The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-08-21
The Richest Part Of the Vast
Chinese Domain.
WHY NATIONS COVET IT
England and Russia After 1.-THE
YanEtse River Is Great Inland
Sea, NayiGable One Thousand
Miles From Its Mouth by Sengoing
Vessels-Rich Markets All Along.
fKiu-Kiang Letter in London Telegraph


as her own. We welcome the whole world
to free competition with us. for China's
good or theirs, but If ever any other pow
er seeks to dominate Central China politi-
cally, then the cry Is, Hands Off This
is Britains domaint The Yangtse makes
the valley. 1t has done physically in
the past. and is doing so today. Were it
possible to unfold in one view the whole
course of this stream, from the mountains
and highlands of Thibet to the sea, with
hundreds of tributaries, from north and
south, we should have a striking panora-
ma. 1t might recall Tennyson's descrip-
ton of the work of rivers to Bring down
Eonian hills. and SOW the dust of CONT
nents to be-" For countless ages the
rich current has been depositing on the
TANKS of ancient mountains-many of
them now worn to mere stumps-the level
alluvial plains. on which the millions of
modern China live, and still from gener-
alton to generation laying by its overflow
fresh layers of virgin soil to keep up an
unsurpassed fertility.
The Chinese denote rivers by the sylla-
bles no and kiang. Pei-Ho and Whang-
Ho are northern and yellow river respec-
lively; Yangste-Kiang is the great
Yangste River and provinces and towns
on its banks take their names from it
like Kiangsu. Kiansi. Chinkiang. and
Kiuklang. Yangste, pronounced very
much as IL written Yangts the final vowel
being nearly elided, is often said to mean
Son of the Ocean, which would be quite
/ In keeping with poetic Celestial nomen-
clature; but another rendering associates
II with the old Yang country, and the
more -prosaic derivation seems to be the
correct one. 1t derives the pre-eminence
OF being called the river of China. 1t
will compare with the Amazon for length.
with the Mississippi for volume. with the
St. Lawrence foe navigability, and with
any river in the world excepting the
Nile for its muddy sediment. It has been
computed that the Yangste contributes
TO the ocean Sc, 000e90 cubic feet of water
on an average every minute, so that il
only one part in thirty is earthly matter,
there would be 600 cubic feet of
sediment every hour spread over the floor
of the China Sea, As one who has
steamed for q whole day through the
shallow waters of that sea. thickened by
the outflow of the Yangste. will not deem
this an excessive estimate. over an area
| as large as Ireland the dust of the Cen
! trai Asian highlands Is being spread, the
| sea Swallowed and the coast line pushed
| seaward, year by year. 1t is mans fault
| IT, through lack of eInbankment, floods
| spread devastation around from time to
| time; by proper engineering work the
| stream might be restrained within its
channel and still be made, by controlled
| irrigation to fertilize an area many times
| as large as that watered by the Nile.
| For the purposes of commerce the
| Yaugtse is, l think, unrivaied. II amazes
! one to see a 5000 or S,0o0-ton liner at
| Montreal. 700 miles from the mouth of
/ the St. Lawrence. but the largest ship in
| the British navy may go TO Hankow, 600
miles above Woosung, and i vessel draw
| ing twelve TO fourteen feet may proceed
| to Ichang. leo miles from the mouth Of
| the river We passed a Russial tea ship
| of twenty-six feet draught steaming
| down from Hankow. True, this is not
| possible in winter, when the river is at
| its lowest, but even vessels like the kut
| Wo, one of Jardine-M atheTson's large
| feet, carrying 5000 tons cargo and sew
eral hundred Chinese passengers can al
| ways come and go to Hankow, and lighter
craft 10 Ichang. There is no river in the
| Old World, nor, I think, in the New,
| where these things would be possible
The consequence is that even under the
| imbecile government of Pekin which does
| everything to restrain commerce that
reason denounces and lunacy suggests,
the Yangtse is still a great commercial
highway. Between Shanghai and Hankov
are eighteen large steamers-China mer-
chants, four; Jardine-Mathers three
Butterfield and Swire, three; McBain,
two: Greaves & Co.. four. and Japanese
Company two. On the upper reaches
are four more. This fleet is differed
and piloted by British. Americans and
Australians and is continually increas g
ing. But these represent a small por-
ton of the traffic. The surface of the
great river bears hundreds might, per-
haps, say thousands-of Chinese junks and
RATS, whose owners. despite eternal
squeeze, the infquitous iikin and the pos
itively monstrous export duties manage
to live. At one part of the stream we
counted eighteen huge timber RATS moor
ed to the bank near a likin or squeeze
station. where they are mulcted-not the
first time on the voyage down-of some
$50 each for the privilege of moving \
necessary commodity from one part oil
the country to another To this | doubt
If you would find a parallel in the rest
of the civilized world.
We shall change all that Whether
China remains an integral empire or goes
TO pieces, there must be fiscal reforms.
In the one case China must do il herself
and alas, nobody thinks she is ,canabIe
of it; in the other the foreign powers will
effect 1t in their respective spheres. In
the Parliamentary debates il seems to
have been overlooked that. If England
regards only her own interests, it is a
moot point whether we should lose OF
gain by diSmemberment with equal COM
| merclal rights over Inc Who.e country, OF
with the central and best part of II spe-
cially British. and with such rights as We
can enforce elsewhere. Under the new
policy of differential tariffs the largest
empire in the world. with unrivaled mar.
kets. supported, as we should be in this
I cause by America, can exact her owr
conditions How would it suit Russia for
instance, If she prejudices our trade in
North China, to have duty of 5s pei
quarter levied on wheat from the Black
Sea? The mere threat of such measure
would prevent the Russians dreaming o.
the injustice. Their interest in Mark
) lane would be ten times as great as any
exceptional advantage in Manchuria.
The hostile power which the British
empire possesses in this respect If sh,
chooses to exercise 1t, is incalculable
: But how would British rule be accepted
I am making this trip up the Yangtse t
get an answer to that question. One can
not look On these vast cities that crowt
5 it's banks. on these teeming population
5 with their ancient and complex civliza
tion their vast and varied industries
without feeling that something else thar
the craven fear of being great might Civ
pause to British cabinet before they
i took over the government of Contra
3 China The inquiry was raised in TIL
House. What does the Yangtse Vale,
mean? Nature. which is usually in con
, federacy with Great Britain. has settle.
! the point 1t means, and can only mean
. the basin of the Yangtse between tn
| Peling (Northern). Mountains on the on
hand and the Nanling Southern Noun
, tains on the other II includes as
glance at the map will show, the who'll
= of the provinces of Kiangsu. Anwhei
| Hupeh, Honan, SZchuan, Kweichow, HUI