Page:China Under the Empress Dowager - ed. Backhouse and Bland - 1914.pdf/296

 Times correspondent at Shanghai on the 23rd of July, and then stated that he would not proceed to his post in the north until convinced by clear proofs that the Empress Dowager had seen the folly of her ways, and was prepared to adopt a conciliatory policy towards ihe outraged foreign Powers. At the end of July, when it became clear to him that the Court had determined on flight, he forwarded by special courier a very remarkable memorial, in which he called the Throne to task in the plainest possible terms, and urged an immediate change of policy. This memorial reached the Empress before her departure from Peking, and its plain-spoken advice was not without effect on the Empress Dowager. The Decrees issued by her in the name of the Emperor from Huai-lai on the 19th and 20th of August are the first indications given to the outside world that she had definitely decided on a policy of con- ciliation so as to render possible her eventual return to the capital—an event which, as she foresaw, would prob- ably be facilitated by the inevitable differences and jea~ lousies already existing among the Allies.

In the Edict of the 19th of August, after explaining that the whole Boxer crisis and the attack on the Legations was the result of differences between Christian and non-Chris- tian Chinese, she querulously complains that the foreign Powers, although doubtless well meaning in their efforts to “exterminate the rebels,” are behaving in a manner which suggests aggressive designs towards China, and which shows a lamentable disregard of proper procedure and friendliness. She naively observes that the Chinese Government had been at the greatest pains to protect the lives and property of foreigners in Pcking, in spite of many difficulties, and expresses much surprise at such an evil return being made for her invariable kindness and courtesy. If it were not for the unbounded capacity of foreign diplomais, fully proved in the past, in the matter of credulity where Chinese statecraft is concerned, it would be difficult to regard utterances Jike these as the work of an intelligent ruler. But Tzii Hsi was, as usual, justified, for at the very time when these Decrces were issued, Russia