THE FUTURE OF CHINA—MAINTENANCE OR PARTITION OF THE CELESTIAL EMPIRE?
Necessity of proceeding slowly with the Reform movement in China, if
the overthrow of the Empire is to be averted—Weakness of the
Government at Peking—The Emperor and the Reformer, Kang-Yu-Wei—The
Empress Dowager and Li Hung-chang—Palace revolution in September,
1898—Enormous obstacles in the way of the Celestial Empire
reforming itself—Reasons why it cannot follow the example of Japan
in 1868—The possibility of partition—The interests of Great
Britain, the United States, and Japan, partizans of the ‘open
door’ policy, and of Germany, Russia, and France—The dangers
incurred by partition—Difficulties of effecting it pacifically,
and also for Europeans to govern the hundreds of millions of
Chinese—The anarchy that might result—Services which might be
rendered to progress by the Chinese Government in preventing too
rapid a transition—Possibility of converting the Chinese to
material progress.
‘Every time that the bones of China are rattled—and they have never been
more vigorously than at present’—said a technical English paper, ‘an
increase of commerce follows.’ Nothing can be truer; but, at the same
time, it might be prudent not to shake the old skeleton too violently,
too often, or too long, if we do not wish to see it tumble to pieces.
China is a sort of amorphous State whose different parts are joined
together by the very weakest ties, concerning which we know little or
nothing, and whose main force consists in tradition and in the existence
of a governing class of literati, recruited throughout the Empire, even
among the very people. On the other hand, germs of serious disaffection
do exist; the actual Dynasty is a foreign one, which, at the beginning
of the century, the terrible Taiping Rebellion—only suppressed with the
assistance of Europeans—nearly ruined, and the descendants of the old
national Ming Dynasty are still living. The accession to the throne of
the present Emperor was irregular, it seems, according to Chinese
procedure, and the country is honeycombed by secret societies, whose
object is the overthrow of the existing state of affairs. The mass of
the people are totally indifferent to politics, and very rarely exhibit
hostility to foreigners, if the latter behave with circumspection,
unless, indeed, they are urged on by fanatics or malcontents, when,
unfortunately, they are easily roused. In the principal towns of every
prefecture and sub-prefecture there exists a heterogeneous mass of
soured and fanatical literati, who pursue the humblest trades in order
to keep themselves from starvation, who are intimately mixed up with the
people, by whom they are treated with great respect, and who will obey
their commands to overthrow the Europeans and their innovations.
The Government of Peking is too thoroughly convinced of its external
weakness to openly resist any demand imposed upon it by the Powers, but
if it be too hardly pressed, and forced to introduce or allow the
premature introduction of all sorts of innovations, and in too many
places at once, it may run the risk of exciting against it the literati,
who regard, and not without reason, any extension of European influence
as a menace to their privileges. Such action might easily lead to active
opposition to all reform, especially in the central and southern
provinces, more backward than those of the north, and, if leaders of the
movement can be discovered, lead to the complete disorganization of the
Celestial Empire. Trouble has already occurred in Sze-chuan, as well as
further in the lower valley of the Yang-tsze. A rather serious
insurrection broke out in 1898 in the Kwang-si and Kwang-tung, but
without any result. We know that local troubles in so badly governed a
country as China of a necessity must become chronic, but in many cases
the news concerning them reaches Europe considerably embellished and
exaggerated.
It is certain that the elements of disorder are just now greatly
excited. Even at Peking rival factions are disputing for power; the
events which occurred there in September, 1898, are little, and possibly
never will be completely, known, and it would be impossible to relate
with any approach to truth the tragedies and comedies that are
constantly being enacted within the walls of the Forbidden City.
The Emperor Kuang-Su, a young man of twenty-five, with a sickly body,
and, it is said, a weak mind, had been completely won over to the Reform
movement by a literate of the new school, named Kang-Yu-Wei, who hailed
from Canton. His Celestial Majesty, with all the zeal of a neophyte, was
induced during the summer to issue a distinctly revolutionary edict. It
was said that he went so far as to presume to wear a European costume,
and that he even intended going personally to Japan to observe there for
himself the transformation which had been effected in the last thirty
years. The Reform party undoubtedly had entertained Japanese as well as
English sympathies, and its chief, Kang-Yu-Wei, passed his last night at
Peking in the Japanese Legation. Marquis Ito, it is said, discouraged
the precipitation with which it was intended to carry out in a few weeks
reforms that had taken more than a quarter of a century to accomplish in
Japan.
Such an attempt had no chance of success, for it not only opposed many
prejudices and interests, but was opposed by all the Manchu
functionaries, by Li Hung-chang, who had been recently disgraced, and by
the Empress Dowager. His Celestial Majesty pretended to arrest this
last-named personage, who is his aunt, and not his mother; but the
astute Princess defeated his object. The great majority of the mandarins
being hostile to the movement, she soon possessed herself of the
necessary tools for her purpose. The Emperor was in his turn imprisoned
in his palace, and forced to apologize and sign an edict placing the
reins of Government entirely in the hands of the Dowager. The immediate
consequence of this act was that all the mandarins of the old school,
among them Li Hung-chang, returned forthwith to power; Kang-Yu-Wei took
flight on board an English vessel, and most of his partizans were either
beheaded or sent into exile, and very soon all trace of their work was
effaced.
From this imprudent attempt at reform we may derive a few useful
lessons. In the first place it showed the instability of the Peking
Government, and also the existence, but at the same time the impotence,
of the Reform party among the literati; and in the second it accentuated
that dangerous factor in the politics of the Far East, the inflexible
antagonism existing between England and Russia. The Empress Tze-Hsi is
undoubtedly a very clever woman; she first governed the Empire in the
capacity of Regent, but since 1887 she has, with the assistance of Li
Hung-chang, who is said to have been a former lover, done so in the name
of her nephew, absolutely refusing to abdicate. Her rule has been
undoubtedly pernicious to China, for it has invariably been reactionary.
As an instance in point, an important Viceroy has been recently
reprimanded for attempting to reorganize on the European system the
troops in the provinces which he administered. The Tsung-li-Yamen has
likewise in a very short time contrived to strengthen the party opposed
to innovation, and all sorts of restrictions have been placed in the way
of the exploitation of the mines. For all this, be it bad or good, the
Government of Tze-Hsi and of Li Hung-chang is nevertheless a Government;
but both the Empress and her Minister are aged, and one may naturally
ask what will occur when they are no longer of this world.
The Reform party, which seems to have the sympathy of a few high
functionaries, does not apparently include many of the mandarin class;
the unsuccessful literati, who struggle for existence in the towns of
the interior, and who are in immediate contact with the people,
apparently remain outside of all notion of progress, being absolutely
convinced of the immense superiority of the Chinese over the barbarians.
It is therefore very difficult to imagine how a handful of innovators
can ever be able to impose their ideas against so much prejudice. A
revolution, such as occurred in Japan in 1868, which rushed that Empire
into the ways of reform, stands no chance of being effected in China,
and even if it were, it would only receive just such another rebuff as
happened in 1898, or else lead to anarchy and the dismemberment of the
Empire.
The situation in China to-day is essentially different from that of
Japan thirty years ago. In the first place the Chinese civilization
which gave way in Japan to European was not of domestic growth, but
essentially an imported article of extreme antiquity, which never
succeeded in stultifying the Japanese people as it has done the Chinese;
what is more, ancestors and classics were never held by the Japanese in
the same veneration as is bestowed upon them by the Chinese. Far above
the traditions of Confucius and of the Wise Men of old stood the Mikado
of divine descent and the spirit of national independence. The first
object of the Japanese Revolution in 1868 was to restore the Emperor to
the plenitude of his power, a result attained by the union of the
principal clans, as we have already explained. Although it resulted in
the suppression of feudalism and the introduction of European
civilization, it was originally not presented in this form, and if the
entire nation eventually accepted these innovations, it was because they
had been consecrated by the divine Emperor, and, moreover, were approved
of by a powerful army which had always been friendly to progress and
prompt to resist reaction.
Those advantages that so greatly favoured the Japanese reformers are
non-existent in China. There is no military party in Peking friendly to
Reform or eager to assist the reformers in seizing supreme power at the
right moment and helping them to retain it. The initiative, therefore,
cannot come from either the capital or the provinces. Instead of the
Japanese daimios, or hereditary chieftains, surrounded by innumerable
and faithful vassals, we have in China viceroys who are invariably
strangers in the provinces they administer, and are spied upon by Tatar
marshals having at their disposal by way of an army a horde of
ill-disciplined ragamuffins, whom, even if an attempt were made to
transform them into genuine soldiers, a task which would require many
years to effect, the Court at Peking, being against the scheme, would
soon disband. No martial spirit or feeling of patriotism exists in China
to induce the governing classes to give up their privileges, even though
it were for the benefit of the country. The tenacious attachment of the
Chinese to their very ancient but stationary civilization is their
greatest impediment to progress, especially as love of country is a mere
empty sound to the vast majority of Chinamen.
Another and very important difference between China to-day and Japan in
1868 is that thirty years ago Europe permitted the Island Empire to
accomplish its own revolution without interference, whereas to-day the
Powers would assuredly prevent any attempt at a too sudden evolution in
the Government of the Celestial Empire, which would only plunge the
country into a deplorable condition of turmoil. Even now the Dowager
Empress’s party is known as the Russian, and that of Kang-Yu-Wei as the
Anglo-Japanese. Possibly this may be an exaggerated view of the case,
and that neither party is in the service of any particular Power; but
the incorruptibility of Li Hung-chang must be taken with a grain of
salt. It is, however, certain that the Legations watch with a jealous
eye the intrigues of the various factions, and that the disgrace of Li
Hung-chang is looked upon as a victory for England, and each return to
power of the Viceroy of Pe-chi-li as a Russian success. No worse sign
could possibly exist for a State than the perpetual interference of
foreign Powers in its affairs.
