Chapter IX: Russia, France, and England in the Far East in 1895–97

The immediate results of the war—Issue of an important Chinese
loan—Russia becomes guarantee for China, and in return obtains the
right to construct the Manchurian Railway—Ability of Russian
diplomacy in Korea—Faults and abuses of the Japanese in that
country—Revolution in the Korean palace at Seoul—The King of Korea
under the protection of Russia—Preponderance of Muscovite
influences in the Far East at the beginning of 1897—Important
advantages obtained by the Tsar’s allies—Apparent
disinterestedness of Germany—Treaty with France signed on June
20th, 1895—Energy of the French Minister—French protectorate over
the Catholics of the East—Efforts made by England in 1896 to
regain her influence at Peking—Anglo-Chinese Convention, February
4th, 1897—Opening of the West River to European navigation—A few
fresh concessions granted to France in 1897.

In the events which have transpired in the Far East since the War, and which have led to the present situation, two distinct phases mark the violent aggression of Kiao-chau. The first extends from the spring of 1895 to the autumn of 1897, and is that in which the Powers, after having come to China’s assistance, obtained from her concessions in return for their good offices, whilst pretending moderation in their demands.

Altogether, the most important consequence of the War was the establishment of a heavy foreign debt. Hitherto China had only contracted in Europe insignificant loans of a few millions of francs. During hostilities her foreign indebtedness rose to £7,000,000, a mere trifle, and, moreover, the lenders were in possession of excellent security; but the War Indemnity and other urgent expenses necessary for the rehabilitation of the country mounted up to £48,000,000, so that now the interest on this debt, taking the rate at 5 per cent., would absorb £2,400,000, and, by adding the arrears of already existing loans, this figure would attain about £2,800,000, equivalent to nearly the whole of the Customs revenue. The Customs duties are paid in silver, but it would be absolutely necessary to stipulate, if a considerable loan is to be floated on the European market, that the interest should be paid in gold. The question, therefore, very naturally arises whether, in view of so small a margin, the fluctuations in the value of silver, which have already caused the _hai-kwan_ taël to fall from 6s. 7d., its value a quarter of a century ago, to 2s. 10d., the average rate since 1897, will not sooner or later result in the Customs receipts proving insufficient to cover the payment of the arrears. Nobody in his senses would dream of lending money to China on the mere security of her general resources, and she would, consequently, be obliged to assign to her creditors new securities, and place in their hands the administration of new branches of revenue. On the other hand, stripped of about £2,800,000 from the total revenue, which the most optimistic estimate gives at £24,000,000, she would have to look for new channels to add to her income, either by increasing the taxes, or by permitting foreigners to exploit the resources of the country, conceding to them railway and mining concessions on the basis of leases or joint profits. The first proposal ran the risk of unpopularity; the second was more tempting, but it meant the introduction into the country of that very Western civilization which the Chinese Government had opposed with all its might for the last fifty years.

The monetary difficulties of the Celestial Empire brought about a renewed interference by Europeans in her affairs, if only in the collecting of the taxes, and, also, a sort of financial embargo, the dangers of which are sufficiently manifest in countries like Egypt. The Government of Peking was well aware of this, and, therefore, spared no effort in obtaining a reduction on the £34,500,000 War Indemnity, and even attempted to arrive at an understanding with Japan respecting the retrocession of Liao-tung without supplementary disbursement.

The great importance of this money question was nowhere better understood than at St. Petersburg, and one cannot help admiring the boldness and ability of the policy pursued by Russia. That countries like France and England, literally overflowing with money, should have ventured to secure a preponderating position in China by means of financial manœuvrings is not at all to be wondered at; but that Russia, already heavily indebted with a public foreign debt amounting to over £240,000,000, should have been shrewd enough to subject China to a sort of vassalage, through the pecuniary services she rendered her, was indeed a masterly achievement.

