GERMAN MISMANAGEMENT IN CHINA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 45, 22 February 1901, Page 4

GERMAN MISMANAGEMENT IN CHINA.

The appointment of Count Yon Waldersee to the position of Commander of the Allied Forces in China was welcomed as a happy solution of v serious difficulty. Subsequent events have rendered a cordial understanding with Germany highly acceptable, lo England. But it cannot be denied that the conduct of ithe German forces in China has failed to give much satisfaction to anyone but themselves. We may say at once ! that no charges of systematic brujiiilitv or cruelly have been brought i against the Germans. The American, j iCnglish. and Japanese observers on I (he spot agree that the strict discipline, of the German troops has ef- ! fectually prevented such outrages as I have stained the record of the French jand (he Russians. Yet the Americans I have good grounds for the protest I they have just made against the mischievous activity of the German forces in the Province of Chi-li. There is no other European in China a 1 the present time who, as a critic of current events, deserves so much attention as Dr. .Morrison, the famous Peking correspondent of the "Times." He is still at his post, doing- his duty, as his premature obituary notice phrased it, with the accuracy of a historian and the, ability of a statesman, and his judgment "goes strongly against the German management of the situation. In the first place he considers that Hie Germans have been fur too indiscriminate in the punishments they have inflicted. The innocent have. suffered with the guilty; villages friendly to the foreigners, or pacified before the Germans arrived in China, I have been pillaged; the authority of the local officials has been destroyed, and many districts already cleared of Boxers ' have lapsed back into unnirchy1. Two striking illustrations of these cTTargen are worth quoting. When Count Yon Waldersee arrived, he gave lo Li Hung (hang a map of I Chi-li, limiting the area to be occupied by German troops. Beyond this limit was ihe town of Tsung-ehow, where . General Mci, a humane and enlightened official, was doing his best to put down the Boxers. He had several of them iv prison awaiting trial, when, in December last, a German expeditionary force appeared. They levied a line on the town, x'rove Mci away to Shan-ttmg, confiscated Ihe arms of the local soldiers, and 'let the imprisoned Boxers loose. As' I they then marched off to repeat the j process somewhere else, the town .and district, left defenceless, at once j fell a prey 10 the lawless bands which the native authorities had hitherto repressed. All that is im- • I puled, it will be observed, is excess ■!>f zeal, coupled with an absolute igj noranee of ihe Chinese and their

v.nys. This inability to distinguish Boxers from harmless villagers led fo a most unfortunate episode at Yung Ching. T*asl October General Richardson levied a line of £0000 on the 1 own for the murder of two Englishmen: and he then gave the Chief Magistrate a written guarantee that no other punishment would be inflicted. The mandarin promised to put down ihe Hovers, and faithfully kept his word. Hut in December a force of Germans swooped down upon the city. They . seem to have imagined that they had discovered a community of Boxers and acted accordingly." They seized the town, imprisoned the mandarin, killed nearly 100 police and villagers—including ,-i prominent Christian convert—and liberated six Boxers who were in prison awaiting execution. It was all perfectly business like, and only too plainly inspired by the Kaiser's nnfoifrunUte Bremerhaven speech. But it was certainly not calculated to inspire the Chinese with confidence in the European sense of justice. That, briefly, is the complaint against the policy of Count Yon Waldersee. It has not been dictated by experienced knowledge of the people or the eonntrv. and, instead of producing order, it* results in anarchy.

Dr. Morrison is inclined to take a very serious view of the situation, lie considers that the attempt to pursue the Chinese Emperor to Si-ngan-fu will only drive him to Kashgar or some other inaccessible retreat, atid he. urges that punitive expeditions should" be stopped at oiw-e. Moreover he thinks that the prestige of Great Britain'is suffering- severely from the public subordination of her forces, to the German Commander; ami that it is advisable to detach the British troops and place them under an English leader. The "Times" ob-

serves-"that Count Yon Waldersee has appointed none mil Cierman officers to his staff; anil regrets his comparative ignorance of the East and its vvavs. No one accustomed, to Ihe Oriental point of view would have allowed the German troops to pull clown the sacred examination, buildings for firewood. It may be added that no one anxious to conciliate the English community in China would have seized the Peking Club-house find confiscated its belongings. But these are small matters beside the o-eneral question of an eifcetive European policy; and there seems grave reason to doubt whether Count Yon Waldersee is taking the best means to attain the end desired by the majority of the European Powers.