The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-07-15

then remain in the government service
as officers In the Chinese navy.
The staff consists of four instructors in
thu executive branch the chief Instructor
and instructor afioat being Britons, while
their assistants passed through Green
Wich and had experience IL the English
and Chinese navies. In the engineering
branch the chief instructor is an English
man, his first assistants being graduates
of the Tien Tsin and Marking colleges,
and engineers in the northern squadron
during the Chino-Japanese war. The tor
pedo branch is in charge of Chinese in
structors trained in France, and the dill
and gymnastic instructors were trained
by German officers. There are of neces-
sity d number of teachers OF Chinese, the
students being drawn from various prov
inces, speaking different dialects, and
knowing but little, if any. OF the Ian
guage used in official circles.
The sum granted yearly from the ini-
perial cxchequer for the whole of this
work is 1900 tsaoping taels approximate
ly $50 900 Each student, therefore, costs
the government to house, feed, clOtEe,
provide with books and Instruments and
even liberal pocket money from Chinese
point Of view, $3.50 a year. or $l,5C0, to
turn out an efficient executive or engineer
officer pledged to government &ervice for
life.
Everything is done in the English Ian
guage ana no better proof of the work
done by the student can be had than the
testimony of British naval attache: II
have been much interested in examining
the students papers. I consider them ex-
ceedingly well done They are wonderfully
good with regard to style, neatness and
clearDess, as we'll as regard to correct
ness of answers. Papers worked by our
own students would not be generally bet,
ter done
The present Chinese minister to Eng
land, LO-Fun-Loh, is graduate of the
now abandoned Foochow Naval college:
and the commissioner of the Tien Tsin
Naval college today. Taotai Yen-Foo,
completed his studies in England, and
was the first man of his year at Green
wich.
The students. like those at Tien Tsin,
are sons of gentlemen, ana are admitted
from sixteen to twenty years of age.
In addition TO the regular naval force
there are dozen pretty heavily armed
river gGnboats that have done revenue
service. These vessels range in speed from
seven 20 twelve knots, have been built
since 90, and would prove invaluable ad-
iuncts 10 the Chinese army when working
the approach Of the heavier foreign YES.
sells of the gunboat type. There are sew
eral tranSports--VeSSels from 200 10 AGO
tons-which could be made considerable
factors of naval force, while the war
junks which nave filed many of the
southern rivers would easily afford dis
ciplined compliments for the modern
fighting craft Of the navy.
1t must not be forgotten that piracy
has been dailyNcalling with thousands
of the coast-born Chinese for hundreds
of years and men, with that undercurrent
of desperation, can be found in plenty
to do the bid of reckless leaders of tor
pedo boat "destroyers, and the like in
the pursuit of a guerrilla warfare.
OF trained military force. as the mod
ern application of the term is understood,
it is not likely that China can boast at
present of more than 10000 or 10000 men,
but of military retainers or unframed
coolies there are in reserve quite 100000
or 400, coo. OF the trained troops, the bulk
of whom are armed with a Mauser pat
tern repeating rifle, most of which have
been made right in the Chinese ARISEN
ais, military and naval attaches speak
in complimentary terms The men are
fine lot physically, well set up, and snap
py in their movements in drill. Their
discipline is excellent, and they hesitate
at the performance of no maneuYer, no
matter how novel. The cavalry proper
and the irregular cavalry are also fine
body of men; mounted on their sturdy
native ponies, they go through their evo-
buttons with the same quick, elastic
movement characteristic of the other
trained troops that have felt the influence
of European teaching either directly or
indirectly. The artillery, equipped with
a large number of typically up-to-date
ordnance, are capable of effective work,
and the same active spirit prevails there
as with the other two arms of the serY~
Ice. II is in transportation and an or
ganized commissariat that the Chinese
army is weak, but with the vast nls.I.:S~-s
OF available coolies the difficulty of ef-
ficient transport can be remedied to a
large extent.
The provincial independence of each di-
vision of the Chinese military forces is
the source of its greatest weakness, as
was proved iii the war with Japan; but
the lessons Of that unsuccessful struggle
have been taken to heart, and. to some
extent the error has been corrected.
In equipment the troops that have not
been trained in accordance with Euro
pean methods are armed with a hetero-
geneous Let of fighting tools, among
which the ancient and ineffective gingal
takes a prominent part. The gingal is a
weapon some nine or ten feet in length,
weighing between forty and fifty pounds.
Three men are required to work it, and,
when ready to be fired, two rest it upon
their shoulders while the third tries to
point it and to fire. The terror of such
an arm is more one of Imagination than
performance, and the mobility of troops
armed with such burden is sure to be
seriously handicapped.
OF arsenals, China has seven. One at
Tien Tsin, one at Shanghai one at Nam
kin, one at Hankow, one at Foo Choo.
one at Canton, and one at Ching-tu.
While the really fine mechanical equip
ments of these stations are largely occu-
pied in turning out useless gingals and
some other obsolete guns of more modern
pattern, still a considerable share of
work is given over to manufacturing
ordnance and small arms of a thorough
ly up-to-date type, including fine re-
peating rifles, heavy navy and coast de-
Tense guns, and siege and field pieces of
recent design. The workmanship, in
most cases, is of a superior order, and
the machinery in the shops is of the best
British and German make while the SUI
perintendents or foremen are generally