THE FEW REMAINS
End of August, 1900.
...
Imperceptibly, I believe, things are settling down a little and assuming broad outlines which can be more easily understood as the days go by. Most people who went through the siege have now gone away. A few remaining missionaries and their converts have flowed far away and quartered themselves in some of the residences of the minor Manchu princes, and are now selling off what they have found by auction. They have the special permission of the Ministers and Generals to act in this way. Loot-auctions, indeed, are going on everywhere, and the few people who have managed to get through from other places in China with loads of silver dollars are making fortunes. There are enormous masses of silver sycee in nearly everybody's hands, and I am certain now that several of our chefs de mission are in clover. My own chief, who pretends to be virtuous because he is something of a fainéant, to put it mildly, eyed me very severely the other day and said that everyone reported that I had developed into a species of latter-day robber-chief, and had slain hundreds of people. He said all sorts of other things, too. I let him exhaust his oratory before I replied. Then I inquired regarding the definition of the term treasure-trove, which has become the consecrated phrase for all our many hypocrites. The generals and many of his colleagues had much treasure-trove, I said; I had some, too. Of course, I admitted that if there were investigations, and everyone had to render a strict account, I would do the same; but for the time being I wanted to know that there was going to be only one law for everyone. Those were good replies, for some of the biggest people in the Legations are so mean and so bent on covering up their tracks that they are using their wives to do their dirty work.
I believe my chief thought for a moment that I knew something about an affair in which he was involved, for he only said one word, "Bien," and looked at me in a strange way. I knew I had frightened him, and that he must have thought that if I chose to speak later on there would be trouble. I had no such intention, of course, only I hated being annoyed by a man of little courage. Had he been courageous I should never have answered at all, except perhaps to offer him a share of my private treasure-trove!
Yet with all this settling down it seems to me that people must be becoming suddenly more and more commercial, and that an inspection of their accounts makes them wish for a little more on the profit side. For one morning a young Englishman, who has been living in Peking rather mysteriously for a number of years, marched in on me at a very early hour, accompanied by several Chinese, whom I immediately knew from their appearance to be small officials. The Englishman said that he had a plan and a proposition, and these he unfolded so rapidly that he made me laugh. It appeared that the men he had brought with him were ku-ping, or Treasury Guards of the Board of Revenue under the old régime; and, according to their accounts, they knew exactly where the secret stores of treasure were hidden in the secret vaults of the government. They explained that these stores belonged not only to the government, but were also portions of what peculating officials took from day to day and hid away until they could remove their plunder in safety after an inspection had been made. They said, did these informants, that there were millions in both gold and silver. They became very enthusiastic and excited as they talked.
I waited patiently to see how they proposed to solve this problem—did they wish a bold, open, frontal attack or an underground plot? Nothing is very astonishing now, and we have all the resourcefulness of condottieri, with a certain modern respectability added. But they were sensible people, and did not dream of the impossible. They supposed, they said, that I knew that the Russians had now full control of the Board of Revenue. Perhaps, if their commander could be approached in the proper way, the matter could be very rapidly attended to. The treasure could be seized in the name of the Russian Government and everyone could get a share. That is what they said.
At first I thought of refusing point-blank, for I was rather tired of these adventures; but the men were so persistent, and I had been so irritated by the pious insincerity of my own chief, that in the end I told them that I would see what could be done, although the matter did not interest me very much. I privately again thought of what our old doyen says, "Ce n'est pas pour rien qu'on connaît les Russes," and wondered how long negotiations would last.
Of course it was a wretchedly long business, and before long I regretted bitterly that I had not been more hard-hearted. I managed to communicate with L—— that same day through R——, and explained to him as well as I could the whole affair. I found the Russian Commander-in-Chief a sly old fox, for his first idea was to thank me for the information and have the whole Treasury searched; if necessary, to dig down to a depth of twenty feet or so with the help of a regiment or two of infantry. That was his idea. In the end we managed to convince him that this was foolish, and that there must be places which his soldiers could not reach even by prodding down with their bayonets and spades to great depths. Secret chambers cannot be easily discovered even in this way, we said. That made L—— very angry, for no reason apparently but that the affair seemed a huge bother and trouble. He said in reply that the Japanese had taken everything in any case, and that this was going to be a fool's quest if he went on with it. Also, he would not listen to any arrangements being made and put in writing regarding the proportions to be paid to everyone if a find was actually made. Indeed, this last idea irritated him so much that he angrily said that we were deliberately plotting to take away the property of the Russian Government—property which the Russian Government could not afford to lose, and did not intend to lose, either. He even added that this was a city of robbers, and that people would not keep to their own territory, but were always trying to trespass. This made us laugh so much that he suddenly changed his manner, and said that the whole question was a serious one and would have to be referred home by telegraph. Otherwise he could not authorise any payments. K——, who was present, replied sarcastically that perhaps he would like to refer the question direct to the Czar, and begged him to be cautious in such a very important affair!
The last thing which could be got out of the Russian Commander-in-Chief was that he would telegraph at once to Alexieff at Port Arthur and ask his permission to arrange matters. If Alexieff said yes, we would go to work at once; otherwise nothing could be attempted. I knew that probably not a single word would be mentioned to any one out of Peking, and that these were mere manoeuvres. However....