The Hawaiian gazette., 1894-10-09
CHINESE DRILLED TO PERFEcTIo,

l DTaNe anu Skilled n6U-
CHINESE DRILLED TO PERFECTION.
We returned the visit next day, anC
were received with fine Chinese cere-
mony, Admiral Davis paying the
Mandarin the compliment OF taking
with him, as an escort, in the blaze oi
full dress uniform, as many of his Off
GERS as could be spared. After the tea
drinking and gracious speeches, oui
host rendered Admiral Davis review
of his Chinese soldiery. A battalion
was put through the manual of arms.
The tactics and word of command
were English. The business was per
feet, no military performance of that
nature more commendable. | recall
the Admiral's astonishment, amount
ing TO chagrin. ITO think" he said,
that l should have asked that Chi
nese Mandarin 10 look at my people,
when his own soldiers could show
them how to drill" The incident
made a deep impression. There in
that quadrangle of Ningpo, visible TO
the Admiraps keen, professional eyes
was unit of the force which, under
proper conditions, might make q
strange dream come true. 1t was my
first evidence of the awakening of the
warlike spirit of China, and not only
awakened, but trained TO the best Of
fees of war.
! saw something at that time of
I Chinese troops at various ports. While
! in no case was there the perfection of
Ningpo, the development of the mill
| tary art was evident. At some points
| there were parcels of Bannermen, gro
| tesque, not military, tumbling over
/ one another, guarding some Tartar
/ general. This was the incongruous
mass, dumped into some semblance or
martial form, pensioners, loungers,
who had never felt the real test of war
| The Tae Ping rebellion was little more
than one body of Chinese troops fall
ing over one another, soldiers pausing
in the middle of an action TO dine,
and resume hostilities after dinner.
Battles were continued like some of
those Chinese dramas which require
week for the eXemplification of the
plot. Matters, however, were chang
ing with emphasis. The Ningpo in
cident was a pregnant lesson. There
is no reason why the same discipline,
the same teaching in the art of war,
which sent an American Admiral
daZed and grieviDg out of the quad
rangle at Ningpo, should not, if ap-
piled to the Chinese empire, result in
an army as large as the armies of
Europe combined. 1t would be as
well armed, as well drilled, and as
brave, and more easily handled in the
commissary and quartermaster's de-
partments. 1t would need alone the /
motive and the leadership to induce
such an army to try conclusions with
the Asiatic and European world.
TONoUIN OPENED EURoPE's EYES.
War is the science OF force against |
force-mind against mind. There is |
no reason why a Chinaman may not |
acquire it. In 1860 a French official |
reported to his Government that few |
regiments of French troops could con-
quer China. This was but generation |
ago. Tonquin supervened, as Jules |
Ferry sadly remembered, and in Ton
quin the advance that China had |
made. That forlOrn campaign was to /
the European Powers the first glimpse |
of reawakened China. The world /
learned that China had OWNED the
futility of matchlocks and calico forts,
that she was studying, like the rest of
US, the appalling litany of war. To
measure the pace of Chinese progress
in this sinister doctrine, We have but
to compare China as seen by the
French officers in lS60-an empire
that could have been ridden down by
a few French regiments-and the
China which checked France in Ton
quin. We have but TO turn from the
rabble which was wont to
guard the Tartar General to the firm,
steady lines at Ningpo. We have but
to contrast the discipline of the troops
who followed Ii Hung Chang and
Gordon against the Tae Pings with
the army now under his command in
the northern provinces. As TO the
power of this army in battle with
Western troops it would be idle to
speculate. l presume that its condi-
ton is not so good as that of the
Japanese army; that it suffers from
lax administration from confding
too much to foreigners, who do not
show their best side to China; from
an innate, inherited and pious aver
sion TO war.
CHINESE LACK ENTHUSIASM.
Then, remember that the Chinese
are not enthusiastic people" They
are not "easily fired" They are not
prone to outbursts OF public emotion.
She moves as the glacier rather than
as the volcano Orcyclone.
But she moves! You may defeat
her today, you may defeat her tomor-
row, you may lombard ber Taku forts,
you may even land an army, and,
marching over her low, alluvial, fer
tile lands Of Northern China, spring
upon Peking. What then? You
have no more gained the country
than by the capture of Boston you
would gain the United States. 1t is
like macerating the waves. You may
cut and slash and stab, the pillows
serry up and roll 1t is war upon an !
impalpable enemy-as if assailing the
air or the clouds. Japan victorious,
and she would have a country she
could neither govern nor hold. Victor
les again and again repeated could ex-
act from China no more than what
China deigned to give-an indemnity,
an island or even the abandonment of
kOrea which xE0ul1 do China no / .