Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/103

Rh Yamagata, inflicted a signal defeat on the Chinese forces in North Korea on September 17th, and the same day the Chinese fleet was badly worsted in an engagement at the mouth of the Yalu River. The tide of war thereafter swept into Manchuria, and Port Arthur was besieged and captured. A similar fate befell Weihaiwei, where the Chinese fleet, under Admiral Ting, was either sunk or taken; the capture of Yingkow placed Newchwang at the mercy of the invaders. Recognising the logic of events, the Chinese Government made overtures for peace, and a treaty of peace negotiated by Li Hung Chang at Shimonosaki was concluded on April 17th and ratified on May 4th. By the terms of the arrangement China recognised the independence of Korea, ceded to Japan the Liaotung peninsula together with Formosa and the Pescadore Islands, and agreed to pay an indemnity of 200,000,000 taels in eight instalments. It was arranged that Japan should occupy Weihaiwei temporarily pending the execution of the provisions of the treaty. Barely was the ink dry on the treaty before it was made evident that Japan was not to be permitted to enjoy the complete fruits of her victory. A movement projected by Russia, France, and Germany was set on foot with a view to nullifying the provision relative to the cession of the Liaotung peninsula. The principal ground put forward to justify this intervention was that the territorial integrity of China must be maintained. It was a hypocritical reason—but it served. Recognising the force of the combination against her, Japan sullenly agreed to forego the prize she had won in consideration of the payment of an extra indemnity. A decent interval was allowed to elapse before the true meaning of this manœuvre on the part of the three European powers was revealed. The first indication of it was conveyed by rumours which were set afloat at the close of 1896 in reference to the conclusion of a treaty between China and Russia giving the latter power the right to extend the Siberian Railway to Manchuria and to occupy and fortify Kiaochau, while she on her part agreed to defend Port Arthur and Talienwan, As events proved, the stories in circulation were well founded as far as the main fact of the conclusion of a treaty giving Russia wide powers in Manchuria was concerned. But in the working out of the details there was a striking change made by the substitution of Germany for Russia at Kiaochau. The ostensible cause of the German occupation was the murder of two missionaries, subjects of the Kaiser. It has always been suspected, however, that the move was part of an understanding entered into with Russia, under which Kiaochau was to fall to Germany as her share in the proceeds of the Russian Treaty, However that may be, Germany's appearance at Kiaochau was quickly followed by the advent of Russia at Port Arthur and by the adoption of measures for the consolidation of Russian power in Southern Manchuria. The course of events was watched with anxious interest by friends of China, who saw in these acts a situation full of menacing possibilities for the future. Great Britain, in accordance with an agreement arrived at at the time that the Japanese evacuated the port, on May 24, 1898, occupied Weihaiwei as a counterpoise to the German and Russian encroachments, and it also availed itself of the opportunity to secure an extension of its territory on the Kowloon peninsula and the adjacent mainland. But these measures had little influence on the general situation in China which rapidly became worse as Russian ambitions were the more plainly revealed by successive acts.

