WITH MEN WHO WATCH POLITICS
I found in Peking several good observers of political life, especially
Dr. George Morrison, Mr. B. Lenox Simpson, and Mr. W.H. Donald. All
three had the training in observation and judgment which comes from
writing for responsible papers. Doctor Morrison was gifted with a
memory for details. Thus, he would say: "When I first visited New
York I lived in a little hall room on the third floor of 157 East
Twenty-ninth Street, with a landlady whose name was Simkins, who had
green eyes and a red nose and who charged me two dollars a week for my
room." He delighted in detailing minutely his daily doings. His sense
of infinite detail combined with his remarkable memory made Doctor
Morrison an encyclopædia of information about Chinese public men. He
knew their careers, their foibles and ambitions, and their personal
relationships. Like most British in China he was animated with a
sincere wish to see the Chinese get ahead, and was distressed by the
obstacles which a change for the better encountered at every step.
His own mind was of the analytical and critical type rather than the
constructive, and his greatest services were rendered as interpreter
of events and in giving to public men and the people a clear idea of
the significance of complex Chinese situations. "I am annoyed," he
would say, "because kindly old ladies persistently identify me with the
missionary Morrison who died in 1857."
Mr. Donald's acquaintance with Chinese affairs had come through
close contact with the leaders of new China, with whom he coöperated
intimately in their military and political campaigns. He had a heart
for the Chinese, as if they had been his own people. He worried about
their troubles and fought their fights. Mr. Simpson, the noted writer
who uses the pen name "Putnam Weale," began active life as a member of
the Maritime Customs service, but he soon resigned, to devote himself
wholly to literary work. His masterly works of political analysis
were written in the period of the Russo-Japanese War, although his
best-known book came a little earlier--a book which long earned him the
ill-will and suspicion of many of the legations in Peking. He himself
disavows giving in "Indiscreet Letters from Peking" a recital of
actual facts. He told me: "I wished to give the psychology of a siege,
selecting from the abundant material significant facts and expressions,
but I was not in any sense attempting to chronicle events and personal
actions."
Mr. Simpson has also written a series of novels dealing with Chinese
life. The short stories are the best; the longer ones, while
interesting in description and clever in dialogue, lack that intuitive
power of characterization which is found in the greatest novels, though
"Wang the Ninth" which has recently come from the press is an admirable
study of Chinese psychology and an excellent story as well. Though his
playful and cynical mind often led people to judge that he was working
solely for literary effect, it seemed to me he had a deep appreciation
of what China should mean to the world; he also had real sympathy for
the Chinese, and desired in every way to help them to realize the great
promise of their country and people. As a conversationalist Mr. Simpson
resembled Macaulay, in that his interludes of silence were infrequent.
Notwithstanding the brilliance of this conversation, luncheon parties
of men occasionally seemed to become restive under a monologue which
gave few others a chance to wedge in a word.
Aside from these three British writers, many other men were following
with intelligent interest the course of events. Bishop Bashford, gifted
with a broad and statesmanlike mind, could always be trusted to give
passing events significant interpretations. Dr. W.A.P. Martin had then
reached an age at which the individual details of current affairs no
longer interested him. His intimate friend, Dr. Arthur H. Smith--a
rarely brilliant extemporaneous speaker--was full of witty and incisive
observations, often deeply pessimistic, though tempered with a deep
friendship for the Chinese people.
Among the members of the diplomatic corps it was chiefly the Chinese
secretaries who busied themselves, out of professional interest with
the details of Chinese affairs, although they did not in all cases
exhibit a broad grasp of the situation.
Mr. Willys R. Peck, Chinese secretary of the American Legation, born in
China, had a complete mastery of the difficult language of the country.
He could use it with a colloquial ease that contrasted most pleasantly
with the stilted and stiff enunciation of the ordinary foreigner
speaking Chinese. His tact in intercourse with the Chinese and his
judgment on character and political affairs could be relied on. Mr.
Peck took the place of Mr. E.T. Williams, who was called to Washington
as chief of the Far Eastern Division in the State Department. I
considered it great good fortune that there should be at the Department
a man so experienced and so familiar with Chinese affairs.