M. de Witte, the Tsar’s Minister of Finance, who devised this remarkable scheme and conducted it to a triumphant issue over the head of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, exhibited throughout the rarest political ability and foresight combined with business acumen. Russia was unable to lend China money, but she was willing to become her guarantor, and thus enable the Celestial Empire, backed by the principal banks of Paris, where Russian funds were at their height, to float a loan of £16,000,000 at 4 per cent. issued at ninety-four—that is to say, at the same issue price at which, before this security was granted, the French and German financial houses had offered to raise a loan at 5 per cent. The annual interest to be paid by China, thanks to Russian intervention, was thus reduced by a fifth, whereby the Celestials, although they obtained a bargain, at the same time committed a grave political error.

In accepting a foreign Power as guarantor, the Chinese Government rendered itself responsible to that Power only, and placed her financial and, above all, her political independence in far greater peril than she could have done had she negotiated directly with individual capitalists of various nationalities, whose pressure, in case of non-payment, would have been considerably weakened by the inevitable differences which would subsist between their Governments. This danger seems to have been thoroughly understood at Peking, where the necessary documents were not signed until the expiration of the last day’s delay granted by Russia, and then only under extreme pressure, because the Chinese Government had evidently failed to find assistance elsewhere.

The Government of St. Petersburg, well pleased with this success, proceeded to strengthen its policy in China by further financial operations, and with the assistance of the Bank of Russia next created the Russo-Chinese Bank, Parisian financiers supplying the greater part of the capital, but leaving the direction of affairs almost exclusively in Russian hands. The Comptoir d’Escompte transferred its agencies in China to Russia, and the new bank established at the same time branches at Peking, Tien-tsin, Shanghai, and Hankow. Since then this bank has continued to be the principal agent of Russian influence in China, and undoubtedly it was at first almost entirely through its mediation that Russia negotiated the concession of the East Chinese Railway, which enabled her to continue her Trans-Siberian Railway southward through Manchuria, thus shortening the original line by several hundred miles, and enabling it to pass within 350 miles of the Gulf of Pe-chi-li. Russia, moreover, obtained the authorization to protect the works by her own troops, whereby she made herself mistress of Manchuria, whence she was able to dominate Peking until events allowed her to occupy Liao-tung.

Whilst she was amply paid for her services by China, Russia made herself no less active in Korea. The Japanese, who had occupied that country, perpetrated error on error. They had attempted to impose upon the Koreans with great abruptness the most varied and radical reforms. Many of these were possibly useful enough, but they ought to have been introduced with discretion; others were unnecessary, and greatly irritated the people by wounding their most cherished customs and traditions. The Koreans, although not particularly clean in their habits, are invariably clad in white, are, moreover, addicted to smoking very long pipes, and to rolling their hair up into a huge chignon, which they surmount by an enormously broad-brimmed hat, whose crown is so small that they are obliged to fasten it to their heads by a long string. The Mikado issued a sumptuary law against long pipes, chignons, and wide-brimmed hats, and, moreover, ordered that the traditional white robe should henceforth be replaced by the dark-blue one usually worn by the Japanese. It is said that this unfortunate incident was the result of a conviction that Koreans, being obliged to hold their pipe with one hand, and to balance their enormous hats with the other, could never become hard workers. Be this as it may, the Japanese sentinels at the gates of Seoul made life unendurable to the unfortunate Koreans. Armed with a big pair of scissors, they pounced upon the unfortunate peasants as they entered the town on their way to market, and cut not only the strings of their monumental hats, but severed their beloved chignons, and shortened by at least three-quarters of their length the stems of their pipes—arbitrary measures well calculated to break their hearts with mortification and vexation of spirit. It is not to be wondered at that such impolitic conduct, added to occasional acts of violence, soon roused the indignation and hatred of the natives, otherwise a very inoffensive and peaceable people. On October 7, 1895, the Korean Queen was murdered in her palace by assassins in the pay of the Japanese, and with the complicity of the Legation. King Li-Hsi, a very poor creature at the best, whose reign has been one tissue of Court intrigue and palace revolution, after the assassination of the Queen, fell into a consternation of abject terror, completely abdicating his regal authority, and became so degraded that he even consented to sign an edict insulting the memory of the late Queen, and accusing her of shameful crimes. Innocent persons were now executed at Seoul as guilty of the murder, whereas the actual assassins were acquitted by a self-constituted Japanese tribunal.

