An American Diplomat in China

by Paul S. Reinsch

The popular sense of equity, which in China asserts itself naturally in strikes, responded everywhere. Unless the Government dismissed the three offenders, merchants would close their shops. Teachers, students, shopkeepers, chauffeurs, dockhands, all classes of workmen would strike. All China, indeed, would go on strike.

The movement gained momentum like an avalanche thundering down a mountain. Its fury was first of all concentrated on the attempt to force the dismissal of the three officials who were, in the popular mind, guilty of trading away the national birthright. The organization of the uprising seemed to be almost spontaneous. Active little groups, similar to the Committees of Correspondence in the time of Adams and Franklin, sprang up in all parts of China. The masses of the people were marshalled for action. From the ten thousand students who had originally struck in Shanghai the movement expanded swiftly until it included merchants and chambers of commerce and dozens of other bodies in every walk of life. Associations of servants were formed under the title of The Industrial National Salvation Society. Even Japanese bankers were put under the ban by the Chinese financiers; finally the boycott went so far that it blacklisted the foreign goods which were brought to Chinese ports by Japanese steamers.

In Peking, fifty groups of student speakers were sent out to appeal to the public. General Tuan Chi-jui, who, among others, was held responsible by the students for the nation's troubles, stoutly stood by his subordinates. The militarists in general, feeling that the student movement was not favourable to them, prevailed on the Government to try to suppress it. Martial law was proclaimed, and students trying to speak were arrested. The students were undaunted and working en masse. The Government soon saw that it could imprison them, but that it was powerless to stem the tide of feeling they were creating. Thundering from all parts of the country, it was recognized that the students could, if they chose, turn the entire people against the Government. By June 4th, nearly a thousand students were under forcible detention in Peking; those recently arrested had wisely provided themselves with knapsacks stocked with food before taking their lecture trips.

Then the girl students came forth. They fully shared the patriotic feelings of their brothers. Seven hundred girls from the Peking schools assembled and marched to the President's palace to request the release of the young men under arrest.

The Government made a technical mistake. When the student feeling seemed to be a little on the ebb, the Government took occasion to issue a decree trying to white-wash Tsao Ju-lin and his confederates. That fanned the flame which ultimately swept all over China.

Weakening, the Government offered the students release if they would return to work and make no further trouble. The students saw their advantage, and stated that they had no wish to leave their prisons, if it meant promising to abstain from expressing their opinion in future; moreover, they would not leave until the Government had apologized for their unjust arrest.

The jailing of this large number of the youth of China finally brought such ill-concealed opposition that the Government complied with the students' ultimatum. An apology was offered them, whereupon the students returned to their colleges and their work. But they continued their street lectures, calling upon the people to join in a powerful expression of national opinion through which their country's institutions and policies might be put on a sounder basis, and Japanese aggression powerfully resisted.

In Shanghai the boycott and the strike of the shopkeepers were in full force. Their shops were closed, they threatened to pay no taxes unless the "traitors" were ousted. American officials at Shanghai sent me alarming reports. The British there, particularly those of the official class, were inclined to repress the movement.

The Japanese, who were feeling the full force of the popular thrust, tried to brand it anti-foreign and to reawaken memories of the Boxer period. Some of the influential British in Shanghai, frightened by the successful efforts of the merchants and students among the industrial workers, began to call them anti-foreign, too. I was told that the municipal council in Shanghai might take very stringent action against the boycott and strike. The British minister had gone to the seashore, and I sent him word that the situation was serious.

It would have been the height of folly had either we or the British let ourselves be dragged into the disturbance, which was directed solely against the Japanese, and was fortunately not our concern, and in no sense anti-foreign. I sent specific instructions to the consulate-general at Shanghai advising the American community neither to encourage nor oppose this movement, which was the affair of the Chinese. The Americans saw the point clearly, and realized how undesirable it would be to entangle the municipal council in the business. I told the Consul-General that, illegal and overt acts excepted, the foreign authorities in China had nothing to do with the strike; being happily free of Chinese ill-will, we wished to remain free. In order to avoid all danger of more general trouble, Americans exerted considerable influence with the Chinese leaders to cause them to abstain from action that would tend to involve foreigners generally. They responded willingly.