‘Are we about to witness the dismemberment of China?’ is a question
people are constantly asking themselves. No one in particular wishes for
it, since the division of such an inheritance would be disputed by at
least five or six claimants, who will only settle their differences at
the sword’s point. For the past twenty-five years Europe has trembled at
the bare thought of war, and we must not be surprised if she dreads the
mere mention of the disruption of China, which would be even more
dreadful, since it means universal war, in which the United States,
Great Britain, and Japan, as well as the Continental Powers, would each
take a share. Even if the matter were settled amicably, what country
would care to govern eighty or a hundred millions of Chinamen? Some
people say that it could easily be settled by not attempting to govern
them at all, in other words, to let things go their way; but no European
Power would, or could, do otherwise than rule them methodically,
according to our modern ideas of government. To-day, if a band of
brigands exists in any obscure corner of China, nobody troubles about
it, but once that corner belongs to a European Power, the irresistible
desire of attempting to establish order would assuredly lead to an
insurrection. The introduction of European methods is certain to upset
many of the old customs and traditions to which the Chinese hold with
almost pathetic tenacity. It requires an amazing tact to govern the
Chinese, a fact made daily manifest in Hong-Kong, and illustrated by the
recent serious outbreak in the French concession at Shanghai, where a
disturbance took place over the removal of a time-honoured sanctuary to
make way for a public road. The difficulties encountered by Europeans in
every country imbued with Chinese ideas—those of the English in Burmah,
the French in Tongking, and the Japanese at Formosa—prove, if proof were
needed, how great is the resisting power and the risks any European
nation would have to encounter which attempted to govern even a fragment
of the vast Chinese Empire.
On the other hand, each Power, whilst dreading the consequences of a
partition, is equally unwilling to behold a rival carry off the lion’s
share. It is, therefore, with an eye to an eventual partition that each
nation endeavours to obtain a privileged position in certain regions,
and to possess itself of spheres of interest by forcing China to make
the singular promise never to cede any portion of territory in certain
defined provinces to any nation but to the one which obtains the
promise. But this sort of promise is fraught with difficulties, and a
source of eventual hostilities between nations having pretensions upon
the same region, just as it is between the partizans of ‘spheres of
interest’ and those of the ‘open door.’
In order to understand the policy of the various Powers in China, in
which they see a very important field for exploitation, we must first
consider their commercial interests in the Celestial Empire. The British
Empire incontestably occupies first place in the foreign commerce of
China, which in 1897 stood at 366,000,000 hai-kwan taels, or £54,900,000
(1 tael = 3s.). Of this 236,934,000 taels, or £35,540,100, two-thirds of
the whole, belongs, according to the Imperial Chinese Customs Report, to
Great Britain. Here, however, we must not be misled, for if we subdivide
this sum, we shall see that about £5,500,000 alone belong to England,
£5,000,000 to her colonies other than Hong-Kong, through which the
remainder, that is to say, about £23,000,000 worth of goods, passes,
Hong-Kong being merely a point of transit. Goods imported from Germany,
America and Russia into China, passing through this island port, or
being exported thence to the four corners of the globe, are put down to
England. Then, again, a very important trade is carried on between the
North and the South of China through Hong-Kong, and thus it comes to
pass that Great Britain gets the credit for commerce which does not
really belong to her. If Hong-Kong possessed proper Custom-house
statistics, it would be easy to account for the origin and destination
of the merchandise which passes through this port; but such statistics
do not exist. Under these circumstances, we must turn either to those of
the various countries of Europe and America, or to the detailed
statistics of the Chinese Customs, which frequently rectify the total
amounts, whereby we learn that £692,700 worth of Russian petroleum is
imported, whereas the total imports from Russia by sea are only
estimated at £485,100. The difference must, therefore, be accounted for
as having passed through Hong-Kong. A comparison between the Chinese
Customs statistics and those of Germany, the United States, French
Indo-China, and other countries, obliges us, however, to admit that
three-fifths at least of the trade of Hong-Kong really belongs to the
British Empire, which leaves to the latter about £27,000,000, that is,
40 to 50 per cent. of the total foreign commerce of the Celestial
Empire. In the matter of imports, the English reign supreme, holding at
least three-fourths in their hands, and dominating the market by the two
principal articles, opium and cotton. Moreover, their flag floats over
65 per cent. of the total tonnage registered in the Chinese ports; of
636 foreign houses of business established in the open ports, 374 are
English; of 11,600 foreigners, 5,000 are British subjects; and English
is the language most spoken throughout the ports of the Far East. When
we take all these facts into consideration, we are obliged to
acknowledge that, having so many interests to defend in this part of the
globe, England has a right to let her voice be heard clearly in
commercial affairs. We must not be surprised, therefore, if she insists
upon the ‘open door’ policy in China. The question now arises, Does she
seek territory in the Celestial Empire? She has apparently sacrificed
the ‘spheres of interest’ theory by exacting from China an engagement
not to cede anything in the basin of the Yang-tsze, and the English
Jingoes are already dreaming that Great Britain will be mistress not
only from the Cape to Cairo, but from Cairo to Shanghai. ‘Are not the
Arabian Coast and the Persian Gulf,’ I recently read in an English
paper, ‘already ours, and morally subject to our protectorate? Once we
possess the valley of the Yang-tsze, who is to prevent our constructing
a rival line to the Trans-Siberian from the mouth of the Nile to that of
the Blue River?’[28] Although just at present it were best not to count
too much on the wisdom and coolness of the British, nevertheless, their
statesmen seem to appreciate the dangers of so beautiful a dream. They,
at least, understand that the peril of the British Empire lies in its
enormous extent. The majority of the British would, no doubt, be
satisfied if they were allowed to place their capital and their commerce
on a footing of equality with that of other countries in the Celestial
Empire, if the territorial encroachments of the Powers did not justify
the fear of the creation of a protectionist tariff. We may, therefore,
hope that Great Britain, having obtained all that she desires in the way
of strategic points for the benefit of her naval forces, and also a
great number of commercial concessions, will remain contented with her
lot, and not dream of attacking the independence of China, but rather be
inclined to help her to regain power.[29]
After England the United States do the greatest business with China.
They only figure for £4,500,000 in the Chinese Customs statistics, but
their own official publications give £7,840,000. Petroleum and cotton
goods are the principal articles of their commerce, which is sure to be
enormously increased in the future as the Middle Kingdom requires more
and more machinery, which is manufactured to-day much more cheaply in
America than anywhere else. The United States are represented in China
by thirty-two houses of business and 1,564 citizens; their mercantile
marine is, however, very insignificant, but having of late assumed a
position among the world’s Powers, and being already installed in the
Philippines, they are sure to increase their mercantile fleet very
rapidly, and as they aspire to become one day mistress of the Pacific,
they watch with a very jealous eye all that happens in the Far East.
However protectionist they may be at home, they are resolute partizans
of the ‘open door’ in this market, of which they justly hope to
eventually acquire a large part through their enterprise. Already a
coolness has occurred in their friendship with Russia, and in January,
1900, they obtained a guarantee that none of the Powers should establish
differential tariffs in leased ‘spheres of interest.’
Japan takes the third rank with a rapidly increasing commerce, which in
1897 reached £5,850,000. Her spun cotton rivals that of England and
India. Seven hundred Japanese are registered as residing in the
different ports. The Celestial Empire has no warmer friends at the
present moment than the Japanese. The Japanese papers are full of
articles which compare the position of the two countries to that of
Prussia and Austria after Sadowa, and preach reconciliation, and a close
alliance was already spoken of with enthusiasm at the close of the War.
Many Japanese statesmen are studying this question, among them the
Marquis Ito, four times Prime Minister, and Prince Konoye, President of
the Chamber of Peers, who travelled in China, and stayed in Peking in
1898 and 1899. According to certain signs, their overtures have not been
altogether fruitless. The Government of the Empress Dowager does not
seem to entertain any particular rancour against the Japanese for the
sympathies which they expressed for the Reformer Kang-Yu-Wei, and
undoubtedly seeks some support in order to withdraw itself from the
over-exclusive domination of Russia. If this last Power is feared in
Peking, it would seem that Japan is at the present time the most
considered, whose counsels are best heard, and who best serves as the
intermediary for progress into China. It is from Japan that China
obtains instructors for her army, and that the Viceroy Chang-Chih-tung
not only borrowed money, but also engineers for his foundry at Hanyang.
The cementing of a formal alliance will no doubt be prevented through
fear of Russia, and very probably China does not desire it very
sincerely. Possibly at Peking they continue to despise the Japanese as
much as they do Europeans, although they may have a preference for the
former. One thing is certain, and that is, that the relations between
the Governments at Peking and Tokio are better than they were before the
War. Of the Western Powers, England is most preferred by the Mikado’s
subjects, although even with her they are a little suspicious. A feeling
of intense resentment is still expressed by the vast majority of the
Japanese against Russia. A small minority, however, desire that an
understanding should be arrived at with her. This party, however, also
wishes for the ‘open door,’ China being the only outlet for their young
and already important cotton industry.
These three nations—England, the United States, and Japan—complete the
group of the whole-hearted partizans of the ‘open door.’ The British
press has often expressed a desire to see an alliance effected between
them, and if this were only created between England and Japan it would
be very formidable in the Far East. The Japanese fleet is excellent, and
whatever may be our opinion of the ability of the Mikado’s sailors, it
is certain that, once united to the English fleet under the command of
an English admiral, it could soon sweep the China Seas, and it would
then be easy to embark an army of a hundred, even of two hundred
thousand men, whom it would be difficult, even according to Russian
officers, for the Tsar’s army in the Far East to resist. Perhaps Russia
has pushed the Empire of the Rising Sun too much and too soon into the
arms of England.
