PART V

The Future of China And Our Relation

To It

XXV

IS THERE A YELLOW PERIL

WILL China ever be able to menace the nations of

the West? This is the startling question that many

sober-minded men are asking. Some writers, indeed,

make light of the ``yellow peril,'' characterizing it ``a

mere bugaboo of an excited imagination,'' because, as they

allege, China has neither the organization nor the valour to

fight Europe, and because, if it had, it could not transport its

army and navy so vast a distance.

But surely organization and valour can be acquired by the

Chinese as well as by any other people. Their present helplessness

before the aggressive foreigner is rapidly teaching them

the necessity for the former. As for the latter, it is well known

that the most dangerous fighter is the strong but peaceably-

disposed man who has been goaded to desperation by long-

continued insult and injustice. Americans may discreetly remember

that they themselves were once sneeringly described

as ``a nation of shopkeepers who wouldn't and couldn't

fight.''

It is easy to be deceived by the result of the China-Japan

War of 1894. The Japanese were successful, not because they

are abler, but because they had more swiftly responded to the

touch of the modern world and had organized their government,

their army and their navy in accordance with scientific

methods. More bulky and phlegmatic China was caught napping

by her enterprising enemy. Despising the profession of

arms, China gave her energies to scholarship and commerce,

and filled her regiments and ships with paupers, criminals and

opium fiends, who were as destitute of courage, intelligence

and patriotism as the darky who explained his flight from the

battle-field by saying that he would rather be a live coward

than a dead hero. As for the men above them, a Chinese officer

admitted to a friend of mine that at the outbreak of the

war with Japan, the army contractors bought a lot of old rifles

in Germany, which had long before been discarded as worthless

by the German army, paying two ounces of silver for each

gun, and thriftily charging the Government nine ounces. Then

they bought a cargo of cartridges that did not fit the guns and

that had been lying in damp cellars for twenty years, and put

the whole equipment into the hands of raw recruits commanded

by opium-smokers.

It is not surprising, therefore, that the Chinese were worsted

before the onset of the wide-awake Japanese, and that the

unorganized mobs with which they blindly tried to drive out

foreigners in 1900 were easily crushed by the armies of the

West. But it would be folly to imagine that this is the end.

It takes a nation of 426,000,000 phlegmatic people longer to

get under way than a nation of 43,000,000 nervous people,

but when they do get started, their momentum is proportionately

greater. China has plenty of men who can fight, and

when they are well commanded, they make as good soldiers as

there are in the world, as ``Chinese Gordon'' showed. Was

not his force called the ``Ever Victorious Army,'' because it

was never defeated? Did not Lord Charles Beresford, of the

English navy, say, after personal inspection of many of the

troops of China:--``I am convinced that properly armed, disciplined

and led, there could be no better material than the

Chinese soldiers''? Did not Admiral Dewey report that the

fifty Chinese who served under him in the battle of Manila Bay

fought so magnificently that they proved themselves equal in

courage to American sailors and that they should be made

American citizens by special enactment? During my tour of

Asia, I saw the soldiers of England, France, Germany, Italy,

Austria, Belgium, Russia, America and Japan. But the Chinese

cavalrymen of Governor Yuan Shih Kai, whom I have described

elsewhere,[89] were as fine troops as I saw anywhere.

They would be a foe not to be despised. When Bishop Potter

returned from his tour of Asia, he declared that ``when Japan

has taught China the art of war, neither England nor Russia

nor Germany will decide the fate of the East.''

[89] Chapter VII.

It is odd that any intelligent person should suppose that distance

is an effectual barrier against an aroused and organized

Asia. It is no farther from China to Europe than from Europe

to China, and Europe has not found the distance a barrier to

its designs on China. England, Germany, France, Russia,

and even little Holland and Portugal, have all managed to

send ships and troops to the Far East, to seize territory and to

subjugate the inhabitants. Why should it be deemed impossible

for China, which alone is larger than all these nations

combined, to do what they have done?

The absorption of China by Russia or any other single European

power is not possible for the reason that the attempt

would be resisted by all the other Powers, including the United

States and Japan. The world will never permit one of its

nations to make China what Great Britain has made India. A

half dozen Powers are determined to have a share if the break

up comes.

The real partition of the Empire, however, is hardly probable

as the case stands to-day. The Powers dread the task of

administering a population that is not only huge but of such a

stubborn character that enormous military expenditures might

be required to prevent constant rebellions. A still more potent

reason lies in the fact that the European nations that covet

portions of China could not agree among themselves as to the

division of the spoil. There is, indeed, apparent acquiescence

in Russian influence in Manchuria, German in Shantung,

British in the valleys of the Yang-tze and the Pearl, and French

in Tonquin. But no one nation is quite satisfied with this

division. Each has thus far taken what it could get; but Germany,

France and Russia are far from pleased to see Great

Britain take the lion's share that she has marked out for herself.

Moreover, there are important provinces that are now

common ground, like the imperial province of Chih-li, or

unappropriated, like several of the interior provinces. Actual

partition would mean a scramble that would precipitate a general

war, and such a war would involve so many uncertainties

not only as to the result in China but as to possible readjustments

in Europe itself, that the Powers wisely shrink from it.

So they prefer for the present, at least, the policy of ``spheres

of influence'' as giving them a commercial foothold and political

influence with less risk of trouble.

Besides, Great Britain, the United States and Japan are all

opposed to partition. England's chief interest in China is

commercial, and it quite naturally prefers to trade with the

whole of China rather than be confined to a particular section

of it, for it knows that there would be little trade with any

parts of China that Russia, France and Germany absolutely

controlled. So England insists on the integrity of China and

the open door.''

The United States has the same commercial interest in this

respect as Great Britain, with the added motive that partition

would give her nothing at all in China; while Japan feels the

most strongly of all for she has both the reasons that actuate

the United States and also the vital one of self-preservation.

The Hon. Chester Holcombe says that several years ago, in an

interview with an influential member of the Japanese Cabinet

in Tokio, the conversation turned upon the aggressions of

European Powers and the weakness of Korea, which had

recently declared its independence.

``The Japanese Minister was greatly disturbed at the prospect for the

future. He insisted that the action taken by Korea, under the guidance

of China, would not save that little kingdom from attack and absorption.

Holding up one hand, and separating the first and second fingers as widely

as possible from the third and fourth, he said:--`Here is the situation.

Those four fingers represent the four great European Powers, Great

Britain, Germany, France and Russia. In the open space between them

lie Japan, China and Korea.' Then, with really dramatic force, he added:

`Like the jaws of a huge vise, those fingers are slowly closing, and unless

some supreme effort is made, they will certainly crush the national life out

of all three.' ''

So Japan must be reckoned with in any plans which the

western nations may make for China, and that Japan is a

factor not to be despised, the Russians have learned to their

sorrow. Japan believes that she has found the way to make

her opposition so formidable that all Europe cannot overcome it.

Beyond any other people in the world, the Chinese furnish the

raw materials for a world power. All they need is capable

leadership. This is the gigantic task to which Japan has set

herself. The alert and enterprising Islanders have entered

upon a career of national aggrandizement. They realize that

with their limited territory and population, they can hardly

hope to become a power of the first class and make headway

against the tremendous forces of western nations unless they can

ally themselves with their larger continental neighbour. They

clearly see their own superiority in organization, discipline and

modern spirit, and they see also the stupendous power of China

if it can be aroused and effectively directed. The Japanese

have never been accused of undue modesty and they firmly

believe that they are just the people to do this work. This is

not simply because they are ambitious, but because they see

that unless Asia can be thus solidified against Europe, the

whole mighty continent will fall under the control of the white

men who already dominate so large a part of it. Accordingly

the Japanese have entered upon the definite policy of not only

absorbing Korea, but of cultivating the closest possible alliance

with their former foe.

The Hon. Augustin Heard, formerly United States Minister

to Korea, represents Japan as whispering to the sorely beset

Celestials:--

``Why shouldn't we work together? I hate the foreigner as much as

you do, and should be as glad to get rid of him. Together we can do

great things; separate we are feeble. I am too small, and you are, so to

speak, too big. You are unorganized. Let us join hands and I will do

what I can to help you get ready; and when we are ready we will drive

these insolent fellows into the sea. I have a big army and navy and I

have learned all the foreigners have to teach. This knowledge I will pass

on to you. We have great advantages over them. In the first place they

are a long way from their supplies, and every move they make costs a

great deal of money. Our men can fight as well as theirs, if they are

shown how, and there are a great many more of them. They can march

as well, will require to carry almost no baggage, and do not cost half as

much to feed. Our wounded men, too, in their own country and climate

will get well, while theirs will die.''

To this suggestion China listens and ponders:--

``What are the objections? There is, first, the contempt which our

people feel for them; but that is rapidly dying out. The Japanese

showed in our last war that small men can fight as well as big ones; and

a rifle in the hands of the small man will carry as far and as true as in the

hands of a larger one. Then, when we have once got rid of the foreigner

will Japan not try to keep the leadership and supremacy? Very likely

but then we shall be armed and organized; we have as able men as they

and with our overwhelming numbers shall we not be capable of holding

our own--nay, if we wish, of taking possession of her?''[90]

[90] Article in The New York Tribune, September 7, 1903.

