Government was waiting for the
completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which was proceeding in hot
haste, and which it was expected would reach the Amur in the first
months of 1900, ere the psychological moment should arrive to strike a
decisive blow.
Side by side with immense advantages acquired by Russia, those obtained
by her allies seemed insignificant. Germany had not shown herself
exacting; all she asked was a few acres of land at Tien-tsin and other
naval ports where she might establish independent concessions intended
to satisfy her sense of dignity. The absence of special concessions had
not hitherto prevented Germany from achieving an extraordinary
commercial success in China, but the future will prove that the German
Empire entertains great designs in the Far East, the realization of
which are merely postponed.
As to France, she got in return for her services the two Conventions
signed at Peking by her Minister, M. Gérard, on June 20th, 1895. The
first of these documents accords divers facilities to the extension of
her commerce on the frontier between China and Indo-China; the second
ratifies, to her advantage, the frontier limits. A new market—Semao, in
the Yunnan—was now added to the towns of Mong-Tze and Lung-Chau, opened
to Franco-Annamite commerce in 1887. The customs on goods entering or
leaving these markets and passing through Tongking, already reduced to
three-quarters of the maritime Custom-house tariff of 1887, were again
lowered to about two-fifths of the general tariff, so far as concerned
products exported from any other Chinese port, or intended to be
re-imported into any one of these said ports. In Article 5 of this
Convention the following passage occurs: ‘It is understood that China,
in the exploitation of mines situated in the provinces of Yunnan,
Kuang-si, and Kuang-Tung, may apply, in the first place, to French
merchants and engineers, the exploitation remaining subject to the rules
laid down by the Imperial Government in all that concerns national
industry. It is agreed that the railways already existing, or to be
constructed in Annam, may, after a mutual understanding, be extended on
Chinese territory.’ Finally, it was further stipulated that the French
and Chinese telegraph lines should be combined. The Convention
respecting the frontier definitely extended the French possessions to
the eastern shore of the upper Mekong, thereby giving France the
territory situated on the border of the Shan State of Xieng-hong.
England in 1894 had admitted the right of suzerainty of China over this
little principality, as well as over one or two others, thereby creating
a sort of neutral zone between her Indian Empire and French Indo-China.
A great deal was made over this Convention in France, and the energetic
manner in which the French Minister at Peking had been able to obtain
these concessions under the very nose of his English colleague, Sir
Nicholas O’Connor. The negotiations closed, M. Gérard proceeded to the
Tsung-li-Yamen on the day arranged for the exchange of signatures, to
find, however, only one of the two Chinese plenipotentiaries present.
This personage offered profuse apologies for the non-appearance of his
colleague. ‘Nothing should have prevented his being here,’ replied the
French diplomatist. ‘I pray you find him at once and tell him so.’ A few
moments afterwards the second Celestial appeared alone, looking very
sheepish. ‘And your colleague, is he coming back?’ asked M. Gérard. ‘No;
I am afraid he is detained, and that he cannot return. Shall I go and
fetch him?’ ‘I beg your pardon,’ M. Gérard shrewdly replied; ‘I will
keep you here, and will go myself in quest of your friend.’ At the end
of an hour or so the two Celestials were finally brought together, and
on being asked to explain their dilatory conduct, stated that the
British Minister was in the next room, threatening, if they ventured to
sign, forthwith to haul down his flag. M. Gérard was soon able to
convince the Celestial plenipotentiaries that they had nothing to fear,
but that they must immediately affix their signatures to the document.
Sir Nicholas O’Connor, he assured them, once he was convinced of the
futility of his intimidation, would soon turn his attention to other
affairs. This anecdote, whilst it reflects great credit on the energy of
the French Minister, and displays his knowledge of the Chinese character
to advantage, emphasizes the declining influence of England in China in
1895 and 1896, as well as the annoyance experienced by this Power at the
ratification of the French frontier and its extension towards Mekong. By
confirming it, China violated, it is true, the engagements she had made
when England recognised her position at Xieng-hong, but this did not
concern France, for the State in question was as much the vassal of
Annam or of Siam as it is of Burmah or of China.