Germany, who, according to her own statistics, carries on a trade with
China valued at £3,400,000, of which £2,320,000 are imports into China,
and who counts 104 commercial houses instead of the 78 in 1892, and
registers 870 residents in the Treaty Ports, divides her preferences
between the policy of the ‘spheres of influence’ and the ‘open door.’ If
she has reserved a right of preference in the public works to be
undertaken in Shan-tung, she soothes the irritation of the English by
making Kiao-chau a free port; but, notwithstanding the antipathy which
exists at heart between the two nations and the progress of German
commerce, often at the cost of British trade, and thanks to the more
obliging manners and greater activity of the German merchants, a
distinct amelioration has taken place since the end of 1898 in the
relations between the two Governments, and Germany seems for the present
to have turned her back upon the Franco-Russian group in the Far East in
order to support British policy. One province alone in China is not
enough for her commercial enterprise, and she fears to see protection
closing the other ports.
We now come to Russia. Her total commerce with the Celestial Empire does
not amount to more than about £3,000,000, half of which passes overland
by way of Siberia. Petroleum as an import and tea as an export are the
two great articles of Russian trade with the Celestial Empire. There are
very few Russians living in China, and those who do so are mainly
established in the port of Hankow. Russia’s objects in the East are
almost entirely political, and it is very probable that her protective
tariff will follow her territorial aggrandizement. Being already
mistress of Manchuria, she officially fixed the southern limits of her
sphere of influence, at the time of the affair of the Niu-chwang
Railway, at the Great Wall. To the north is a vast stretch of land
almost entirely desert. In all probability this limit is merely
temporary, and possibly none really exists in Russian aspirations; but
before declaring her policy she awaits the completion of the
Trans-Siberian Railway. The Empire of the Tsar, notwithstanding the
60,000 to 80,000 men already massed between the Amur, Korea, and
Pe-chi-li, does not yet feel sufficiently safe to take a step forward
for fear of bringing herself into conflict with England and Japan. The
day the Trans-Siberian Railway is finished a step southwards may no
doubt be made. The antagonism between Russia and Great Britain, both of
whom aspire to be the leading Asiatic Power, will then no doubt become
bitterer than ever.
The policy of France has been more often than not ostentatious, timid at
heart and often vexatious in form. She has made a great fuss over a few
commercial advantages obtained in the sterile provinces which border on
Tongking, and she has opposed England without doing her any injury with
respect to the opening of the West River. In certain affairs relating to
European concessions at Shanghai and Hankow, France has unfortunately
succeeded not only in vexing England, but in alarming the Germans,
Americans, and Japanese by the excessive regulations which she has
introduced in those territories which have fallen into her hands. It
does not seem, however, that the French have contrived to obtain
sufficient compensation for the enmities which they have provoked in
defending, not without peril, interests which after all were not their
own.
The part which France has wished to play in China has not been a
strictly commercial one. French highly-finished and expensive fabrics
are of no good in the Chinese market. If she only had the common-sense
and enterprise to send to Tongking first-class weavers, and establish
there a manufactory under French direction, with cheap native labour,
she should soon be able, if she copied the cotton industries of India,
to compete with Japan in the Chinese market. It is therefore the
exportation of capital which ought to be her object in the Far East, in
China as well as in Indo-China. Notwithstanding their activity, it is
not countries like Japan and Russia, which are without capital, that can
attempt to exploit the riches of China, but countries that are already
advanced in civilization like Germany, the United States, and above all,
France and England, who, by the introduction of the vast resources of
their capital, are in a position to work the mines, railways, and other
resources of the Middle Kingdom. If, instead of trying to obtain
exclusive privileges in a poor region, which are of no use and only
irritate other nations, France had supported them in their ‘open door’
policy, she would have gained a good deal, without losing anything from
the purely commercial point of view, and thus Frenchmen might have
placed themselves on a common footing with men of all nations, in the
same manner that the English and the Germans contrived to come to an
agreement in business transactions, notwithstanding the divergence which
tends to separate them more and more, and she would then have been able
to place her capital to great advantage, and thereby have added
immensely to her prosperity, not only abroad but at home, as was the
case under the Second Empire, when she covered Europe with railways.
France might, moreover, from the purely political point of view, have
played a conciliatory part, and have thus managed to prevent the
dominant influences at Peking from becoming too exclusive, which might
ultimately result in a terrible conflict, and she should have worked to
maintain the independence of China. Now that the Chinese are permitting
Europeans to take their riches in hand by constructing their railways
and exploiting their mines, it seems to us that France ought to allow
her to retain a sort of communal existence, in which the civilized
nations might carry on their economic activity precisely as they do in
Turkey, with the difference that the Empire of the Son of Heaven is much
vaster, richer, and populated by a far more industrious people than that
of Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid.
This is, of course, a solution of an apparently temporary character, but
which might have a chance here, as elsewhere, of lasting longer than a
score of other solutions which are deemed definitive, always provided
that the Powers do not exert too much pressure on the feeble Government
at Peking, and especially if Russia, once the Trans-Siberian Railway is
finished, does not insist upon her demands in so violent a manner as to
provoke simultaneous action on the part of the Powers, and thereby bring
about a partition. The destinies of the Celestial Empire are, however,
in a great measure in the hands of the Tsar, who has, fortunately,
already given many proofs of sagacity.
The maintenance of the Chinese Government seems for the moment
preferable, even in the interests of the opening up of the country and
in the introduction of our civilization in its immense territory, to the
partition of China between the various European nations. We do not say
this because we believe that the Chinese Government is converted to
progress, for we hold that, with very few exceptions, those who direct
the fortunes of the Chinese Empire are quite as fossilized in their
prejudices, as firmly believe in their decrepit wisdom, as eager to
prove their hatred of Western civilization, and, moreover, as corrupt,
as ever they were. At the same time, they are convinced of the
impossibility of China resisting the encroachments of European
civilization, and as resigned as ever to yield to external pressure.
Undoubtedly the era of subterfuges on the one side and of menaces on the
other is by no means closed, and in spite of reforms which have been,
and are still to be, obtained in the future by Europeans, a considerable
part of the pecuniary advantages to be obtained from the transformation
of China will remain in the hands and up the sleeves of the mandarins.
But if progress is somewhat retarded by this resistance, which, after
all, will only be temporary, it will be better so than that it should be
introduced too suddenly and cause unnecessary trouble. Meanwhile, the
Government of Peking plays an extremely useful part. Some people have
not hesitated to say that if it ceased to exist progress would be much
more rapid, forgetting that anarchy would ensue, the end of which would
be as difficult to foresee as it would be to find a means of terminating
it, or of discovering a manner in which any European Government could
govern 200,000,000 Chinamen. The losses which the re-establishment of a
stable regime would entail, and the vast expense of subduing rebellion,
would certainly exceed those resulting from the procrastination under
the actual form of Government.
At the end of a certain period it is highly probable that the march of
events may be accelerated, and when the mass of the Chinese people have
been placed in contact with the results of Western progress, it is very
probable that its great common-sense will do the rest. It is an appeal
to their essentially commercial and money-making instincts that we must
make if we wish to convert the Chinese, the most realistic and the least
idealistic of nations. Railways will be the best missionaries of
civilization in China.
