Evening star., 1900-09-20
Mr.. DENNY ON CHINA
Former Minister to Pekin Discusses
Situation in the East. D'
POWERS BECAME TOO GREEDY
Present Conditions Are the Result
of Their Aggressions.
WHAT THE OUTCOME NAY BE

Charles DENLY, former minister to China.
has the following article in Golfers Weekly
regarding the situation in China: ---"-.~
An American cannot read the productions
of the current British writer touching Chi
ma without feeling of protest amounting
to rebellion. 1t is broadly assumed that our
interests are Identical with those Of Eng
land, and that we wifi unreservedly approve
of everything that she does. We are berat-
ed because we do not actively OPPOSE the
designs of Russia. England herself IS mer-
cilessly lashed because she does not antag-
onize Russia in her schemes for the dis
memberment Of China, and the United
States are excused for their Ignorance and
neglect of such a question, in view of the
fact that they are but just embarking on
foreign policy" So says Mr.. A. r. Co1qu
houn at page 194 of his" excellent. book,
Overland to China
Such criticisms would come with some
force from an Englishman if the hands of
his own country were clean. When Ger
many took kiaochou and Russia the Lao
tung peninsula the time for Great
Britain to have shown her teeth. Her fleet
sailed into Port Arthur intent on war, and
sailed out again. {eaving the field to Rus
sia; but this was not all Immediately she
went in for her share Of the stolen booty.
She forced the concession of Wei-hai-Wei,
WIFI some ninety TnlfeS. OF ADJOINING terri
tory, and she took 400 miles of islands and
mainland around Hong Konger She has
been organizing a regiment of Chinese at
Wei-hai-Wei. She required China also to
engage SOlemnly never to lease or convey to
any other nation the Yang-tse valley.
Her writers may deride US with ignorance
in pursuing the path OF non-intervention
that we have always followed, We may be
criticised, perhaps, because we did not as
a nation. enter our protest against the ini-
t1ation of the spoliation policy, but it was
perfectly Well understood at Pekn that we
antagonized the whole scheme of wronado-
ing.
1t is apparent now-and he who runs may
read-that the policy toward. China has been
wrong for the last few years. When Herr
Won Brandt was dean of the diplomatic
body. and before his time, the cooperative
policy prevailed in China. All the ministers
acted together on every question which con-
cerned foreign interests in general. If a
riot occurred, the diplomatic corps took it
up and insisted on redress, no matter which
nationality was injured. If a question as
10 the tariff arose, the whole body present.
ed 1t to the tsung Ii yamen through the
dean There were men Inen in China
beachcombers and others, who said We were
wrong. and timd, that we should storm,
and hector and threaten; but we went
quietly on our way and peace and pros
perlty prevailed 1t was persuasion instead
or force, 1t was reason instead of arms: and
the polcy OF peace rested on sound founda-
tons Events have vindicated it's expedi-
ency-lts justice was never successfully i'm
pugned.
Danger of Undermining China.
Locking back, We can see how short
slShted the European has been in allowing
lnsatiate greed to dominate his conduct as
to China. What we wanted of China Ewas
protection of our citizens, and market
nothing more. Let the missionaries take
care of the religious questions. Govern
ments had nothing to do with that. We
did not want to make China strong 1t
was none of our business to drill her soldiers
or to arm them. We did not want to as
Slnllate her to the west. 1t was no busi-
ness of ours to destroy the isolation of the
emperor. In fact, the diplomatic corps of
1889 did not ask for audience and did
not want one. 1t was voluntarily offered
to us by the emperor, and we could not re-
fuse 1t. We had no reason to interfere with
the constitution of China. If she ever be-
came a modern state, she would be the
rival of the western powers and not their
tributary. By degrees, of course. railroads
would be built and western machinery in
troduced This was being done. Already
she was moving The teegraphic lines were
in every province and the ships of all ma
tions sailed on the rivers. We sent our
goods into her territory by paying per
cent ad valOrem duty. Our missionaries
could locate every acre In China Mod
e1niZe her, and then what? She will be an
equal member of the family of nations.
Y no can then prevent her from excluding
United States do? Who can prevent her
then from Withdrawing the privilege to the
foreign ships to navigate the rivers, or
from sailing from one port of the empire
to another port which we do not allow to
be done in our country? Who can prevent
her then from becoming a protective coun-
tary, and levying prohibitory duties on for
eign goods as we do? We had a yellow
giant in our custody, who was our servant,
because he was ignorant. We have edu-
Gated him, and now he will demand the
rights which hitherto have belonged to no
body but the white race. We have already
taught him how to fight.
EngIand's Course in the East.
The errors perpetrated by England in
China seem likely to be repeated Her plain
duty and the direct dictates of self-interest,
were TO have formed a coalition with Japan
and the United States in 1897 and have filed
solemn protest against the dismemberment
of China England has three-fourths Of the
foreign population of China. She has 50
per cent of the trade. Her language was
becoming the universal tongue of COM
merce. No port could be opened to foreign
trade without her securing the lions share.
The English church and the English club
We're found in every concession. China was
becoming AngliciZed, and happily so. Nat
urally, Americans were drawn to the En-
glish and fraternized with them The health
of the queen was drunk standing by the
Americans with as much respect, If not as
much affection, as her own subjects dis
played toward her. Often at Pekin the En-
gIish and Americans spoke Of the European
continentals as those foreigners" What
fine field for the gradual Improvement of
the Chinese condition was opening up, when
rudey, of a sudden, England threw her
gauntlet into the ring and became a robber
like the others. The Chinese began to argue
that the seizure of territory was the pur-
pose of the coming of the missionary, and
that the saving of souls was a blind for ter
ritoria ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. The edifice built
up by kindness, by persuasion, by the gen
tie arts of commerce, fell in a moment be-
fore the attacks of an enraged popuiace.
And now II appears that England intends to
still pursue the career of conquest and in
timidaton. Already she has her eye on
the Yang-tse valley, and she IS sending
troops to Shanghai The civilized world