beneath our feet. We believed that we could do it with impunity. And lo, the ground has moved beneath us, and allied Europe is confronted by China militant and vengeful. THE YELLOW MAN'S PROTEST. Who can say what revolutions may not be about to result from this magical transformation? The West, deaf to every other argument, listens to the thunder of modern artillery. What it has never hitherto realised is that the Chinese could use Maxims. "Every Russian knows," said Prince Ukhtomsky, after returning from genius with the idea of trying conclusions once for all with the intruding West? A FIRST CLASS FIGHTING MAN. Abbé Hue in his classic work on China, written half a century since, indulges in some speculations on this very point which may be useful to reprint here. Hue wrote: It may be that it would be possible to find in China all the elements necessary for organising the most formidable army in the world. The Chinese are intelligent, ingenious, and docile. They comprehend rapidly whatever they are taught, China some years back, "that a handful of soldiers from our army would suffice to reduce to subjection the whole of China." To-day the allied West doubts whether with 200,000 men it can venture to advance on Pekin, which is only seventy miles inland from Tientsin. What has happened is that the West has inoculated the East with militarism. Upon the most pacific, anti-military people in the world it has grafted the militarism of Europe. The soldier is to the Chinese an "antisapeck" or not worth a cent man. But these antisapeck men have already secured for China a respect which she could not command by all her study of the philosophy of Confucius. And who can say whether the success which has already been achieved may not inspire some Chinese and retain it in their memory. They are persevering and astonishingly active when they choose to exert themselves, respectful to authority, submissive and obedient, and they would easily accommodate themselves to all the exigencies of the severest discipline. The Chinese possess also a quality most precious in soldiers, and which can scarcely be found as well developed among any other people-namely, an incomparable facility at supporting privations of every kind. We have often been astonished to see how they will bear hunger, thirst, heat, cold, the difficulties and fatigues of a long march as if it were mere play. Thus both morally and physically they seem capable of meeting every demand; and with respect to numbers they might be enrolled in millions. The equipment of this immense army would also be no very hard matter. There would be no occasion to have recourse to foreign nation. Their own country would furnish in abundance all the material that could be desired, as well as workmen without number, quick at comprehending any new invention. THE CHINESE AS A SEA POWER. China would present also inexhaustible resources for a navy. Without speaking of the vast extent of her coasts, along which the numerous population pass the greater part of their lives on the sea, the great rivers and immense lakes in the interior, always covered with fishing and trading junks, might furnish multitudes of men, habituated from their infancy to navigation, nimble, experienced, and capable of becoming excellent sailors for long expeditions. The officers of our ships of war that have visited the Chinese seas have often been astonished to meet, far away from any coast, their fishermen braving the tempests, and guiding their miserable vessels in safety over enormous waves that threatened every moment to swallow them. The Chinese would very soon be able to build vessels on the model of those of Europe, and a few years would enable them to put to sea with such a fleet as has never been seen. THE ONE THING MISSING. No doubt the reader will think the notion of this immense army, this avalanche of men descending from the high table-land of Asia, as in the time of Tchengis Khan, these innumerable Chinese vessels ploughing all seas, and coming even to blockade our ports, an exceedingly fantastic one, and we ourselves are certainly far from thinking it likely to be realised. But when you become thoroughly acquainted with this Empire of 300 millions of inhabitants, when you know what are the resources in soil and population of these rich and fertile countries, you cannot but ask what should prevent such a nation from exercising great influence over the affairs of the human race. What it wants is a man of genius, a man truly great, capable of assimilating the power and vitality of this nation, more populous than all Europe, and which counts more than thirty centuries of civilisation. Even without such an alarming leader of genius, the Chinese might, without leaving Asia, inflict a paralysing blow upon the trade and commerce of the world, to say nothing of striking a deadly blow at the British Empire. THE PRECEDENT OF THE CRUSADES. These inter-continental wars are affairs of centuries. The Pope is said to have remarked as he saw the Italian troops departing for the Far East that this was the first time since the Crusades in which all nations had united to make war for the Christian cause. The allusion is more apt than felicitous, for the struggle between the East and West, which began when steel-clad Europe hurled itself upon the Paynim hordes which defiled the Holy Sepulchre, lasted for over three hundred years, and at the end of that prolonged death-grapple of continents the combatants were left face to face very much as they were at the beginning. It is to be hoped that we are not on the verge of another three hundred years' war at the other end of the Asiatic continent. The gravity of the crisis in China hitherto has never been realised, even faintly, in Europe. Otherwise England would have long ago patched up any kind of a truce in South Africa which would have enabled her to have used her army for the defence of the threatened outposts of Western civilisation. Even now, when the reported massacre of the Legations has sent a thrill of horror through the world, few dream of the immensity and hopelessness of the struggle upon which they are invited to embark with such loud cries of vengeance. WHAT IT MAY COME TO. Everything depends upon