INDEX
A
Advances, small, made to immigrants into Siberia, 47
Agricultural zone, 5, 7;
extent, 8;
population, 10
Agriculture, Siberian peasants’ ignorance of, 24, 25;
products of Japan, 125, 129;
novel methods of manuring, 130
Ahmar Dabam Mountains, 12
Ainos, the, 85
Albazine, heroic defence of, 3
Alexander III. decrees the creation of the Trans-Siberian Railway, 66
Alexandrofsk, prison of, 54
Altai Mountains, the, 10;
valleys of the, 47
Amur province annexed by Russia, 13;
population, 13;
free from all special Custom duties, 33, _note_;
number of immigrants annually, 47;
Russian immigrants have to face a large Asiatic contingent, 49;
Buddhists in the province, 51;
only likely to attract Russians, 53
Amur River, Khabarof, establishes himself on the, 3;
immigrants settle in the region, 47;
damp climate, 47;
Government assists colonization in the Amur basin, 48
Armstrong, Whitworth, and Co. construct the ferry-boats for Lake
Baikal, 69
Army, Japanese, strengthened, 141;
excellence of the troops, 166, 167
Art, Japanese, withstands Chinese influences, 87;
under the Tokugawas, 100;
art industries, 119;
hasty production and deterioration, 137
Artillery employed at the naval battle of Shigutake, 93
Aryans, the, 172
Asiatic Ocean, tribes in the region of the, 6
Astrakhan annexed by Russia, 1
B
Baikal, Lake, beauty of, 12;
used in the transport of tea, 32;
ferry-boats to convey trains across, 66;
its size, 69
Barabinsk Steppe, the, 11
Barley in Siberia, 7, 24
Barnaoul, 38;
attractive to immigrants, 47
Beer, excellent, at Irkutsk;
Japanese beer, 120
Behring Straits, native races in the district of the, 52
Berizof on the Obi, climate, 5
Berlin, distance to Vladivostok and Port Arthur, 76
Biisk attractive to immigrants, 47
Birch, predominance of the, 9
Black Current, the, 5
Blagovyeshchensk, its prosperity, 30;
fruit and vegetables brought to, by Chinese, 51
Blue River, mouth of the, 188;
its banks, 235
Brandt’s, Herr von, estimate of Chinese revenue, 219
Bridges, Siberian, carried away by inundations, 59;
bridges of the Trans-Siberian Railway, 68
Britain, Great, trade with Siberia, 62;
important commerce with Japan, 139;
Japan’s friendship for her, 168;
new commercial treaty with Japan, 179, 180;
concessions made to, by China, 240;
she turns her back on China for Japan, 244;
the treaty with France concerning Yunnan, 262;
she regains her position in China, 263;
public wrath at the German seizure of Kiao-chau, 269;
the ‘open door’ policy, 270, 271, 274;
offer of a loan to China, 270;
important convention with China regarding the Yang-tsze-Kiang basin,
etc., 271;
danger of war with Russia, 272;
Wei-hai-wei and Kowloon ceded to Great Britain, 273;
the English public still dissatisfied, 274;
the Niu-chwang Railway affair, 275;
Great Britain’s commerce with China, 272, 273;
better relations with Germany, 286
British bombard Kagoshima, 106
British Columbia, temperate climate, 5
Brushes, Japanese, 120
Bubonic plague, microbe of the, discovered by a Japanese, 177
Buddhism practised by the Buriats, 12;
in Trans-Baikalia and the Amur, 51;
introduced into Japan, 86;
purer in Japan than in China, 87;
degenerated in China, 202
Buriats, the, 12;
in Trans-Baikalia, 51;
in the Amur district, 51
Butter scarce in Siberia, 19;
exported to Russia, 22
C
Camels employed in the tea trade, 34
Canada compared with Siberia, 4;
rivers and agricultural area, 4;
position superior to that of Siberia, 4, 5;
difference between Canada and Siberia, 55
Canton, the foreign mart of China, 229
Catholics not tolerated in Russia, 14, 15;
their churches in all large Siberian towns, 15
Cattle, very numerous in Siberia, 22;
exported thence to Europe, 22;
scarcity in Japan, 128
Cedar-trees, Siberian, 11;
their seeds eaten by the Siberians, 11
Cereals in Siberia, 7;
a lengthy summer necessary for their cultivation, 8;
in the valleys of the Upper Yenissei and Obi, 21;
the harvest, 23;
unfavourable climate in Siberia, 25;
exported, 31
Chancellor first enters Russia viâ the White Sea, 61
Chartered Company, a, established under the Strogonofs, 2
Cheliabinsk in the Great Plain, 9;
scenery, 9;
refuges for immigrants at, 46
China allows Russia to build the Manchurian Railway, 67;
her interest in it, 72;
commercial class have always been honoured in China, 141;
Japan her best friend, 167;
China compared with Turkey, 183;
density of the population, 184;
enormous coal and copper beds untouched, 184;
China more backward than India or Japan, 185;
the significance of the Japanese War, 185;
end of China’s isolation, 186;
possible results of her dissolution, 187, 281;
first impressions, 188;
cultivation of the soil, 190;
Peking, 190;
Hien-feng’s hunting excursion, 195;
ruin of the once fine highroads, 199, 201;
hills never cultivated, 202;
squandering of money, 203;
general decay, 203;
the mandarinate the curse of China, 204;
the literati, 204–206;
corruption, 206, 217;
how the governing class is selected, 208;
the causes of her isolation, 209, 210;
the non-existence of any martial spirit among the people, 210;
irregularities in the Government, 211;
long existence of the State, 212;
patriotism unknown, 213;
population, 214, _note_;
taxes light, 218, 219;
total revenue, 219;
natural disasters, 220;
population does not increase, 220;
rapacity of officials, 220, 221;
the result of the opening up of the country, 227;
the Treaty of Shimonosaki, 228, 236;
opposition to foreigners, 229;
nothing to be expected from the Government, 236;
industries, 237, 238;
increase of wages, 238, 239;
industries still limited to the Treaty Ports, 240;
China’s commerce, 241, 282–286;
her collapse after the War, 242, 243;
England turns her back on China, 244;
North China coveted by Russia, 246;
the intervention of Russia, France, and Germany, 247;
Russia better liked than any other Western Power, 248;
China becomes alarmed at Russia, 251;
Russian interference in the War settlement, 252;
a foreign debt contracted, 253;
it leads to further foreign interference, 254;
Russia becomes guarantor for China, 255;
Russian influence predominant, 258;
concessions to Germany, 259;
to France, 259–261;
England regains her position in China, 263, 264;
railway concessions, 267, 268;
Germany seizes Kiao-chau, 268;
wrath in England at this act, 269;
important concessions to England, 271;
England declares the ‘open door’ policy, 271, 274;
China leases the Liao-tung Peninsula to Russia, 271, 272;
concessions to France, 272;
Wei-hai-wei and Kowloon ceded to England, 273;
the Niu-chwang Railway affair, 275;
progress made in China, 275;
germs of disaffection, 276, 277;
the Palace Revolution of September, 1898, 277, 278;
the government of the Empress Dowager, 278, 279;
difference between China to-day and Japan in 1868, 279, 280;
friendly feeling for Japan, 285;
the partisans of the ‘open door,’ 285;
the present government preferable to a partition, 288;
railways the best missionaries, 289
Chinese at Vladivostok, 13, 50;
supply Blagovyeshchensk with fruit and vegetables, 51;
also Khabarofsk, 52;
Chinese emigration to Eastern Siberia, 52;
their distinctness as a race, 84;
Chinese civilization introduced into Japan, 86;
integrity of Chinese merchants, 140;
patience of Chinese, 184;
their insolence to foreigners, 195;
their energy, 196;
their habit of saving appearances, 196, 197, 203, 216;
the peasantry, 199;
the Chinese alphabet, 206, 207;
the _feng-shui_ geomancy, 209, 225;
patriotism non-existent, 213;
physical and linguistic differences among the Chinese, 214, 215;
their civilization, 216;
love of cunning, 217;
Chinese etiquette, 217;
life very easy for the people, 218;
the people and the Government, 218, 219;
their contented disposition, 220;
resignation, 221;
their indifference to death and cruelty, 221;
suicides out of spite, 222;
why they are bad soldiers, 222, 223;
they might be better, 223, _note_;
filial piety and infanticide, 223;
ancestor worship the cause of non-progressiveness, 223, 224;
unhappy lot of married women, 224;
their immorality, 224;
gambling, the national vice, 224;
opium-smoking, 225;
filthy habits and superstition, 225;
good qualities of the Chinese, 226;
their habit of looking to the past for a type of perfection, 226;
their lack of discernment, 226;
scandalized by Christianity, 230;
Chinese and Western civilization, 230, 231;
appreciation of our administration, 231, 232;
their superstitions about missionaries, 232
Chino-Japanese War, significance of the, 185
Christianity introduced into Japan, 93;
its great progress, 94;
extirpated, 95;
not accepted by modern Japan, 174;
Christianity in China, 230
Chuckchis, the, 6
Churches very numerous in Siberian towns, 40
Clans, the south-eastern, a danger to the Shogunate, 99;
they join the Mikado against the Shogun, 104;
survival of the clannish spirit in modern Japan, 156
Coal, abundant in Siberia, 29, 30;
coal in Japan, 167;
enormous beds in China, 184
Commerce, Japanese, enormous increase of, 135–140;
its high standard not maintained, 140;
the Treaty of Shimonosaki and Chinese commerce, 236;
transport of goods in China, 240;
the _likin_ system, 240, 241;
total amount of Chinese commerce, 241
Confucius’ works studied by the literati, 206;
his views on filial piety, 223
Copper-mines, Siberian, 29, 30;
copper exported from Japan, 140
Cossacks encounter little opposition, 2;
they traverse Siberia from end to end, 3;
they disappear as hardy pioneers, 3;
the Cossacks of the Vitim region, 12
Cotton industry introduced into Japan, 119;
its wonderful progress, 122;
cotton factories in Shanghai, 237;
total amount of cotton imported into China, 241
Custom-house duties in Siberia, 33;
in China, 240
D
Daimios forbidden to enter Kioto, 97;
the five grades, 97, 98;
their initiation enfeebled, 100;
horror of the barbarians, 104;
they recognise the uselessness of opposing the foreigners, 106
Dan-no-ura, the naval battle of, 89
Dogs, Siberian, like wolves, 18
Dutch the only Europeans allowed to traffic with Japan, 95, 96
E
Education, its backward state in Siberia, 20;
making considerable progress, 40;
education in Japan, 134, 176, 177;
in China, 206–208
Electric light in Siberian towns, 40;