Undoubtedly this imaginary conversation voices the ambition

of the Japanese and the inclination of an increasing number of

Chinese. At any rate, the possibilities which such an alliance

suggests are almost overwhelming. Japan undoubtedly has the

intelligence and the executive ability to organize as no other

power could the vast latent forces of China. If any one

doubts her fitness to discipline and lead, he might obtain some

heartfelt information from the Russians. Says Mr. George

Lynch in the Nineteenth Century:--

``I know of no movement more pregnant with possibilities than this

now in progress which makes towards the Japanization of China. There

will be great changes in the government and life of that great Empire just

as soon as the Empress Dowager dies, and she is now an old woman. In

the upheaval of change, if the industrious, persistent, far-sighted efforts of

her neighbours bear fruit, we may witness quite a rapid transformation in

the life of the Empire. That clever conspirator, Sen Yat Sen, said to me

that, once the Chinese made up their minds to change, they would effect

in fifteen years as much as it has taken Japan thirty to accomplish. There

are some men in the East who affect to regard this rapprochement between

Japan and China with alarm, as carrying in its development the menace

of a really genuine `yellow peril.' ''

It certainly needs no argument to prove that if the 426,000,000

Chinese are once fairly committed to the skillful leadership

of the Japanese, a force will be set in motion which could

be withstood only by the united efforts of all the rest of the

world.

The task to which Japan has set herself, however, will not be

easily achieved. To say nothing of other nations, the Russians

are not at all disposed to sit quietly by while their foes cajole

the Chinese. Russia has some designs of her own on China.

Half Asiatic and semi-barbarous herself, past master in all the

arts of Oriental diplomacy, patient, stubborn and untroubled

by scruples, she is a formidable competitor for the leadership

of China. In Persia, the Russian political policy works largely

through the missionaries of the Greek Church, whose propaganda

is political as well as religious. The same tactics are

now being employed in China. The Chih-li correspondent of

the North China Herald reports that the Holy Russian branch

of the Greek Church is becoming suspiciously active in North

China.

``Their work is spreading, and the methods adopted are such as to attract

all the worst characters of the districts in which they operate. In a

little town near the Great Wall, where in June there were about a dozen

converts to the Greek Church, there are now over eighty. Any and all

are welcome. Their families no less than the men themselves are reck-

oned as belonging to the Church. The priest has made a round of several

towns, and, though he speaks no Chinese, by unhesitatingly giving protection

and assistance in any case of dispute or litigation, he has made it

clearly evident that for any man in any way under a cloud there is nothing

better than to join the Greek Church.... The impression

among European onlookers is that Russia is preparing to extend her arms

over Chih-li, and is beginning to smooth her way by gaining over the people

in the eastern marches of the province. It is a significant fact that the

Greek Church is known among the people as a `Kuo Chiao' (National

Church), a charge from which the Protestants are considered to be entirely,

and the Roman Catholics partially, free.''

China, moreover, will be slow to respond to the overtures of

Japan, partly because her bulk and phlegmatic disposition and

lack of public spirit make it difficult for her to act quickly and

unitedly in anything, partly because Chinese pride and prejudice

will not easily yield to the leadership of the haughty little

island whose people as well as whose territory have long been

contemptuously regarded as dwarfish and inferior.

But the shrewd Japanese are making more progress than is

commonly supposed. Not only have they already obtained the

great island of Formosa, but they have for years been quietly

making their commercial interests paramount in Korea. Their

first move in the war with Russia was to occupy that strategic

peninsula with a large military force and to secure a treaty with

the Emperor which gives Japan a virtual protectorate over the

Land of the Morning Calm. The promise to respect the independence

of Korea of course deceives no one. It is probably

sincere, as diplomatic promises go; but he is innocent indeed

who imagines that Korea will be free to do anything that Japan

disapproves. The freedom will doubtless be of the kind that

Cuba enjoys--a freedom which gives large liberty in matters

of internal administration, which relieves the protecting country

of any trouble or responsibility that it may deem inconvenient,

but which does not permit any alliance with a third

nation, and which, for all important international purposes, especially

of a military character, regards the ``independent''

nation as really dependent. It is quite safe to predict that no

European power will be unsophisticated enough to assume that

Korea is ``a free and independent nation.'' The arrangement

will be in every way to the advantage of the Koreans, who have

suffered grievously from the pulling and hauling of contending

powers and from many evils from which the abler and wiser

Japanese will, in a measure at least, protect them.

For a long time, too, the Japanese have been strengthening

the ties which bind them to China. The brainy Japanese

can be seen to-day in almost all the leading cities of the Middle

Kingdom. There is a Japanese colony of 200 souls in

Chefoo and of 1,400 in Tien-tsin. Already the Japanese are

advising China's government, reorganizing her army, drafting

her laws and teaching in her university. Even more distant

countries are not beyond the range of their ambition. The

leaders of India, restive under British rule, are beginning to

look with eager sympathy to Japan as the rising Asiatic power.

Even the Grand Vizier of Persia has paid a state visit to Japan.

Any hopes of India and Persia are likely to be vain, for Britain

has a hold upon the former and Russia upon the latter which

it would be Quixotic in the Japanese to attempt to break. The

Islanders are not fools. But the Siamese, helplessly exasperated

by the encroachments of the French, would doubtless be

glad enough to enter into an alliance with Japan and China.

In 1902, the Crown Prince of Siam visited Japan, where he

was most graciously welcomed, and increasing numbers of Japanese

who know what they are about are obtaining increasing

influence in the Land of the White Elephant.

Nor is it simply by sending Japanese to neighbouring countries

that Japan is extending her power. She is encouraging

Chinese students to come to her shores. Dr. David S. Spencer

of Japan declares that 300 Chinese are studying the art of

war in Japanese barracks. Dr. Sydney L. Gulick says that

5,000 Chinese are being trained in the schools of Japan for

positions of future power in their own country. It is significant that

Viceroy Yuan Shih Kai, the ablest and most far-seeing statesman

in China, is reported in the telegraphic despatches of

February 5, 1904, as having memorialized the Throne in favour

of an offensive and defensive alliance with Japan to regain

Manchuria from the Russians, while the North China Daily

News represents Prince Su, Prince Ching, Na Tung, President

of the Wai-wu-pu, and Tieh Liang as in favour of the same

policy. Mr. Holcombe is of the opinion that ``the brightest

spot in the outlook for China is in the increasing probability of alliance

and affiliation with Japan. . . . Together these two

great nations of the Far East may, and it is confidently hoped

will, safely confront those Governments whose schemes are hostile

to both, and prove their right to manage their own affairs

and determine their own destinies.''[91]

[91] Article in The Outlook, February 13, 1904.

But whatever the immediate future may be, it is not probable

that so huge and virile a population as the Chinese will be

permanently led by a foreign nation. Even if partition should

come, it would only hasten the development of those teeming

millions of people, for foreign domination would mean more

railway, telegraph and steamship lines. It would mean the

opening of mines, the development of the press, the complete

ascendency of Western ideas. Though China as a political organism

might be divided, the Chinese people would remain--

the most virile, industrious, untiring people of Asia, and perhaps,

after due tutelage, a coming power of the world. China's

assimilative power is enormous. The black man may be dominated

by the white and the Hindu by the English, but China is

neither Africa nor India. It is true that the present dynasty is

Manchu, but the Manchus are more akin to the Chinese than

either the Russians or the Japanese. Moreover the Manchus

have not tried to rule China from the outside, but have permanently

settled in China, and while they have succeeded as a

rule in maintaining a separate name, they have not made the

Chinese Manchus, but instead they have themselves been prac-

tically merged into the engulfing mass of China. ``Those who

imagine that the vast population of the Empire will submit

quietly to the partition of their country, or that any military

force of moderate size could force it to acquiesce in such a

scheme, know but little of the Chinese character, of their intense

love of country, or of their unconquerable tenacity of

purpose.''[92] The foreign nation that gets the Chinese, or even

any considerable portion of them, will probably find that it has

assumed a burden in comparison with which the Egyptian

trouble with the Israelites was insignificant, and it is not

improbable that the conqueror will some day find himself

conquered.

[92] Chester Holcombe, article in The Outlook, February 13, 1904.

At any rate, portentous possibilities are conjured up by the

contemplation of this mighty nation! There are upheavals

compared with which our revolutions are but spasms. There

are religions whose adherents outnumber ours two to one.

There is a civilization which was old before ours was born.

Are we to believe that these swarming legions were created for

no purpose? Are their generations to appear and fall and rot

unnoticed, like the leaves of the forest? Degraded, superstitious,

many of them still are. But they need only to be organized

and directed to do untold mischief. More than once

already has a similar catastrophe occurred. Some prodigy of

skill and genius has seized such enormous forces, given them

discipline and coherency and hurled them like a thunderbolt

upon Christendom. Sometimes the shock has been frightful,

and before it the proudest of empires and the stateliest of

institutions have reeled and fallen. This was the Titan-like

achievement of Alaric, of Genseric, of Attila, and of Mohammed.

Yet Goths and Vandals, Huns and Mohammedans,

combined, had not half the numbers upon which we now look.

Give the 426,000,000 Chinese the results of modern discovery

and invention, and imagination falters. They have the territory.

They have the resources. They have the population

and they are now acquiring the knowledge. China will fight

no more like the barbarians of old with spears and bows and

arrows, for despite the treaty of 1900 prohibiting the importation

of arms, the Chinese are buying repeating rifles and Maxim

guns, while in their own arsenals they are turning out vast

quantities of munitions of war. The American consul at Leipsic,

Germany, reports to the State Department that an Austrian

company has just received an order for so large a number of

small arms for the Chinese Government that it will take several

years to fill it, even with additional forces of men to whom it

has given employment. This is only one of many reports

received in Washington within recent months that the factories

of both Germany and Austria are busy supplying the Chinese

with modern arms and ammunition. The armies of China

will soon be as well equipped as the armies of Europe.

Incredible as it may seem, up to the year 1901, promotion

in the army was often determined by trials of strength with

stone weights, dexterity in sword exercises and skill in the use

of the bow and arrow. But in that year, an Imperial Decree

declared that such tests ``have no relation to strategy and to

that military science which is indispensable for military officers,''

commanded that they be abolished and that military

academies should be established in the provincial capitals in

which the science of modern war should be diligently studied.

