Littell's Living Age/Volume 115/Issue 1489/Chinese Feeling Toward the Principal European States

A correspondent of the Cologne Gazette at Hong-Kong thus describes the present state of feeling in China with regard to the principal European States: — "Of all the nations which are represented here, the sagacious and observant Chinese place Germany in the highest rank. Germany never landed a soldier on Chinese territory, never threatened China with war, and never bombarded either Pekin or Canton; her sons only looked after their trade, and never took possession of a foot of Chinese soil. The Americans are also popular, though last year the foolish expedition to Corea somewhat diminished their influence. The British, on the other hand, are very unpopular, and it is only by their gunboats that they maintain their influence, which has already reached its zenith. The complaints of the Chinese Government against England are very frequent, and no Chinese comes in contact with the brusque and arrogant "fair-haired barbarians" without wishing in his heart that he may live to see them humiliated. Still more disliked, however, are the French, who for many years have behaved in China even more arrogantly than the British. No other nation sent so numerous an army of 'blacks' into the country, or supported the often unfair and insulting demands of the missionaries with such unscrupulousness as the French. Their conduct in the last war, too, when they marched to the capital with their British allies, will never be forgiven by the Chinese. Nothing in the world is holy to a Chinaman but his family; a single glance from 'the Western devil' at the wife of any man who does not belong to the lowest class is regardad as an irretrievable disgrace, and a European may live for a quarter of a century in China without seeing any more of a Chinese house than the antechamber. During the war, while the sons of Albion were looking for silver and drink, the Zouaves persecuted the Chinese women with their attentions, and many hundreds of the latter killed themselves in consequence. This produced a feeling of bitter indignation against the French all over the country, and their defeat by Germany is generally regarded here as a judgment upon them for the acts of their troops in China." The correspondent concludes by urging the German Government to act in future with the United States in all Asiatic questions. "Now is the time," he says, "to lay the foundation for great results in the future, for it is on these waters and on this neutral Asiatic territory that the conflict between America and England for the predominance on the seas will be fought out. The struggle will not be so warm on the Thames or the Hudson as in Eastern Asia; and in another five-and-twenty years the centre of gravity of the United States will rather be on the Pacific than on the Atlantic. The sympathies and the interests of Germany under such circumstances clearly point to an understanding with America. Washington now seeks an alliance with Berlin, in view of future contingencies, and both should place their affairs in very efficient hands in view of the approaching struggle against England and Russia."