It was my good fortune to have as first secretary of the legation a man
exceptionally qualified to cope with the difficulties and intricacies
of Chinese affairs. Not only are these affairs infinitely complex in
themselves, but they have been overlaid through many decades with a web
of foreign treaty provisions, which makes them still more baffling to
the stranger who tackles them. But Mr. J.V.A. MacMurray, the secretary,
was possessed of a keenly analytical, legally trained mind which was
able to cut through the most hopelessly tangled snarl of local custom,
national law, international agreement, and general equity. Also his
interest in things Chinese was so deep and genuine that his researches
were never perfunctory. The son of a soldier, he had an almost
religious devotion to the idea of public service.
Among the ministers themselves, Sir John Jordan, actual Dean of the
Diplomatic Corps, was through long experience and careful attention
to affairs most fitted to speak with authority on things Chinese. I
was immediately greatly attracted to him and formed with him a close
acquaintanceship. This led to constant coöperation throughout the
difficult years that lay ahead. Sir John was a man of unusually long
and varied experience in China. He came first to the consular service,
then became minister resident in Korea, and his forty years of official
work had given him complete intimacy with Chinese affairs. Although he
speaks Chinese with fluency, in official interviews and conversations
he was always accompanied by his Chinese secretary and expressed
himself formally in English. As a matter of fact, few diplomats
ever use the Chinese language in official conversation. Because of
its infinite shades of meaning it is a complex and rather unprecise
medium, therefore misunderstandings are more readily avoided through
the concurrent use of another language. While Sir John understood
Chinese character and affairs and was sympathetic with the country in
which his life work had been spent, yet there dwelt in him no spirit
of easy compliance. When he considered it necessary, he could insist
so strongly and so emphatically upon the action he desired taken
that the Chinese often thought of him as harsh and unrelenting: yet
they always respected his essentially English spirit of fairness and
straightforwardness.
Other colleagues with whom close relationships grew up were Don Luis
Pastor, the Spanish minister, a gentleman thoroughly American in
his ways and familiar through long residence in Washington with our
affairs; and Count Sforza, the Italian minister. To the latter China
seemed more or less a place of exile; he appeared bored and only
moderately interested in the affairs about him. But his legation--with
Countess Sforza, Madame Varè, whose Lombard beauty did not suggest her
Scotch origin; the Marquise Denti, with her quizzical, Mona Lisa-like
haunting smile, concealing great ennui; and the entirely girlish and
playful Countess Zavagli, a figure which might have stepped out of a
Watteau--was a most charming social centre. M. Beelaerts van Blokland,
the Netherlands minister, a man of clear-thinking, keen mind, and great
reasonableness, and the Austrian minister, M. von Rosthorn, a profound
Chinese scholar, who was then working on a Chinese history, were men of
whom I saw much during these years.
There were few sinologists in Peking at this time. The successive
Chinese secretaries of the American Legation ranked high in this
respect. Of resident sinologists the most noted, Mr. (later Sir) Edward
Backhouse was a recluse, who never allowed himself to be seen in the
company of other people of a Western race. At the only period when I
had long conversations with him I found him much disturbed by wild
rumours current in the Chinese quarter to which I could not attach any
weight. Others whose knowledge of Chinese was exceptional were Mr.
Sidney Mayers, representative of the British China Corporation, who had
formerly been in the consular service; Doctor Gattrell, who had acted
as secretary of the American Group; Mr. W.B. Pettus, the director of
the Peking Language School; Mr. Simpson, already mentioned; and several
missionaries and professors at Peking University.
Of the Chinese there were, of course, many with whom I could
profitably discuss the events of the day and gather suggestions and
interpretations of value. With all these men I conversed upon events,
relying for my information not on rumours or reports, but on the facts
which I could learn through the men directly concerned; or through
others well informed. The opinion which I formed from such various
sources about the political condition of China at this time, the spring
of 1914, may be stated as follows:
The political authority of the Central Government in China rested upon
military organization. Other sources of authority, such as customary
submission on the one hand, and the support based upon the intelligent
coöperation of all classes of citizens in the achievement of the
purposes of government in accordance with public opinion on the other,
were only of secondary influence. It was therefore important to inquire
whether the military power was so organized as to afford a stabilizing
support to public authority. This did not seem to be the case.
