The Memoirs of Admiral Lord Beresford
elaborate report upon its trade. The China Association presented to me
a memorandum containing the usual protest against the insecurity of
British interests in China.
While I was at Shanghai I had three interviews with the Marquess Ito,
lately Prime Minister of Japan. The Marquess, I believe, was
unofficially employed in endeavouring to extend Japanese interests in
China. He expressed the greatest friendliness towards Great Britain.
During the political disturbances in Japan, the Marquess Ito had fled
to England as a sailor before the mast in a British vessel. He told me
that, landing at Gravesend very hungry, he went into a shop and bought
a loaf, putting down half a sovereign. The shopman, presumably taking
advantage of the fact that he was a Japanese, refused to give him the
change. The Marquess told me that he was sadly shocked; for, until
that moment, he had believed the English to be the most honest people
in the world.
In Shanghai, I learned that one of the leaders of the Reform Party,
Huang Chin, a victim of the _coup d'état_, had been arrested and was
about to be sent to Nanking for execution. I urged his Excellency Kwei
Chun, Viceroy of Szechuan, to use his influence to save Huang's life,
pointing out to him that these political executions were exceedingly
distasteful to the British people. I am glad to say that my
intervention was effectual, in that Huang Chin, instead of being
executed, was banished.
His Excellency Liu-Kwen-Yi having most courteously placed H.I.M.S.
_Nanshin_ at my disposal, I took passage in her to Nanking.
I was much interested in the arrangement and armament of the Chinese
man-of-war; but as she was warmed by means of charcoal stoves, my
investigations were conducted in a condition of partial suffocation
from the fumes.
Upon arriving at Nanking in the Nanshin, I received a salute of fifteen
guns; and proceeded to the Yamen of his {450} Excellency the Viceroy
Liu-Kwen-Yi between the lines of troops and banner-bearers, numbering
some thousands, who were ranged along the whole route of four and a
half miles in my honour. Liu-Kwen-Yi, who received me with the
greatest courtesy and kindness, said that he was anxious to show his
friendship for Great Britain in every way. In the course of two long
and interesting conversations with the Viceroy, who expressed his fear
of the present unstable posture of affairs, I suggested that there were
two contingencies to fear: a rebellion against the Government and an
insurrection against foreigners; either of which would be fatal to
commercial security. His Excellency, however, assured me that there
was no danger of disturbances inspired by dislike of the foreigner.
Herein he was mistaken; for within two years occurred the Boxer
outbreak, which had the approval, secret or overt, of the Empress
Dowager. At the Viceroy's request, I drew up a memorandum containing
my scheme for the reorganisation of the army on the principle of the
Imperial Maritime Customs, which I had proposed at Pekin. A
translation of this document was sent by the Viceroy to Pekin.
On my return journey, I inspected the army, the fleet, the arsenal and
the Imperial naval college.
I arrived at Hong Kong for the second time on Christmas Day, 1898. The
views of the China Association and of the British merchants here were
of the same tenor as those, already described, expressed by the British
communities at all the trading centres visited by me.
To complete my itinerary in brief, other places visited by me were
Wuhu, Kinkiang, Chinkiang, Kiangzin, Hankow, Foochow, Swatow, Amoy,
Canton, and Wuchow. At each place I drew up a report describing the
local conditions and embodying the representations of the British
communities.
Their common complaint was that British trade was declining. But an
examination of the detailed reports which in response to the letters
sent by me beforehand, were ready for my inspection, showed that on the
contrary the branches {451} of trade already possessed by the British
had increased; and that it was in new branches started by foreign
nations that the British were not succeeding. Their comparative
failure in this respect I held to be partly due to the fact that
foreign nations supplied what the people wanted, while the British
insisted on trying to sell to them what the British thought they ought
to want.
CONCLUSION
The following reports were framed by me: report on the railways and
waterways; report upon the British Consulate; a general comprehensive
report upon Trade, Treaties and Tariffs; and a highly elaborate report
upon the complicated question of Finance and Currency. All these are
set forth in my book, _The Break-up of China_, which also includes a
summary of the reforms which appeared to me to be most requisite.
These were:--
1. An Imperial coinage.
2. Reform in the method of collecting the land-tax.
3. Removal of restrictions on the export of grain.
4. Modification of the laws governing the salt monopoly.
5. The right of foreigners to reside in the interior for purposes of
trade.
6. The registration and protection of trade marks and copyright.
7. The removal of the remaining restrictions on inland water navigation.
8. The abolition of the likin, or a change of administration which
would ensure that likin should be collected once only.
9. Greater facilities to be given to respectable foreign syndicates to
work minerals.
10. The establishment of reformed departments for the regulation of
finance, railways, waterways, roads, posts and telegraphs, and a bureau
to deal with all questions connected with trade. The existing {452}
telegraph service was so bad, that a letter sent from Tientsin to
Shanghai has been known to arrive before a telegram sent at the same
time. _The Times_ correspondent at Pekin told me that his telegrams
very often cost as much to send from Pekin to Shanghai as from Shanghai
to London.
