Part 22 (1/2)
So far from being new, an anti-foreign spirit is the normal state of the Chinese mind. Yet during the year past it has taken on new forms, directed itself against new objects, and employed new methods.
It deserves therefore a conspicuous place among the new developments in the China of the twentieth century.
Where everything is changing, the temper of the people has undergone a change. They have become restless as the sea and fickle as a weather-vane, The friends of yesterday are the enemies of to-day; and a slight or petty annoyance is enough to make them transfer man or country from one to the other category. Murderous outbreaks, rare in the past, have now become alarmingly frequent, so much so that the last year might be described as a year of anti-foreign riots. The past nine months have witnessed four such outbreaks, In four widely separated provinces, venting their fury pretty impartially on people of four nationalities and of all professions, they were actuated by a [Page 245]
common hate and indicated a common purpose. That purpose--if they had a purpose--was to compel a readjustment of treaty relations.
America has the distinction of being the target for the first a.s.saults.
In treating the subject I accordingly begin with America and the boycott, as set forth in a long extract from an address before the Publishers' League of New York, November 8, 1905, on
AMERICAN INFLUENCE IN THE FAR EAST
”Mr. President and Gentlemen:
”If I were asked to find a _pou sto_, a fulcrum, on which to erect a machine to move the world, I should choose this league of publishers; and the machine would be no other than the power press! I have accepted your invitation not merely from pleasant recollections of your former hospitality, but because new occurrences have taken place which appeal to the patriotism of every good citizen.
They are issues that rise above party; they involve our national character and the well-being of another people whom we owe the sacred duties of justice and humanity.
”When I agreed to speak to you of American influence in the Far East, I was not aware that we should have with us a representative of j.a.pan, and I expected to spread myself thinly over two empires.
Happy I am to resign one of these empires to Mr. Stevens.
”I shall accordingly say no more about j.a.pan than to advert to the fact that the wise forbearance of Commodore Perry, which, in 1854, induced the Shogun to open his ports without firing a gun, has won the grat.i.tude of the j.a.panese people; so that in many ways they testify a preference for us and our country. For instance, they call the English language 'Americano,' etc. They were disappointed that their claims against Russia were not backed up by the United States. That, however, caused only a momentary cloud. Beyond this, nothing has ever occurred to mar the harmony of the two peoples who [Page 246]
face each other on the sh.o.r.es of the Pacific. Perry's wise initiative was followed by the equal wisdom of Townsend Harris, who, before any other consul or minister had arrived, was invited to Yedda to give advice to the government of the Shogun.
”American influence thus inaugurated has been fostered by a n.o.ble army of ministers, consuls, and missionaries. The total absence of ma.s.sacres and murders[*] makes the history of our intercourse with j.a.pan tame in contrast with the tragic story from China. It speaks the reign of law.
[Footnote *: The only missionary killed in the last fifty years was stabbed while grappling with a burglar.]
”My acquaintance with j.a.pan dates back forty-six years; and in the meantime I have had pleasant relations with most of the ministers she has sent to China. One of her officials recently gave me a beautiful scarf-pin that speaks volumes for American influence, showing as it does the two flags in friendly union on one flagstaff.
I gave him in return the following lines:
”'To sun and stars divided sway!
Remote but kindred suns are they, In friendly concord here they twine To form a new celestial sign.
”'Thou, Orient sun, still higher rise To fill with light the Eastern skies!
And you, ye stars and stripes, unfurled Shed glory on the Western world!
”'Our starry flag first woke the dawn In the empire of the Rising Sun.
May no ill chance e'er break the tie, And so we shout our loud _banzai!_'
”I now turn to the less cheering theme of American influence in China. It reminds me of the naturalist who took for the [Page 247]
heading of a chapter 'Snakes in Iceland,' and whose entire chapter consisted of the words 'There are no snakes in Iceland.' Though formerly blazing like a constellation in the Milky Way, American influence has vanished so completely that you can hardly see it with a microscope. What influence can we presume on when our commodities are shut out, not by legislative action but as a result of popular resentment?
THE BOYCOTT
”True, the latest advices are to the effect that the boycott has broken down. I foresaw and foretold more than two months ago that it could not in the nature of the case be of long duration, that it was a mere _ballon d'essai_--an encouraging proof that Orientals are learning to apply our methods. But is there not a deplorable difference between the conditions under which it is used in the two countries? In one the people all read, and the newspaper is in everybody's hand. The moment a strike or boycott is declared off all hands fall into their places and things go on as usual. In the other the readers are less than one in twenty.
Newspapers, away from the open ports, are scarcely known, or if they exist they are subject to the tyranny of the mandarins or the terrorism of the mob. Hence a war may be waged in one province and people in another may scarcely hear of it. Chevaux-de-frise may bar out goods from one port, while they are more or less openly admitted in other ports. Not only so, the hostile feeling engendered by such conflict of interest is not dissipated by suns.h.i.+ne, but rankles and spreads like an epidemic over vast regions unenlightened by newspapers or by contact with foreign commerce.
”Witness the ma.s.sacre of American missionaries at Lienchow in the Canton province. I am not going to enter into the details of that shocking atrocity, nor to dwell on it further than to point out that although the boycott was ended on September 14, the people in that district were in such a state of exasperation that the missionaries felt themselves in danger fourteen days after that date. In the New York _Sun_ of November 5 I find part of a letter from one of the victims, the Reverend Mr.
[Page 248]