how far the decisive and terrible success of the revolt against foreigners in Pekin will lead to a general uprising throughout China. If the southern and western provinces remain impassive, the situation created in Pekin is one which can be grappled with by the international allies; but if all China is up in arms, then the West can do nothing except singe the beard and inflict pinpricks on the hide of the great Chinese dragon. One of the ablest Ambassadors in London, who has made a lifelong study of the Chinese question, expressed himself quite freely on this point. He said : If China really rises, the whole of Europe, with the addition of Japan and the United States, can do nothing except to put the girdle of iron around the Chinese frontier and leave the Chinese to stew in their own juice for eight years. Such an opinion may seem fantastic to those who have been complacently building their calculations upon the prospect of developing the Chinese market, but the situation is not unlike that of the Soudan after the death of General Gordon. For thirteen years the whole vast territory of the Egyptian Soudan was cut off from civilisation. It was only the other day, by the capture of Omdurman and the death of the Mahdi, that it was made possible to reopen relations with that vast, fertile region. THE CONQUEST OF CHINA IMPOSSIBLE. I have had exceptional opportunities of discussing the situation in China with diplomats, both European and Asiatic, who are as familiar with Pekin as they are with Paris. One of the ablest of their number, who had a narrow escape from being the victim of the massacre, told me he thought it was almost certain that every Chinese Christian in the whole of China would be massacred that nothing could possibly save them. The Allies are at present preparing to send 200,000 men to the seat of war. With that force, if China does not ise, they may fight their way to Pekin. As for attempting the conquest of China with 200,000 men under divided leadership, operating at a distance of thousands of miles from their base, it is sufficient to remember that Lord Roberts, in command of the same for the white man in China is the possibility of divisions among the Chinese Anti-Foreign Posters. number of men, with undivided authority, has not been able, after seven months' hard fighting, to free his outposts at Pretoria from attacks of an enemy which cannot put more than 20,000 men in the field. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE REVOLT. The fact is, that the white world is face to face with a determined effort, by no means confined to China, on the part of the coloured races to assert their right to live their own lives in their own way, without the perpetual bullying of the Palefaces. It began some years ago, when the Sultan asserted his right to massacre his Armenians as he pleased; a hopelessly divided Christendom shrieked anathemas and confessed its impotence, while the German Emperor was not ashamed to proceed in state to Constantinople to greet as friend and brother the bloodstained assassin. From that time the supremacy of Christendom has been shaken. Everything that has followed is its natural evolution, which even yet is but at its beginning. A German officer who recently had been employed in the drilling of Chinese troops told a friend of mine The other day that the Chinese in 徒 heir war with France spent the lives of their men with the same indifference that we spend ammunition. They were quite content to send housands to be slaughtered day after day if they could kill a dozen of their Foes. Chinese themselves. In case of civil war in China, the party that is backed up by the international allies will probably triumph. We can only beat the Chinese by the help of the Chinese. The British Empire in India was built up not by the conquest of the millions of Hindustan by a handful of Europeans. One section of the natives was called in to the aid of the British as allies, and so the British Indian Empire came into existence. The great difficulty which confronts us is the fact that there is at least as much chance of differences paralysing the international forces as there is of civil war breaking out in China. Hence it becomes of supreme importance that the allies should abjure all international rivalries, jealousies and suspicions, which have been so diligently cultivated by the press, especially by the press of England. There is no room for any phobias in the allied camp. THE CURSE OF RUSSOPHOBIA. That we are now confronting the gravest crisis of our lifetime is largely due to the infatuated folly of British Russophobists, who called for the removal of Li Hung Chang from Pekin in the belief that he was in Russia's pocket. Now, Li Hung Chang was the only Chinese statesman who believed it was impossible for China to get on without Western civilisation. He was sacrificed to British Russophobia, and with results which we see to-day. This is no moment for the wild cries of revenge which have disgraced the German Emperor. We are face to 圖糞灌團齊 face with a world movement which cannot be handled in passion. The attack on the Legations, however terrible it may seem to us, was nevertheless natural. It was the result and inevitable corollary of the seizure of the Taku forts and the massacre of their garrison. Human nature is much the same all the world over, and if we had been in a similar position the white men would have retaliated where and how they could. WHAT WE MAY ANTICIPATE. For months, it may be for years to come, the Chinese market is lost to foreign trade. Christianity may be stamped out of China as completely as 200 years ago it was stamped out of Japan. It will be well if this is all that we have to face as the result of forgetting the Golden Rule in our relations to the Chinese. One of the awful possibilities of the near future is that the allies will quarrel among themselves, and that we may have a world-wide war which will lead civilisation backward. The Paleface has become supreme in India by taking advantage of the internal feuds of the races which inhabit Hindustan. As the Chinese have learned to use the white man's gun, they may prove themselves not less expert in adopting the white man's policy. OUR PERIL IN