WAR DAYS IN PEKING
During my first absence in America Mr. Peck had been appointed consul at Tsingtau, and Dr. Charles D. Tenney had been sent as his successor. My predecessor, Mr. W.J. Calhoun, in a letter concerning Doctor Tenney, bore witness to his unusual acquaintanceship with the Chinese and knowledge of Chinese affairs. Speaking of Doctor Tenney's joy in returning to China, Mr. Calhoun remarked: "There is a strange thing about foreigners who have lived very long in China: they never seem to be contented anywhere else. They are apparently bitten by some kind of bug which infuses a virus into their blood, and makes life in that country the only thing endurable."
Existence of a state of war deeply affected social life in Peking. The mutual enemies could, of course, not see each other. Their social movements, therefore, were considerably restricted. The neutrals, however, having relations with both sides, were if anything more busy socially than at other times. Dinners had to be given in sets, one for the Entente Allies, the other for the Central Powers. The Austrian minister decided that as his country was at war and his people were suffering, he would not accept any dinner invitations at all, except for small parties en famille. The other representatives of belligerent powers kept up their social life on a reduced scale. Dancing was gradually restricted, and finally passed out almost entirely.
Mr. Rockhill had died at Honolulu in December, 1914. He had been retained by President Yuan as his personal adviser, and was returning to China from a brief visit to the United States. I felt the loss of a man of such unusual ability and experience, to whom China had been the most interesting country in the world. In all the difficulties which followed, his advice would have been of great value to the Chinese President and Government.
The report of the Engineers' Commission which investigated the Hwai River Conservancy project made that enterprise look even more attractive than I had anticipated. The value of the redeemed land alone would be more than enough to pay the cost of the improvements. I felt that the work would give great credit to the American name. Not only would it assure the livelihood of multitudes through the redemption of millions of the most fertile acres in China, but it would give to the Chinese a living example of how, by scientific methods, the very foundations of their life could be improved. During the winter of 1914-15 a terrible famine was again devastating that region, threatening hundreds of thousands of peasants with extinction. Never had the sum of twenty millions of dollars produced such benefits as would be assured here. But after urgent appeals to the Department in Washington, the National Red Cross, and the Rockefeller Foundation, it was found impossible to secure the necessary capital during the year of the option. The best I could do was to ask for an extension, which was granted, although the Chinese themselves were impatient to see the work begun.
We received reports during the first winter of the war about the suffering endured by German and Austrian prisoners in Siberia. They had been captured during the summer and early autumn, and transported to Siberia in their summer uniforms. Subjected to the intense cold of a Siberian winter, they were herded in barracks unprovided with ordinary necessities; these were sealed to exclude the cold and all kinds of disease were soon rampant. The Legation at Peking, being nearest to Siberia, superintended the relief work there of the American Red Cross; there was also a German relief organization (called Hilfsaktion), of which a capable and enterprising woman of Austrian descent, Madame Von Hanneken, was the moving spirit. The Legation's work increased; innumerable appeals came to it directly, and in lending its good offices to the German association care had to be taken that no use of it be made that could be properly objected to. Madame Von Hanneken was on friendly terms with the Russian Legation, which gave her society needed facilities. Its direct representatives were European neutrals, chiefly Danes and Swedes. The work of the American Red Cross among the war prisoners in Siberia, as well as the efforts of the Y.M.C.A. to introduce among them industrial and artistic activities to alleviate their lot, make a story of unselfish effort.
I tried to encourage the Chinese to build good roads. The Imperial roads around Peking were surfaced with huge flagstones which, through rain and climate, had lost alignment; they tilted and sloped at angles like the logs of a corduroy road. Vehicles might not pass them, while the Chinese carts picked their way as best they could over low-lying dirt tracks by the side of these magnificent causeways. The Chinese proverbial description of them is: "Ten years of heaven and a thousand years of hell." The country thoroughfares have worn deep; it is a Chinese paradox that the rivers usually flow above and the highways lie below the surface of the land. In the loess regions the roads are often cut thirty or forty feet deep into the soil.
I first suggested the building of a road from Tientsin to Peking, but the railways did not encourage this enterprise, and it was delayed several years. Mr. E.W. Frazar, an American merchant from Japan who accompanied me to Tokyo in 1915, had successfully established motor-car services in Japan. He had come to north China to establish a branch of his firm there; he was willing to get American capital for road building and to make a contract therefor with the Chinese Government. This particular contract was not concluded, but an impetus had been given to the idea among the Chinese, and the building of roads was gradually taken up, beginning with highways around Peking. The leading men became interested when they began to realize its effect on real estate values.