in Tokio, 114
Emigration from Russia, 44;
its management, 45
(_see_ also Immigration)
Empress Dowager and the Palace Revolution, 278;
a clever woman, 278, 279;
her party known as the Russian, 280
England (_see_ Britain, Great)
English attempts to enter Siberia viâ the Arctic Ocean, 61–62;
an English company creates an annual service to Siberia by this
route, 62
Ermak Timoféef seizes Sibir, 2
Eunuchs, the, 16
Examinations, public, in China, 205;
the subjects chosen, 206, 208;
the ‘new Western culture,’ 207, 208
Exiles, two classes of, sent to Siberia, 53;
allowed to settle in towns, 54;
occupations, 54;
families allowed to accompany them, 55;
their number in 1894, 55;
the artillery captain at Kluchi, 57
F
_Feng-shui_ geomancy, Chinese, 209, 225
Ferry-boats to convey trains across Lake Baikal, 66, 69
Fetish-tree, a, 12
Finance, Japanese, brilliant condition before the war, 143, 144;
the programme of expansion, 145;
subvention to Formosa, 146;
large loan required, 146;
scarcity of cash, 147;
a foreign loan, 148;
the revenue of 1897–1898, 149;
increase of taxation, 149;
new sources of revenue, 150;
taxes not really heavy, 150–152;
other possible sources, 151
Fir-trees, Siberian, 6, 10
Fishing industry, importance of Japanese, 128
Flowers, Siberian, 11, 23;
Japanese love of flowers, 133
Foreigners, Japanese suspicion of, 178 179;
the commercial treaties, 178–180;
the land tenure difficulty, 180, 181;
foreigners in China, 228;
demand a free hand to trade, 229;
opinion of Chinese about them, 230–233;
before the war, 235, 236;
Treaty of Shimonosaki, 236;
the literati and foreigners, 277
Forest Zone, the Great, 5;
its trees, 6;
marshlands and severe climate, 7;
may become of great value, 7;
population, 7
Formosa, Japanese subvention to, 146
France, why attracted to Tongking, 185;
she co-operates with Russia and against Japan, 247;
her sacrifice in turning from Japan, 249;
Russia endeavours to draw her into warlike demonstrations against
Japan, 250;
‘advantages’ gained by her intervention, 259, 260, 262;
her treaty with England concerning Tongking, 262;
France the protectress of Catholicism in China, 263;
she suffers a check in China, 264;
more concessions obtained, 272, 273;
the part she ought to play, 288
French settlers in Siberia, 15;
the Government generally indulgent towards them, 53
Fujiwara family, the, retains the Prime Ministership, 88
Fukuzawa, Mr., editor of the _Jiji Shimpo_, 103
Furniture, absence of, in Japanese houses, 131
Furs, exported from Siberia, 31
G
Gambling, the national Chinese vice, 224
Germany, commerce with Japan, 139;
she co-operates with Russia and France against Japan, 247;
reason for so doing, 249, 250;
small advantages obtained in return, 259;
she seizes Kiao-chau, 268;
constitutes Shan-tung a sphere of interest, 271;
her commerce with China, 286;
better relations with England, 286
Glass in Japan, 120
Gold-mines, Siberian, in the Forest Zone, 7;
employ relatively few people, 17;
their exploitation and yield, 27, 29;
Government the only buyer of Siberian gold, 28;
bad system of taxation and other drawbacks, 28;
primitive implements used, 28;
the most important veins generally difficult to get at, 28;
mining centre removed to the banks of the Amur and Lena, 29;
exploitation only granted to Russian subjects, 53
Great Wall of China, the, 201–203
H
Hankow, on the Yang-tsze, the great tea mart of China, 34;
projection of a railway from Peking to Hankow, 268
_Hara-kiri_, the ferocious custom of, in Japan, 98;
in China, 222
Hart, Sir Robert, 240
_Heimino_, or commoners of Japan, 99;
_heimino_ in the public offices, 156
Henry, Prince, and the ‘mailed fist,’ 269
Hideyoshi reduces the daimios to obedience, 91;
orders all missionaries to leave Japan, 94
Hien-feng’s hunting excursion, 195
High-roads of China, dilapidated condition of the, 199, 203
Hitotsubashi, tries to retrieve the Shogunate, 106;
his overthrow, 107
Hong-Kong seventeen days from London viâ Siberia, 77;
commerce with Japan, 139;
Chinese in Hong-Kong, 231, 232;
lease of the surrounding heights to England, 273;
her total commerce, 282
Horses sometimes difficult to procure on the Siberian postal-road, 21;
their great number in Siberia, 22;
horses in Japan, 128
Hu-nan, coal-beds in, 184
I
Iemitsu enfeebles the initiative of the daimios, 100
Ieyas, Tokugawa, rises to power, 92;
he reduces the Court to poverty, 97;
creates divergencies among the daimios, 99;
and revives the Chinese classics, 100
Immigrants into Siberia almost exclusively peasants, 45;
Tobolsk a great meeting-place for them, 45;
the routes taken, 45;
length of the journey, 46;
refuges erected for their accommodation, 46;
those coming from same districts grouped together, 46;
regulations for their settlement 46, 47;
small advances made to them, 47;
where they settle, 47;
many return again to Russia, 48
Imperial canal, Chinese, ruinous condition of the, 203
Indemnity, Chinese War, 145;
paid in gold, 146, _note_;
the Liao-tung indemnity, 251–252
India more advanced than China, 185
Industries, Japanese, 118;
fancy goods, 119;
glass, brushes, and foundries, 120;
jute carpet and match industries, 121;
enormous progress of cotton, 122;
Japanese own all their own industries, 122, 123;
scarcity of workmen, 123;
abuses in the employment of women, 123;
hours of labour, 123;
holidays, 124;
increase of wages, 124;
diminution of capital, 124;
fisheries, 128;
Chinese industries, 237;
women employés, 238;
their wages, 238, 239;
industries limited to the free ports, 240
Infanticide in China, 221
Inland Sea, the, of Japan, 112;
its light-houses, 112
Inundations in Siberia, 59
_Iourdis_, or Kirghiz huts, 46
Irbit, the great fair at, 35
Irkutsk, difference between the Customs on tea at Odessa and Irkutsk,
36;
total Customs in 1896, 37;
population, 38;
the theatre, 41;
Irkutsk once capital of Siberia, 42;
its excellent beer, 54;
Government of, population in 1897, 12, 13;
number of immigrants annually, 47
Iron mines, Siberian, 27, 30
_Isbas_, the, or Siberian peasants’ cottages, 18;
interior ornamentation, 23
Islamism professed by the Kirghiz, 10
Ito, Marquis, 160,162;
the Ito programme, 144, 145
Ivan the Terrible, 1;
grants the Strogonofs trading privileges, 2
J
Japan, the Black Current, 5;
her transformation, 81, 82;
European scepticism as to military success, 82;
early history, 83;
its settlement, 84;
introduction of Chinese civilization, 86;
also of Buddhism, the silkworm, etc., 86;
resemblance of the adoption of Chinese civilization in the seventh
with that of European in the nineteenth century, 87;
the system of heredity, 87, 88;
real authority very rarely vested in the man supposed to exercise it,
88;
feudalism established, 88;
dissensions in the Government, 88;
the Government overthrown by Yoritomo, 89;
increasing power of the daimios, 89;
the Shogunate, 89, 90;
non-interference of the Mikado in the Government, 90;
civil wars, 90;
pitiable condition of Japan at the beginning of the sixteenth
century, 90, 91;
suppression of the independence of the nobles, 91;
Ieyas rises to power, 92;
arrival of the Portuguese in Japan, 92;
St. Francis Xavier introduces Christianity, 93;
great progress made by it, 93, 94;
material progress, 94;
Hideyoshi orders all missionaries to leave Japan, 94, 95;
Christianity extirpated in Japan and exclusion of foreign influence,
95;
Dutch and Chinese only allowed to trade with Japan, 95, 96;
the three ancient classes of the people, 97–99;
the daimios divided by Ieyas among themselves, 99;
Japan under the Tokugawas, 100;
again under Chinese influences, 100;
the causes of the Revolution of 1868 deep-rooted, 101;
decline of the Shogunate, 101;
penetration of Western ideas into Japan, 102;
the United States demands the opening of the ports, 103;
ports opened, 104;
overthrow of the Shogunate, 104–107;
necessity of adopting Western civilization in all branches perceived,
107;
sweeping reforms, 108;
removal of the Court to Tokio, 108;
the Satsuma insurrection, 108;
modern Japan, 109;
religious toleration, 111;
Japan the Great Britain of the Far East, 118;
her industries, 118–124;
essentially an agricultural country, 125;
agricultural products, 125, 126, 129, 130;
scenery, 126;
density of the rural population, 126;
small area of cultivable land, 127, 128;
scarcity of domestic animals, 128;
education, 134;
increase of the population, 134;
foreign commerce, 135–140;
trade despised in ancient Japan, 140;
brilliant condition of her finances before the war, 143, 144;
extensive programme of expansion, 144, 145;
large loan required to meet same, 146;
a foreign loan, 148;
taxation, 150–152;
instability of Parliaments, 154;
the clan spirit in modern Japan, 156;
the Parliamentary system, 156–163;
importance of Japan’s military forces, 165;
her coal, 167;
Japan China’s best friend, 167;
her friendship for England and distrust of Russia, 168;
colonizing ambitions, 170;
her thorough transformation, 174;
refusal to accept Christianity, 174;
the civil status, 175;
railway and post 176;
carelessness and unpunctuality, 177;
inexperience, 178;
hostility to foreigners, 178;
renewal of the commercial treaties, 178–180;
land tenure, 180;
her foreign missions, 182;
Japan more advanced than China, 185;
the Treaty of Shimonosaki, 228;
England suddenly favours Japan, 244;
Japan leaves Liao-tung in consequence of the demand by Russia,
France, and Germany, 247;
her fears of Russia, 247, 251;
Russia’s warlike intentions against Japan, 250;
China desires an alliance, 251;
compensation for leaving Liao-tung, 251, 252;
Japan’s high-handed policy in Korea, 256, 257;
agreement with Russia regarding Korea, 258;
Japan prepares for a conflict with Russia, 267;
her commerce with China, 284;
good relations with China, 285
Japanese in Vladivostok, 50;
origin of the Japanese, 84;
quite distinct from the Chinese, 85, 171;
the early Japanese, 85;
the Shinto religion, 85;
their power of assimilation, 93;
costumes, 111, 115, 132;
proud of their victory over the Chinese, 112;
their houses, 114, 115;
the children, 115, 116;
European costume, 116;
their industries in their own hands, 122, 123;
their food, 130;
