Peking Dust Part 1

Peking Dust.

by Ellen N. La Motte.

INTRODUCTION

Two cla.s.ses of books are written about China by two cla.s.ses of people.

There are books written by people who have spent the night in China, as it were, superficial and amusing, full of the tinkling of temple bells; and there are other books written by people who have spent years in China and who know it well,--ponderous books, full of absolute information, heavy and unreadable. Books of the first cla.s.s get one nowhere. They are delightful and entertaining, but one feels their irresponsible authors.h.i.+p. Books of the second cla.s.s get one nowhere, for one cannot read them; they are too didactic and dull. The only people who might read them do not read them, for they also are possessed of deep, fundamental knowledge of China, and their views agree in no slightest particular with the views set forth by the learned scholars and theorists.

This book falls into neither of these two cla.s.ses, except perhaps in the irresponsibility of its author. It is compounded of gossip,--the flying gossip or dust of Peking. Take it lightly; blow off such dust as may happen to stick to you. For authentic information turn to the heavy volumes written by the acknowledged students of international politics.

ELLEN N. LA MOTTE.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The writer wishes to thank the following friends who have been kind enough to lend the photographs used in the ill.u.s.trations: Warren R.

Austin, F. C. Hitchc.o.c.k, Margaret Frieder, T. Severin and Rachel Snow.

PART I

PEKING DUST

I

POOR OLD CHINA

When I came away last August, you said you wanted me to tell you about our travels, particularly about China. Like most Americans, you have a lurking sentimental feeling about China, a latent sympathy and interest based on colossal ignorance. Very well, I will write you as fully as I can. Two months ago my ignorance was fully as overwhelming as yours, but it is being rapidly dispelled. So I'll try to do the same for you, as you said I might. Rash of you, I call it.

I'll take it that you have just about heard that China is on the map, and occupies a big portion of it. You know that she has a ruler of some kind in place of the old empress dowager who died a few years ago. Come to think of it, the ruler is a president, and China is a republic.

Vaguely you may remember that she became a republic about five years ago, after a revolution. Also, in the same vague way, you may have heard that the country is old and rich and peaceful, with about four hundred million inhabitants; and beyond that you do not go. Sufficient. I'll go no further, either.

After six weeks in j.a.pan, we set out for Peking, going by way of Korea.

On the boat from Kobe to s.h.i.+monoseki, pa.s.sing through the famous Inland Sea of j.a.pan,--which, by the way, reminds one of the eastern sh.o.r.e of Maryland,--we met a young Englishman returning to Shanghai. We three, being the only first-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers on the boat, naturally fell into conversation. He said he had been in the East for ten years, engaged in business in Shanghai, so we at once dashed into the subject of Oriental politics. Being quite ignorant of Eastern affairs, but having heard vaguely of certain phases of them, we asked if he could tell us the meaning of "sphere of influence." The Orient seems full of spheres of influence, particularly China.

"How do the European nations acquire these 'spheres of influence' in China?" I asked. "Do they ask the Chinese Government to give them to them?--to set apart certain territory, certain provinces, and give them commercial and trading rights to these areas?"

"Ask the Chinese Government?" repeated the young man, scornfully. "Ask the Chinese? I should say not! The European powers just arrange it among themselves, each decides what provinces it wants, agrees not to trespa.s.s upon the spheres of influence of one another, and then they just notify China."

"Just notify China?" I exclaimed. "You mean they don't consult China at all and find out whether she's willing or not? You mean they just decide the matter among themselves, part.i.tion out the country as they like, select such territory as they happen to fancy, and then just notify China?"

"That's the idea," he returned; "virtually that's all there is to it.

Choose what they want and then just notify China."

"Dear me!" said I.

I'm glad we met that young man. I like things put simply, in words of one syllable, within range of the understanding. Moreover, incredible as it seems, what he told us is true. Oh, of course, as I've found out since, there are treaties and things to be signed after China has been notified. She is then compelled to ratify these treaties or agreements; it looks better. Forced to sign them at the pistol's point, as it were.

However, this ratification of treaties is more for the benefit of the European powers than for China. Having staked out their claims, they officially record them; that's all. And you know what used to happen in our country during the good old days of the "forty-niners" if some one jumped another's claim.

To show to what extent poor old China is under the "influence" of the great European powers, I shall have to give you a few statistics; otherwise you won't believe me. The total area of the Chinese Republic is about 4,300,000 square miles. The spheres of influence of some of the important nations are as follows:

Square miles

England: Tibet 533,000

Szechuen 218,000

Kwan'tung 86,000

Provinces of Yangtse Valley 362,000

Total 1,199,000 or 27.8%

Russia: Outer Mongolia 1,000,000

Che-Kiang 548,000

Three-quarters of Manchuria 273,000

Total 1,821,000 or 42.3%

France: Yunnan 146,700 or 3.4%

Germany: Shan-tung 55,000 or 1.3%

j.a.pan: South Manchuria 90,000

Eastern Inner Mongolia 50,000

Fu-kien 46,000

Total 186,000 or 4.3%

Total area under foreign influence 79%

Don't forget these figures; turn back to them from time to time to refresh your memory. But remember one thing: it is not customary to speak of anything but of j.a.panese aggression. Whenever j.a.pan acquires another square mile of territory, forestalling some one else, the fact is heralded round the world, and the predatory tendencies of j.a.pan are denounced as a menace to the world. But publicity is not given to the predatory tendencies of other powers. They are all in agreement with one another, and nothing is said; a conspiracy of silence surrounds their actions, and the facts are smothered, not a hint of them getting abroad. The Western nations are in accord, and the Orient--China--belongs to them. But with j.a.pan it is different. So in future, when you hear that j.a.pan has her eye on China, is attempting to gobble up China, remember that, compared with Europe's total, j.a.pan's holdings are very small indeed. The loudest outcries against j.a.panese encroachments come from those nations that possess the widest spheres of influence. The nation that claims forty-two per cent. of China, and the nation that claims twenty-seven per cent. of China are loudest in their denunciations of the nation that possesses (plus the former German holdings) less than six.

Our first actual contact with a sphere of influence at work came about in this wise: After we had spent two or three weeks in Korea, we took the train from Seoul to Peking, a two-days' journey. In these exciting days it is hard to do without newspapers, and at Mukden, where we had a five-hours' wait, we came across a funny little sheet called "The Manchuria Daily News." It was a nice little paper; that is, if you are sufficiently cosmopolitan to be emanc.i.p.ated from American standards. It was ten by fifteen inches in size,--comfortable to hold, at any rate,--with three pages of news and advertis.e.m.e.nts, and one blank page for which nothing was forthcoming. Tucked in among advertis.e.m.e.nts of mineral waters, European groceries, foreign banking-houses, and railway announcements was an item. But for our young man on the boat, I shouldn't have known what it meant. We read: