The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 1901. THE RETREAT FROM CHINA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 132, 5 June 1901, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 1901. THE RETREAT FROM CHINA.

For the canes that lacks assistance, T?or the wrong that nseda rcsiataaco, for tho future In the di3tar.cc>, jnd the good that we con do.

The withdrawal of rhe Allies frotn Peking .seem? to be hailed by most of .the European Powers as a happy release from an intolerable position. A very few months have elapsed since Europe started on its crusade, confident that a few thousand troops would

be sufficient to reorganise; the social and political affairs of four hundred million Chinese. Just at the present time it does not seem convenient for ibe Powers to recall their protestations of disinterested magnanimity. They are busily engaged in calculating the maximum amount of indemnity that can be extorted from China. But,

apart from this, it is not very easy to say what the}' have gained by this muddled and disorderly attempt to .solve the Far Eastern problem. The Legations were certainly saved; but this was a mere casual incident—a

piece of by-play in the original programme. Are law and order restored in China? Is the country safer than it was for the European or the native Christian? Is there less likelihood than before, of a recurrence of these chronic outbursts of popular feeling against, the "foreign devil"? Have the Allies, during their occupation, conciliated the goodwill or earned the confidence of the Orientals? None of these questions can be answered except in the negative. The relief of the Legations and the punishment of the Boxer leaders was necessary. But beyond this, it would not be easy to say what the Western world has gained by its attempt to overcome the East.

But il is not only a consciousness of their own futility that has compelled the lowers to withdraw their troops. The climate of China at this season is almost unbearable to Europeans. The troops have no definite object, or regular employment, and thisj means that, discipline is fast breaking down among1 them. The dangerous friction between the soldiers of rival nationalities has several Limes culminated in open violence. Xot long- since German soldiers waylaid the British and American Ministers, and beat their bearers. Now we learn that a pitched battle has taken place between a British detachment and a body of French and German.*. It is no longer a question whether it is safe to withdraw the European troops: but whether it is wi.se to keep them .there any longer. They certainly seem to be doing- no good to China.

The "Times" Peking correspondent asserts that Northern China is in a condition of absolute anarchy. Between flying columus of Europeans and Chinese marauders, and blackmailers and Boxers, the country round Peking is in a most deplorable state; and Dr. Morrison declares that after eight months of European occupation the anti-foreign feeling is stronger than it was in the days of the Boxer triumph. Trade is paralysed, famine is widespread, the natives are reduced to a condition of reckless despair. All this is perfectly manifest to the European commandants, and we can sympathise with their desire to be released as speedily as possible from their difficult and dang-erous position. When they go they will leave behind them a reputation for brutality and ferocity which the French and Russian troops at least seem to have fully deserved, and which will render any real confidence or sympathy between Chinese and Europeans even more improbable tlian it was before the Boxer rising.

Yet though the main purposes of the Allies have 'failed, the Chinese expedition has incidentally produced some very important results. Russia, carriftl away bjr her arrogant contempt for the rights of other nations, has met with the first serious cheek that her Eastern policy has yet sustained. The distinct refusal of the Chinese Government to sign, the Manchuriau Convention has dealt a serious blow to Russinn prestige. . The shook: is the priore severe because it is notorious throughout the East that .China's re fusal was instigated by Japan and Great Britain. It has at last been made clear to Oriental eyes that Russia will not fight to sustain her extravagant pretensions; and the defeat of M. de Giers and his friends is all the more galling to them because ii amounts to a proof of the predominance of Japan in the Far East. The repulse of Russia means further that the' reactionary policy of the Dowager Empress and Li Hung Chang has been discredited in the eyes of the Chinese. The result has already been an outburst of popular feeling absolutely unparalleled in the experience of that conventional and conservative nation. The Yang-tse Viceroys, who protested against the surrender of Maachum, used language of most exceptional bcldnes.s. Mass meetings were held, protests appeared m Chinese newspapers, telegrams weTe even sent direct to the Emperor, expressing the iudig-

nation of his subjects at the dishonesty and cupidity of Russia. The result of all this is that for the first time in Chinese history the Emperor win depend upon the support of a compact body of public opinion, representing all classes of his .subjects, who are anxious to maintain the integrity of the Empire, and set; no help except in a complete ' renovation of its social, official, and political life. But this is only an indirect result of the pressure that Europe has brought to bear upon China. For the original purposes which it contemplated, the European concert has shown itself as incapable as it was proved to be by the Cretan

war and the Armenian massacres