The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1900-09-03
CHINAKNOHS No LIBERTY
Truxt0n Beale Thinks the Powers
Should Rule the Empire.
says the Chinese Are Entirely Lack
ing IN National Spirit and Patriot
isn,-Instruments OF Torture as
Common There As Golf sticks
or Baseball Eats in This Country

NARRAGANSETT- r. /, Sept @--Trux-
ton Beale. who has Travelled extensively
in the interior of China. holds Interesting
views as to the character OF the Chinese
in general In the course Of converse
ton yesterday Mr.. BeaIe said:
1t is true that the territory OF China Is
huge and that it is peopled by four hun
bred millions of inhabitants. but she IS
nevertheless an incoherent, inert mass, q
social organism as it we're, without nerY-
Gus system, so that the fear constantly
expressed about the difficulties European
armies would have in controlling il are
groundless. Il is true that she has made q
showing that has surprised the civilized
world. but ii is nevertheless only show
ing and made by that strip Of China along
the seaboard whose inhabitants nave be
come familiar With European methods aud
have had access to European modern arms
Unlike the experience that an Asiatie ar
my would have in invading Europe find
ing it more and more difficult each day
the allied armies will find their work each
day much easier if by chance they are
obliged to march beyond the Great Wall
The arms of the Chinese soldiers where
I was in the Province of kashgaT, were
of the crudest possible description, many
of them with the old percussion cap gun
and others with the fintIocks- l regret
that l arrived too late to see one Of their
military raneuvTEs there, but an old Cos
sack colonel on the frontier of Siberia
iaughingIy told me of it the next day. II
seemed that hollow square was formed,
the men facing inward. when for some rea-
son various kinds Of food were placed in
the centre. After this men on stills en-
tered the square and walked about in gro
tesque attitudes and the men faced out
ward and fred a yol1ey of blank cartridges,
the majority OF their guns missing fire en-
tirely. Then one of the mandarins, a Chi
pese army officer, came up TO the old Cos
sack to explain the mysteries of a breeeh-
loading gun, and much to the old colonel S
amusement was SO ignorant of his profes-
sion that he attempted 10 force a pin-fre
cartridge into a central fire gun. In fact
the handful Of Cossacks in the city OF
Kashgar, many miles journey from the
frontier OF Siberia. their Own country
seemed TO treat the whole Chinese popu-
latiOn, officials and ALL with the greatest
disdain. This is the present feeble condi-
ton of the Chinese, and those now found
selling to them modern arms should be
treated as pirates by the nations of The
civilized world
n is difficult for a civilized man to un-
deStand their total lack of national spiTi
and patriotism. Pekin only means to Chi
namen of those distant provinces a place
from which a mandarin has been sent from
afar TO oppress torture, and overtax them
1t is hard for us to conceive of the total
absence there of anything like public opin-
ion-anything like opinion on any sub
+ Iceland their total lack OF what might
be termed emotion. Within a few DAYS
of Tunganes Chinese Mohammedans was
going on about which from time TO time
vague reports reached us, and il seemed
that l. foreigner living many thousand
miles from Il sir country, was the only
| one that took the least interest in the mat
| ter.
Many anti axT,s.eionists would soon bs
| converted if they could see the gross mis-
government, the oppression, the torture
and overtaxatien of one of the interior
/ provinces of China. The old ASiGtic max
! im Better have the enemy than the t2S
! gatherer,' certainly applies in that coun-
! try instruments of torture lie strewI
! about in officials quarters in China a,
! thickly as baseball bats, golf clubs, and
! tennis raequets around the cottages o.
/ the summer residents at Narragansett Pier
/ Huge paddles, the cruel wooden collar bolt
/ ed on the offenders neck in such manner
/ as to make reclining attitude impossible
| and thus destroy sleep. huge iron bars
! chained to an individual sometimes fol
| life who thus travels through the bazaar
each step causing pain, are not uncommon
| sights in the hazaars Of Kashgar. Thest
expressions together with Chinese vices
| destroy every Asiatic race which has tht
misfortune to come in contact with tht
Chinese. 1t is only necessary, in answer
to those anti-expansionists who deplore tht
loss Of liberty that Asiaties lose when the!
are conquered and governed by Europeans
/ to recall to them that the islands of Hong