dwellings of the peasantry, 131;
disuse of furniture, 131;
freedom of the women, 132;
artistic instinct of the Japanese, 132;
cost of living, 133;
charges brought against merchants, 140;
Japanese do not yet understand the value of time, 141;
the three classes of society not exclusive, 155;
indifference to politics, 163;
their hardiness, 166;
lack of inventiveness, 177;
attention to detail, 177;
unpunctuality, 177;
indifference to death, 221
Jews in Siberia, 15
Jimmu-Tenno, first Emperor of Japan, 83, 84
Jinrikisha, the, in Japan, 116;
the fares, 117;
in China, 189
Junks, Japanese, rapidly disappearing, 112
Jute carpet-making at Osaka, 121
K
_Kaborski tchaï_, the, 9
Kagoshima bombarded by the British, 106
Kainsk, the Jerusalem of Siberia, 15
Kaiping, coal-mines at, 189
Kalmucks, the, 10
Kami, or superior beings, 85
Kamtchatka reached by the Cossacks Alexief and Dezhnief, 3
Kang-Yu-Wei, the Reformer, 278;
his party known as the Anglo-Japanese, 280
Kansk, the refuges for immigrants at, 46
Kara Sea, navigation only possible during six weeks, 62
Kazan, the Tatar kingdom, annexed by Russia, 1
Khabarof, the Ataman, establishes himself on the Amur, 3
Khabarofsk, the military element at, 39;
its few women, 51, 52
Kiakhta, tea passing through, 32;
the three parts of the town, 32
Kiao-chau seized by the Germans, 268;
made a free port, 286
Kioto, feudal princes never allowed to enter, 97;
Court removed from Kioto to Tokio, 108;
population, 118;
industries, 121
Kirghiz Steppes crossed by the Russians in 1847, 3
Kirghiz tribe, the, 10;
number and religion, 10;
they export their cattle to Europe, 22
Kiu-Siu settled by Mongolian pirates, 84
Kobylkas, the, 25
Korea, Japan has a free hand in, 246;
Russian activity, 256;
high-handed conduct of the Japanese, 256;
murder of the Queen, 257;
Russia’s offer of service, 257;
the agreement between Russia and Japan, 258;
Russia renounces active intervention in Korea, 272
Koreans settled in and about Vladivostok, 13, 50–53;
Koreans introduce the art of writing into Japan, 86
Kowloon, the peninsula of, ceded to England, 273
Krasnoyarsk, the theatre at, 41;
the English-Siberian Company establishes an agency at, 62
Kuang-Su, Emperor of China, 277;
his reforming tendencies, 278
Kuznetsk attractive to Siberian immigrants, 47
L
Lamuts, the, 6
Land-owners, rich, greatly needed in Siberia, 26
Land tenure in Japan, 180
Larches, great height of the, 6
Leather, Russian, imported into Siberia, 26
Lena, River, discovered in 1637, 3
Letters, time occupied to reach the Far East shortened by one-half by
the Trans-Siberian Railway, 79
Liao-ho, River, 73
Liao-tung, peninsula of, the Japanese ordered to quit, 247;
Japan receives compensation for same, 251, 252;
Russia obtains the peninsula, 271, 272
Li-Hsi, King of Korea, his vacillating conduct, 257
Li Hung-Chang commences the Peking Railway, 189;
his immense fortune, 217;
Li and the war settlement, 251;
his tour to Europe a sort of punishment, 267;
he returns to power, 278
_Likin_, or Chinese inland Customs, total amount, 219;
a pernicious system, 240, 241
Literati, the, 204;
the three honorary degrees, 205;
the public examinations, 205;
syndicate for helping them on, 206;
the subjects they are examined in, 206;
no progress to be expected from them, 211;
their hatred of foreigners, 232, 233, 277
Littoral province annexed by Russia, 13;
population, 13, 51;
immigrants arriving by sea, 44;
preponderance of the male over the female sex, 51;
Russians only slightly in the majority, 52
London, distance to Vladivostok and Port Arthur, 76
M
Manchu Dynasty, the, dethrones the Mings, 199
Manchuria, Chinese activity in, 52;
Russians exploring Manchuria, 66, 67;
Chinese Manchuria, 73
Manchurian Railway, China allows Russia to build the, 67;
cannot be completed in contracted time, 67;
absolutely in Russia’s hands, 71;
its length, 72, 73;
difficulties to be overcome in construction, 73;
great political importance, 74;
Port Arthur the terminus, 74;
its cost, 75
Manchus, the, oppose the Russians in Siberia, 3;
they prosper in the Amur and Littoral provinces, 13;
number, 51
Mandarinate, the, never acclimatized in Japan, 87;
the curse of China, 204;
not hereditary, 205;
therefore the more pernicious, 209;
cowardice of the military mandarins, 223;
hatred of foreigners, 232, 233;
looks upon China as a prey, 248
Marshlands on the banks of the Obi and the Irtysh, 7
Match industry, Japanese, 121
Merchants, Siberian, 17;
charges brought against Japanese merchants, 140;
merchants in ancient Japan, 141;
honesty of Chinese merchants, 240
Mikado, almost a god, 85;
Imperial self-effacement, 88, 90;
the Court reduced to absolute poverty, 97;
the Imperial family universally respected, 103;
agreement with the south-western clans against the Shogun, 104;
the Mikado refuses to acknowledge the Shogun, 105;
he ratifies the treaties of 1865, 106
Milk, excellent, in Siberia, 22
Millet in China, 199
Mings, Tombs of the, 199, 200
Minusinsk, the centre of settlement in Siberia, 48
_Mir_ system introduced in Siberia, 24
Missionaries, female, 230;
Chinese superstitions regarding missionaries, 232
Moji, rapidly rivalling Nagasaki, 112
Mongolia, Russian, 12
Mongolian pirates settle in Kiu-Siu, 84
Mongols, the Kalmuck, 10
Mosque, the northernmost in the world at Tomsk, 10
Mosquitoes, troublesome, in Siberia, 9
Mouravief-Amurski, Count, favours the Trans-Siberian Railway, 64
Mujiks, 10
(_see_ also Siberians)
N
Nagasaki, Christians in, 94;
Nagasaki the only port left open to European commerce, 96;
penetration of Western ideas into Japan through Nagasaki, 102;
its scenery, 110;
the chief coaling port on the Pacific, 111
Nan-kow, 201
Natives of the Tundra Zone, 16;
declining tribes, 13, 52
Navy, Japanese, strengthened, 141;
its importance, 165
Nertchinsk, treaty of, 3;
corn ripens there, 8;
the silver mines now of little value, 29;
now merely a huge village, 39
Newspapers, Japanese, 163
Nicholas II. stops transportation into Siberia, 53
Nikko, magnificent temples at, 202
Niu-chwang, railway being laid to;
the Niu-chwang Railway affair, 275
Nobunaga Ota seizes the government, 91
O
Oats, 7, 24
Obi, climate in its upper valley, 21;
gold-mines exhausted in its basin, 29;
the Upper Obi attracts most Siberian immigrants, 47;
stores landed at the mouth of the Obi, 62;
canal between the Obi and the Yenissei, 65
Odessa, enormous Customs on tea at, 36
Okhotsk, the, discovered, 3;
native tribes in the region of the, 52
Olekma, a tributary of the Lena, 7
Omsk, situation of, 38;
the Trans-Siberian Railway, 45
Opium-smoking in China, 225, 241
Opium War, the, 228
Orthodox Church, Kirghiz converted to the, 10;
it abstains from propaganda in China, 248
Osaka, the Manchester of Japan, 118;
its industries, 119–121;
construction of a new harbour, 120
Ostiaka, the, 6;
their origin, 10
_Ostrogs_, or Siberian block-houses, 3
P
Paris, distance to Vladivostok and Port Arthur, 76;
also to Tokio, 77
Parliaments, Japanese, instability of, 154;
composition of the two Chambers, 157, 158, _note_;
opposition to the clan Cabinets, 157–159;
a dissolution, 159;
the various parties, 160, 161;
signs of improvement, 162, 163
Pe-chi-li, Gulf of, Russia dominates the, 74;
its flatness, 188
Peking, the railway at, 77;
the city and walls, 191, 192;
street scenes, 192, 193;
shops, 193;
the main thoroughfares and side streets, 194;
houses, 194;
scene from the walls, 195;
insolence of the people to foreigners, 195;
monuments, 195, 196;
its decay, 196;
the environs, 199;
entry of the Allies into Peking, 228;
projection of a railway to Hankow, 268
_Père Marquette_, size of the, 69
Peter the Great’s wish to extend Russia westwards, 3
Petersburg, St., distance to Vladivostok and Port Arthur, 76
Petroleum, use of, by the Japanese, 114
Pigs non-existent in Japan, 120
Pine-trees, Siberian, 6, 11
Pinto, Fernan Mendez, the Portuguese navigator, arrives in Japan, 92
‘Pity of the Slav,’ the, 21
Podorojne, the official passport for Siberia, 58
Population, Siberian, in 1851, 3, 4;
in 1897, 4, 13;
superiority of the Russians in Western Siberia, 10;
in the Amur and Littoral, 13, 14;
Asiatics in the Amur, 49;
annual increase of the population, 55;
rural population of Japan, 126, 127;
its annual increase, 134;
population of China, 213, 214, _note_
Port Arthur better placed than Vladivostok, 49;
to be the principal terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway, 67;
its distance from the European capitals, 76;
Russia obtains the lease of Port Arthur, 271;
it is weakened by Wei-hai-wei, 273
Ports, Chinese, 188
Portuguese, first appearance in Japan, 92;
great influx of the, 93
Postal-road of Siberia, the, 11;
its animation, 21;
horses sometimes difficult to obtain, 21;
eight large towns situated on it, 38;
cost of travelling, 57, 58;
fairly well kept, 58;
its monotony past Lake Baikal, 58
Postal service, Japanese, cheapness of the, 176
Post-stations, Siberian, each provided with forty horses, 21;
the postmaster at Kluchi, 57;
their appearance, 60;
uncleanliness, 61
Potatoes in Japan, 130
Powers’ change of tone towards China after the war, 185;
their surprise at China’s downfall, 243
Protestants not tolerated in Russia, 14, 15;
their churches in all large Siberian towns, 15
R
Railway loan, Japanese, 145;
extension of lines, 150;
cheapness of fares, 176;
railway concessions granted by China, 267, 268
Raskolniks, the, 16
Reindeer, the, in Northern Siberia, 6
Religion, Japan refuses to accept our, 174;
the Chinese and our religion, 230
Restaurants on the Trans-Siberian Railway, 78, 79
Rice, cultivation of, in Japan, 126;
annual production, 129;
its preponderance, 130;
commerce in, 138
Rivers of Siberia covered for months by ice, 4;
villages on the banks of the most important, 11;
Chinese rivers, 188
Russia, expansion eastwards, 1;
abandons the lower Amur, 3;
her colonization, 4;
the Empire as a gold-producing centre, 27;
overland commerce with China, 32;
population, 43;
emigration, 44;
her subjects only allowed to work the Siberian gold-mines, 53;
concessions to the English-Siberian Company, 62;
allowed by China to build the Manchurian Railway, 67;
which is absolutely in the hands of Russia, 71;
Japan’s distrust of, 168;
her new policy in China, 186;
Russia displeased by the war, 245;
desires an outlet to the sea, 245;
she covets North China, 246;
Russia, France, and Germany order Japan to quit Liao-tung, 247;
Japan’s fear of Russia, 247;
better liked than any other European Power by China, 248;
her warlike intentions against Japan, 250;
China becomes alarmed of Russia, 251;
her influence in the war settlement, 251, 252;
Russia stands guarantee for China, 255;
her activity in Korea, 256;
offer of service to Korea, 257;
agreement with Japan in Korea, 258;
Russia’s preponderating influence, 258, 259;
she obtains the lease of Port Arthur, 271, 272;
danger of war with England, 272;
the Niu-chwang Railway affair, 275;
Russia’s interests in China political, 286
Russians, their religious toleration, 14;
manner of taking tea, 31, 32;
prejudice against tea conveyed by sea, 34;
Russians naturally sociable, 59;
their nomadic habits, 70
Russo-Chinese Bank established, 255, 256
S
Saigon, 77
Saigon, Marshal, quells the Satsuma insurrection, 108
_Saké_, the Japanese drink, 130, 131
Sakhalin, Island of, population, 13;
inveterate criminals sent to, 54
Samoyeds, the, 6;
their number, 10
_Samourai_, the, 6;
become hereditary, 90;
their position in ancient Japan, 98;
opposed to the Shogunate, 101;
correspondence between certain _samourai_ and Europeans, 102;
wearing of the two swords prohibited, 108;
public offices in their hands, 156
Satsumata-Choshiu combination, the, 156, 157;
its rule, 161, 162
Sayan Mountains, the, 12
Scenery of Central Siberia, 9
Selenga River, 12
Serfdom never existed in Siberia, 20
Shanghai two days from Port Arthur, 77;
the town, 235;
industrial activity at, 237;
railway to Woosung, 268
Shan-tung, coal-beds in, 184;
Germany constitutes Shan-tung a sphere of interest, 271
Sheep unknown in Japan, 128
Shimonosaki, Strait of, 112;
treaty of, 228;
Article 6, 236, 246
Shintoism, 85;
its rites, 86
Shogunate, the, 89, 90;
the _kammong_ daimios allied to the Shogunate, 99;
the southern clans dangerous to it, 100;
its decline, 101;
frightened at America’s demand for the opening of the ports, 104;
its enemies, 104;
powerlessness, 105;
its abasement, 105;
last bid for power, 106;
and total overthrow, 107
Siberia, its conquest by Russia, 2;
treated as a penal settlement, 3;
opened to colonization, 3;
population, 3, 4, 13, 55;
Siberia compared with Canada, 4, 5, 55;
its rivers, 4;
climate, 5, 25;
the three zones, 5–7;
its scenery, 9, 11, 12;
conditions of existence better in Siberia than in Russia, 9;
the Russian population in the West, 10;
religious toleration, 14–16;
Siberia a prolongation of Russia, 15, 17, 49;
absence of great landlords, 17, 26;
land rented to farmers, 18;
primitive methods of cultivation, 21, 25;
domestic animals, 22;
the more populous regions, 23;
land tenure, 24;
lack of means of communication, 25;
mineral wealth, 27–29;
limited industries, 30;
the tea traffic, 31;
other commerce, 37;
towns, 38, 39;
immigration, 43–48;
transportation of convicts, 53–55;
what is needed, 55;
loneliness of the country, 58;
inundations, 59;
a cross-country journey, 61;
Siberia entered by the Arctic Ocean, 61–63;
trade between England and Siberia, 62;
the Ural Railway, 65;
trans-continent river and rail system fails, 65, 66;
the Trans-Siberian Railway, 66–75;
the transformation it will effect, 79, 80
Siberians, conditions of peasant life, 9, 10;
better off in Siberia than in Russia, 18;
their ignorance of hygiene, 18;
apathy of the peasants, 19;
their favourite texts from Scripture, 20;
the ‘pity of the Slav,’ 21;
the traffic on the postal-road, 21;
ignorance of the peasants of agricultural science, 24, 25;
rich, 41;
do not like the new railway, 42;
nor immigration, 46;
their resignation, 59
Sibir, Tobolsk erected on its site, 2
Silk imported into Siberia, 37;
Chinese silk exported, 241
Silver mines, Siberian, 28
Stanovoi Mountains, the, 47
Stretensk on the Amur, 25
Strogonofs obtain trading concessions, 2
Suiko, Empress, 87
Sungari River, 73, 74
Summer Palace, the, 202, 203
Sze-chuan, coal-beds of, 184
T
Tarantass, the, 57
Tatar, kingdoms annexed, 1;
Tatar driven southwards, 2;
the Kirghiz, 10–22;
Tatar women in China, 193
Taxes, Japanese, 150, 151;
Chinese, 218, 219
Tea, traffic in Siberia, 31;
routes taken, 32, 35;
tea passing through Kiakhta, 33;
duty, 33, 36, 37, _note_;
Hankow the great tea mart in China, 34;
Nijni-Novgorod, 35;
difficulties of transport, 36;
its value, 36;
total amount exported from China, 241
Telega, the, 45
Telephone, the, in Siberia, 40;
in Tokio, 114
Temples, Chinese, 202
Theatres, Siberian, 41
Tien-tsin, the railway at, 77, 189;
the town, 189;
inundations, 190;
the Treaty of Tien-tsin, 228;
industry at, 237
Tiumen, 11
Tobacco introduced by the Portuguese into Japan, 94;
its cultivation, 130
Tobolsk, its erection, 2;
the ancient capital of Siberia, 38;
a meeting-place for immigrants, 45
Tobolsk, the Government of, 10;
population, 13;
education in, 20, 23;
excellent soil, 24;
number of immigrants, 47
Tokio, distance to Vladivostok, 77;
removal of the Court to, 108;
railway to Yokohama opened, 108;
population, 113;
its up-to-datedness, 114;
fires, 114, 115;
means of getting about, 116;
badly lighted, 117
Tokugawa, the, 100
Tomsk, the mosque at, 10;
the neighbouring country, 11;
population, 38;
its new university, 40;
theatre, 41
Tomsk, Government of, population, 13, 23;
excellent soil, 24;
number of immigrants annually, 47
Tongking, its copper-mines attract the French to, 185;
Customs lowered, 260;
poor country in the neighbourhood, 262
Towns, absence of large, in Siberia, 38;
those along the highroad, 39;
their appearance, etc., 39–41
Trans-Baikalia, climate, 5;
scenery, 12;
population, 13;
Buddhists, 51
Trans-Siberian Railway, 10;
destined to revolutionize Siberia, 42, 56;
why originally designed, 64, 65;
the Ural Railway, 65;
Alexander III. decrees its execution, 66;
how it will cross Lake Baikal, 66, 69;
length, 66, 73;
the Manchurian section, 67;
its construction easy, 67, 68;
bridges, 68;
workmen, 70;
its cost, 70;
distance viâ the Trans-Siberian Railway to the Far East, 76;
the _train-de-luxe_, 77;
journey to the Far East much shortened by it, 77;
fares, 78;
restaurants, 78, 79;
too expensive for heavy merchandise, 79;
facilities for forwarding letters to the East, 79;
Russia awaiting its completion, 259
Treaties, Japanese commercial, 178–180;
treaties respecting foreigners in China, 228
Treaty Ports, list of Chinese, 234, _note_;
Shanghai, 235, 237–239;
industries limited to them, 240
Trees of Siberia, 6
Troitskosavsk, 32, 33
Troops, Russian, in the East, 13, 166
Tundra Zone, the, of Siberia, 5;
area and population, 6
Turki population of Siberia, 14
U
United States demand the opening of Japanese ports, 103;
their commerce with China, 284
University at Tomsk, the, 40
Ural Railway opened in 1880, 60
V
Vegetables not cultivated in Siberia, 19
Verkhoyansk, its severe climate, 6
Villages of Siberia, 11;
resemblance to those of Russia, 18;
Japanese villages, 131
Vitim, military government of, 12
Vladivostok, the sea covered with ice in winter, 5;
the military element at, 38;
Vladivostok not so good as Port Arthur, 49;
the town and harbour, 49;
population, 50;
the journey to, 56;
main terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway removed to Port Arthur,
67;
Vladivostok a point of vantage, 74;
distance from Vladivostok to the European capitals, 76;
to Tokio, 77;
Chinese in, 232
Voltaire’s idea of a Siberian highroad, 64
W
Wages in China, increase of, 238, 239
Wei-hai-wei ceded to England, 273
Western civilization not a monopoly of one race, 172
Wheat in Siberia, 7, 24;
in China, 199
Wiggins, Captain, enters the mouth of the Yenissei, 62
Witte, M. de, chief promoter of the Manchurian Railway, 71;
his successful Chinese financial policy, 255
Women, Japanese, freedom of, 132;
Chinese, 193;
they never work in the field, 199;
binding of their feet, 221;
their unhappy lot when married, 224;
immorality, 224
Women and children employed in Japanese match factories, 121;
their unhealthy lodgings, 123;
conditions of labour, 123, 124;
women and children in Shanghai, 237, 238;
their wages, 237
Wood, very dear in China, 34;
used for architectural purposes, 202
X
Xavier, St. Francis, visits Japan, 91;
introduces Christianity there, 93
Y
Yablonovoi Mountains, the, 67
Yang-tsze-Kiang, dense population of the valley of the, 184;
no part of its basin ever to be ceded, 271
Yakutsk, climate, 6;
population, 13;
the eunuchs, 16
‘Yellow Peril,’ the, 186, 239;
if Japan and China united, 246
Yellow River, coal-beds on the banks of the, 184;
its mouth, 188
Yenissei, Government of the population, 12, 13;
immigrants, 47, 48
Yenissei River, its mouth reached in 1636, 3;
gold-mines near it, 7;
its beauty, 11;
Captain Wiggins enters it in 1874, 61, 62;
canal between the Yenissei and the Obi, 65
Yokohama, railway opened to, 108;
the third port in the Far East, 113
Yoritomo overthrows the Taira, 89;
his ingratitude, 89;
first Shogun, 89
Yoshitsune wins the Battle of Dan-no-ura, 89;
his adventures and death, 89
Yunnan, copper-mines of, 184;
a poor province, 261
Z
Zaïmka system in Siberia, the, 24
-----
Footnote 1:
Mr. Richard Davey is responsible for the translation of this work, but
I have added a footnote here and there (signed by my initials), and I
have revised the spelling of the proper names to bring them into
accordance with English usage. To forestall the charge of
inconsistency, I may say that I have acted on the principle generally
adopted in the spelling of European proper names, that is, I have
retained improper spellings consecrated by long custom—for instance,
Chefoo, Suchow, Hankow, Kowloon, just as we write Florence, Munich,
Naples, Moscow. But names not yet regularly Europeanized I have
spelled according to a consistent and more reasonable system of
transliteration-as Kiao-chau, Pe-chi-li, Kwei-chau. The French
spelling of Chinese proper names looks very strange to an English eye,
and would convey a wholly false impression to an English ear.