The period to which these events refer was one of great diplomatic tension. The Chinese Government, staggering under the successive blows inflicted upon its authority, became a mark for the attentions of aspiring European powers. Efforts made to stay the process of disintegration only served to bring into prominence the magnitude of the pretensions, which were set up. It seemed to observers that the break-up of the Chinese Empire was rapidly impending. One form which the unequal war waged at Peking between the weak and effete Chinese officialdom and the bold, self-assertive diplomacy of Europe took was a struggle for commercial concessions—chiefly railway concessions. When the Chinese tore up the rails of the Shanghai-Woosung Road it was thought that they had washed their hands for a long period of railways. But the question, though thrust into the background, was never out of sight of the trade representatives of the various European powers, who were alive to the vastness of the possibilities which centred in railway expansion in China. From time to time timid and tentative efforts were made to re-open the question, and they were so far successful that in one or two directions small lengths of line were built, the most notable of these being the railway from Peking to Tientsin (which was opened in 1897), and a line connecting Tientsin and Taku on the one hand and Kinchow and Newchwang on the other. These lines together are part of what is now known as the Northern Railway, and from their position they are of great importance. But they touch only the outer fringe of the empire and the real exploitation of railway schemes was left to the period referred to. Then the matter was pushed in sober earnest. It seemed a point of honour with each of the rival European powers to obtain as large concessions as possible. Great Britain, Russia, France, and Germany were the principal figures in the struggle, but the United States also took a hand in it, while Belgium, pushed forward and backed by Russia, cut in as occasion offered. The net result of it all was that by 1900 concessions for the construction of upwards of 5,000 miles of railway had been made, while grants for more than 2,000 additional miles were under consideration. One of the earliest of the schemes sanctioned was a railway 700 miles long connecting Peking with Hankow in the Yangtse basin. The concession for this line was obtained in 1896 by a Belgian syndicate which had strong support in France. A second project for linking up Hankow and Canton, practically a continuation of the Peking-Hankow railway, was launched by an American syndicate. In the French sphere of interest schemes embracing a mileage of 800 were sanctioned, while Germany had concessions for the construction of 845 miles of line in Shantung, and Russia (apart from Manchuria) was interested in enterprises north of Peking, the mileage of which aggregated 150. Besides these great railway undertakings commercial enterprises of a highly important character were launched in these busy days in Peking. The most conspicuous of the number, perhaps, are those embodied in the concession of the great British financial group known as the Peking Syndicate. This body secured in 1897 the valuable right to work coal and iron mines in the province of Shansi—an area containing much undeveloped mineral wealth. Included in the grant obtained from the Government was a concession for the construction of branch railways to connect the mines with the river navigation in adjoining provinces and with main lines of railways. The project, as representing the first real effort that had been made to develop the magnificent material resources of China on scientific lines, was of more than common interest and importance. Later, when the concessionaires got to work, they were impeded in their operations by the obstructiveness of the Chinese Government, which put obstacles in the way of the execution of the railway clauses of the agreement. Nevertheless, the operations of the syndicate have been on an extensive scale, and have done much to infuse a spirit of scientific commercial enterprise into the Chinese of the area in which the mines are situated.

Not without indifference were these startling evidences of the growth of foreign influence regarded by the Chinese masses. The patriotic sentiment was outraged by the apparent inability of the Government to withstand the pressure put upon it by the foreign representatives. The Chinese saw in these concessions, with the occupation of Port Arthur, Kiaochau and Weihaiwei, a deep-seated conspiracy against the integrity of the Empire and the independence of the race. For a time there was merely vague discontent, but gradually there came into existence a movement which gave vent to the popular feeling in a prolonged orgy of riot and outrage which was destined, before its end, to bring the Chinese dynasty to the verge of ruin, and to involve China itself in incalculable damage. A factor which lent strength to the movement—if it was not in intimate relation with it, was a coup d'état which in 1898 led to the relegation of the young Emperor Kwangsu to retirement, and the placing of supreme power once more in the hands of his aunt, the Dowager Empress. The Dowager Empress was supported by the most reactionary elements in the country, and she personally manifested a bigoted hatred of all foreigners and the innovations which they brought in their train. Outwardly, however, the movement to which we have referred was a popular ebullition, with aims which ran counter to governmental authority. The motive force was supplied by a secret society, known by the name of I-ho-chuan, literally, Patriotic Harmony Fists, or to adopt the most expressive English synonym—Boxers. The organisation has a ritual in which gymnastic posturing plays a considerable part, and upon this for special purposes of the anti-foreign crusade was cleverly grafted a cult of occultism, well calculated to attract the ignorant and superstitious. Full membership was held to confer immunity from bullets, to enable initiates to walk on air, and to do many miraculous things. The propaganda, with this attractive embroidery, soon made itself felt in the fertile soil of Chinese nationalism. Numbers flocked to the Boxers' standards wherever they were raised, and soon the outside world had evidence of the tendencies of the movement.

The first symptom of the outbreak was rioting in Southern Pechili in January, 1900. No steps were taken by the authorities to quell the disturbances, and as they were gradually assuming a more serious aspect, the diplomatic representatives at Peking, on January 27th, made a joint protest to the Tsung li Yamen, demanding the publication of an edict proscribing the Boxer organisation and their doctrines. The Chinese authorities after their usual manner, attempted to evade responsibility, but, finding that the European powers were in earnest, they intimated that they would issue the required edict. A proclamation of some kind was made, but it