Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-07-25
LEGATIONS AT PEKIN
A Description Of the Foreigners Quar-
tiers in the Chinese Capital.
DANGEROUS YEARS OF DIPLOMACY
Unsatisfactory Dealings With the
Celestial Foreign Office.
NO SECRETS POSSIBLE

Among the many valuable features of
Miss Eliza r. Scidmore's new book. China,
the Long-Lived Empire just published by
the Century Company, is chapter relating
to the situation of the foreign ENJOYS at
Pekin. In her briskly descriptive style.
which characterizes her treatment of all
other phases of her account of China, now
of such interest, Miss Scidmore discloses
the circumstances of the foreigners life at
the Chinese capital. She says:
At the close of the in 1850 the hu-
initiated government, accepting the pres
ence of foreign ENJOYS at Pekin as neces-
sary evil. offered the Summer Palace in
closure for great diplomatic compound,
and then a tract of land Immediately outside
the west wall for foreign concession. Sir
Harry Parkes led in emphatically repudiat-
ing these offers, and the Lian-kung flu opal
ace of the Duke of Liang) was bought for
4 British legation, Duke Tsin's fu becoming
the French. A flu always has green-tled
roofs, stone lions before the tve-bayed en-
trance gate, and four courts and pavllions
beyond and a flu is assigned to each I'M
perial son outside of the succession. I'M
perial descendants move down one degree
in rank with each generation, and when the
third descendant has reached the level OF
the people again the fu revertS to the
crown. The occupants of fus may have
eunuchS attached to their establishments,
and to the remotest generation they may
wear the yellow girdle of imperial descent.
There have been yellow-pelted teachers,
and even domestic servants in foreign en-
ploy, starvelings of imperial ancestry, who
took their few dollars with plebeian graft
tude
The Foreign City.
All the legations are in that quarter Of
the Tartar city where Mongols. Tibetans,
Coreans and other Misunderstanding visitors
were always lodged. and where the Mon
gols still have a street to themselves. The
French, German. japanese, Spanish and
Italian legations, the club. the hotel, the
bank and the two foreign stores
grouped closely together, facing and touch
ing another halfway down Legation
street; and across once splendid bridge,
the American and Russian legations face,
and the British legation, adjoining, stretches
along unfragrant canal, or open sewer,
that drains away from lakes in the palace
grounds The British is the largest estab-
lishment the five-acre compound always
sheltering from forty to fifty souls, or
mouths in the sordid Chinese expression.
All these European legations and the jap
anese legation have their corps of student
interpreters. university graduates. sent out
for two years study of Chinese written
and spoken language, the PekineSe or man
DARN court dialect used by the official class
throughout the empire. At the completion
OF their prescribed course, under their min
listers charge. they drafted to con-
sulates, are steadily promoted in line of
seniority. and retire pensions after
twenty-five years service.
An Oasis Amid Pekin's Discomfort.
All these official European residences are
maintained scale of considerable splen-
dor, and the sudden transfer from the moi
some streets to the beautiful parks and gar
den compounds, with their brilliant COM
panies living and amusing themselves ex-
l., tlo .act
contrasts and surprises in Pekin. The
picked diplomats of all Europe sent to
Pekin. lodged sumptuously, paid high sal
aries and sustained by the certainty of pro-
motions and reward after a useful term at
Pekin-all but the American minister. WHO
is crowded in small rented premises, is paid
about fourth as much as the other ENJOYS,
and, coming unframed to his career, has the
cheerful certainty of being put out of his
Office as soon he has learned mis- business
and another President is elected, his stay
in Pekn meager salary, a sufficient
incident in itself. leading to nothing further
officially. The United States does not main
tain student interpreters at Pekin. and the
legation has so far drafted its interpreters
from the mission boards. Such interpreters,
having usually given most attention to the
local dialects of the people, must thea
quire the elaborate and specialized idi"nIs
of the official class. DIR. Peter Parker and
the great Wells Williams are the only SIN
ologues. Chinese scholars who have lent
luster to the roll of American diplomats
serving in China.
A Narrow Life.
The diplomats in exile lead a narrow, busy
life among themselves, occupied with their
social amusements and feuds, often we'll
satisfied with Pekin after their first months
of disgust. resentment and Inconsistencies,
and even becoming sensitive to any crit
icism or disparagement of the place They
have their club, the tennis courts which
flooded and rooted a skating
rink. their spring and autumn races at q
track beyond the walls. frequent garden
parties and picnic teas in the open seasons,
and busy round of state dinners and balls
all winter.
For the nearly forty years that the fine
flowers of European diplomacy Lave been
transplanted to Pekin they have been cory
tent to wallow along this filthy legation
street breathing its dust, sickened with its
mud and stenches. the highway before their
doors general sewer and dumping ground
for offensive refuse of every kind. The
fragmentary attempts at a raised mulbank
foOtwalk beside the house walls for use
when the cartway between is too deep
mud slough. We here on sufferance
under protest, you know, say the meek
and lowly diplomats. we must not offend
Chinese prejudices." Moreover, al the le-
cations would not subscribe to an at
tempted Improvement fund, nor all unite in
demanding that the Chinese should clean
light pave and drain Legation street-that
Jealousy of the great powers, SO ironically
termed the concert of Europe is as much
to blame for the sanitary situation in one
corner of Pekin as for affairs in Crete and
Armenia.
Forty Stormy Years.
The whole stay of the ENJOYS at Pekin
has been a long story of trial and fruitless
effort, or rebuffs and covert insults 1t