THE ARMING OF CHINA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12860, 8 May 1905, Page 3

THE ARMING OF CHINA.

;500,006' Men TRAINED on' japanes* ; METHODS. :" _.'-. NEW CHINESE WAR OFFICE. CHINA A GREAT TOWER IN FIVHj YEARS' TIME. Soke remarkable information (says the Hongkong correspondent of the London) livening Standard) is contained in a repora which was recently sent in to the Governor* General of the Trench Indo-Chinese Em« pire, and'a copy of which, is, as lam in* formed on unquestionable authority, now iti possession of the military authorities iuf Paris. Tins report was, drawn up from thai notes of two. French officers who; from tlieiif long and intimate .knowledge of Chinese) military methods, dating back for twenty, years, were , authorised by tho Governor-* General * of."Cochin-Chin a to undertake '$» special mission in China, whare they harej remained for IS months in different parts of tho Empire.' According to this reports the Imperial -Chinese "Government will, in; five years' time, be in possession of a per* feetly trained, officered,, and equipped active! army of 500.000 men, controlled by a gene-;' nil stall,, every ..member 'of which lias served) for several years iictlie'Japanese array. .1, The. main, lines of the above '.'report— and! i I 'only able. ,lo give an outline of it* contents —go .to , show.- that the latest attempt by -the Imperial'.Chinese Government at forming-, a,-great, military organisation mnst.be" taken seriously. It is the out,conle of" the revelation'of a plan drawn up' some'time ago by Sir, Robert Hart for tho Imperial Government, ..which .was supposed;" to'remain a secret. L . In 'this plan Sir Robert Hart: suggested a scheme for the existence- of lour Chinese army" corps of 50,000. men each. When'the'-.existence of this plait' was revealed, some surprise was felt that a. man of .Sir Robert; Hart's pacific character should , have 'fathered - a project which, i£ carried' out, -would' make China- a military. Power formidable, at ail'events,.'in'the Fan East' '■', The; request to Sir. Robert Hart that he should devise' plan, and its- ultimate revelation by secret agents of the Imperial Government, were, however, simply part o£ a stratagem devised by the Chinese Govern* ment itself. lis object was to have an excuse for setting on foot the important military organisation which had already been, devised for China by tho Japanese general. staff. "You see"—appeared to say to the European Powers, the guileless Chinaman "You see how necessary it is that 1 should) set about defending my house, since even' Sir Robert Hart, a European, thinks it advisable to draw up a plan for the defence o£. China." THE TENTH ATTEMPT. ' -V

The report to which I allude, points outi that this is at, least the 10th attempt ajj military organisation in China since 186C. t The present attempt differs entirely, how* • ever, from all preceding efforts. In thai first place, the new army is being incorporate' e.l directly by the. Pekin Government, by thtf Empress and the Court, and not by the vice* roys. Indeed, it is to bo an Imperial army, quite independent of the provincial forces raised by the viceroys, forces which are corn* posed generally of the rabble of the. Chinese population. Moreover, for the first time ihY■'] Chinese military history, a complete general staff has boon formed, every member of which 1 is a highly-trained Chinese officer, who has served for a period of five years in the Japanese army. -V The new organisation' is centred in tha "Lien-Piug-Fou," or, Superior Council of War at Pekin, where six military bureaux* entirely started by trained Chinese officers, are engaged in the incorporation of the new, 4 force. This organisation is nominally pre*.' sided over by Prince Ching, the close friend) and adviser of the Do wager-Empress.. (Prince Ching, who is an aged-man, is President. OS the Lien-Ping-Fou, but the real head off affairs is the Vice-President. Yuan-Chi-Kaij , the energetic Viceroy ofPechili. . ; .,..',■'. THE OLD STYLE AND THE NEW. ":V China has been mapped out by the " Lien* Ping- into 20 territorial military dis-f tricts, consisting of the 18 central provinces,,' of Turkestan, and of Pekin and its suburbs. In each " district" two complete ■divisions''-' are being raised. The division includes 12 •battalions •of infantry, one regiment of ■• cavalry, three of artillery, and a company off engineers, with commissariat and transport! corps. The whole of these troops are now ■• being enlisted, as fast as there are sufficient} trained Chinese officers to command them, ' It is needless to add that the old Chinesp' officers whose military examination consisted/ of firing at a target with bows and arrows-, and of lifting heavy weights to show'their I strength, have long since been relegated toll 1 the background. ....';■ The men are being enlisted for nine Years,- [ throe with the colours, throe in the. first ire-' serve, with two months' training in each' year, and three in the second reserve, with at' fortnight's training ,in each Year. At th»' present time there are 700 Chinese military cadets serving in the Government Military.' Academies of-Japan, and during the ' last ; two years 670 Chines© officers, after passing! their examinations in Japan, and serving fori a period of at least two years in the Japa-i nese army, have returned to China to form' the framework of the new Imperial Chinese! 1 army.

