CHINA and the CHINESE. HOW THE CHINESE ARE INCITED TO KILL THE "FOREIGN DEVIL"

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 196, 18 August 1900, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHINA and the CHINESE.

HOW THE CHINESE ARE INCITED TO KILL THE "FOREIGN DEVIL"

FACTS ABOUT THE COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE. .

A BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF PEKIN:

THE .FOSSILISED TSUNG LI

YAMEX.

Miss Eliza Ruhamah Scidniore, an insatiable traveller, who has visited China seven times within the last fifteen years, has just published an interesting book bearing the tille "China, the Long-Lived Empire. The Board of the Tsung-li-Yamen, so conspicuous at the present moment, is, according to Miss Scidmore, composed of old fossils, long since past their usefulness. It is not even housed within the imperial city.

"Ministers have always a lonpf, slow ride in shite across the shabby gateway of the forlorn old yamiui, where now eleven aged, sleepy incompetents muddle with, foreign affairs. As these eleven elders have reached sneh posts by steady advances, they are always septuagenarians worn out with the exacting, empty, routine rites and functions of such high office, and physically too exhausted by their midnight rides to and sunrise departures from the palace to begin fitly the day's tedium at the dilapidated Tsung-li-Yamen. The appointment for an interview Avith the non-committal, irresponsible board must be made beforehand, the Minister and his secretaries are always kept waiting, and the inner reception room swarms with gapingl attendants during an interview. Once the American Minister made a vigorous protest, and refused to conduct any negotiations while there were underlings in the room; and as it was business that the Chinese government wished conducted, minions were summarily cast out —cast out to the other side of the many-hinged, latticed doors, where they scuffled aud-

know, before it is delivered to its, and the cipher codes give them rare ideas."

Every servant in a foreign establishment in Pekin is a spy and informer of some degree; espionage is a regular business; and the table-talk, visiting list, dinner list, card tray, and

SIR CLAUDE MACDONALD, scrap basket, with full accounts of all coming's and going's and sayings and doings, of any envoy or foreigner in Pekin are regularly offered for purchase by recognised purveyors of such news. One often catches a glimpse of concentrated attention on the face of

the tnrbaned servants standing1 behind dining-room chairs that convinces one of this feature of capital life. Diplomatic secrets are fairly impossible in such an atmosphere. Every secret convention and concession is soon blazoned abroad. Every word the British Minister uttered at the

v- - "itish Minisier in Pekin. Tatnig-li-Yamen was reported to the Russian legation with almost electric promptness, until the envoy threatened to suspend negotiations and withdraw. Wily concessionaires know each night where their rivals are dining and what they have said;' whether

1 Chenmen Gate; 2, U.S. Legation; 3, German Legation; 4, Hong Kong Bank; 5, Social Club; G, Methodist Mission- 7 Eussian Legation; B,;French Legation; 9, British Legation; 10, Japanese Legation; 11, Spanish Legation- I°' Custom House- 13, Fren-h Hotel; 14, Ambassadors' Gate; 15, Roman Catholic Mission; 16, American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions; 17, Austro-Hungarian Legation; 18, Presbyterian Mission; 19, Sep Tang Cathedral (Roman Catholic); 21, Protestant Episcopal College; 22, Pey Tcng Cathedral (Koman Catholic); A. Railway Station at Machiapo—the Terminus of the Railway from Tien-tsin; B, Irolley Line from Station to South Gate; C, South Gate; D, Tung-cho Gate. ■ . '■' ■

(From the- "Illustrated Missionary News.") '■■::•}

ibly for first places at cracks and knot-holes. The other envoys : would not sustain the American protest, and soon the farce of the empty room was played to an end, and the servants came in with their pipes and fans, tea and cake an.d candles, as usual; stood about, commented on, and fairly took part in the diplomatic conversations, as before. unconscionable time is always consumed in offering and arranging the teas and sweets, and to any direct questions these Celestial statesmen always answer with praises of the melon-seeds or ginger-irfoot. "Lowering buckets into a bottomless well," was Sir Harry Parkes' comparison for an audience at this yamun.. "I.go. to the yamen.by appointment at a certain hour," said one diplomat, "and while I am waiting my usual wait in those dirty, cold rooms, the ashsifter comes in and wants to know if I think there will be war between this and that European power; because, mind you, some peculiar telegrams have just arrived for those legations. Every legation telegram is read and discussed at the yamen, you

any piece of written paper has passed, and what has gone on at each legation in Pekin nnd each consulate at Tien Tsin. Every legation key-hole, crack, and chink has its eye and ear at critical .times, and by a multiplication in imagination one arrives at an idea of what the palace may be like." What can. one expect of a country where everything- is, done in topsyturvy fashion. .It is known that "the X^alace awakens at twilight and is busiest when graveyards yawn, and that imperial owls have long chosen to bestir themselves only while their toiling millions slept."

. M. PICLON- , .-. (The French Minister in Pekin).