INDIA. But there is a nearer danger which threatens us. The Chinese pot has boiled over in the extreme north, in the extreme west, and on the eastern littoral. Who can say how long it will be before it boils over on the southern rim of the Middle Kingdom? If the Russians found themselves suddenly attacked on the Amur, seven hundred miles Photograph by] unlikely things have happened than a hurried patching up of any kind of a settlement in the Transvaal in the next three months which would enable us to liberate the troops that may be urgently required to reinforce the garrisons of India and Burmah. man. THE COMING ECONOMIC CRISIS. This is only one aspect of the revolt of the coloured It is serious enough, but it is probable that it will be less immediately appreciated than the economic results which are already accruing. Trade is beginning to slacken, but expenditure goes up and up and up every day. The bills for the wanton crime in which we are persisting in South Africa are maturing. The price of coal has gone up to a figure which cuts the throat of all manufacturers who work on a narrow margin. Everything is dearer. And now on the top of all this comes the sudden closing of the Chinese market. What that means to Manchester may be imagined from the fact that already many Lancashire cotton mills are running half-time. If the Chinese trade remains in a condition of suspended animation till Christmas, there is a bad look-out for many of the largest firms in Manchester. There is little prospect of any early resumption of the Chinese trade. Lancashire will suffer badly this winter. Instead of making a profit on the sale of shirtings to the Chinese, the Lancashire operative on half-time will have to spare contributions from his scanty earnings to pay for cutting the throats of his old customers. The cry of the unemployed will be heard once more in our streets, and this time there Li Hung Chang. will be no restraining power to confine the forces of discontent and of despair within the limits of the law. north of Port Arthur, how soon may we not have news that the Black Flags have attacked the French in Tonkin, or that irregular Chinese banditti have entered Upper Burmah? Viceroy after Viceroy refused to annex Burmah, dreading a frontier conterminous with China. In a week or a month we may have reason to regret that we forgot their caution. It is a disagreeable thing to be a Cassandra, but I must say that it seems little short of suicidal madness to be depleting our Indian garrison at a time like this when the coloured man is beginning to ask whether he must for ever bear the yoke of the Paleface, and when close to our famine-stricken Indian Empire of 350,000,000 there is a colossal Chinese Empire of 400,000,000 manifesting ominous symptoms of revolutionary activity. More [Russell and Sons. A BAD LOOK-OUT FOR WINTER. Mr. Balfour's fatal saying about its being more than human nature can stand to remain passive when any one does something you very much dislike, will be remembered and acted upon. The teaching of the whole British press, with a few inconsiderable exceptions, that it is right to kill and burn and plunder those who refuse to give in at once to all the demands which are made in the name of justice, dwells in the popular memory. What has been declared to be good sauce for the oligarch Kruger will be held to be equally excellent for the oligarch Salisbury. The Church, which, with some bright but rare exceptions, has pandered Khartoum long before Lord Roberts has crushed the resistance of President Kruger. Nor is it only from the East that our Egyptian outposts may find themselves overwhelmed. Menelik of Abyssinia is said to be getting restless. He has bought the white man's gun, and Italy knows how well he can use it. THE WAVE OF REVOLT. A subtle observer who has lived much in the East remarked the other day that the force of auto-suggestion was as potent among nations as with individuals. Whole races seem at times to be hypnotised, and along an entire continent spreads a wave of revolt with irresistible impulse. The mutterings of coming trouble among the Afridis on the North Western Frontier may subside. The sullen discontent of the warlike tribes and feudatory princes may continue to smoulder beneath the surface. But the atmosphere is electric, and any morning we may wake to discover that the storm has burst. Under such circumstances the prudent captain will furl sail. But, alas, our captain not being prudent, is bent upon steering with all sail set upon the South African breakers. Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat. Ulk.) The Mailed Fist in China. Unfortunately every finger wants to be longer than the other. to the war spirit' abroad, will be powerless to restrain the revolutionary spirit at home. There is no longer a Mr. Gladstone to dominate the democracy. We are nearing a serious economic and political crisis, with no pilot to steer us through the breakers. A drunken, selfindulgent democracy, with its hands reeking with its brother's blood abroad, will be a very ugly customer to deal with when hunger pinches at home and fanatically earnest demagogues point with frenzied finger to the palaces of our plutocrats. PERILS AHEAD. There is no saying where to expect the next outbreak of the coloured races. With great efforts and a frightful expenditure of human life our gallant troops in Western Africa succeeded in raising the siege of Coomassi, and replaced its exhausted garrison by a small company of fresh soldiers, who in turn will probably stand in need of relief in a few weeks. Preparations are being made for an expedition in October, which will have to begin the complete reconquest of Ashanti. We shall be lucky indeed if we have no trouble in Nigeria, and the French escape in Senegal. In the great State on the Congo the natives have grievances enough to justify them in putting the Belgian garrison to the sword. Further north, there are ominous signs both in Morocco and in the Hinterland of Algeria and Tunis that the mysterious force wielded by El Senoussi may be hurled against the Whiteskinned Infidel. We have not yet heard the last word of the Soudan, and Lord Kitchener may be needed in Menelik, Negus of Abyssinia. |