In the meantime Russia very ably exploited the general discontent, and in an underhand manner offered her services to the timid King, who was not only terribly afraid of the Japanese, but also of his father, the Tai-wen-kun, a ferocious old gentleman, whose ambition had disturbed Korea for over twenty years, and who had been raised to power by the natives. His Majesty seemed disposed to accept the Russian proposal, but dared not leave his palace, in which he was kept a close prisoner. A riot ensued, whether spontaneous or provoked has never been divulged, which, on the night of February 11, 1896, offered him a chance of escape. The Tai-wen-kun was killed, and Li-Hsi obtained shelter at the Russian Legation, then guarded by a detachment of sailors fresh landed at Chemulpo, the port of Seoul, without any attempt on the part of the Japanese to prevent them. Li-Hsi, once safe in the house of the Russian Minister, where all the members of the Korean Government had found shelter, acted like a King in a comic opera, and became the plaything of Russia, precisely as he had recently been of Japan. He forthwith revoked all the reforming edicts he had previously signed, and annulled the decree degrading the memory of the unfortunate Queen, the trial of whose assassins took place in a High Court presided over by judges selected from various European nationalities, with the result that the responsibility for her murder was thrown on the Japanese.

The reactionary movement now became violent, and many useful reforms had perforce to disappear. A committee, composed of the highest native functionaries, the British Controller of Customs, and a few Americans, was appointed to study measures of reform, but they only met two or three times, and nothing came of it, so that in a few months all the old abuses reappeared. Nevertheless, by her sagacious conduct, Russia had the ability to win over the foreign representatives in Korea to her side, and Japan, in order to preserve the remnant of her influence in a country whose commerce was mainly in her hands, and where not less than 10,000 of her subjects resided, was now obliged to arrive at an understanding with Russia. The Convention of Seoul, signed May 14th, 1896, by the representatives of the two Powers, completed by that of July 29th, concluded at Moscow at the time of the coronation of Nicholas II., and drawn up by Prince Lobanof and Marshal Yamagata, accorded Japan merely the right to keep 1,000 troops in Korea for the protection of the Japanese telegraph wires between Fusan and Seoul and of her subjects settled in the capital and in the open ports of Fusan and Gensan. Russia also obtained the same rights, and, moreover, a concession to construct a telegraphic line from Seoul to the Siberian frontier.

The two Powers further agreed to lend the Korean Government their support for the reorganization of its finances and a sufficient police force to maintain order, and to permit, as soon as possible, of the withdrawal of their garrisons. In appearance it was a sort of Russo-Japanese _condominium_ that was established in Korea; but Russian influence, now all-powerful with the King, met with no further obstacle after the restoration of that Sovereign to his palace in February, 1897. A decree, ordering that all railways to be constructed in Korea should have the same gauge as that of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and that the debt of £300,000 contracted by Korea with Japan should be repaid, and, moreover, that none but Russian instructors should be engaged in reorganizing the Korean army, was also issued, which Japan considered a distinct breach of the Treaty of Moscow.

Russian influence was therefore, at the beginning of the year 1897, absolutely preponderant in Korea as well as in China. In both countries the Tsar’s Government had played, with extraordinary ability, the part of protector of the conquered against the abuses of the conqueror, and also that of a redresser of wrongs, whereby it won universal approbation throughout the Far East. The Japanese victories now appeared only to have been obtained for the benefit of Russia, who substituted herself everywhere for Japan, in Manchuria as well as in Korea, and thus profited very considerably by the War without having to pay any of its expenses. If at its close Russia had the discretion to perceive the advantages which she might derive from intervention, and if she acted with energy and decision, she also knew how to curb the impetuosity of her admirals, who were eager to commit those very faults into which Japan had fallen, which undoubtedly would have brought about very serious European complications. She therefore at first abstained from annexing the peninsula of Liao-tung and the important stations of Port Arthur and Talien-wan, which she had compelled the Japanese to evacuate, and officially she made no annexations in Korea; but, possessing the right to construct a railway through Central Manchuria and to protect its works by her own troops, and being at one and the same time mistress of the situation at Seoul, Russia was able at the right moment to annex either Korea or Liao-tung, and bring the Trans-Siberian to the open sea through one or the other of these two peninsulas. She hesitated as to which she should select; the first was nearer Peking, the second brought her more directly to the Pacific, whence she could menace simultaneously the mouth of the Yang-tsze and the South-east of Japan. At St Petersburg, however, it seemed that the Government was waiting for the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which was proceeding in hot haste, and which it was expected would reach the Amur in the first months of 1900, ere the psychological moment should arrive to strike a decisive blow.