GERMAN V. JAPANESE METHODS.;: According to the report, it is not in Ja« pan alone that the Chinese staff of officer* I is being educated, but also in the Chinese Government military schools '.-Nankin and Wb-chang, pod elsewhere. I These schools are directed by a complete staff of German and Japanese officers. The difference of teaching between the German and the .Japanese methods gave serious concern to ™ Chinese general staff, and in April,! 1904, as the result of a report: drawn up in;! March, it was decreed that Japanese army! regulations should be adopted in the fin J 1 penal Chinese army to the exclusion of: all others. Japanese influence is now paramount in the military schools of China, and this influence will, of course, bo greatly, strengthened as a result of the present war. The German officers in China have conformed their teaching to the new regulations.

lhe Government schools at Nankin and \\o-chaag are equal in organisation and' results, says the report, to the French' school of St. Cyr and to the English school of Woolwich. There are several prepara-' tory military schools, the pupils of which, have to pass a stiff examination to get into one of the two Chinese military academies,) and a higher examination still to be sent to Japan. These preparatory schools form officers who, if necessity arose, would make non-commissioned officers superior to those of the Japanese or the British Indian (native) armies. Tho Chinese military academies pas. an average of 800 officers every, year, after a severe examination, bo that, with the contingent from Japan, about 1000 highly-trained Chinese officers are coming out of the schools annually, and are being sent to take up the organisation of the new Imperial army.

REVISING A PROVERB. 'ihi- Imperial Government ha; invited every Mandarin to send at least one of his sons to these schools, which arc now crowded with the most intelligent classes of the Empire. The old Chinese contempt for military institutions is fast dying out, and in a few years the Chinese proverb about " Never taking an honest man to make a. soldier of him" will—according to the report—bo a thing of the past. b If the present policy can be carried out without a break—and unless there is financial difficulty—the Chinese General Staff anticipate that in 1910 it. will bo in command of a perfectly trained and equipped force of 500,000 officers and men, with a first reserve of altogether an army ;of 700,000 men.

The French officers consider that he Climes© soldier has been greatly libelled,' They say that soldiers of any country, if com. <• nianded by incapable officers, cannot be expected to display-much hrgyery, ; arid, they echo the favourable opinion's—which - : they citeof the late General Gordon and of Lord Wolseley as to the militarv qualities of the Chinese. Now that the Chinese sol- '''M dier is about to be commanded by competent officers he may bo expected to display as much courage and bra wry as the soldiers '.*' of any European nation. The rifle-shooting . standard of the Chinese soldier is somewhat "> low, owing to his generally defective eyesight, but as. on the other hand, he is not impressionable, he shows great coolness under fire (for example, at Tien-tain during Boxer troubles), so that his average shooting works 3 out as high as the infantry soldiers of most other rower:-;. . <. . » Full details of uniform, arming, and equipment axe given in the report, which con- -- : eludes with the opinion that,, unless some great change takes place in the present course of events, China within fire vears will become a first-class military Power, which ' must be looked troon in the "light of a menace tO ( the French Indo-Chinese Empire. _ "In a feu years' time," remarked a sinilmar, spectacled Chinese staff . officer to the French Consul at -Shanghai, "you Europeans " . will no longer dare to exclude i educated Chinamen from the garden on the Bund where the 'band plays, « nor. refuse ; them ad« , ' : niittantx to your clubs, for we shall'be niae- ; ; i'era'of our own country." ' "