11. One other bureau was urgently needed, a Trade Intelligence
Department, to deal with scientific and practical questions relating to
the natural products available in China for commercial purposes. What
is an insignificant export to-day may become a valuable article of
commerce to-morrow. There should be a scientific classification of the
products of China on the same lines as the classification of products
in India.
I may here quote what, in relation to the whole matter, I wrote at the
time:
"If it be said that my policy for the reorganisation of the Chinese
army and police is a warlike policy, I reply that it is the only plan
yet suggested which gives any guarantee of peace. Great Britain's
strongest guarantee of peace has been the reorganisation of her Fleet.
Without peace commerce must perish. To keep the peace, authority must
be properly equipped. Our choice with regard to the Chinese Empire is
simple: we may choose to wreck or we may choose to restore."
The resolutions passed by the British mercantile communities and the
many letters I received from them subsequently, testify to their
approval of my recommendations. The following documents express the
sentiments of the Chinese themselves, and of the foreign merchants:
"At a meeting of Chinese merchants and traders, and other Chinese
gentlemen resident in Hong Kong, held at the Chinese Chamber of
Commerce on 22nd January, 1899, on {453} the motion of Mr. Ho Tung,
seconded by Mr. Leung Shiu Kwong, it was resolved:
"'1. Having closely followed with great and attentive interest, and
carefully considered what Lord Charles Beresford has said and done in
China in connection with his recent mission on behalf of the Associated
Chambers of Commerce, we, the Chinese community of Hong Kong here
assembled, are in accord with and heartily support the policy the noble
lord proposes in regard to the "Open Door" as regards commerce, and
also with regard to the reorganisation of the Chinese army.
"'2. That we recognise the combined proposals, if carried out, will
benefit China quite as much as, if not more, than England, and other
nations, in her trading interest, and we therefore hope that Lord
Charles will be intrusted by the British Government with the carrying
out of the views he has so closely enunciated, as we, the Chinese
people of Hong Kong, observe that his efforts are directed to the
benefit of both his country and our country, and to the benefit of the
trade of China and the trade of England.
"'3. That we recognise and make our cordial acknowledgments for the
sympathetic manner with which he has approached our country; and
"'4. That we desire emphatically to express our full confidence in Lord
Charles Beresford, whose ability, integrity and zeal we are sure
peculiarly fit him successfully to carry out the proposals he has made
for the furtherance of trade and the preservation of the Chinese
Empire.'
"(Signed) Lo CHI TIU, Chairman
H. O. FOOK, Secretary"
The General Foreign Commercial Community of Shanghai, on 8th January,
1899, passed the following resolution:
"That our cordial thanks be tendered to Lord Charles Beresford for the
service he has rendered to the foreign communities in China by personal
investigation into the conditions of the various interests we
represent."
{454}
Upon my return, I represented what I believed to be the real posture of
affairs in China, when the subject was discussed in the House of
Commons. In November, 1899, I read a paper upon "Engineering in China"
before the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.
{455}
CHAPTER XLV
TRAFFICS AND DISCOVERIES (_Continued_)
II. JAPAN
Having received invitations to visit Japan from the Chambers of
Commerce and from prominent persons interested in the China trade, I
stayed for a short time in that country on my way home. Thirty years
previously, accompanying H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh in the _Galatea_,
I had seen the Old Japan. I was now to see, super-imposed upon the
Old, the New Japan. That which China was groping after, Japan had
seized and made her own. What we call Western civilisation: the
civilisation of commerce, of science, of mechanical invention: Japan
had put on like a garment.
Both the army and the navy, whose supreme commander is the Emperor,
were organised, efficient, and in process of augmentation. China
feared Russia; but Japan was even then preparing to fight Russia.
As in arms, so in manufactures, Japan already rivalled the West. The
foreigner, who, a generation previously, walked in peril of his life,
was now welcomed, imitated, and loaded with civilities.
During my brief sojourn, the swift and shining manifestations of the
new spirit (which was the old spirit seeking a new avatar) surrounded
me. At Osaka, quick-firing field artillery and magazine rifles were
being made to Japanese patents, excellent in design and construction;
and the humming factories were turning out sugar, cotton, matches,
{456} iron and steel; and, at a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, the
Mayor declared that it was imperative in the interests of Japanese
trade that the policy of the "Open Door" should prevail in China. The
Chamber of Commerce said the same at Kioto. A generation since, the
two-sworded samurai were guarding the door of Japan, lest it should be
opened.
At Kioto, electricity, generated by water power, lighted the streets
and houses, worked the trams, pumped the water; the use of electric
power was then more common, I believe in Japan than in any other
country; and there were telegraphs and telephones in nearly every town.
In Tokio, I had the honour of meeting several members of the Ministry,
who, stating that they regarded the "Spheres of Influence" policy to be
fatal to Japanese interests, expressed their desire to work together