Footnote 2:
The _Times_, September 13th, 1900.
Footnote 3:
For example, the writer signing himself ‘Diplomaticus’ in the
_Fortnightly Review_ for September, 1900, airily dismisses as
‘illusions’ the belief that ‘China was gradually crumbling to ruin,
that she was incapable of organized resistance to the foreigner, that
her millions were unconscious of a national spirit and incapable of
progress.’ Each one of these ‘illusions’ is an elementary fact about
China, except so far as foreign help and guidance may alter it.
Footnote 4:
The _Times_ special correspondent, September 11th, 1900.
Footnote 5:
Written especially for the American edition by the author.
Footnote 6:
The position of the Manchu Dynasty in China is somewhat analogous to
that of the Shogunate in Japan, which was also caught some forty years
ago between the national sentiment and the foreigner. But in Japan,
when the Shogunate fell, there remained the divine Emperor, whose
prestige covered all the reforms which enlightened statesmen carried
out. In China, after the Manchu Dynasty, nothing remains but chaos.
Footnote 7:
‘Yermak,’ the millstone, was the nickname given to Vassil, son of
Timothy, a tracker of the Volga, because he ground the corn for his
party. He was not a Cossack by birth, but joined the Don Cossack
pirates.—H. N.
Footnote 8:
The import of Ceylon tea into Russia is already large, and is
increasing rapidly.—H. N.
Footnote 9:
All that part of Siberia situated east of Baikalia forms a sort of
neutral ground free of the Custom-house. Only spirits, tobacco, sugar,
mineral oils, lucifer matches, and in general all articles of the same
character which are subject to excise duty in Siberia proper, pay
Custom-house duties when they are sent for sale to the Siberian ports
on the Pacific. All other goods have only to pay ‘customs’ if they are
forwarded to parts of the Empire west of Baikalia, and these are paid
at Irkutsk, through which everything is obliged to pass. Tea going
from Kiakhta pays duty at Irkutsk.
Footnote 10:
By means of an ice-breaking steamer vessels are now able to leave or
enter Vladivostok harbour at any time.
Footnote 11:
The Tsar appointed a Commission to inquire into the whole question of
transportation to Siberia, with a view to its cessation. The
Commission is now understood to have reported in this sense.—H. N.
Footnote 12:
The author is misinformed here. The _Baikal_, the great ice-breaking,
train-carrying steamer, and the _Angara_, a smaller passenger-boat,
have both been designed, constructed, and set up on Lake Baikal by Sir
W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth and Co., Ltd., of Newcastle-on-Tyne.—H. N.
Footnote 13:
The official estimate of the total cost of the railway is over
£80,000,000, of which over £50,000,000 were spent by the end of
1899.—H. N.
Footnote 14:
This train has been running for a year as far as Irkutsk.—H. N.
Footnote 15:
A _koku_ equals 4·95 bushels.
Footnote 16:
In 1899 (to December 25) 423,646,605 yen or £42,364,660.—H. N.
Footnote 17:
The Japanese took care to stipulate that the indemnity should be paid
in gold at the exchange of the tael in 1895, which allowed them to
know exactly on what amount of money they could count, which was of
extreme importance to them, Japan having adopted the gold standard,
and the greater part of the indemnity being destined to be spent in
purchases in Europe and the United States.
Footnote 18:
Many of the daimios, whose personal property was very small, are now
extremely poor. The largest fortunes in Japan are those of the
merchants and bankers, who under the old regime used to hide their
wealth to avoid taxation.
Footnote 19:
The Japanese Parliament is composed of two Chambers—the House of
Lords, or Peers, to which belong (1) the Princes of the Blood (13);
(2) all the Princes and Marquises (40); (3) such representatives as
are elected for seven years by the Counts, Viscounts, and Barons
(123); (4) members who are nominated for life by the Emperor (100);
(5) members elected, one for each department, and selected from among
the fifteen more important personages of the department over thirty
years of age (45). The Chamber of Deputies is composed of 300 members,
one for every 128,000 inhabitants, and is elected by all Japanese
subjects over twenty-five years of age who have resided in an
electoral district for a term of twelve months, and who pay 30s.
direct taxes. To be elected, the candidate must be over thirty years
of age and fulfil the same conditions as above. The heads of noble
families can neither be electors nor elected to the Lower Chamber. In
1895 there were 467,887 voters (11 per 1,000 inhabitants), and in all
517,130 persons (12 per 1,000), paying more than 30s. direct taxes.
Among the first class there were 21,070, and among the second class
25,405 _shizoku_, or ancient _samurai_, from which fact we may take it
for granted that there are fewer rich men among the ancient _samurai_
than among the rest of the population. As to the nobles, so-called
_kwazoku_, at least a third of the heads of noble families pay less
than 30s. The proportion of _shizoku_ among those having the right of
vote is less than 5 per cent.
Footnote 20:
In normal times, before the exceptional augmentation of the effective
resulting from the events of 1898, England had in the Far East only
twenty-six vessels, and even now her fleet is still inferior to that
of Japan.
Footnote 21:
At the present time the Russian troops in Manchuria and the Lower Amur
do not exceed 60,000 men.
Footnote 22:
‘Politics and Peoples of the Far East.’ London: Fisher Unwin. 1895.
Footnote 23:
The population of China has been very variously estimated. There exist
official statistics, but the question is, what faith can be placed in
them? The ‘Statesman’s Year Book,’ which is generally well informed,
returns 383,000,000 for China Proper, and 402,000,000 for the entire
Empire. Some travellers, however, are of opinion that these figures
should be greatly modified, and hold that the correct medium is
between 200,000,000 and 250,000,000, because the mountainous regions
are very thinly populated, and travellers erroneously form an opinion
from the condition of the valleys through which they pass, which are
generally densely populated.
Footnote 24:
Quoted by Mr. Henry Norman, ‘Peoples and Politics of the Far East.’
Footnote 25:
The admirable and even gallant conduct of the Chinese Regiment from
Wei-hai-wei under its British officers in the recent severe fighting
about Tien-tsin affords a striking confirmation of M. Leroy-Beaulieu’s
words.—H.N.
Footnote 26:
The following is the list of the Treaty Ports: To the north of the
Blue River, Niu-chwang, Tien-tsin, Chefoo, and near the mouth of the
river Shanghai and its annex, Wusung. On the Yang-tsze-Kiang:
Chin-Kiang, Nanking, Wuhu, Kiu-kiang, Sha-shi, Hankow, It-chang,
Chung-king—in all eight river stations, of which Nanking is not really
‘open,’ although mentioned in the French treaty of Tien-tsin. Not far
from Shanghai is Suchow, on the inland canals. On the coast south of
the Blue River are Hangchow, Ning-po, Wenchow, Foochow, Amoy, Swatow.
At the mouth of the West River is Canton, and higher up the river
Samshui, Wuchow, and since the spring of 1899 Nanning-fu. On the Gulf
of Tongking: Pakhui, and in the island of Hainan, Hoi-how. The open
towns on the frontier of Indo-China are: Lung-chau, Mongtse, Ho Kau,
Szemao, Tchoun-ning-fu, and a sixth, Tong-hing, is not as yet
occupied. The open ports were in 1842, according to the Treaty of
Nanking, only five in number, but were increased by the treaty of
Tien-tsin to nineteen; others were opened by the treaty of Shimonosaki
in 1895, and by the convention with England signed in 1897. A more
recent treaty with this Power (1898) promises, but without fixed date,
however, the opening of three new ports: Kin-chau in Manchuria,
Fu-ning in Fo-kien, and Yo-chau in Hu-nan (opened in December, 1899).
Footnote 27:
The story of the improper salute was a newspaper fiction. No
foundation for it has ever been adduced. The ‘threats’ after the
sinking of the _Kow-Shing_ were wholly unofficial, and the matter was
referred to arbitration by the two Governments.—H. N.
Footnote 28:
It is to be regretted that the author does not give the name of the
newspaper in which he read this ludicrous utterance; we should
doubtless then see that it is far from representative of British
opinion.—H. N.
Footnote 29:
M. Leroy-Beaulieu cannot seriously believe that the independence of
China is threatened by Great Britain. British policy is, as it always
has been, to maintain her independence by every means.—H. N.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transcriber’s note:
1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
2. Anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as
printed.
3. Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers and collected together
at the end of the last chapter.
4. P. 125, changed “40 per cent.” to “4 per cent.”