Not content with this, forty young men were sent to Europe

in 1903 for the express purpose of studying the latest military

and naval methods of the white man. And now Sir Robert

Hart proposes not only a reorganization of China's civil service

but the building of a first-class navy of thirty battleships and

cruisers, and he thinks that the enormous sum of $200,000,000

a year can be obtained for this purpose by an increase in the

land tax. Then, he declares, China will be enabled ``not

only to make her voice heard, but to take an effective share in

the settlement of questions in the Far East.'' The London

Times rather contemptuously asserts that ``the entire project

in its present shape is visionary from beginning to end.''

But Sir Robert Hart has spent fifty years in China, having

entered the British consular service in 1854 and become

Inspector-General of Maritime Customs in 1863. During the

greater part of this long period, he has been an adviser of

the Chinese Government and the most influential foreigner in

the Empire. The recommendation of such a man is not to be

lightly dismissed as ``visionary,'' especially when it is made to

a people who have been taught by bitter experience that a

modern armament is their only hope of defense against the

foreigner. As late as the beginning of the year 1904, Russia

ridiculed the idea that Japan could do anything against a

western power, and all the rest of Europe as well as America,

while admiring the pluck of the Japanese, confidently expected

them to be crushed by the Slav. Wise men will think twice in

the future before they sneer at the yellow race. If Japan in

half a century could go from junks and cloisonne to battleships

and magazine rifles, and to the handling of them, too,

more scientifically and effectively than they were ever handled

by a white man, why should it be deemed chimerical that China,

with equal ability and greater resources and certainly no less

provocation, should in time achieve even vaster results, particularly

as Japan is not only willing but eager to teach her? ``We

do not lack either men of intellect or brilliant talents, capable

of learning and doing anything they please; but their movements

have hitherto been hampered by old prejudices,'' said

the Emperor Kuang Hsii. Precisely, and the stern, relentless

pressure of necessity is now shattering some of those ``old

prejudices.'' ``You urge us to move faster,'' said a Chinese

magistrate to a foreigner. ``We are slow to respond for we

are a conservative people; but if you force us to start, we may

move faster and farther than you like.''

Some things may yet occur undreampt of in all our philosophy.

We observe the changing march of world powers,

the majestic procession in which the pomp and glitter of

thrones are mingled with the tears and blood of calamity

and war. What a pageant! Yesterday, Chaldea, Egypt, Assyria,

Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome! To-day, England,

Germany, Russia, Japan, the United States! To-morrow,

what? What, indeed, if not some of these now awakening

nations! It is by no means impossible that some new

Jenghiz Khan or Tamerlane may arise, and with the weapons

of modern warfare in his hands, and these uncounted millions

at his command, gaze about on the pygmies that we call the

Powers! Christendom has too long regarded heathen nations

with a pity not unmingled with contempt. It is now beginning

to regard them with a respect not unmingled with fear.

There is not a statesman in Europe to-day who is not troubled

with dire forebodings regarding these teeming hordes, that appear

to be just awakening from the torpor of ages, and some

thoughtful observers fear that a movement has already begun

which will lead to great wars whose issue no man can foresee,

and to stupendous reconstructions of the map of the

world. The Emperor of Germany has painted a picture which

has startled not so much by its art as by its meaning. ``On a

projecting rock, illuminated by a shining cross, stand the allegorical

figures of the civilized nations. At the feet of this

rocky eminence lies the wide plain of European culture, from

which rise countless cities and the steeples and spires of

churches of every denomination. But ominous clouds are

gathering over this peaceful landscape. A stifling gloom

o'erspreads the sky. The glare of burning cities lights up the

road by which the barbaric hordes of Asia are approaching.

The Archangel Michael points to the fearsome foe, waving the

nations on to do battle in a sacred cause. Underneath are

the words--`Peoples of Europe, keep guard over your most

sacred treasures!' ''

Making all due allowance for the exuberance of Emperor

William's imagination, the fact remains that his picture represents

the thought that is uppermost to-day in the minds of the

world's thinkers. All see that the next few decades are big

with possibilities of peril.

``The rudiments of Empire here

Are plastic yet and warm,

The chaos of a mighty world

Is rounding into form.''

One thinks instinctively of the words of Isaiah: ``The

noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people;

a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered

together; the Lord of hosts mustereth the hosts of the battle.''

Plainly, the overshadowing problem of the present age is the

relation of China to the world's future. Whether recent events

have lessened the danger, we shall see in the next chapter.

XXVI

FRESH REASON TO HATE THE FOREIGNER

OF course, the victorious march of the Allies upon

Peking, the capture of the city, the flight of the

Emperor and the Empress Dowager and the humiliating

terms of peace taught the Chinese anew their helplessness before

the modern equipment of western nations and the necessity

of learning the methods of the white man if they were ever

to hold their own against him. But defeat, while always hard

to bear, does not always embitter the conquered against the

conqueror. On the contrary, there are evidences that the

Chinese respect and like the Japanese far more since they were

soundly whipped by them in 1894 and 1895. In considering,

therefore, the effect upon the Chinese of the suppression of the

Boxer uprising, we must bear in mind not so much the fact of

victory by the Allies as the treatment which they accorded their

prostrate foe. Was that treatment dignified and just? Did

the soldiers of alleged Christian nations behave with the sobriety

and fairness which so eminently characterized the Japanese

troops after the China-Japan War? Have the Chinese reason

to regard foreigners in the future as men who will sternly

punish injustice and treachery, but who are at the same time as

moral and humane and trustworthy as might be reasonably expected

of the representatives of a higher civilization and a

purer religion? For answer, let us turn to the conduct of the

allied armies, led by experienced officers of high rank and

working in harmony with diplomatic officials who were supposed

to incarnate the spirit and methods of the most enlightened

nations of the earth. The testimony of witnesses will be

interesting.

Dr. Arthur H. Smith, who was in Peking at the time,

writes:--

``Bating all exaggerations, it remains true that scores of walled cities

have been visited by armed bodies of foreign soldiers, the district magistrate--

and sometimes the Prefect--held up and bullied to force him to

pay a large sum of money, with no other reason than the imperative demand

and the threat of dire consequences on refusal. In one case the

Russians kidnapped the Prefect of Yung-ping-fu and carried him off to Port

Arthur. At Ting-chou the French did the same to the sub-prefect, the only

energetic magistrate in all that region, bearing him in triumph to Paoting-fu

and leaving the district to Boxers and to chaos. At Tsang-chou

the Germans came in force, looted the yamen of General Mei, the only

Chinese officer of rank who had been constantly fighting and destroying

Boxers for nearly a year, drove him away and released all the Boxer

prisoners in the jails of the city, plundering the yamen of the friendly and

efficient sub-prefect who had saved the lives of the foreign families close

by the city. Is it any wonder that General Mei complained that s on eight

sides he had no face left.' . . . The robbery of Chinese on the way

home with the avails of their day's work has been systematically carried

on by some of the soldiers from Christian lands. Even foreigners are

`held up' on the street by drunken soldiers, and it is becoming necessary

never to go out without one's revolver--a weapon generally quite superfluous

in almost any part of China.''

Bishop D. H. Moore, of the Methodist Church, who hurried

to Peking as soon as the way was open, wrote:--

``You can hardly form any conception of the exposure and hardships

under any but the American and Japanese flags. The English have

scarcely any but the Sikhs, who are lustful and lootful to a degree. The

Russians are brutal and the Germans deserve their reputation for brutality.

With Lowry and Hobart, I responded to the agonizing appeal of a husband

to drive out a German corporal who, on duty and armed, had run

him off and was mistreating his wife. The instance is but one of hundreds

of daily occurrence. The French are very devils at this sort of outrage.

On the advance to Peking, beyond Tung-chou, they found married families--

men, women and children--cowering in barges on the canal and

volleyed into them. Every man, every cart, every boat must fly a flag.

Coolies are cruelly impressed and often cruelly mistreated. The great

Christian nations of the world are being represented in China by robbing,

raping, looting soldiery. This is part of China's punishment; but what

will she think of Christianity? Of course, our soldiers are the best behaved;

but there are desperate characters in every army.''

Captain Frank Brinkley, the editor of the Japan Weekly

Mail, penned the following indignant paragraph:--

``It sends a thrill of horror through every white man's bosom to learn

that forty missionary women and twenty-five little children were butchered

by the Boxers. But in Tung-chou alone, a city where the Chinese made

no resistance and where there was no fighting, 573 Chinese women of the

upper classes committed suicide rather than survive the indignities they

had suffered. Women of the lower classes fared similarly at the hands of

the soldiers, but were not unwilling to survive their shame. With what

show of consistency is the Occident to denounce the barbarity of the Chinese,

when Occidental soldiers go to China and perpetrate the very acts

which constitute the very basis of barbarity?''

When I asked the Rev. Dr. D. Z. Sheffield, for many years

a missionary of the American Board in Tung-chou, whether

this statement was accurate, he replied that it was not only true,

but that it was an understatement of the truth.

Fay Chi Ho, an intelligent and reliable Chinese Christian,

gives the following account of what he personally saw:--

``I travelled with a British convoy going by boat, occupying quarters

on a Major's boat with his Sikh soldiers and cook. I know that the

Major was not a Christian man, for he smoked and drank all day long

and was constantly cursing, striking and kicking his men, especially his

cook. He also gave his orders in loud tones, with fierce mien and glaring

eyes, and we all feared him exceedingly. Every day at noon the

Major would take four Sikhs and go to villages several miles from the

river for loot, always compelling me to accompany him as interpreter.

He would catch the first man whom he saw in a village and compel him

to act as guide to the homes of the rich. So successful was he on these

raids that by the time he reached Tung-chou, he had three new carts,

three donkeys, five or six sheep, and much clothing and bric-a-brac.