Side by side with immense advantages acquired by Russia, those obtained by her allies seemed insignificant. Germany had not shown herself exacting; all she asked was a few acres of land at Tien-tsin and other naval ports where she might establish independent concessions intended to satisfy her sense of dignity. The absence of special concessions had not hitherto prevented Germany from achieving an extraordinary commercial success in China, but the future will prove that the German Empire entertains great designs in the Far East, the realization of which are merely postponed.

As to France, she got in return for her services the two Conventions signed at Peking by her Minister, M. Gérard, on June 20th, 1895. The first of these documents accords divers facilities to the extension of her commerce on the frontier between China and Indo-China; the second ratifies, to her advantage, the frontier limits. A new market—Semao, in the Yunnan—was now added to the towns of Mong-Tze and Lung-Chau, opened to Franco-Annamite commerce in 1887. The customs on goods entering or leaving these markets and passing through Tongking, already reduced to three-quarters of the maritime Custom-house tariff of 1887, were again lowered to about two-fifths of the general tariff, so far as concerned products exported from any other Chinese port, or intended to be re-imported into any one of these said ports. In Article 5 of this Convention the following passage occurs: ‘It is understood that China, in the exploitation of mines situated in the provinces of Yunnan, Kuang-si, and Kuang-Tung, may apply, in the first place, to French merchants and engineers, the exploitation remaining subject to the rules laid down by the Imperial Government in all that concerns national industry. It is agreed that the railways already existing, or to be constructed in Annam, may, after a mutual understanding, be extended on Chinese territory.’ Finally, it was further stipulated that the French and Chinese telegraph lines should be combined. The Convention respecting the frontier definitely extended the French possessions to the eastern shore of the upper Mekong, thereby giving France the territory situated on the border of the Shan State of Xieng-hong. England in 1894 had admitted the right of suzerainty of China over this little principality, as well as over one or two others, thereby creating a sort of neutral zone between her Indian Empire and French Indo-China.

A great deal was made over this Convention in France, and the energetic manner in which the French Minister at Peking had been able to obtain these concessions under the very nose of his English colleague, Sir Nicholas O’Connor. The negotiations closed, M. Gérard proceeded to the Tsung-li-Yamen on the day arranged for the exchange of signatures, to find, however, only one of the two Chinese plenipotentiaries present. This personage offered profuse apologies for the non-appearance of his colleague. ‘Nothing should have prevented his being here,’ replied the French diplomatist. ‘I pray you find him at once and tell him so.’ A few moments afterwards the second Celestial appeared alone, looking very sheepish. ‘And your colleague, is he coming back?’ asked M. Gérard. ‘No; I am afraid he is detained, and that he cannot return. Shall I go and fetch him?’ ‘I beg your pardon,’ M. Gérard shrewdly replied; ‘I will keep you here, and will go myself in quest of your friend.’ At the end of an hour or so the two Celestials were finally brought together, and on being asked to explain their dilatory conduct, stated that the British Minister was in the next room, threatening, if they ventured to sign, forthwith to haul down his flag. M. Gérard was soon able to convince the Celestial plenipotentiaries that they had nothing to fear, but that they must immediately affix their signatures to the document. Sir Nicholas O’Connor, he assured them, once he was convinced of the futility of his intimidation, would soon turn his attention to other affairs. This anecdote, whilst it reflects great credit on the energy of the French Minister, and displays his knowledge of the Chinese character to advantage, emphasizes the declining influence of England in China in 1895 and 1896, as well as the annoyance experienced by this Power at the ratification of the French frontier and its extension towards Mekong. By confirming it, China violated, it is true, the engagements she had made when England recognised her position at Xieng-hong, but this did not concern France, for the State in question was as much the vassal of Annam or of Siam as it is of Burmah or of China.