What was the real value of the commercial concessions granted to France
by China, and concerning which her press had made such capital? The
reduction of the duties on all products passing by Tongking would have
been of great value if the neighbouring Chinese province had been a rich
one, but it is, unfortunately, quite the reverse. It is now time to
glance over the region that can be provisioned and exploited through
Tongking. It includes the greater part of Yunnan and Kwang-si, the
southern half of Kwei-chau, and a small part of Kwang-tung, that long
and narrow band of territory which this province projects over the
Tongking frontier between the sea and Kuang-si. The Yunnan, the
Kwang-si, and the Kwei-chau are the three poorest provinces of China,
and cover a fifth of her territory, whilst possessing barely the
fifteenth of her population, or, in other words, about 24,000,000 out of
380,000,000. They have been unfortunately devastated by the great
insurrection of the Taipings and the Mohammedan revolts, especially
Yunnan; the country is really only a conglomeration of mountains and
plateaux, some of them 6,500 feet in height, and, moreover, the
communications are very scanty, and it would cost an enormous sum to
improve them. The report of the Lyons Mission, which explored this part
of China in 1895–97, frequently mentions the great difficulties of
transport and the steepness of the ascents, such, for instance, as the
famous Imperial road of Ten Thousand Steps, which you ascend from the
bank of the Red River to the Yunnan plateau, between Manhao and
Mong-tze, and which in a distance of only 30 miles rises from 485 to
more than 6,500 feet. It also mentions the paucity of population, as
contrasted with its superabundance, in the basin of the Yang-tsze-Kiang
and the coast provinces. In the Far East the mountains are almost
invariably barren, even when there is very little cultivable soil in the
plain below. It is said that the Yunnan is extremely rich in mineral
ore, but, as once remarked an acute observer, who has recently visited
nearly the whole of China, when explorers find nothing worth noticing on
the surface of a country, they generally arrive at the conclusion that
there must be something worth looking for underneath. Undoubtedly both
copper and tin have been exploited for years past in Yunnan, but thus
far the actual wealth of these mines is unknown, and it would be mere
matter of conjecture to affirm whether they are worth working or not, or
whether it would pay to construct a railway 300 miles in length to
transport the ore, as these Chinese provinces on the frontier
neighbouring Tongking produce neither silk, tea, nor any other valuable
Chinese export product, and do not offer a particularly brilliant
prospect at present. As to Article 5, relating to mines, if taken in the
literal sense, it is simply a truism, but if one wishes to discover in
it a disguised engagement, and read ‘ought’ instead of ‘may,’ it is a
violation of the clause granted to the most favoured nation inserted in
all Chinese treaties with European Powers. France had soon to recognise
its futility on January 15th, 1896, at the time of the signing of the
Anglo-French treaty relating to the affairs of Siam, by which, it is
true, she profited little by the difficult circumstances in which Great
Britain then found herself, and the two Governments of Paris and London
agreed that all the rights and privileges acquired, or to be acquired,
either in the Yunnan or more to the north at Sze-chuan, were to be
equally shared.
The profit which France might have obtained from the convention of June
20th, 1895, was thus reduced to little or nothing. During the following
year the negotiations which were being persistently pursued at Peking
brought about other results. The right to reconstruct the arsenal at
Foochow established by the French in 1866, and which they destroyed in
1884 under Admiral Courbet, was again restored to them. Several naval
engineers are working there at present, and French foundries are
supplying material. Such has been the share derived by France in the
concessions made by China, to obtain which the nations made such
flattering advances to Li Hung-chang when that astute old gentleman made
his recent famous tour through Europe and America. It certainly
compensated after a fashion for the loss of the custom of Japan, who at
one time gave frequent orders to French factories, but who now deals
exclusively with England and America for the ships and cannon necessary
for her greatly augmented fleet.
Meanwhile, the French Minister at Peking has exerted himself in a
creditable manner for the benefit of the Catholic missionaries. He has
obtained the abrogation of those regulations which prohibited
missionaries from purchasing estates in the interior of China, and
exacted a promise that the next edition of the _Ta-tsing-lu-lieh_, a
collection of laws issued by the Tsing Dynasty, should appear without
the list of punishments against missionaries contained in the edition of
1892. Finally, he obtained authorization for the Lazarists to rebuild on
the same spot the cathedral at Tien-tsin, burnt at the time of the
massacre of the missionaries and nuns during the insurrection of June,
1870.
