Our missionaries go forth to earn the crown of martyrdom. But if they gain it their societies demand vengeance in blood and coin from the murderers. The Gospel of Love becomes the Doctrine of Revenge. “Forgive your enemies!” O ye saintly missionaries who are so shocked at the ungodly lives of your sinful fellow‐countrymen in foreign lands, will you not practise what you preach? Think of the divine precept of the Master you profess to serve and pardon the blind rage of the ignorant heathen!
So much for the China of the present. What of the future? She is now fettered by the shackles of blind ignorance, by the prejudices and retrogressive spirit of the tyrannical Manchu oligarchy who rule the land. Her strength is sapped by the poison of corruption. The officials, almost to a man, are mercenary and self‐seeking. Extortion and dishonesty are found in every class. Suppose a tax is laid upon a certain province. The Viceroy orders the mandarins to collect it from their districts. They send forth their myrmidons to wring it from the people, by threats and torture if need be. Enough must be raised to satisfy the many vultures through whose claws it will pass before it reaches Pekin. Twice, three times the amount of the sum asked for originally must be gathered from the unfortunate taxpayers, in order that each official through whose hands it goes on its way to the Imperial Treasury may have his share of the spoil. And how is all the money raised in the vast Empire spent? Not on the needs of the land, certainly. Few roads or bridges exist. They have mostly been constructed by charity. The railways—and there are not many—were built by foreign capital.
Is there no hope for China? Must she remain for ever the spoil of the strong? Or will she one day recognise the secret of her weakness, reform and become a power too formidable to be lightly offended? She has an example always before her eyes. Forty years ago Japan was as ignorant and prejudiced. Foreigners were hated; the country was closed to them. The Mikado was then as powerless as the Emperor of China is now. The spear and the sword were the weapons which the soldiers of Japan opposed to the cannons and rifles of the Europeans. Foreign fleets bombarded the coast‐towns and wrung concessions from the rulers of the helpless land. The country was divided between powerful chieftains of warlike clans.
Yet at one stroke of a magic wand all was changed. Japan now ranks among the Great Powers of the world. Her army commands respect and fear; on war‐footing it numbers over half a million—and the Japanese have always been gallant soldiers. Her navy is as modern and well‐equipped as any afloat. The resources of the country have been developed. A network of railways covers the land; telegraphs and telephones link the important towns. Her manufacturers compete with Europe in every market in Asia. Her merchant ships are all but built in her own dockyards. The fleets of her steamship companies, such as the Nippon Yusen Kaisha, would not discredit Liverpool or New York. Lines of splendid passenger steamers, some of them over 6,000 tons, run to Europe, America, and Australia. Smaller lines keep up communication between Japan and the coasts of Siberia, Corea, and China. Education is widespread; universities and schools abound. Manufactures are encouraged by a liberal policy. The forest of factory chimneys in Osaka gives that town the semblance of Birmingham as one approaches it in the train. The water‐power universal throughout the islands is utilised freely. Electric light is found in almost every city in the empire. It is installed in even the smaller private houses. Automatic public telephone kiosks dot the streets of the capital. In provincial towns like Nagoya electric trams run.
All that Japan has become, China may yet be. Nay, more. The former is poor, her territory small, the greater part of the country encumbered with unprofitable mountains. The undeveloped wealth of the latter is enormous. Gold, silver, copper, iron, and coal are all found. Vast stretches of forest cover the interior. The soil is incredibly fertile; and her people are naturally intelligent. The Chinese in Hong Kong and elsewhere, as merchants, as shipowners, as professional men, prove it. The schools and colleges of our island colony are filled with the clever, almond‐eyed students. In the Straits Settlements, as in Hong Kong, they compete with the Europeans in commerce and vie with them in wealth. All that he is in other countries the Chinaman can become in his own under the liberal rule of an enlightened Government. The foreigners who trade with the Chinese say that the latter are far more trustworthy in business than many a white man. The Chinese merchant’s word is his bond. The Japanese are not so reliable; and their artisans are by no means as industrious as their Celestial neighbours. The latter, under no compulsion, will toil day and night to complete some work by the time they have agreed to finish it.
The Chinese soldier is regarded with universal contempt. His achievements in the past, when pitted against European troops, have not exalted his name. But in 1900 he first showed what splendid material he is. With the passive courage of fatalism, incomprehensible to more highly strung races, the Chinaman will face death without a struggle. When roused by fanaticism he will fight blindly to the end; but in cold blood he has no ambition for military glory. When led to battle for a cause of which he knows or cares nothing, he is ready to save his life by a timely flight with no feelings of shame or self‐reproach. He has never been taught otherwise. In China moral suasion or deceit are looked upon as more glorious weapons than sword or gun.
But if he were well disciplined and led to understand the meaning of esprit de corps, well treated and well led, he would prove no contemptible soldier. The Boxers who with knives and spears charged up to within fifty yards of Seymour’s well‐armed men and faced the withering fire of magazine rifles with frenzied courage; the Imperial troops who harassed his brave column day and night; the students who fought their guns to the last when the Tientsin Military College was taken by the Allies—were these cowards?
What the Chinaman can be made to do with proper leading may be seen in the behaviour of our Chinese Regiment, little more than a year raised, all through the campaign of 1900. When the British, American, and Russian stormers had captured the Peiyang Arsenal, on June 27th, an attempt to cut them off from Tientsin was made by a large body of Imperial troops and Boxers who tried to get between them and the river, across which they had to pass on their return. Lieutenant‐Colonel Bower, intrepid explorer and gallant soldier, led out his Chinese Regiment and drove off the enemy. The conduct of the men under fire was excellent.
It is absurd to suppose that the Chinaman cannot learn the art of modern warfare. The example of the Imperial troops who attacked Seymour and besieged Tientsin amply proves this statement. They took advantage of cover with cleverness and knowledge. They used their magazine rifles with accuracy and effect. Their gunners were excellently trained. Their shooting was so good that at first it was falsely supposed that the guns were served by renegade Europeans. The arms with which they were equipped were excellent. The troops were well supplied with quick‐firing Krupps and magazine rifles. That they could use these weapons was proved by the heavy losses among the Allied sailors and soldiers in the early part of the campaign.
The Chinese offered so little resistance to the Allies on the march to Pekin, the war collapsed so suddenly on the fall of the capital, that scant justice has been done to the courage displayed on both sides during the heavy fighting with Seymour’s column and around Tientsin. The losses among the Europeans show how desperate it was. Admiral Seymour’s column, out of less than 2,000 men, lost 295 killed and wounded in sixteen days. The casualties among the British contingent of 900 bluejackets and marines, amounted to 27 killed and 97 wounded. The Americans out of 120 men lost 4 killed and 25 wounded. The stormers of the Taku forts also lost heavily.