In the first place, the existence of a large army of doubtful
efficiency was in itself an evil, considering the then limited
resources of the Chinese State, and the fact that any attempt to reduce
the military forces to more reasonable dimensions met with stubborn
opposition. Whenever troops were disbanded they showed no tendency to
return to useful occupations: the ex-soldiers desired only to continue
to live upon the country, and, no longer serving the established
authority, they joined bandit gangs, rendering the interior of the
majority of the provinces insecure.
The weakness of the army was strikingly demonstrated whenever an
attempt was made to use it to defend the country against either
external or internal enemies. In the campaign against the Mongols, the
Chinese troops had failed entirely; even within the country itself,
this huge army was not able to insure the fulfilment of that first
duty of a government--the protection of the lives and property of its
citizens.
In the provinces of Honan and Hupei brigands, led by a person known as
"White Wolf," had for months been terrifying the population; ravaging
the countryside; sacking walled cities; murdering and outraging the
population; and in a number of instances had killed foreigners. Thus
far the army had been powerless to suppress these brigands; in fact,
evidence was at hand that the troops had repeatedly been so lax and
remiss that the only explanation of their conduct would seem to lie in
a secret connivance at the brigandage, and lack of coöperation among
the commanders of the troops.
As the authority of the Central Government was commensurate with its
control over the tutuhs (tuchuns), or military governors, the attitude
of the latter toward the President had to be carefully watched; and it
was causing no small uneasiness that there did not seem to be perfect
agreement among these pillars of authority in the various provinces;
thus, friction had recently been reported between General Tuan
Chi-jui, the Minister of War, who was the acting tutuh of Hupei, and
General Feng Kuo-chang, the tutuh of Kiangsu, two of the most powerful
supporters of the President.
None of the provinces of China, during the preceding three months, had
been free from brigandage, attempted rebellion, troubles resulting from
the disbanding of troops, and local riots. Conditions were worst in the
provinces of Honan and Hupei, in which the bands of "White Wolf" are
operating.
These bands had assumed a distinctly anti-foreign attitude. In
Kansu there were constant Mohammedan uprisings, related to the open
rebellion in Tibet and Mongolia. Bandit movements had also occurred
in the provinces of Shansi, Shensi, Szechuan (super-added to revolts
of the troops), Anhui, Kiangsi, Hunan, Fukien, Kweichow, Yunnan, and
Kwangtung. Chekiang, Kwangsi, Shantung, and Chihli had been the least
molested.
While the Government had been unable to fulfil its duty of protecting
the lives and property of its citizens, it was also unable to exercise
the elementary power of providing, through taxation, the means for its
own support. The maintenance of the army had eaten up the available
means and it had not been possible to secure sufficient money from
the provinces to meet the ordinary running expenses of the Central
Government. The remarkable resisting power of China is illustrated
by the fact that, notwithstanding the conditions of rebellion and
political unrest which characterized the year 1913, general commerce
remained so active that the collections of the Customs and of the
Salt Gabelle exceeded those of any previous year. These two sources
of revenue were sufficient to provide for the interest payments and
amortization of the long-term foreign loans then contracted; their
administration, under foreign control, had secured to the Central
Government the funds to meet these obligations and to avoid open
bankruptcy.
All other forms of taxation were disorganized. The collection of the
land tax was in many places discontinued; records had been destroyed,
or the population took an attitude hostile to its collection. The
proceeds of the _likin_, as far as collected, were retained for
provincial use. Altogether, the Central Government received from the
provinces not more than 10 per cent. of the estimated income from these
sources under the last Imperial Budget for 1912.
Meanwhile, the Central Government had been living from hand to mouth,
using the proceeds of foreign loans for administrative purposes, and
was kept going by taking cash advances upon foreign loan contracts made
for furnishing materials and for various concessions. In this way the
future had been discounted to a dangerous extent.
The weakness of the financial administration of the Government was
found in all other branches of its activities. There was little
evidence of constructive capacity.
