The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-07-09
GREATEST MAN IN CHINA
Sir Robert Hart. the Inspector
General OF Customs.
A scotchmnn Who Became n Man
DARN on Account Of HIS Services
enuc From Imports - Probable
That lie Has Not Been Killed.

sir Robert Hart. Inspector General of
Chinese Customs, has had a mos; remark
able career. The following pen picture CT
his personality is given by a member Of
his staff:
The greatest man in many respects ard
the greatest mandarin in China. is. or was,
Sir Robert Hart. G. C. NJ. c., Inspector
General of Imperial Maritime Customs.
He is also the man whose name is prob
ably least familiar on the China coast,
far less familiar than that of half a dozen
Of his commissioners. That is because the
Inspector General is not person-not a
mere Sir Robert Hart-he is and has been
for thirty years simply the i. c." No
one ever sees him. no one ever mentions
his name in the newspapers: and from the
standing desk in his little office in Pekin,
which he has scarcely left for twenty
years, he collects the revenue of the larg-
est empire on earth. governs the munich
palities of thirty or forty ports over a
vast line coo miles in extent, protects the
shipping OF that coast by feet of gun
boats and a splendid system Of lights,
regulates the coming and going Of great
freight carriers. issues monthly, quarterly,
and yearly yellow books of statistics and
reports which are unequaled in their ex-
oellence by any other nation, and controls
Q staff OF over 500 Europeans and some
5000 natives OF the best systematized and
most efficient civil service known. And he
does far more although he strives there
In always to blush unseen: he negotiates
all the big loans which bind China to Eu-
rope. advises the Tsung-Li-Yamen on for
eign relations, and when the latter body
gets itself into a tangle dictates the only
form of treaty which finds way out.
With all this immense power thrust on
his hands, Sir Robert is the most modest
and least ambitious of men. He has never
sought lf-aggrandizcment or riches. al
though his economy and keen financial
instinct have enabled him to save a pri-
va.e fortune which Is frequently exagger-
ated, IL, ineonslderable part OF which goes
to sustain Lady Harris handsome estab-
lishment in London. Sir Robert does not
receive salary from the Chinese Gov
eminent.
DEDUCT. His own Salary.
He deducts fixed annual sum from the
revenues he collects, perhaps half mil
lion, perhaps a million dollars, from which
he pays himself what he pleases after
meeting the expenses of the service: and
those who belong to the service know that
tina, service is himself never stinted. gen.
erously paid, a great machine of which he
himself is the least conspicuous part. The
salaries of the thirty or forty commission
ers vary from $500 to $500 month; that
of the hundred odd clerks or assistants,
who are divided into eight grades, from
800 for beginner to $500 month; and
that of the two or three hundred tide
surveyors. examiners, boat officers, tide
walters, watchmen. etc, from $50 to $500
q month.
Besides these salaries. and those of
host of native interpreters, shupans,
clerks. weighers, artificers boatmen, etc,
he maintains half dozen or more modern
war vessels. or revenue cutters. with ma
tive crews and foreign officers. a score or
more OF splendidly equipped lighthouses
and lightships and an admirable system
Of buoys in all the port entries and river
channels-the Harbor and Coast Survey
Departments, which all navigators &C
knowledge to be quite equal to similar
public works in other countries. This work
alone, when one considers the enormous
extent of China's coast, is sufficient. one
would think, to engross the life task Of
single man.
Sir Robert Hart is Scotchman of Irish
descent. who Joined the British consular
service a poor and unknown youth. some
Where in the fifties. He is now getting on
for seventy years Of age and has controlled
the foreign customs service of China for
forty years. Virtually. although he was
not its Original organizer, he alone can
claim the credit for building up the service
to what 1t now is-an honorable profess
sion for gentlemen, as lucrative and as
eured as the civil service of India. When
he took il in hand the service, which ex-
tended only to five ports, was the most
despised in the world, and composed of
the worst class of stray adyenturers. en-
gagged on the spot.
Now 1t is one of the most exclusive of
services, eagerly sought after by the sons
Of consuls and ministers of different coun-
tries. difficult to enter. and forming the
aristocracy of the foreign settlements in
China. Candidates must first obtain a di-
fect nomination from Sir Robert through
influential introductions and then pass a
rigorous examination In classical educa-
ton: but unlike the stereotyped civil ser
vice elsewhere, mere book knowledge will
never pass a man whose appearance. as
well as his connections. do not recommend
him as likely 10 uphold the prestige and
be equal to the duties of the service.
An Exclusive Service
Although Sir Robert may naturally be
supposed to have a personal prediction
for Englishmen and Americans. and al
though IT has been impossible for him Alto
gether to avoid the accusation OF nepotism,
he resolutely adheres to the principle that
guch service must be purely cosmopoli-
tan; you therefore meet among It's COM
missioners and assistants a number OF
French, German, Italian. and S andina, ian
gentlemen. who. however, are scarcel, dis
tinguishabie from English in the r language
and habits. And. as before mentioned.
these gentlemen, seniors and Juniors. form,
with the consular officers, the aristo racy
OF the coast. as they are well entitled to,
not a few belonging to the aristo -racy of
their own countries. But once In the SER
vice. neither title nor relationship 10 the
l. c." avails. nor even seniority: the Sc TT
of the marvellous efficiency OF the corps Il
SO anomalous a position is entirely due to
the chiefs watchful personal surveillance
In selecting TIE right men in the right
places. And yet rot 10 per cent of the ser
vice has ever seen or been within $50 niles
OF its chief. Sir Robert rules by secret re-
ports Of the most personal and searching
nature, which he weighs with z disc ! ina
ton approaching ciairyoyance: and II is a
common saying in the Junior messe; that
you cannot h!rt with woman, buy pcny.
or play game of cards without a little
bird at once carrying the tale 10 Pokn.
and probably bringing down TO you the IA
nous threatening letter"
These Threatening letters" consist of
printed circulars, which fall like bolts
from the blue. and begin: 1T having
come to the ears Of the l. C. that in GER
tain ports there appears 10 exist a relaxa-
ton OF that e!f-disciplinc tor that sense
pf propriety. or that spirit of diligence and