``One day about noon, we reached a village from which most of the

people had fled, and entering a home of wealth found there only a man

about fifty or sixty years old who received us very courteously. Immedi-

ately the Major demanded money, and the old man replied that though

he had money it was not at hand. The Major then commanded his soldiers

to bind him, while he himself went into the house to search for money.

He found several weapons, among them a revolver and a sword with a

red scarf bound on the handle. So he insisted that the old man must be

a Boxer, and shot him with his own hand as he lay bound. As usual he

impressed ten or more young men in the village to carry his loot, then

compelled the strongest of them to remain and drag his boats....

Later, my brother told me in detail how some Sikhs had come to the village

one day, and, seizing him and several neighbours, had tied a rope to

their queues, then stringing them together like mules, with men leading in

front and driving behind, had taken them to the river bank to drag boats.

My brother had never done such work before. Wading in mud and

water, sometimes up to his waist, with the whip lash to urge him on, he

had dragged until nightfall, and then, not being allowed to sleep on the

boat, had lain down on the wet river bank.''[93]

[93] ``Two Heroes of Cathay,'' pp. 154, 155, 158.

During my own visit in north China in the summer of 1901, I

visited the hospital of the London Mission in Tien-tsin, immortalized

by John Kenneth Mackenzie. I found that it was being

used as a hospital for British soldiers who were suffering

from venereal diseases. What a spectacle for the Chinese!

What a coarse travesty of the religion of the pure Nazarene

that the land from which the great British missionary came

should crowd with foul white men the hospital that he had built

with faith and love and prayer! In the same city, the fine

Y. M. C. A. building was almost deserted by the Chinese because

it was so situated that to reach it they would have to pass

through the Taku Road in the Foreign Settlement, a street

which was a cesspool of vice, lined with saloons, dance halls

and gambling hells, and its sidewalks so crowded with fast

women--French, German, American and Japanese--and with

drunken, quarrelling foreign soldiers, that no respectable Chinese,

or for that matter no decent foreign woman, could traverse

it without fear of insult or abuse.

In Peking for several months after the relief of the legations,

even respectable American ladies, to say nothing of Chinese

women, could not prudently ride out except in closed carts, so

great was the probability of indignity at the hands of foreign

soldiers; while at the entrance of famous palaces, the ``public

is politely requested not to kick the Chinese attendants because

they decline to open doors which they are forbidden to unlock''

--a request that the conduct of foreigners had shown to

be far from unnecessary.

In the pillaging of property, savages could not have been

more lawless than the white men from ``the highly civilized

nations of the West.''

``It is not literally true that every house in Peking was looted. There

were some places in obscure alleys, and in many of the innumerable and almost

impenetrable cul-de-sacs with which the capital abounds, that escaped.

But persistent inquiry appears to leave no doubt of the fact that practically

every yamen in the city has been rummaged, and practically there is nothing

left of the contents of any of them.''[94]

[94] North China Daily News.

Words fail me to describe the beauties of the famous Summer

Palace outside the city. With its gardens, temples, pagodas,

bridges, lotus-ponds, statues, colonnades, walks and

drives, it would do credit to the most highly civilized nation

of Europe. A barbarous people could never have made such

a paradise. The British and French in 1860 burned a considerable

part of it, but the enclosure is so vast (twelve square

miles) and the buildings are so numerous that the destroyed

section appears almost insignificant. Within the grounds is a

beautiful lake, fed by great springs and bordered by temples

and avenues of trees and the yellow-roofed palaces of the

Emperor, while near by rise the Western Hills.

This Palace is the favourite residence of the Empress Dowager

and she spends long summers there. Here, too, the Emperor

loves to come during the heated term and both have

followed the example of their imperial predecessors in lavishing

great sums upon its adornment.

After the siege the Russians occupied it at first, and when

they left, the British and Italians took possession. Between

the three so little was left that I found devastation reigning in

that once splendidly-furnished Palace. All the rare and costly

bric-a-brac had been carried away, the mirrors had been broken

and the permanent ornaments defaced. A noble bronze statue

of Buddha, in the temple crowning the summit of the hill, was

lying ignominiously on the floor among a pile of debris, one

dark hand stiffly pointing into the air. In a stately pavilion, I

saw two superb golden statues of Buddha standing upright and

looking unusually dignified, but on going behind them, I found

that great holes had been punched in their backs.

Even the places dedicated to science and religion were not

spared. At the celebrated Astronomical Observatory not an

instrument was left. Every one had been carried off by the

orders of men high in authority at the French and German

Legations, and the whole place was totally wrecked. What

possible excuse could there have been for destroying a place for

studying the heavens? At the Examination Grounds, consecrated

for centuries to learning and memorable for the myriads

of China's brightest men who have there demonstrated their

fitness, according to China's methods, for high preferment--at

these Examination Grounds, most of the 8,500 cells had been

stripped of their woodwork to cook the rations of the European

armies, roofs had been torn off and even stone walls had been

injured in sheer wantonness.

The Temple to the Gods of Land and Grain and the Temple

for Rain are sacred places to the Chinese. To the latter the

Emperor comes in solemn state in time of drought to pray for

rain, or, if he cannot come, he sends the highest official of his

realm. It is in a spacious park and the buildings must have

been stately and handsome before the Boxer outbreak. But

when I saw them, they were sadly defaced. The stone balus-

trades and ornaments had been broken off, the walls had been

injured and one of the buildings was in ruins.

It was, of course, inevitable that much havoc should be

wrought in the tumult of war. It was necessary that supplies

for half-naked and famished besieged thousands should be taken

from deserted grain and clothing-shops. It was expedient that

certain public buildings should be destroyed by order of the

allied generals as a warning for the future. But why were

soldiers and thieves allowed to steal the bric-a-brac and furniture

and break the mirrors of the Emperor's personal apartments,

wantonly to shatter beautiful columns, deface rare

works of art, punch holes in gilded statues, maliciously smash

the heads of thousands of exquisitely-carved figures and

lions, and wreck venerable places associated with learning and

art? The world is poorer for some of this havoc, and it will

be a generation before it can be remedied, if indeed, some of

the edifices are ever restored to their former beauty. Can we

wonder that the Chinese continue to hate and fear the foreigner?

The New York Times declared that ``every outrage

perpetrated on foreigners in China has been repaid tenfold by

the brutalities perpetrated by the allied armies. It is,'' added

the editor, ``simply monstrous that the armies of Christian

nations, sent out to punish barbarism and protect the rights of

foreigners in China, should themselves be guilty of barbarism.

Revenge has been accompanied by mean and cruel and flagrant

robbery. The story is one to fill all rational minds with disgust

and shame.''

The exasperation of the Chinese has not been diminished by

the virtual fortifications which the foreign Powers have erected

in the imperial capital since the crushing of the Boxer uprising.

Most of the Legations took advantage of the panic and confusion

which followed the raising of the siege, to seize large

tracts adjoining their former compounds. The native buildings

upon them were demolished. Massive walls were erected and

cannon mounted upon them. Over the water-gate in the city

wall, through which the allied troops entered the city, the

Powers have cut a new gateway which they hold and guard.

In addition, they have taken possession of all that part of the

city wall which commands Legation Street, made barricades

and built a fort upon it opposite the German Legation. Foreign

soldiers patrol that wall night and day. On the other

side of the Legations, a wide space has been cleared by destroying

hundreds of Chinese dwellings and shops, and no buildings

or trees or obstructions of any kind are allowed on that space,

which can thus be swept by rifle and Gatling-gun fire in the

event of any future trouble. Within, ample stores of arms,

ammunition and food have been stored so that if another outbreak

should occur, the Legations cannot be besieged as they

were in the memorable summer of 1900.

All this, of course, is perfectly natural and perhaps necessary.

The Legations would be deemed lacking in ordinary

prudence if they did not guard against the repetition of their

grievous experiences during the Boxer uprising. But looking

at the matter from the view-point of the Chinese, can we marvel

that it is resented? Would not a European government be

stung to the quick if other nations were to fortify themselves

in that fashion at its capital? Would Americans endure it for

a day at Washington?

Altogether, it must be admitted that the writer of ``Letters

of a Chinese Official'' has all too much reason to arraign

western civilization as sordid, arrogant and cruel and to assert

that Europeans and Americans, while pretending to follow the

teachings of Christ, are really ignoring them. His words are

bitter:--

``Yes, it is we who do not accept it that practice the gospel of peace;

it is you who accept it that trample it under foot. And irony of ironies!

--it is the nations of Christendom who have come to us to teach us by

sword and fire that Right in this world is powerless unless it be supported

by Might. Oh, do not doubt that we shall learn the lesson! And woe

to Europe when we have acquired it. You are arming a nation of four

hundred millions, a nation which, until you came, had no better wish

than to live at peace with themselves and all the world. In the name of

Christ you have sounded the call to arms! In the name of Confucius

we respond!''[95]

[95] ``Letters of a Chinese Official,'' pp. 64, 65.

And he closes the book as follows:--

``Unless you of the West will come to realize the truth, unless you

will understand that the events which have shaken Europe are the

Nemesis of a long course of injustice and oppression; unless you will learn

that the profound opposition between your civilization and ours gives no

more ground why you should regard us as barbarians than we you, unless

you will treat us as a civilized power and respect our customs and our

laws; unless you will accord us the treatment you would accord to any

European nation and refrain from exacting conditions you would never

dream of imposing on a Western power--unless you will do this, there is no

hope of any peace between us. You have humiliated the proudest nation

in the world; you have outraged the most upright and just; with what

results is now abundantly manifest.''

Whether the author is really a Chinese official as he claims

to be, or a European resident in China writing under a Chinese

pseudonym, there can be no doubt that he fairly represents the

opinions of the old, conservative, ferociously irreconcilable

mandarin class regarding the white man. Western nations, in

their plans regarding the future of China, must take into

consideration the existence of that spirit and the acts which,

while not creating it, have intensified and inflamed it till it has

come to be something to be reckoned with. Undoubtedly, one

of the lessons that the Chinese have learned from defeat is

bitterer hatred of the alien whose vandalisms and atrocities

were so shameful as to nullify, in part at least, the benefit that

might otherwise have resulted.

I am glad to report that, with the single exception of the

Japanese who were universally assigned the first place from the

view-point of good behaviour, I heard fewer complaints regarding

the American troops than any other. One Colonel, indeed,

lamented that his regiment ``was thoroughly demoralized,''

and there were some instances of intemperance and lawlessness,

in one case a Japanese patrol bringing in several American

soldiers who had been found at midnight in a Chinese house.

But as a whole, the conduct of the Americans was much better

than that of most of the Europeans. That the Chinese felt the

difference was apparent in the number of American flags that

they raised over their houses and shops. It was significant,

too, that the districts of the city that were occupied by

European regiments were avoided, as far as possible, by the

Chinese, while the district controlled by the Americans was

thronged.

Nor need any American be ashamed of the policy of his

Government. It is true that the majority of the Americans

in China believe that our national policy, prior to and

during the Boxer uprising, was weak and short-sighted. They

spoke highly of Minister Conger and several of the American

Consuls, particularly of Consul John Fowler, at Chefoo. But

I was repeatedly told that our Government did not appear to

realize that there were any other American citizens or

properties in China than those in the Peking Legation; that it

did practically nothing to rescue its citizens in the prefecture of

Paoting-fu and the province of Shan-si; that, while Americans

condemn the policy of the European Powers, they have been

for years sponging benefits secured by them for all foreigners;

and that, if it had not been for their control of the situation,

not an American could have lived in China. The opinion was

well-nigh universal that the Washington Administration was

too much influenced by the astute Chinese Minister, Wu Ting-

fang, who was believed to be an adept in ``the ways that are

dark and the tricks that are vain,'' and whose alleged success

in ``hoodwinking the Government and people of the United

States'' provoked the average foreigner in the Far East to the

use of strong language.

Though I confess that I am not able satisfactorily to explain

the course of our Government in some important particulars,

it seems to me that these sweeping criticisms are too severe.

During the dark days of the siege of Peking, I was brought

into frequent correspondence with President McKinley and

Secretary of State Hay, and I vividly and gratefully remember

the sympathy and cooperation which they invariably

gave. They were as anxious as any one, and tried to do their

best in circumstances new, strange and of extraordinary difficulty.

As for the Chinese Minister to the United States, of

course he did what he could to ``save face'' for his country.

That was an essential part of his duty. But while we cannot

always agree with him, we should, as friends of China

recognize the fact that by his ability and tact, he largely

increased popular interest in and respect for the Chinese

people.

Taking our Government's policy as a whole, I believe that it

has been more in accord with Christian principles than that of

any other nation. If our Government has erred in trusting the

Chinese too much, that is ,at least better than erring by trusting

them too little. If it has failed to do for its own citizens

all that it ought to have done, it has not wronged or humiliated

the Chinese Government. There is no blood of Chinese

women and children on the hands of Americans in China. No

record of outrage and iniquity blackens the page on which the

American part of the Boxer outbreak is written. If our nation

has been unjust to any, it has been to its own. Generations

will pass before the northern provinces will forget the bitterness

of resentment which they now feel towards the European

Powers. But already the Chinese are beginning to understand

that the American Government is a friend; that it does not

seek their territory; that it will not be a party to extortion;

that it does not want to destroy China but to save her; that its

object is not to rule her, but to fit her to rule herself, and that it

desires only freedom for its citizens to trade and to communicate

those ideas of religion which we ourselves originally

received from the East, which have brought to us inestimable

blessings, and which will, in China as in America, result in the

noblest character for the individual and the most stable

institutions for the state.

The Chinese keenly appreciate the fresh evidence of America's

spirit of justice in connection with the payment of

the indemnity. When, before the payment of the first installment

in 1902, the fall in the value of the silver tael led the

European Powers to insist that China should pay in gold,

thereby virtually increasing the indemnity, it was the United

States again which did everything in its power to moderate the

demands of the European nations. If the legislative branch of

the American Government would only deal as justly with the

Chinese in the United States as the State Department deals

with the Chinese in China, the era of good feeling would be

greatly promoted.

But America is not prominent enough in China to make her

example a determinate factor in the attitude of the Empire

towards foreigners, nor are the people as a whole likely to

discriminate in favour of a few Americans among the hosts of

aggressive, grasping, domineering Europeans.

Moreover, the majority of the Chinese hear only what their

scholars and officials tell them, and these worthies are careful

to adjust the account to suit their own purposes, and to save

the national ``face.'' They blandly assure the credulous people

that the foreign armies did not follow the court because they

dared not; that the alien troops left the capital because they

were driven out by Chinese patriots; and that the Boxers inflicted

crushing defeat upon their foes. During my visit in Tsing-

tau, the Germans were digging sewers, broad and deep, with

laterals to every house and public building, and many of the

Chinese actually believed that these sewers were intended to

be underground passageways, down which the foreigners could

flee to their boats when they were assailed by the redoubtable

Boxers! The best-informed men I met in China, from Sir

Robert Hart down, were fearful that the end was not near, and

that an official order might repeat the whole bloody history.

At a conference with forty representative missionaries of all

denominations in Shanghai, August, 1901, a very large majority

agreed with the Rev. Dr. Parker, of the Southern Methodist

Church, in the statement: ``We are not out of the trouble

yet; the reactonaries are in the minority, but they are in

power. They have learned nothing and they will try again

to drive us out unless the Powers unseat them and reinstate the

Emperor and the Reform Party.''

XXVII

HOPEFUL SIGNS

THE future is not necessarily so doubtful as the facts

and opinions cited in the preceding chapter might in

themselves seem to indicate. It is true that the daily

press often contains accounts of tumults and revolutions in

China. But an Empire a third larger than all Europe, with

an enormous population, a weak central Government, corrupt

local officials, few railroads and frequent floods, famines and

epidemics, is certain to have uprisings somewhere most of the

time. A European reading in the daily despatches from the

United States of strikes, riots, martial law, the burning of

negroes, the mobbing of Chinese and the corruption of cities,

might with equal justice get the impression that our own

country is in continual turmoil. The Imperial Government in

China pays little attention to what is going on in other parts

of the country.

``Each province has its own army, navy, and system of taxation. . . .

So long as the provincial government sends its Peking supplies, administers

a reasonable sop to its clamorous provincial duns, quells incipient

insurrections, gives employment to its army of expectants, staves off

foreign demands, avoids rows of all kinds, and, in a word, keeps up a

decent external surface of respectability, no questions are asked; all reports

and promotions are passed; the Viceroy and his colleagues `enjoy

happiness,' and every one makes his `pile.' The Peking Government

makes no new laws, does nothing of any kind for any class of persons,

leaves each province to its own devices, and, like the general staff of an

army organization, both absorbs successful men, and gives out needy or

able men to go forth and do likewise.''[96]

[96] E. H. Parker, ``China,'' pp. 167, 169.

In these circumstances, the governors of provinces have considerable

independent power in internal affairs, and a rebellion

even of formidable proportions is often ignored by the Imperial

Government in Peking as a purely local matter to be dealt with

by the provincial authorities, much as the United States Government

leaves riots and mobs to the State officials.

Moreover, to a greater extent than any other people, the

Chinese are led by their officials, and some of the highest

officials in Peking and the coast provinces have learned that

massacres of foreigners result in the coming of more foreigners,

in the capture and destruction of cities, in humiliating terms

of peace, in heavy indemnities, in large losses of territory and

in the degradation and perhaps the execution of the magistrates

within whose jurisdiction the troubles occur.

There are, moreover, unmistakable indications of a new

movement among the Chinese. One reason why they have

been so ignorant of the rest of the world and even of distant

parts of their own country was the lack of any facilities for

transmitting mail. The only way that the missionaries in the

interior could get their letters was by employing private messengers

or availing themselves of a chance traveller. But now

a modern post-office system, superintended by Sir Robert Hart,

already includes 500 of the principal cities of the Empire and

is being rapidly extended to others.

Teu years ago, there were practically no newspapers in China

except those published by foreigners in the ports, all of which

were in English save one which was in the German language.

The only periodicals in Chinese were a few issued by the

missionaries with, of course, a very limited circulation, chiefly

among the Christians. There was no such thing as a Chinese

press in the proper sense of the term. Now, besides a French,

a Russian and a second German paper, there are nearly a hundred

Chinese newspapers, many of them edited by the Chinese

themselves and others by Japanese, and all, aided by the railway,

the telegraph and the post-office, bringing new ideas to

multitudes. On the basis of a joint report to the Throne by

Viceroy Chang Chih-tung and Chang Pei-hsi, chancellor of the

Peking University, an imperial decree has ordered the inauguration

of a new system of education. The plan is to have a

university in the capital of each province, with auxiliary prefectural

and district colleges and schools and the whole system

to culminate in the Imperial University in Peking. In all these

institutions western arts and sciences are to be taught side by

side with the old Confucian classics. ``The Viceroys and

Governors of provinces are commanded to order their subordinates

to hasten the establishment of these schools. Let this

decree be published through the Empire.''

Nor have the new imperial decrees stopped here. A few

decades ago, ambitious Chinese youths who sought an education

abroad at their own expense were imprisoned on their return

to their native land. One whom I met in Shantung gave

me a vivid account of his arrest and incarceration in a filthy

dungeon as if he had been a common criminal. But a recent

edict of the Emperor directs the provincial Governors to select

young men of ability and send them to Europe for special training

with a view to their occupying high posts on their return.

