Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-16

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Marking government denounced
~ the extraterritorial rights of the
powers, being careful to declare
that this pronunciamento, which vitality
affects half a million Europeans, Amer
leans and Japanese and one Thousand
million sterling of vested interests, was
issued mainly as a notification that the
interests of the Chinese are today so en-
twined with foreign right that the re-
form of the one implies the reform of
the other.
We must go back to 1910 and dis
patch by Palmerston to understand pre-
ciSely the nature of the issue. Palmer
ston had been angry for some years about
opium and the way British subjects were
treated in the Canton factories, where
the foreign trade of the country was
confined.
The British crown in dispatching a
military and naval force to China had
in view the ceSSion of convenient islands
along the coast as trade depots. or, al
ternately, the winning of treaty from
the Emperor in Peking guaranteeing
safety of residence and legitimate taxa
ton in Chinese ports.
Admiral BIundered.
Warlike operations soon ensued, and
as result Hongkong became a British
possession, the question of other trade
entreports becoming merged in the mat
ter of the commercial treaty. To be
precise, the British expeditionary force,
having fought its way up the coast to
the mouth of the Yangtsze, occupied
various other islands, captured Shang-
hal and anchored off Marking. stopped
its threatened assault at the eleventh
hour because China ostensibly surren-
dered and assented to a treaty.
Properly analysed, this meant that
Palmerston's instructions had not been
correctly carried out |. e., the alterna-
tives he had given had been thrown to-
gether, and instead of several British
trade depots one island and a very
Sketchy commercial instrument, opening
t1ve ports from Canton to Shanghai, had
been won.
Sir Henry Pottinger, the commander
in-chief, had he been mora clear sighted,
would have learned little more about
Chinese history and hoisted his flag
where it would have instantly brought
changed situation, at the mouth of
the Yangtsze.
Barriers Not Broken Down.
AS 1t was, the barriers to the extension
Of Western civilization had not been
thrown down, and the Emperor of
China could still treat these incursions
on his coast as barbarian forays to be
rigidly circumscribed.
That is precisely what he did; and we
catch an echo of the perturbation that
remained in a dispatch of another
foreign secretary, Clarendon, who, II
years later, wrote that "it was not to be
expected that the notions of superiority
over the governments which the isolated
position Of China had served to foster
should at once give way, but that we
have now arrived at a stage in our in
tercourse in which we may hope to turn
to account the experience which during
the last few years we have acquired"
This hope proved futile. In 1858 the
second stage commences with the ar
rival of British plenipotentiary in COM
pany with the representatives of France
the United States and Russia, off the
Taku forts at Tientsin with force be-
hind their backs.
Interpreter Had Vision.
The issue they had to attack wa,
| much wider and more subtle than that
which had engaged Palmerston and hi.
| generation. At the maritime gatewa!
to the capital they had to bargain
| frankly about the emperor's right O.
eminent domain, not as they under.
stood 1t, but as he construed it after &
hoary tradition which made the Celes.
tial kingdom the center of the worlI.
OF the four nations represented Eng
land counted most because her com.
merce still represented the lions share
and because in Lord Elgin's suite was
an iraScible man who knew his subject
While governments thought thai
| everything hinged on reducing contest.
| ed points to writing, this man, Lay, the
interpreter, knew that the chief thine
! was to break the pretensions of the
throne by asserting the ascendency Of
Western civilization and its concept.
over those of quite another type. Ac'
cordingly he concentrated on two mat.
ters-establishing permanent embassies
| in the capital where they could M
longer be ignored or flouted. and th(
right of foreigners to go everywhere
under passport.
Court Put TO Flight.
It required two years of struggle, in,
| Guiding a British disaster at the Taxi
forts and a subsequent Anglo-Frencl
expedition of 10000 men to Picking
which put the court to flight before thi.
aScendency was admitted. Thereafter
the emperor having sullenly submitted
| for nearly 40 years there was reasona
bic quiet and reasonable trade expan-
sion.
BY 1900 the Picking court dimlI
realized that the civilization and the
| theory of government on which 1t de-
pended were disappearing The Japa'
nese War of 1894-95 and the subsequent
pressure of the powers had driven tina
home in q way which could no longer
be disguised; and group of native
scholars had arisen who shouted it t.
the four winds.
The whole story of the Boxers hinges
on that-the strange campaign il
which a priestly court threw in its
destinieS with a savage mob, one of the
most remarkable episodes in politica
| history. 1t was a gesture of despair
which could only end in flight and col
lapse.
Henceforth. In effect. the real govern.
ment became the diplomatic body, rep