CHINA AND THE POWERS

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4301, 9 March 1901, Page 5

CHINA AND THE POWERS

DEVELOPMENT OF RUSSIAN POLICY.

THE MANCHURIAN CONVENTION

TERRITORIAL CONCESSIONS,

LONDON, 1 March 7The “Standard” states that the Manchurian Convention between Russia and China has been finally sivaed. Mukden is this outside the cognisance of the Ministers of the Powers in Pekin. The “Morning Post” states that Russia has annexed Kmchau, seventv-five miles north-west of Niuchwang, claimed all industrial concessions in Mongolia as far as Kashgar and Turkestan, and insists on building the Manchuria-Pekin railway. Tho fact of Japan having mentioned that she required an equivalent for the concessions granted to Russia, coupled with the withdrawal of her troops from China, is interpreted as meaning that she is receiving the province of Fokien, the maritime province in South China, in which the treaty port of Foochow is situated. ,It is said that Britain advised China to defeo - ratification of the Manchurian agreement and consult the Powers.

THE AUSTRALIAN CONTINGENT. LONDON, March 7. Lieutenant-General Gaselee made a farewell inspection of the Australian Contingent prior to their return. He warmly complimented them on their smartness, willingness and efficiency.

—AT the "MAILED FIST” MEANS Of living Englishmen there is no greater authority on China than Sir Robert Hart, Director of Chinese Maritime Customs, who has lived in the East for upwards of forty years. Since the relief of the Legations at Pekin, where he was besieged). Sir Robert has written from the Chinese capital two notable artiales to English magazines. The latest, ‘China and Reconstruction/’ appears in the “Fortnightly Review” for January, in which the writer says:—From Taku to Pekin the foreigner has marched triumphantly. There have been only a few fights; every foot of the way lias not had to be contested, yet every hamlet, or village or town along the way has tie mark of the avenger upon it. Populations have disappeared—houses and buildings' have been destroyed—and crops are rotting all over the country in the absence of reapers. Remembering how these places teemed with happy, contented, industrious people last spring, it is hard to realise that autumn does not find them there; they have all vanished, and along the hundred and twenty miles between beach and capital scarcely a sign of life is to be seen. One cannot help sorrowing over the necessity or the fatality which brought about such woe and desolation. Much of the destruction was doubtless the work of Chinese soldiers and volunteers, but, according to all accounts, what they left we gleaned, and, if report speaks true, ■ little mercy -was felt, and less displayed, by some at least wherever living Chinese of any age or sex happened to be, fallen in with. The days of Taepingdbm, when native warred with native, showed nothing worse. The warriors ,of this new century can bo as brutal, with all their wonderful discipline and up-to-date weapons, as were ever the savages of earlier times with tomahawk, boomerang or assegai. The puzzle is to explain why it should have been so. or forecast the consequences in the future—will brand and sword have produced that wholesome fear which must blossom into goodwill, or only a gruesome terror to be replaced by nothing but hate and a lust for vengeance? . . . It 'must be allowed the relief force (marching to the, relief of the Legations) was right to strain every nerve—right to strike terror along the route while pressing . forward to the rescue, nor is it unnatural to expect that fitting" punishment would be meted out, one© arrived, alike to officials who. more or less, took active part in the lawless proceedings, and to a population that moved not a finger to prevent it. And yet, looking back at it all and granting that fires and plunderings in the capital I were mainly the work of soldiers and Box- j ers, it does seem a pity that the warriors | of Christian Powers should have made j things worse. Could not discipline and fine feeling have put an earlier check on the men, and placed revenge on a higher plane? . What With commandeering here, looting there, carrying off souvenirs elsewhere, and brutal assaults on the poor women who had not been able to leave i the city with the other fugitives, private; property in temporarily deserted houses disappeared, and the comparatively small number of Chinese who remained drank to the dregs the cup of a new misery The haste with which expeditionary force had been assembled, the difficulties of transport and provisioning, and the c«s-, sation of all local trading must of course be regarded as excuses for the license with, which men of allc-classes were laid j hold of to work and edibles of all kinds' taken possession of wherever found, but, all this seemed to argue a want or neglect j of organisation that surprised, and suggested how easily a retrogression to barbarism might spring up ■ like, a weed I amongst the flowers of civilisation Strangely enongb. the quarter of the misgoverned by the "Japanese was speedily j seen to be the best administered; morel lucky than others in knowing beforehand in what Government buildings and public establishments official moneys were deposited. it may be a fact that they secured more sycee than all the others put together, but they kept their hands off tha people and their discipline; regulations and method were such that they-—new to the humane civilisation of which the others were the creators and children—very soon inspired confidence, re-estab-lished order, re-opened markets, and made life livable, while some of their colleagues allowed a state of affairs to spring up and continue which was quite the reverse. Why this superiority on the one side, and this inferiority—even if only temporary on the other? The men of one flag showed their detestation of the most ancient of civilisations by the wanton destruction of whatever they, could not carry off; those of another preached the gospel of cleanliness by shooting down anybody who created a nuisance in public; while those of a third spread their ideas on the sanctity of family life £y breaking into private houses and ravishing the women and girls they found there. . . . Was this the best? . * . Even some missionaries took such a leading part in '‘spoiling the Egyptian** that a bystander was heard to say, "For a century to come Chinese'converts will consider looting and vengeance Christian virtues. 5 *