Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-08

! The british are defeated at Hankow
| 1.tiro They have lowered the BRITISH
flag and consented to permit the III,
e41roaut Chinese to wander at VIII
thr0roh the concession, trusting to
tho Wedge of the Chinese general tC
nreserye. order, provided the foreign.
ers do not aggravate the natives. All
! foreigners who can get away IIoiiI
Hankow are hurrylng To 40 SO, Iol
there is no confidence in its satetE.
throughout China, the spirit OF ma
4iona1ism and hatred of foreigners is
increasing, and antipathy seems 10 ne
directed particularly against the Brit
ish. Thus closes a long chapter IN
the story of foreign aggression IN
china first made manifest by the
Rritish in forcible introduction OF the
opium trade. about 80 years ago
x 4 4 +
In the sixteenth century the Pope
undertake TO enforce peace between
tha nations fighting over the dlscoV-
cries in the New World, and he de
creed that the Portuguese should not
co west of the longitude 100 leagues
Iyost Of the Azore Islands, and so their
voya gers turned their attention To-
ward the Far East. and succeeded III
fn9ine, their way around Cape of Good
Hone and by sea to India, ana
eventually up to China. There tneS
established the first European tradlilS
norts in South China. near canton;
STANDARDS followed them, but founo
trading opportunities in the FhlLP
pines Then in the later decaueS vi
the sixteenth century the Dutch came
to Formosa. and last came the Eng
lish traders. This was during the
reign of the Ming dynasty. That was
followed by the Mapchus-trlbeS from
Nanchuria-who conquered the chi
nese in 1914. The Manchus held the
same contempt for all Europeans as
the Chinese had always protested, tor
most of these pioneer traders from
Europe were piratical buccaneers.
The English established the BRUSH
East Indian Co. in India, giving IL
MONOPOLY of all Far East trade. eX-
norting from China tea, fine cottons,
silks and china ware, and sending INTO
that country opium and silver.
The first American ship entered
China in 17S4-the Columbia, under
Cant. Grey-exChanging furs Tor
Chinese merchandise. A little later
John Jacob Astor founded a depot at
the mouth of the Columbia River
called Astoria--from which he bult
up an extensive trade of furs Tor
Chinese products.
II X X
Trade was carried on with much
friction, the Chinese rulers being
utterly out of sympathy with the par
barians." When England ana Hol-
land sent ambassadors to attempt 10
make treaties. they were received only
as vassals coming to pay tribute.
This state of affairs continued with
~ he
fourth decade of the nineteenth cen
tury. The monopoly held by the East
Indian Co. was then dissolved by
Parliament. and all traders of Eng
land permitted, so far as the British
government went, to share equal
rights to the Chinese markets. Britain
then GS34) sent representative 10
China to negotiate directly with the
eovernment-not through the natlve
merchants at the ports--and he de-
manded the privilege of importing
into that country on basis OF
equality with all other nations
the right to import opium
from India, which debauching drug
was very strongly opposed ny the
Chinese government.
In 1889 the Chinese confiscated all
the opium found in the port of can
ton, and treated the English importers
with contumely. That led to war
OS4O-42), which was won by the Brit
ish. it being fought exclusively by
the navy bombarding the coast cities.
Thus opium was forced into China,
to the profit of the English exploiters
OF India.
AS the reward for that victory, Eng
land was given Canton and four other
ports south of the Yangtse River,
including shanghai: also the island
of Hongkong. which vas then unpop-
ulated, so that the English had abso-
lutte control of its development. Eng
land also gained the stipulation that
no tariff in excess of about 5 per cent
ad vaIorem was to be charged at any
of the treaty ports-the first conces-
sion of partial surrender of Chinese
also a considerable in
In caSh-the first example
that when China lost war with the
western powers she must pay money
indemnity, as we'll as territorial con-
cessions. The final penalty was that
thereafter official correspondence be-
tween the two nations must be con-
Quoted as of equals. provision which |
paved the way to recognition OF con- |
suls and ministers. !