It is assuredly as the protectress of Catholicism that France has of
late years most worthily played her part in the Far East. Possibly she
has not known how to convert to her material advantage the influence
which ought to be derived in China from her religious position, and
doubtless French policy in the Celestial Empire has been lacking in
enterprise. She certainly did not derive from the intervention in favour
of China a profit proportionate to the risks incurred, and has obtained
from China not only less than her ally, Russia, but even than England,
and by uselessly opposing the demands of this latter Power she has run
the risk of irritating without any benefit that ill-feeling which
divides these two great Western nations.
After a period of inaction during the year which followed the War, the
British Government, if it has not positively reconquered its former
influence, has at least gained a renewed hearing at Peking. Although
China trembled before Russia, the presence in her waters of the British
fleet did not fail to inspire her with a feeling of profound respect;
but, once the first moment of alarm was over, she again bethought
herself as much as possible to begin afresh her old game of pendulum
between the various Powers. The slow work of British diplomacy
throughout the year 1896 fructified in the signing of the Anglo-Chinese
Convention of February 4th, 1897, by which China conceded to Great
Britain certain important modifications on the Burmese frontier; granted
her back a part of the Shan States; recognised her right to establish a
Consul somewhere in Western Yunnan, Manwyne, or Chunning-fu; engaged to
open the roads leading to these places as well as to others; and finally
allowed the railways to be constructed in Yunnan to be united with those
of Burmah. Lastly—and this is the most important point of all—a separate
article prescribed that the Si-Kiang, or West River, which flows through
Canton, should be open to European navigation as far as Woochow, on the
Kwang-si and Kwang-tung frontier, 125 miles from Canton. The two river
ports Samshui and Wuchow became treaty ports, and European concessions
were established there.
This was for England some return for the mortification she had
experienced twenty months earlier at the time of the Gérard Convention.
If, therefore, in Yunnan, in spite of the equality of rights existing
between Great Britain and France, the advantage was with the latter, by
reason of the natural conditions rendering access less difficult from
Tongking than from Burmah, the opening of the West River was a check for
French policy, which had vigorously opposed it. By this waterway
European vessels—that is to say, almost exclusively British steamers
coming from Hong-Kong—would, in the first place, be able to trade with
the rich valley of the lower Si-kiang, which crosses Kwang-tung, and
reascends to the frontier of Kwang-tung, where they would meet the junks
which bring to this point at a small cost the varied products of this
province, and, moreover, distribute merchandise from Hong-Kong to the
extreme navigable points of the West River and its affluents. These
points are situated at a great distance in the interior, almost on the
frontiers of Yunnan and Tongking, and at Lung-chau, thirty miles from
Lang-son, one can see at high tide junks from Canton. Therefore all the
commerce of Kwang-si which France had so coveted was to be drained by
this new channel.
French diplomacy endeavoured to repair the unfavourable impression
produced by this Anglo-Chinese treaty, which effaced the greater part of
the advantages conceded to her on the frontier of Tongking, and in June,
1897, it was stated in Paris that China had ceded to France the right to
construct a railway from Lao-kai, on the Red River, between Tongking and
Yunnan-hsien, the capital of Yunnan, and to prolong it to Nanning-fu and
even northward beyond the line projected to Lang-son and Lung-chau. This
last concession should reserve for France all the traffic of the western
Kwang-si, provided that it is really worth while constructing a railway
to obtain it; for unquestionably navigable rivers have a distinct
advantage over railways in so mountainous and poor a country. As soon as
the former are opened they can be navigated, whereas it will require
time to construct the railways, which, moreover, are very costly. In
February, 1898, I was able to see for myself that the Si-kiang was
already traversed by steamers, whereas the railway from Lang-son to
Lung-chau, the concession for which was given in 1896, was not even
commenced, on account of the many difficulties that had arisen with the
local authorities. The opening in 1899 of Nanning to foreign commerce is
well calculated to deprive France even of this little traffic, which
will revert to Canton.