Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-03

0O0, 900 to draw upon, China will never
lack for men to man her fleets. Her
main difflculty, now as in the past,
will be to get money with which to
build the ships and to instill morale
in officers and men, without which the
modern ships mean little in terms Of
effective sea power.
The decision to employ British officers
as tutors for Chinese seamen arrives at
time when Nationalist China has
come to grips with Soviet Russia in
Manchuria. Even If it may be long
time before the Chinese navy becomes a
factor among the world sea powers, the
fact remains that those in charge OF
the destinies of new China are bent on
rebuilding their country on Western
lines.
New fighting ships will symbolic the
new China which Is throwing of the
Shackles of the past, and emancipating
itself from the domination of foreign
powers that goes back almost to the
first days Of her contact with the west.
Many Sea Traditions.
The Chinese have many sea-going
traditions. Centuries before the Eliza
bethan sea dogs carried British stand
ards over and beyond the Spanish main,
Chinese Seamen, in junks, had thor
oughly explored the waters of the Far
East Marco Polo, we are told, was
carried by Chinese junk to India, and
the trip in those days, without light
houses and modern instruments of nav
igation, was aSsuredly a nautical
achievement. The Yangtse and other
broad rivers extend far up in the in
terror of China, and these rivers have
seen generation after generation of
gorges of the Yangtse are a group and
profession apart, and father hands
down to son his knowledge of the
whims and vagarieS of Old Man River.
The Chinese are not strangers to bat
ties on the sea. Breaking in from the
north, Kublai Khan founded Peking
(now Peiping) in 1854, and then began
series OF campaigns, aimed to bring
all of China under the Mongol yoke.
BY 1879 his armies had covered virtu-
ally the whole of China, arriving in
| that year before the gates of Canton,
where the Sung dynasty prepared to
| make its last stand.
Turned Eyes Toward Japan.
Even before he had finished his con-
quest of China, Kublai Khan had
| turned his eyes toward Japan. I'm
| fortunately from his point of view, 100
miles or more of salt water separated
Japan from the Asiatic mainland. Few
Of the Mongols, an inland race, had
\ ever seen the salt water, and their gen.
erals did not know just how to go about
| the expedition. Diplomacy failed to
| give him an opening, so, like Philip II
with his armada and Napoleon with
his fiat-bottomed craft, he found it nee
eSsary to start operations by first build
! ing his floating means of transport. He
relied a good deal on Chinese ship
! wrtghts. and the largest type OF Junk
| was only capable of transporting 100
| soldiers and crew.
About 1000 junks were ordered built
and when they were completed Kublai
Khan set forth across the seas with
an army of $4,000 men. The invaders
were able to reach Japan, but gained
little Roadway and later were forced
TO re-embark A gale then put the
vessels of the feet to rout and the ex-
petition returned to the mainland with
the loss of about 800 ships and 10000
men killed in action or drowned.
Prepared Another Attempt.
Kublai Khan then set to work in
j preparation for another attempt BY
the year 1880 he had completed his
preparations and had finished his con-
quest of China to its extreme southern
limits and in so doing there was placed
at his disposal a mercantile feet of
about $500 junks of various sizes in
addition to the new fleet which he was
building in Corea.
If we are to believe Marco Polo a
few of these ships were very large for
that day, requiring crews of 300 each
Their carrying capacity was hardly
larger than that of the junkS used in
the first expedition and it is estimated
that the carrying capacity of the entire
| fleet was about 100000 men, with sup
plies, water and horses.
Here again Kublai Khan made use
of the nautical ability of the people
he had conquered, the Chinese and the
CoreanS. The Mongol chieftain pre-
pared two fleets and armies totaling
100000 men. His fleets numbered
$500 ships and even modern Seamen
would have had difficult Job in as
| sembling these ships at a given point
with the means at their command
| owing to the monsoon the concentra-
/ ton had to be planned some time be-
tween April and October.
Armada Came to Grief.
The assembly of the ships was COM
! pleted in June and then the gigantic
armada set forth. This armada. like
that OF Philip II, came to grief. The
southern fleet with its army made a
landing and marched some distance in
land. Nature, however, fought on the
SAAC VA tAAC OaPdIlCoC anu db Tie DIO-
pltlous moment a typhoon came, the
great foe OF the mariner In the Far
East. The invading fleets were in large
part destroyed and thousands of Mon
gols and Chinese were drowned or
slain. The dead totaled 1870 1000 or more.
For about 500 years Japan was free
from the fear of foreign aggression.
In the early days of the opening up
OF the Far East China made a move
toward the creation of a western navy
In the Tai Ping rebellion the central
government realized that a modern
Meet might be useful in bringing the
rebels to terms. An Englishman, ii. N
Lay, who happened to be in England.
was entrusted with the duty Of buy
ing fleet.
Organized by EngIishman.
Prince Kung represented China in
the matter He located i'll a rather
broad-minded way. To give a commits
sion like this to foreigner was in
itself an evidence Of confidence that
scarcely had a parallel in Chinese his
tory unless We go back to the appoint
ment OF Marco Polo by Kublai Khan as
governor of Yang Chou. But Prince
kung did more than this. He gave
Lay the authority to engage the per-
sonnet OF the squadron and to fix the
salaries; In short, to run the whole
show.
Lay secured the services of Capt
Sherbard Osborn, and the two worked
out an agreement by which the pro-
posed squadron was to be given the
name THE European Chinese Fleet" |
Lay told Osborn that he was to be |
given entire control of the squadron. |
and OF every vessel in the service of |
the Chinese empire. He was to obey
orders from the Emperor only, Lay un-
stul fHAaE 10 he he
munication for such orders and pledg- !
ing himself not to transmit any that |