What was the real value of the commercial concessions granted to France by China, and concerning which her press had made such capital? The reduction of the duties on all products passing by Tongking would have been of great value if the neighbouring Chinese province had been a rich one, but it is, unfortunately, quite the reverse. It is now time to glance over the region that can be provisioned and exploited through Tongking. It includes the greater part of Yunnan and Kwang-si, the southern half of Kwei-chau, and a small part of Kwang-tung, that long and narrow band of territory which this province projects over the Tongking frontier between the sea and Kuang-si. The Yunnan, the Kwang-si, and the Kwei-chau are the three poorest provinces of China, and cover a fifth of her territory, whilst possessing barely the fifteenth of her population, or, in other words, about 24,000,000 out of 380,000,000. They have been unfortunately devastated by the great insurrection of the Taipings and the Mohammedan revolts, especially Yunnan; the country is really only a conglomeration of mountains and plateaux, some of them 6,500 feet in height, and, moreover, the communications are very scanty, and it would cost an enormous sum to improve them. The report of the Lyons Mission, which explored this part of China in 1895–97, frequently mentions the great difficulties of transport and the steepness of the ascents, such, for instance, as the famous Imperial road of Ten Thousand Steps, which you ascend from the bank of the Red River to the Yunnan plateau, between Manhao and Mong-tze, and which in a distance of only 30 miles rises from 485 to more than 6,500 feet. It also mentions the paucity of population, as contrasted with its superabundance, in the basin of the Yang-tsze-Kiang and the coast provinces. In the Far East the mountains are almost invariably barren, even when there is very little cultivable soil in the plain below. It is said that the Yunnan is extremely rich in mineral ore, but, as once remarked an acute observer, who has recently visited nearly the whole of China, when explorers find nothing worth noticing on the surface of a country, they generally arrive at the conclusion that there must be something worth looking for underneath. Undoubtedly both copper and tin have been exploited for years past in Yunnan, but thus far the actual wealth of these mines is unknown, and it would be mere matter of conjecture to affirm whether they are worth working or not, or whether it would pay to construct a railway 300 miles in length to transport the ore, as these Chinese provinces on the frontier neighbouring Tongking produce neither silk, tea, nor any other valuable Chinese export product, and do not offer a particularly brilliant prospect at present. As to Article 5, relating to mines, if taken in the literal sense, it is simply a truism, but if one wishes to discover in it a disguised engagement, and read ‘ought’ instead of ‘may,’ it is a violation of the clause granted to the most favoured nation inserted in all Chinese treaties with European Powers. France had soon to recognise its futility on January 15th, 1896, at the time of the signing of the Anglo-French treaty relating to the affairs of Siam, by which, it is true, she profited little by the difficult circumstances in which Great Britain then found herself, and the two Governments of Paris and London agreed that all the rights and privileges acquired, or to be acquired, either in the Yunnan or more to the north at Sze-chuan, were to be equally shared.

The profit which France might have obtained from the convention of June 20th, 1895, was thus reduced to little or nothing. During the following year the negotiations which were being persistently pursued at Peking brought about other results. The right to reconstruct the arsenal at Foochow established by the French in 1866, and which they destroyed in 1884 under Admiral Courbet, was again restored to them. Several naval engineers are working there at present, and French foundries are supplying material. Such has been the share derived by France in the concessions made by China, to obtain which the nations made such flattering advances to Li Hung-chang when that astute old gentleman made his recent famous tour through Europe and America. It certainly compensated after a fashion for the loss of the custom of Japan, who at one time gave frequent orders to French factories, but who now deals exclusively with England and America for the ships and cannon necessary for her greatly augmented fleet.