In the ministries and departments of the Central Government the
greatest disorganization was apparent. In dealing with technical
questions the officials were often entirely at sea, not being trained
themselves in these matters, nor willing to make real use of the many
advisers who were engaged by the Government; there was no adequate
system of accounting; the departmental records were not well kept;
frequently the existence of a transaction was not known to the
officials most nearly concerned; past transactions, fully consummated,
had been forgotten; there was no centralization of governmental
knowledge; so a great deal of the public business was transacted in a
haphazard way, leading to a helpless opportunism of doing the things
most strongly urged and of grasping at small immediate advantages at
the cost of engagements long to be regretted.
Ambitious schemes of general policy had been brought up, and elaborate
regulations promulgated, to all of which little attention was
subsequently paid. On the other hand, there had scarcely been one
single concrete result obtained in constructive work.
The metropolitan Province of Chihli had been quiet and peaceful since
the outbreak of 1912. The Government here certainly had sufficient
authority to introduce constructive reforms, and the general conditions
for such action in this province had been relatively most favourable.
But not even in the case of Chihli Province had the taxation system
been rendered efficient; no efficient auditing methods had been
introduced in practice, although systems of auditing control had been
promulgated; educational institutions had been allowed to run down: in
short, under the most favourable conditions, no constructive work had
been accomplished.
Nearly all attempts to do something of a constructive nature had been
immediately associated with foreign loans, often involving a cash
advance to the Government. It might, of course, be said that the great
difficulty of the Chinese Government was exactly that it lacked the
funds for carrying out constructive work; and that, therefore, only
such lines of improvement could be followed for which it had been
possible to secure foreign loans.
This, however, was only partly true. A great many reforms could have
been accomplished without the increase of expenditure; indeed, they
would have resulted in a reduction of outlay. The fact seemed to be
that the Central Government, realizing how important foreign financial
support had been to it during the Revolution of 1913, was anxious to
secure more and more funds from abroad without counting the ultimate
cost.
An opportunity for obtaining from abroad large sums of money, far
beyond any amount ever before dealt with by Chinese officials and
merchants, in itself had an unsettling effect upon methods of public
business. The old caution and economy, which kept the public debt
within narrow limits, had given way to a readiness to obtain funds
from abroad in enormous amounts, without apparently the realization
of the burden imposed upon China by way of the necessity of return in
the future through the results of labour and sacrifice of millions of
people.
Nor had the old system, under which the inadequate salaries of
officials had ordinarily to be supplemented by extraneous illicit
gains, given way to a more efficient and business-like organization of
the public service under which officials would be able to devote their
undivided attention to the accomplishment of their regular allotted
tasks without spending their energy in contriving additional means of
obtaining income.
In the case of certain classes of officials, the Government had
endeavoured to place their salaries at a figure sufficient to render
them independent of these practices; but the resources of the
Government were not adequate to enable it at once to place the entire
public service upon a basis of individual independence. It was also
true that certain among the closest advisers of the President were
commonly believed to have used their positions for the purpose of
accumulating vast private fortunes--a belief which, whether justified
or not, must be counted with in determining the standing of the
Government as enjoyed throughout the country.
Thus the old hostility and lack of confidence, which formerly
characterized the relations between merchants and officials, continued
under the new system.
Through the dissolution of the Parliament, the Government had destroyed
an organ which might, in the course of time, have established relations
of confidence between the great middle class of China and the
Government.
As a statesman, the President emphasized in the first place the
requirements of order and of authority. To him it seemed that
Parliament, with its free discussion, with its opportunity for forming
political factions, opposing the men in authority, stood in the way of
the establishment of a lasting system of legal order. He, therefore,
dissolved first the national parliament, then the assemblies of the
provinces, and finally the local self-governing bodies.
In each case inefficiency was justly complained of. The men in
the parliamentary bodies had often been self-seeking, factional,
and unpractical. But the President seemed to have no perception
of the true value of parliamentary action as a basis of public
authority; he considered opposition to the Government synonymous
with opposition to lawful authority. And in his ideas upon the
reconstitution of Parliament, as far as they had been announced, two
main principles dominated: first, that only men of mature experience
and of conservative ideas should be selected; and secondly, that the
activities of Parliament should be confined to discussing and giving
advice upon policies already determined upon by the Administration.