Evening star., 1898-08-20
CHINESE PECULlARITIES
The Army the Most Unique Organization il
the World.
To Become u Soldier is to Lose Caste
What an English Of
fcer Says,
From the London Glcbe.

From the London Glcbe
Major A. E. ]. CaveEdlsh, late military
attache with the Chinese army, says that
in many respects the army of China pre-
ssnts curious example Of the unf1ttest. In
the broad outlines its scheme is simple and
suited to the country; nevertheless, with
the characteristic Chinese love of detail in
its minutiae it is exceedingly complex. Ow-
ing to an equally characteristic want of ex-
actitude, although returns as rendered by
separate accountants ara often beautifully
worked out to the thoUsandth part of a
tael, yet in combination of these returns
nothing balances. Every province has its
separate army
The writer gives an interesting account of
these forces, and, proceeding to general re-
marks, says: Much of the utter inefficiency
of China's army is explained by the native
saying, do not use good steel to make a
rail- nor take a good man to make a SOL
der which is most thoroughly acted up
to.
On almost every occasion in 1S94-95 the
Chinese troops refused to stand UP to the
cespised Japanese. Small wonderi when of
the hundreds of thousands who since 1862
hav5 been drilled" with foreign weapons.
not one in fifty thousand has been taught
their proper use. Musketry and artillery
practice is limited generally to handling
the weapons, and instruction in the use of
rifles and field guns Is rot thought necas-
sary, nay, it is opposed
In January, 1895, several thousands of
men had been collected at Shanhai-Kuan
under una General Wu,ta-cheng: to reinforce
the army in Manchuria. New rifles and
field guns had been served out and the
force was to move early in February; yet
on January % the men fired their rifles for
the hrsf TINA, and barely per cent of hits
IN ia do Jse.o
the guns. not a soul knew how to load them
or set fuse, and when at length one was
fired with the aid Of the foreigners present
tha ammunition was 50 defective that al
though the gun was laid for 1900 yards the
shell only Travelled $50 Yet these men were
sent north 10 fight at Tien-chuang-tia with
out further training, instruction by for
eigner having been haughtily refused
To be a soldier is to lose caste in China:
TO lmhbe foreign notions is worse still and
incurs the hatred and suspicion of the civil
lans, who in reality govern the army and
navy so much that to be a graduate of
the foreign schools is an almost certain bar
TO promotion In the military and other
schools established by Sir Robert Hart and
the viceroys at Pekin and elsewhere the
students have to be bribed to attend so as
to compensate them for the social disad-
VantageS of foreign education. If we add to
this the natural contempt for foreigners in
grained in the Chinese nature w, have DO
tent causes for the willfu laziness and ig-
horance or ofncerS, which is truly appalling
Alas, that they should add cowardice as
well.
A general near thers, being ordered to
keep a sharp lockout for the Japanese
whose landing was hourly expected did SO
by asking the railway station master to
send two coolies to the coast to look for the
enemy. His was the plan Of arming his
men with bags of pepper. to be thrown in
the faces of the Japanese. who. while en-
gagged in sneezing, would all be slain by the
Chinese spearman.
1t seems a libel on the human race to saw
that out of the manhood of three hundred
millions of Chinese a body of good soldiers
cannot be made, ard with the example of
the army which has been evolved from the
Egyptian fellaheen it may be prema ture TO
call it impossible. But China herself can
not do II; the very best human material and
the most elaborate instruction would be
wasted under the existing native official,
who steadily resfsts all reform in his mall
administration Nevertheless the docile
soldiers and sailors of China have never yet
had a chance of showing under proper man.
agement what are their real capabilities
Should they under European tutelage ever
prove themselves in any numbers to be of
real military value, the yellow terror may
not be mere fgment of the superheated
brain.