One of the most firmly rooted customs of old China was the

examination essay for literary degrees on some purely Chinese

subject relating to a remote past. But August 29, 1901, to the

amazement of the literati, an imperial edict abolished that

time-honoured custom and directed that in the future candidates

for degrees as well as for office should submit short essays

on such modern topics as Western science, governments, laws,

and kindred subjects. The following extracts from the examination

questions for the Chu Jen (M. A.) degree in 1903

will indicate the extraordinary character of this change.

Honen-- ``What improvements are to be derived from the

study of foreign agriculture, commerce, and postal

systems?

Kwang-sg and An-huei--``What are the chief ideas underlying

Austrian and German prosperity? How do foreigners

regulate the press, post-office, commerce,

railways, banks, bank-notes, commercial schools,

taxation--and how do they get faithful men?

Where is the Caucasus and how does Russia rule

it?

Kiang-si--``How many sciences theoretical and practical are

there? In what order should they be studied?

Explain free trade and protection. What are the

military services of the world? What is the bearing

of the Congress of Vienna, the Treaty of Berlin

and the Monroe Doctrine on the Far East?

Wherein lies the naval supremacy of Great Britain?

What is the bearing of the Siberian Railway and

Nicaragua Canal on China?

Shuntung--``What is Herbert Spencer's philosophy of sociology?

Define the relations of land, labour and capital.

State how best to develop the resources of China

by mines and railway? How best to modify our

civil and criminal laws to regain authority over

those now under extra-territoriality privileges?

How best to guard land and sea frontiers from the

advance of foreign Powers?

Fukien--``Which Western nations have paid most attention to

education and what is the result? State the leading

features of the military systems of Great Britain,

Germany, Russia, and France. Which are the

best colonizers? How should tea and silk be

properly cultivated? What is the government,

industries and education of Switzerland which,

though small, is independent of surrounding great

powers?

Kwang-tung--(Canton)--``What should be our best coinage,

gold, silver and copper like other Western countries,

or what? How could the workhouse system

be started throughout China? How to fortify

Kwang-tung province? How to get funds and

professors for the new education? How to pro-

mote Chinese international commerce, new industries

and savings-banks, versus the gambling houses

of China?

Hunan--``What is the policy of Japan--only following other

nations or what? How to choose competent diplomatic

men? Why does China feel its small national

debt so heavy, while England and France

with far greater debts do not feel it?

Hupch--``State the educational systems of Sparta and Athens.

What are the naval strategic points of Great Britain

and which should be those of China? Which nation

has the best system of stamp duty? State

briefly the geological ages of the earth, and the

bronze and iron ages. Trace the origin of Egyptian,

Babylonian and Chinese writings.''[97]

[97] Report of the Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General

Knowledge Among the Chinese, Shanghai, 1903.

The result of these edicts is that the Chinese are buying

Western books as never before. Examinations cannot be passed

without them. The mission presses, though run to their full

capacity, cannot keep up with the demand for their publications.

Dr. Timothy Richard of Shanghai reports that a quarter

of a million dollars' worth of text-books were sold in that city

in 1902, a single order received by the Presbyterian Press

involving a bill of $328 for postage alone, as the buyer insisted

that the books should be sent by mail. Mission schools that

teach the English language are thronged with students, many

of them from the higher classes, and every foreigner who is

willing to teach Western learning finds his services eagerly

sought.

China cannot be reformed by paper edicts even though they

are written by an Emperor. Many reforms have been solemnly

proclaimed in former years that accomplished little except to

``save face'' for the Government. We need not therefore

imagine that the millennium is to come in China this year.

But it is impossible to doubt that the reform decrees that have

been issued since the Boxer uprising mean something more

and are achieving something more than any other reform movements

that China ever saw before. Dr. Arthur H. Smith, who

knows China and the Chinese as thoroughly as any other living

man, writes:--

``We behold the kernel of the reforms ordered by His Majesty, Kuang

Hsum in 1898, and which led to his dethronement and imprisonment,

substantially adopted less than three years later by the Empress Dowager and

her advisers. . . . The bare notation of the tenor of these far-reaching

edicts gives to the Occidental reader but a vague notion of the tremendous

intellectual revolution which they connote. Never before was

there such an order from any government involving the reconstruction of

the views of so many millions, by the study of the methods of government

in other nations. . . . It is obvious to one who knows anything of the

Chinese educational system of the past millennium that the introduction

of the new methods will involve its radical reconstruction from top to bottom.

Western geography, mathematics, science, history, and philosophy

will be everywhere studied. The result cannot fail to be an expansion of

the intellectual horizon of the Chinese race comparable to that which in

Europe followed the Crusades. This will be a long process and a slow

one, but it is a certain one. . . . All signs indicate that China is open

as never before.''

Undoubtedly the most powerful present factor in the policy

of the Empire, and at the same time one of the best types of the

educated Chinese, is Yuan Shih Kai, Viceroy of Chih-li and

Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese army. He is not a Manchu,

like many of the high officials of China, but a pure Chinese

like Li Hung Chang. Born in the Province of Honan,

he quickly developed unusual abilities. After a brilliant record

for a young man in his native land, he was sent to Korea as the

representative of the Emperor of China and for nine years he

was a conspicuous member of the diplomatic corps of the

Korean capital. Returning to China in 1895, he was made

commander of a division of the ``New Imperial Army''--a

post in which he manifested high military and administrative

qualities. He organized and equipped his troops after the best

foreign models and they speedily became so effective that, if

they had been more numerous and if he had been given a free

hand in using them in Peking, the history of 1900 might have

been different. I have had occasion elsewhere[98] to give some

account of the soldiers who escorted me through the interior.

December, 1900, he was appointed Governor of the great province

of Shantung. It was here that I met him, residing at Chinan-fu,

the capital of the province. As soon as possible after

my arrival, I sent my card and letters of introduction to the

famous Governor, and he promptly replied that he would receive

me at one o'clock the following day. At the appointed

hour, we called. With true courtesy, he met us at the entrance

of the palace grounds and escorted us into his private room,

which was neatly but very plainly furnished. He impressed

me as a remarkable man. He was then forty-one years of age,

of medium height, rather stout, with a strong face, a clear,

frank eye, and a most engaging manner. He would be considered

a man of striking appearance anywhere.

[98] Chapter VII.

He was very cordial, and we had a long and interesting conversation.

He surprised me by his familiarity with America,

especially as he spoke no English and had never been out of

Asia.

Partly at this interview and partly from other sources, I

heard more of his plan to start a daily newspaper, a Military

Academy and a Literary College. His idea was to have in

each institution two students from each of the 108 counties in

the province, and thus train a body of men who would be able

to carry ``light and learning'' into their respective districts.

He appeared to feel that the only hope of averting such catastrophes

as the Boxer uprising lay in enlightening the people.

In answer to a question as to the teaching of foreign languages,

he said that English, French and German would be taught, but

that German would probably be the most useful of the foreign

tongues on account of the number of Germans in the eastern

part of the province.

The Governor had shown the breadth of his intelligence, and

at the same time his appreciation of the high character of Protestant

missionaries, by inviting one of them, the Rev. Dr. Watson

M. Hayes, then President of the Presbyterian Mission College

at Teng-chou, to become the President of the Literary

College. I may anticipate so far as to state that Dr. Hayes

accepted the invitation and began his work with every promise

of large success. But unfortunately the rigid requirement of

the Government that each student should worship the tablet of

Confucius at stated intervals and the refusal of Yuan Shih Kai's

successor to exempt Christian students made Dr. Hayes feel

that he had no alternative but to resign. Whether Yuan Shih

Kai, if he had remained in Shantung, would have been more

lenient, it is, of course, impossible to say. I cherish the hope

that he would have been, for he is a large-minded man and he

discerns the signs of the times more clearly than many of his

countrymen. But he is nevertheless a loyal disciple of Confucius

and he might also have felt that questions of state policy

were involved. It is suggestive, however, that in the spring of

1898 Yuan Shih Kai had selected a Protestant minister, the

Rev. Herbert E. House, D. D., (now of the Canton Christian

College) as the tutor of his own son, Yuen Yen Tai. Dr.

House says, by the way, that he found the youth ``wonderfully

pure in his thought, high in his ambition and intense in his

passion for knowledge--the most patient and diligent student I

ever knew.''

But to return to the interview with Yuan Shih Kai. The

only other Chinese present was Tang Hsiao-chuan, a man of

about thirty-five, who was in charge of the Provincial Foreign

Office with the rank of Tao-tai. He had spent two years at

Columbia University in New York City, spoke English fluently

and impressed me as a fine man. Like the Governor, his manners

were courtly and refined. He appeared to be a man of

the diplomatic type and worthy of the promotion that he will

doubtless receive.

Early the next morning Captain Wang came on behalf of the

Governor to return our visit. He was the translator of the

Foreign Office and the tutor of one of the Governor's sons whom

he was teaching English grammar, arithmetic, geography and

history. I was interested to find that he had spent eight years

at Philips Academy, Massachusetts, and that he spoke English

with the grace of a cultured gentleman.

The policy of Yuan Shih Kai during the Boxer troubles indicated

the wisdom and the courage of the man. Disturbances

had already begun when he assumed office. It was not far

southwest of Chinan-fu that Brooks, the devoted English missionary,

was murdered by the Boxers. Yu Hsien was then

Governor of Shantung but about that time was transferred to

Shan-si, Yuan Shih Kai taking his place. If the notorious

foreign-hating Yu Hsien had remained in Shantung, probably he

would have massacred the Shantung missionaries as he did

those of Shan-si, where he invited them all to his yamen, and

then began the butchery by killing three missionaries with his

own hand. But Yuan Shih Kai foresaw the inevitable result

of such barbarity and determined to restrain the Boxers and

protect foreigners. He succeeded with the foreigners, not one

being killed after he took control, and all being helped as far

as possible to escape. As soon as the storm had passed, he

officially wrote to the missionaries who had taken refuge at the

ports:--

``Everything is now quiet. If you, reverend sirs, wish to return to the

interior, I would beg you first give me word that I may most certainly

order the military everywhere most carefully to protect and escort.''

