PREVIOUS WAR IN CHINA

Southland Times, Issue 23308, 18 September 1937, Page 7

PREVIOUS WAR IN CHINA

Japanese Triumphs

In 1894-95

ATTEMPT ON CHINESE ENVOY RECALLED

“We, by the Grace of Heaven, Emperor of Japan, seated on a throne occupied by the same dynasty from time immemorial, do hereby make proclamation to all our brave and loyal subjects as follows: —

We hereby declare war gainst China, and we command each and all of our competent authorities to carry on hostilities, by . sea and by land, against China consistently with the

law of nations. • Thus began, in the language of majesty, the declaration of war by Japan against China, on August 1, 1894, writes J. Leslie Williams in The Sydney Morning Herald. The war. was not great in itself, but it was an event of the highest importance in that Japan then revealed herself, to an astonished world, as a great Power. Although the declaration of war was not made until August 1, hostilities had broken out a week before, and they continued until March 1895, their mainspring being rivalry over Korea. Big, inefficient China foolishly drifted into war with little, energetic Japan, whom China, in her unchanging conservatism, looked down upon as an upstart; and then Japan, with the efficiency and discipline jf a well-trained European Power, proceeded from victory to victory almost unchecked. The great fortress of Port Arthur was taken in one day. Well-fortified Wei Hai-wei was captured (and with it the Chinese fleet lying there) in two weeks. And Japan, having command of the Gulf of Pechili, was in a position to advance on Peiping. The Chinese early threw out feelers for peace, but it was not until the veteran Li Hung-chang, the most-pow-erful and distinguished statesman in China, went to Japan, with full power to negotiate a treaty, that the Government of Japan would even consider the matter. An armistice was refused except upon most onerous conditions. JAPANESE ASHAMED Then in a flash (literally) the scene changed. Li Hung-chang had entered his palanquin, after attending a session of the peace conference, when a Japanese rushed forward and fired a pistol, wounding the old statesman in the Over Japan came a burning sense of shame. This dastardly attempt to assassinate China’s most distinguished subject while he was the guest of Japan wounded Japan’s high sense of honour to the quick, and she did everything possible to atone for it. The Emperor granted an armistice without onerous conditions. In addition, he sent his own physician to attend to the illustrious sufferer; the Empress herself prepared bandages for the wound. Every day letters poured in from all parts of Japan expressing abhorrence of the crime. This honourable atonement had a favourable reaction in China, and facilitated the conclusion of peace. China paid an indemnity of £30,000,000 and ceded the large island of Formosa, with the Pescadore Islands nearby, to Japan. She also opened several more Chinese cities and rivers to Japanese trade, and agreed to cede the Liaotung Peninsula, at the point of which is Port Arthur. This last cession was not carried into effect. Russia, France and Germany jointly advised Japan not to take over the peninsula, and such “advice” could not wisely be ignored. A historian who was a member. of a diplomatic mission to Korea, writing under the pen-name “Vladimir,” in 1896, described the renaissance of Japan, and concluded, “The war is an event which has already produced great results, and it bids fair to produce even greater ones and to rank as one of the great events of this century. Indeed, for the magnitude, nature, and duration of its results, we think it will rank as the great war of the century.” What a prophet!