Through deserts and oases of central Asia

by Ella Sykes; Sir Percy Sykes

The death of the Atalik was followed by a period of confusion. One of his sons escorted his father’s corpse to Kashgar. There he was murdered by his elder brother Beg Kuli Beg, who succeeded to the throne, but not unchallenged, as a certain Hakim Khan Torah was able to seize Karashahr and Korla, and there were also outbreaks at Khotan. The new ruler in the end overcame his rivals, but in the effort exhausted his resources to a dangerous extent and made the way still easier for the Chinese.

The final operations for the recovery of Kashgar and Yarkand were conducted on somewhat the same lines as the first. The main force assembled to the north of the Tian Shan and, using a little-known pass, descended in overwhelming strength on Aksu, while a second column drove the Moslems before it to Karashahr and on to Kucha, where a hard-fought battle was won by the Chinese; and in December 1877 the campaign was brought to a successful conclusion by the capture of Kashgar.

The Celestials showed moderation in the hour of victory. They deprived the population of their horses, to prevent a fresh rising, but they appointed Moslem headmen and also recognized the religious law of Islam. Their strong position was acknowledged by Russia in 1881, when, by the Treaty of St. Petersburg, that Power restored Kulja to the Chinese, receiving in return the post of Irkeshtam, two stages on the eastern side of the Tian Shan. By the same treaty freedom of trade was secured, and this agreement is still in force.

In the last two decades of the nineteenth century great forward strides were made in the direction of Chinese Turkestan both by Great Britain and by Russia. The former Power, thanks to the energy and activity of Younghusband (a nephew of Robert Shaw) and other travellers, realized the importance of exploring the passes through which India could be threatened, if not invaded, from Russian Turkestan. A second aim was the control of the No Man’s Land which lay between the fertile valley of Kashmir and the plain of Chinese Turkestan. To this end British Political officers were stationed at Gilgit and Chitral, supported by the Imperial Service troops of the Maharaja of Kashmir.

During this period Russia also displayed considerable activity in the exploration and occupation of the No Man’s Land bordering on Russian Turkestan. One of her most active agents, Captain Grombchevsky, visited the hill state of Hunza in 1888, meeting Younghusband in the following year on the upper reaches of the Yarkand River. In 1891 Younghusband travelled in Wakhan, and at the stage of Bozai Gumbaz met Colonel Yonoff, who had issued a proclamation that the Pamirs (with the sole exception of the Taghdumbash Pamir) were Russian territory. That officer subsequently received instructions to escort Younghusband back to Chinese territory. He showed good feeling about his disagreeable task, and as Younghusband agreed, under protest, to proceed to Chinese Turkestan, he waived the instructions relating to escort. Upon this incident being reported, the Russian Government apologized for Yonoff’s act, and the two Powers finally decided to despatch a commission to settle their respective claims in a country visited hitherto merely by a few travellers. In 1895 the commission met, and by its findings the narrow strip of Wakhan was awarded to the Amir of Afghanistan, with the result that the boundary of the British Empire was drawn in this section some thirty miles to the north of the crest line of the Hindu Kush.

The great revolution which had broken out in China in 1911 began to make itself felt in its remote western provinces in the following spring. The first outbreak occurred in the district of Ili, where a young officer entered into a conspiracy against the Tartar general, with whom he had a private quarrel. The conspiracy was entirely successful, and resulted not only in the murder of the general, but in the capture of the machinery of government. As the revolution progressed in China, the republic was proclaimed in Ili, and after the defeat of a force despatched from Urumchi the Ili rebels became undisputed rulers of the surrounding country.

The unrest soon affected Urumchi itself, where Chinese rowdies, members of a secret society which existed for the sake of loot and blackmail, began to demonstrate in favour of the republican cause and to show their sympathy by acts of robbery and incendiarism. The governor, however, was no weakling, and realizing that the loyalty of the regular troops was very doubtful, he enlisted Tunganis in considerable numbers, through whose instrumentality he was able to control the situation for a time. Subsequently he dealt so mercilessly with every one suspected of being a member of the secret society, slowly slicing to death innocent and guilty alike, that the Chinese population rose and drove him out of Urumchi.

In April of this year the outward calm hitherto maintained in Kashgar was rudely disturbed by the murder of the Taotai and the Prefect of Aksu. Upon the arrival of the telegram announcing this deed, the Kashgar Taotai immediately cut off his queue and issued a proclamation advising the Chinese to follow his example. Moreover, he had a scroll prepared with the inscription, “Long live the Chinese Republic!” which he hung up in his yamen. After some hesitation the leading Chinese officials followed the example of the governor, the commander-in-chief of the province not only cutting off his queue and flying the flag of the Republic, but donning a nondescript European cap. The united officials then solemnly changed their chronological system from the fourth year of Hsuang-tang, the boy-emperor, to the first year of the Chinese Republic, an act which possessed tremendous significance in their eyes. The soldiers were by no means ready to follow the lead of their superior officers, but maintained a sullen and resentful attitude, which boded ill for the safety of the higher officials, military and civil alike.

Meanwhile Yuan-Shih-Kai had been informed by telegram of the adherence of the New Dominion to the Republic and had appointed the governor of Kashgar to Urumchi, hoping by this means to end the state of hostility which still existed between Ili and Urumchi. The governor of Kashgar at first refused the appointment, pleading his age and weak health, but in the end accepted it. The actual position, therefore, was that the Republic had been acknowledged throughout the province, and that the Chinese officials were all obeying the instructions of Yuan-Shih-Kai. It might have been supposed that the crisis had passed without bloodshed, but this was not so. At night a band of fifty Chinese, members of a secret society, forced their way into the yamens of the governor and of the city magistrate. The governor, who was awake, was greeted with the ironical exclamation,“Greetings to Your Excellency,” and both he and his wife were cut to pieces. The magistrate was also killed and the republican flags in the two yamens were cut down and destroyed.

In the morning the gamblers, as they were termed, were harangued by the commander of the garrison at the head of a few soldiers. They insisted on being armed and formed into a new regiment under the command of a ruffian, a pork-butcher by trade; and when this was done they appointed new officials to succeed the murdered men. The soldiers in the New City killed two of their officers and a panic ensued in Kashgar, but the disturbances and looting were confined to the New City. The administration was now controlled by the gang of gamblers, who appointed all officials and took advantage of their power to levy blackmail, mainly on Chinese officials. In the other centres there were murders. The governor of Yarkand, among others, was singled out for assassination; but an exceptionally violent storm, which turned day into night, suggested to the Chinese gamblers that heaven forbade the deed—and the official still lives to tell the tale.