This apparently pro-foreign policy brought upon the Governor,

for a time, no small obloquy from the fiercely-fanatical

conservatives who wanted to murder every foreigner within

reach. Indeed the fury of the populace was so great that he

was bitterly reviled as ``a secondary devil,'' and his life was

repeatedly threatened. But despite the clamour of the mob

and the opposition of his associates in the government of the

province, he maintained his position with iron inflexibility.

Afterwards, however, the people as well as his official subordinates

realized that he had saved them from the awful punishment

that was inflicted upon the neighbouring province of

Chih-li, and his power and prestige became greater than ever.

During my visit in Chining-chou, in the remote southwestern

part of the province, an incident occurred which illustrated at

once the power of Yuan Shih Kai's name and the heroic devotion

of the missionaries. The day after our arrival, a friendly

Chinese official brought word that Governor Yuan Shih Kai's

mother had died the day before. Chinese custom in such circumstances

required him to resign his office and go into retirement

for three years. Now Consul Fowler and all the foreigners

whom I had met in the ports had declared that the safety

of foreigners in Shantung depended on the Governor, that as

long as he was in power white men were safe, but that his death

or removal might bring another tumult of anti-foreign fury.

On the strength of his known friendship, mission work was

being resumed and the missionaries were returning to the interior.

Now this man, on whose continuance in office so much depended,

was apparently to retire and the future made all uncertain

again. The Empress Dowager might give the post to a

foreign-hater. An indifferent or even a weak pro-foreign Governor

would be little better, for a strong man was needed to

hold the population of Shantung in hand. The Chinese quickly

take their cue from a high official and even a suspicion that he

would not interfere might again loose the dogs of war. True,

we had seen no signs of enmity, but appearances are deceptive

in Asia. The smile of the mighty Governor meant a smile

from every one. But what fires were smouldering beneath no

one could know. Even in America, there are lawless men who

would mob Chinese in a minute if they knew that the police

were weak or indifferent.

I did not fear for myself, for my plans compelled me to

journey on to Ichou-fu anyway. But I did not like to leave

Mr. Laughlin and Dr. Lyon, who had come with the intention

of remaining to reopen the mission work at Chining-chou.

But with the true missionary spirit, they bravely decided to

stay. A week later, they learned that in view of the importance

of the province and his confidence in the great Governor, the

Emperor had by a special dispensation shortened the period of

official mourning from three years to one hundred days. During

that time, the Fan-tai (treasurer) would be the nominal head

of the province, though it was quietly understood that even

then the Governor would be the ``power behind the throne.''

But as this was not known when the decision to remain was

made, the heroism of the missionaries was none the less

striking.

The attitude of Yuan Shih Kai is fairly indicated in the regulations

which he caused to be widely published after the Boxer

outbreak. Some of these were as follows:--

``In order to protect foreigners from violence and all mission property

from burning and other destruction, all civil and military officials with all

their subordinates (including literati, constables, village elders, et al.),

must use their utmost endeavours to insure their protection. Persons refusing

to submit to officials in these matters may be instantly executed

without further reference to the Governor, and any one who rescues foreigners

from violence will be amply rewarded.

``Any persons having been found guilty of destroying mission property

or using violence to foreigners shall be severely dealt with according to

the laws which refer to highway robbers, and in addition to this their

goods and property shall be confiscated for the public use.

``If injury to missionaries or destruction of property occurs in any district

whatever, both civil and military officials of said district shall be degraded

and reported to the Throne.

``The elders, constables, et al., of every village shall do their utmost to

protect missionaries and their property. If in the future there occurs in

any village destruction of property or violence to a missionary, the headmen

of such village shall be dealt with according to the edict issued

during the twenty-second year of the present Emperor. And, in addition

to this they shall be required to present themselves to the yamen and

make good all losses. The constables of such villages shall be severely

dealt with and expelled from office forever.

``All civil and military officials in whose districts none of these offenses

named above occur in one year shall be rewarded with the third degree

of merit, and three years of such freedom shall entitle the same officials to

promotion.

``Rewards will also be given to village elders and constables in whose

district no disturbance occurs.''

These are rather remarkable words from a high Chinese

official. Now their author occupies a position of even greater

authority, for after the death of Li Hung Chang, he was appointed

to succeed him as Viceroy of Chih-li in November,

1901. Chih-li is not only one of the greatest provinces of the

Empire with a population of 20,937,000, but it includes the

imperial city of Peking and the ports of Tong-ku and Tien-

tsin, the gateways to the capital. The Viceroy thus controls

all avenues of approach to the Throne and is, in a sense,

charged with the protection of the royal family. He has free

access at all times to the Emperor and the Empress Dowager

with whom he is a prime favourite. It was this position of high

vantage which enabled Li Hung Chang to become well-nigh

omnipotent in China. Yuan Shih Kai is not such a wily

schemer as his distinguished predecessor and he is not likely to

use his position for self-aggrandizement to the extent that Li

Hung Chang did. But he is quite as able a man and more

frank and reliable. He has enemies, as every public man has,

especially in Asia. Some can never forgive him for his supposed

part in the virtual dethronement of the Emperor several years

ago. It is alleged that the Emperor counted on the army of

Yuan Shih Kai to support him in his reform policy, but that

Yuan consulted with Jung Lu, who was then the Viceroy of

Chih-li, and that that worthy promptly laid the whole matter

before the Empress Dowager; the result being that the young

Emperor awoke one morning to find himself practically stripped

of his imperial power.[99] Yuan has been freely charged with

treachery in this coup d'etat. Others hold that he did not intend

treachery but only consultation with his superior officer

as to what ought to be done in a grave crisis which was in

itself revolutionary in character. Yuan was far from being a

reactionary, but he was wise enough to see that China could

not be suddenly transformed, and he naturally hesitated to lend

himself to an enterprise which he believed to be premature and

to be destined to result in certain failure. The soundness of

his judgment is now generally recognized, and the Emperor himself

is said to be almost as friendly towards him as the Empress

Dowager, who counts him one of her ablest supporters.

[99] Cf. Imperial Decree of Sept. 22, 1898, quoted in Pott, ``The Outbreak

in China,'' pp. 55sq,

In the present critical condition of far eastern politics, much

depends upon the policy of Yuan Shih Kai. With exalted

rank, the ear of the Empress Dowager and the command of the

only real soldiers that China possesses, he can do more than

any other man to influence the course of the Empire. Of

course, one official, however powerful, cannot absolutely control

national conditions. The forces at work both within and without

the Empire are too vast and too complicated. Nevertheless,

the fact that such an able and far-seeing man as Yuan

Shih Kai is now the most influential Viceroy in China, the

Commander-in-Chief of the Army, and the trusted adviser of the

Empress Dowager may be fairly included among the hopeful

signs for the future.

Most significant of all is the development of missionary work

since the Boxer outbreak. Not only have all the destroyed

churches and chapels been rebuilt, but they are, as a rule,

crowded with worshippers. In the Wei-hsien station field in

Shantung, where every missionary was driven out and all the

mission property destroyed, 569 Chinese were baptized last

year. In Peking, the large new Presbyterian church, though

erected near that great cistern in which nearly 100 bodies were

found after the siege, is filled at almost every service and the

churches of other denominations are also largely attended. At

a single service, Dr. Pentecost preached to 800 attentive Chinese

young men. Even in Paoting-fu, where every remaining

missionary and scores of Chinese Christians were killed, and

where one might suppose that no Chinese would ever dare to

confess Christ, even in bloodstained Paoting-fu, the missionaries

are preaching daily to throngs of attentive Chinese in the city,

while at the spacious new compounds outside the walls the

schools and hospitals and churches are taxed to care for the

hundreds who go to them. In the Canton field, long known

for its anti-foreign feeling, 1,564 Chinese were baptized last

year by the Presbyterians alone and the missionaries are importunately

calling for reinforcements to enable them to meet

the multiplied demands upon them. Even the province of

Hunan, which a decade ago was almost as inhospitable to foreigners

as Thibet, now has half a hundred Protestant and Catholic

missionaries developing a prosperous work. Bishop Graves,

of the Protestant Episcopal Church, returned recently from an

episcopal visitation with this inspiring message:--

``The condition and outlook of the Church's work in the province of

Kiang-su are more encouraging than ever before. Hitherto we have had

to persuade people to be taught. Now they come to us themselves, not

one by one, but in numbers. . . . That there is a strong movement

towards Christianity setting in is evident.''[100]

[100] ``The Spirit of Missions,'' July, 1904.

Not only has the old work been resumed with vigour but much

new work has been opened. Within a year and a quarter after

the relief of the Legations by the Allies, twenty-five new mission

stations had been opened and 373 new missionaries had

entered China, and each succeeding year has seen considerable

additions to the number. The Rev. Dr. George F. Pentecost,

who visited China in 1903, writes--

``The outlook seems to me most encouraging. I find the more thoughtful

missionaries enthusiastic in their forecast for the future. My own

judgment is that the cause of missions, so far as foundation work and increased

power for work, has been advanced at least twenty-five years by

the massacres of 1900. I think the common people are thoroughly convinced

that missions cannot be destroyed, and I am equally convinced

that the authorities are also convinced that it is vain for them to rage and

set themselves against Christianity. The one thing which an Asiatic

recognizes is power and facts accomplished, and in the rebuilding of our

missions and the awakening already begun and the reinforcement of the

missions in men and material means they see and recognize power. Their

own temples are falling into decay and ruin and our new buildings are

rising in prominence and beauty. Their ignorant priesthood is sinking

deeper and deeper into degradation, while our missionaries are every

where known and recognized as men of `light and learning.' . . .

It seems to me from all I can learn that there is no fear of another anti-

foreign outbreak.''

And these are but a few of the many illustrations that could

be given. Everywhere, the doors are open and Chinese are

now being baptized by Protestant missionaries at the rate of

about 15,000 a year, while a far larger number are enrolled as

inquirers or catechumens. The interdenominational conference

of missionaries at Kuling, August 7, 1903, declared:--

``It is now a fact that there is not one of the more than nineteen

hundred counties of China and Manchuria from which we are shut out, and

before the hundredth year of our work begins, we can say that if the gospel

is not preached to every creature in China, the reason must be sought outside

China. The opportunities of work are varied in their kind, vast in

their extent. Never before have men crowded to hear the gospel as they

are crowding now in the open air and indoors; in our chapels and in our

guest-rooms we have opportunities to preach Christ such as can scarcely

be found outside China. Never before has there been such an eager desire

for education as there is now; our schools, both of elementary and of

higher grades, are full, and everywhere applicants have to be refused.

Never before has there been such a demand for Christian literature as

there is now; our tract societies and all engaged in supplying converts

and inquirers with reading material are doing their utmost, but are not

able to overtake the demand; and the demand is certain to increase, for

it comes from the largest number of people in the world reading one language.

The medical work has from the first found an entrance into hearts

that were closed against other forms of work. Its sphere of influence

grows ever wider and is practically unlimited. Unique opportunities of

service are afforded us by the large number of blind people, by lepers,

and those suffering from incurable diseases; by the deaf and dumb, the

insane and other afflicted people. In China the poor are always with us,

and whensoever we will we may do them good.''

Not least among the hopeful signs for the future is the new

treaty between the United States and China which was signed

at Shanghai, October 8, 1903, and unanimously ratified by the

United States Senate December 18, 1903. It not only secured

an ``open door'' in China for Americans, but, if the veteran

``most favoured nation'' clause is again pressed into service, a

priceless benefit to the whole civilized world as well as to

China herself. For this treaty abolished the exasperating

``likin'' (the inland tax heretofore exacted by local officials on

goods in transit through their territories); confirmed the right

of American citizens to trade, reside, travel, and own property

in China; extended to China the United States' copyright

laws; gained a promise from the Chinese Government to establish

a patent office in which the inventions of United States'

citizens may be protected; and made valuable regulations regarding

trade-marks, mining concessions, judicial tribunals for

the hearing of complaints, diplomatic intercourse, and several

other matters which, though sanctioned by custom, were often

abridged or violated.

The treaty, moreover, called for the opening of two additional

treaty ports, one of which is at Feng-tien-fu, more generally

known as Mukden, important not only as a city of 200,000 inhabitants

but as the capital of Manchuria and with both rail

and river connection with the Gulf of Pe-chi-li and the imperial

province of Chih-li. The other is at An-tung, which is important

because of its situation on the Yalu River opposite the

Korean frontier. Of course, the Russia-Japan War has post-

poned the opening of these ports, but the recognition of China's

right to open them by treaty with the United States is none the

less significant.

Most important of all, the treaty removes, so far as any such

enactment can remove, the last barrier to the extension of Christianity

throughout China. In Article XIII of the English treaty

with China, September 5, 1902, Great Britain agreed to join

in a commission to secure peaceable relationships between converts

and non-converts in China. But the American treaty

goes much farther, as the following extract (Article XIV) will

show:--

``The principles of the Christian religion, as professed by the Protestant

and Roman Catholic Churches, are recognized as teaching men to do good

and to do to others as they would have others do to them. Those who

quietly profess and teach these doctrines shall not be harassed or persecuted

on account of their faith. Any person, whether citizen of the

United States or Chinese convert, who, according to these tenets, peaceably

teaches and practices the principles of Christianity shall in no case

be interfered with or molested therefor. No restrictions shall be placed

on Chinese joining Christian churches. Converts and non-converts, being

Chinese subjects, shall alike conform to the laws of China, and shall

pay due respect to those in authority, living together in peace and amity;

and the fact of being converts shall not protect them from the consequences

of any offense they may have committed before or may commit after their

admission into the church, or exempt them from paying legal taxes levied

on Chinese subjects generally, except taxes levied and contributions for

the support of religious customs and practices contrary to their religion.

Missionaries shall not interfere with the exercise by the native authorities

of their jurisdiction over Chinese subjects; nor shall the native authorities

make any distinction between converts and non-converts, but shall administer

the laws without partiality, so that both classes can live together in

peace.

``Missionary societies of the United States shall be permitted to rent

and to lease in perpetuity as the property of such societies, buildings or

lands in all parts of the Empire for missionary purposes and, after the

title-deeds have been found in order and duly stamped by the local authorities,

to erect such suitable buildings as may be required for carrying on

their good work.''

This gives new prestige to American missionary effort and

legally confirms the opening of the Empire from end to end to

missionary residence, activity and toleration. All that France

harshly obtained for Roman Catholic missions by the Berthemy

convention of 1865 and by the haughty ultimatum of M.

Gerard at the close of the war with Japan, the United States

has now peacefully secured with the apparent good-will of the

Chinese Government.

XXVIII

THE PARAMOUNT DUTY OF CHRISTENDOM

IT would be unwise to underestimate the gravity of the

situation, or to assume that the most numerous and conservative

nation on the globe has been suddenly transformed

from foreign haters to foreign lovers. The world may

again have occasion to realize that the momentum of countless

myriads is an awful force even against the resources of a

higher civilization, as the Romans found to their consternation

when the barbarian hordes overran the Empire. We do not

know what disturbances may yet occur or what proportions

they may assume. It may be that much blood will yet be

shed. Inflamed passions will certainly be slow in subsiding.

Men who are identified with the old era will not give up without

a struggle. It took 300 years to bring England from pagan

barbarism to Christian civilization, and China is vaster far

and more conservative than England. The world moves faster

now, and the change-producing forces of the present exceed

those of former centuries as a modern steam hammer exceeds a

wooden sledge. But China is ponderous, and a few decades

are short for so gigantic a transformation.

Meantime, much depends on the future conduct of foreigners.

It is hard enough for the proud-spirited Chinese to see the

aliens coming in greater numbers than ever and entrenching

themselves more and more impregnably, and a continuance of

the policy of greed and injustice will deepen an already deep

resentment. The almost invincible prejudice against the foreigner

is a serious hindrance to the regeneration of China.

``This fact emphasizes the need for using every means possible

for the breaking down of such a prejudice. Every careless or

willful wound to Chinese susceptibilities, or unnecessary crossing

of Chinese superstitions, retards our own work and increases

the dead wall of opposition on the part of this people.''[101]

[101] The Rev. Dr. J. C. Garritt, Hang chou.

The proper way to deal with the Chinese was illustrated by

the Rev. J. Walter Lowrie of the Presbyterian Mission at

Paoting-fu when, as a token of appreciation for his services to

the city in connection with the retaliatory measures of the

foreign troops shortly after the Boxer outbreak, the magistrate

raised a special fund among wealthy Chinese, bought a fine

tract of sixteen acres and presented it to the mission as a gift.

The tract had been occupied for many years by several

families of tenants who had built their own houses, but who

were now to be evicted. Of course, Mr. Lowrie was not

responsible for them. But he insisted that they should be

dealt with fairly, and be paid a reasonable price for their homes

and the improvements that they had made so that they could

rent land and establish themselves elsewhere. In addition, he

was at pains to find work for them until their new crops became

available. Their affectionate greeting of Mr. Lowrie as

we walked about the place clearly showed their gratification.

There is not the slightest trouble with the Chinese when they

are treated with ordinary decency as brother men.

At any rate, in the name of that civilization and Christianity

which we profess, as well of common humanity, let foreign

nations abandon the methods of brutality and rapine. If we

expect to convert the Chinese, we must exemplify the principles

we teach. It is not true that the Chinese cannot understand

justice and magnanimity. Even if it were true, it does not

follow that we should be unjust and pitiless. Let us instruct

them in the higher things. How are they ever to learn, if we

do not teach them? But as a matter of fact, the Chinese are

as amenable to reason as any people in the world. Their

temperament and inertia and long isolation from the remainder

of mankind have made them slow to grasp a new idea. But

they will get it if they are given reasonable time, and when

they do once get it, they will hold it. Whether, therefore,

further trouble occurs, depends in part upon the conduct of

foreign nations. Justice and humanity in all dealings with the

Chinese, while not perhaps wholly preventing outbreaks of

hostility, will at least give less occasion for them.

But however trying the period of transition may be, the issue is

not for a moment doubtful. Progress invariably wins the victory

over blind conservatism. The higher idea is sure to conquer

the lower. With all their admixture of selfishness and

violence, the fact remains that the forces operating on China

to-day include the vital regenerative element for human

society. It is futile to expect that China could ever regenerate

herself without outside aid. Spontaneous regeneration is

an exploded theory in society as well as in biology. Life always

comes from without.

The spirit of China's new system of education shows that

there is imminent danger of the misuse of modern methods,

even when they have been adopted. All her institutions are

conducted on principles which virtually debar Christians

either as students or professors. Infidelity, however, has free

entrance as long as it conforms to the external forms imposed

by the State. ``Anti-conservative but anti-Christian,'' the

educational movement has been characterized by Dr. W. M.

Hayes of Teng-chou. Dr. W. A. P. Martin, so long President

of the Imperial Chinese University, declares that ``if

Christians at home only knew what a determined effort is being

made to exclude Christian teachers and Christian text-books

from Chinese Government schools, from the Imperial University

down, they would exert themselves to give a Christian

education to the youth of China.'' A single mission institution,

like the Shantung Protestant University, with its

union of the best educational methods and the highest ideals

of Christian character, will do more for the real enlightenment

of China than a dozen provincial colleges where gambling,

irreligion and opium smoking are freely tolerated and a failure

to worship the tablet of Confucius is deemed the only

cardinal sin.