Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-07
GERMANS IN CHINA
Political and Commercial
Aggressiveness.
L A RGE INVESTMENTS
HOW SHANTUNG PENINSULA
CAME TO BE OCCUPIED.
Vast Improvements in K1aochou Bay
British at Wei-Hai-Wei and
Russians at Dalny.
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Written for The Evening Star and Chicago Record
Herald.
Several times during the last winter and
spring have 1 alluded to the political and
commercial aggressiveness of Germany in
the east. It Is found everywhere. German
steamships. subsidized by the government.
now visit every port German wholesalers
and retailers. commission merchants and
bankers can be found in every town of i'm
portance. and particularly in the ports Of
Asia and the East Indies-the Philippine
Islands excepted. They do not go to Ma
Mia and other Philippine towns because our
political and tariff policy in the islands has
made investments uncertain and unsafe and
trade Improbable. Until the governme nj
OF the United States has made 1t clear that
the Filipinos will not be given independence
or intrusted with the control of affairs Ger
mans as we'll as other foreign investors will
avoid Manila. And. as long the present
policy prevails in the custom house, trade
will be driven away.
In China no such obstacles exist: nor are
they found in Egypt India, Burma or the
Malay states, where German ships are now
claiming their share of the cargoeS and
German banks and mercantile houses are
being established. encouraged and support
ed by their government For example, there
tropolis Of central China. twenty-five Ger
man firms where there were only ten in
1899 They are engaged in all kinds OF
business and banking, dealing chiefly in
German imports and exporting Chinese pro-
ducts to Germany. But at the same time
they are doing business with every other
nation. The same is true of every other i'm
pOrtant town in China.
DR.. Wilcox of Champaign, ILL.,, our consul
at Hankow. told me that there are only
six American firms in Hankow. Three are
in charge of Englishmen and nearly all OF
their employees are English.
In Shanghai the number of German firms
has increased from forty-three to sixty
eight during the last four years, and the
German-Asiatic Bank, which has Its mead
quarters there, has increased Its capital
from 81 24S 100 to s., 665, 600. The principal
foreign merchants In Picking are Germans;
one of the two new hotels is being built by
a German. The telephone line between Pc
king and Tien-Tsin is controlled by a Ger
man and there is a German post office at
the Chinese capital. There are German
post offices In all of the principal cities In
China Hankow's telephone system is own.
ed by Germans. At Canton the number OF
German firms has increased from four to
twelve since 1900, and they now DO more
than 80 per cent of the foreign business.
Thirty-six German steamers make tnelr
headquarters at that city and trade on the
river
German Investments in China.
a
mort trade last year amounted to more than
four million marks, and of the export trade
twelve million marks. Four million marks
of German money is invested in coal mines
at Ping-Siang There IS line OF seven
C.arnan steamers on the Yangtse river
Ave running between Shanghai ana Ran
kow. one between Hankow ana Ichdhs,
the head of navigation and one oetwesn
Hankow and Swallow rem mllioh MAJ ti ms
Of German capital is invested in China
cotton mills: two million marks In Siik
mills and thread factories, seven Hitiloh
marks in flour mills. nine NUM- an 81 81 ~
sand marks in the gas works OF Snahs hai !,
more than eight million marks IN tnree
backwards, a wharf company, hgn.e.ase
company a tugboat company ana iallo M
Sostment company at Shanghai
TLa North German Lloyd Company mas
tventv-seyen steamers doing coaSting
trade between Singapore ana ilen- 4sin'
and there is a through steamer lro 9.o a,f
,nen every two weeks. Altogether 50 olI-
fara,t steamers sailing under the German
fae called at the port OF Shanghai "a "a I'D 10
At Tien-Tsin Germany eontrols y" Pc pc,
cent of the imports ana I'd per GEM VI -
sInort business: the number OF German
6rps has increased from twelve 10 twenty
nine since the Boxer troubles, ana nine
teen million marks OF German money nas
been invested in enterprises there AT me
foo and other ports along the coast similar
stories are told. German business is IN
creasing as rapidly as that OF all OF the
other countries combined, and whatever
other countries may Go at the close Or the
present war the German policy VIII De
maintained.
Russia may be driven from Port Arthur
and compelled to evacuate Manchurld alto
gether: Great Britain may voluntarily with
draw from Wei-hai-Wei; but Germany will
retain possession of Kiaochou and continue
to increase the strength and importance
of her colony there
Seized by Germans
When Russia took possession of Port
Arthur the German emperor needed only a
pretext to seize a strategic point on the
Chinese coast, which was furnished nv
Providence soon after. Fathers Mes and
Henle, Jesuit priests, who short time be-
fore had been expelled from Prussia for Sc
dition. were murdered by mob at the cap
ital of Shantung province. They had asked
the governor for plot of ground upon
the unoccupied former site of a Buddhist
temple. which had been destroyed by fire
many years before and had never been re-
built. Buddhist priests protested and when
the governor refused to revoke his permits
sion they took matters into their own hands.
assembled a mob, tore down the house
which the Jesuits were building and treated
the latter so brutality that they afterward
died.
AS soon as the news of this tragedy
reached Potsdam the German squadron on
the Chinese coast was ordered to take DOS