Meanwhile, the French Minister at Peking has exerted himself in a creditable manner for the benefit of the Catholic missionaries. He has obtained the abrogation of those regulations which prohibited missionaries from purchasing estates in the interior of China, and exacted a promise that the next edition of the _Ta-tsing-lu-lieh_, a collection of laws issued by the Tsing Dynasty, should appear without the list of punishments against missionaries contained in the edition of 1892. Finally, he obtained authorization for the Lazarists to rebuild on the same spot the cathedral at Tien-tsin, burnt at the time of the massacre of the missionaries and nuns during the insurrection of June, 1870.

It is assuredly as the protectress of Catholicism that France has of late years most worthily played her part in the Far East. Possibly she has not known how to convert to her material advantage the influence which ought to be derived in China from her religious position, and doubtless French policy in the Celestial Empire has been lacking in enterprise. She certainly did not derive from the intervention in favour of China a profit proportionate to the risks incurred, and has obtained from China not only less than her ally, Russia, but even than England, and by uselessly opposing the demands of this latter Power she has run the risk of irritating without any benefit that ill-feeling which divides these two great Western nations.

After a period of inaction during the year which followed the War, the British Government, if it has not positively reconquered its former influence, has at least gained a renewed hearing at Peking. Although China trembled before Russia, the presence in her waters of the British fleet did not fail to inspire her with a feeling of profound respect; but, once the first moment of alarm was over, she again bethought herself as much as possible to begin afresh her old game of pendulum between the various Powers. The slow work of British diplomacy throughout the year 1896 fructified in the signing of the Anglo-Chinese Convention of February 4th, 1897, by which China conceded to Great Britain certain important modifications on the Burmese frontier; granted her back a part of the Shan States; recognised her right to establish a Consul somewhere in Western Yunnan, Manwyne, or Chunning-fu; engaged to open the roads leading to these places as well as to others; and finally allowed the railways to be constructed in Yunnan to be united with those of Burmah. Lastly—and this is the most important point of all—a separate article prescribed that the Si-Kiang, or West River, which flows through Canton, should be open to European navigation as far as Woochow, on the Kwang-si and Kwang-tung frontier, 125 miles from Canton. The two river ports Samshui and Wuchow became treaty ports, and European concessions were established there.

This was for England some return for the mortification she had experienced twenty months earlier at the time of the Gérard Convention. If, therefore, in Yunnan, in spite of the equality of rights existing between Great Britain and France, the advantage was with the latter, by reason of the natural conditions rendering access less difficult from Tongking than from Burmah, the opening of the West River was a check for French policy, which had vigorously opposed it. By this waterway European vessels—that is to say, almost exclusively British steamers coming from Hong-Kong—would, in the first place, be able to trade with the rich valley of the lower Si-kiang, which crosses Kwang-tung, and reascends to the frontier of Kwang-tung, where they would meet the junks which bring to this point at a small cost the varied products of this province, and, moreover, distribute merchandise from Hong-Kong to the extreme navigable points of the West River and its affluents. These points are situated at a great distance in the interior, almost on the frontiers of Yunnan and Tongking, and at Lung-chau, thirty miles from Lang-son, one can see at high tide junks from Canton. Therefore all the commerce of Kwang-si which France had so coveted was to be drained by this new channel.

French diplomacy endeavoured to repair the unfavourable impression produced by this Anglo-Chinese treaty, which effaced the greater part of the advantages conceded to her on the frontier of Tongking, and in June, 1897, it was stated in Paris that China had ceded to France the right to construct a railway from Lao-kai, on the Red River, between Tongking and Yunnan-hsien, the capital of Yunnan, and to prolong it to Nanning-fu and even northward beyond the line projected to Lang-son and Lung-chau. This last concession should reserve for France all the traffic of the western Kwang-si, provided that it is really worth while constructing a railway to obtain it; for unquestionably navigable rivers have a distinct advantage over railways in so mountainous and poor a country. As soon as the former are opened they can be navigated, whereas it will require time to construct the railways, which, moreover, are very costly. In February, 1898, I was able to see for myself that the Si-kiang was already traversed by steamers, whereas the railway from Lang-son to Lung-chau, the concession for which was given in 1896, was not even commenced, on account of the many difficulties that had arisen with the local authorities. The opening in 1899 of Nanning to foreign commerce is well calculated to deprive France even of this little traffic, which will revert to Canton.