Part 1 (2/2)
”Dear me!” said I.
I'm glad we met that young man. I like things put simply, in words of one syllable, within range of the understanding. Moreover, incredible as it seems, what he told us is true. Oh, of course, as I've found out since, there are treaties and things to be signed after China has been notified. She is then compelled to ratify these treaties or agreements; it looks better. Forced to sign them at the pistol's point, as it were.
However, this ratification of treaties is more for the benefit of the European powers than for China. Having staked out their claims, they officially record them; that's all. And you know what used to happen in our country during the good old days of the ”forty-niners” if some one jumped another's claim.
To show to what extent poor old China is under the ”influence” of the great European powers, I shall have to give you a few statistics; otherwise you won't believe me. The total area of the Chinese Republic is about 4,300,000 square miles. The spheres of influence of some of the important nations are as follows:
Square miles
England: Tibet 533,000
Szechuen 218,000
Kwan'tung 86,000
Provinces of Yangtse Valley 362,000
Total 1,199,000 or 27.8%
Russia: Outer Mongolia 1,000,000
Che-Kiang 548,000
Three-quarters of Manchuria 273,000
Total 1,821,000 or 42.3%
France: Yunnan 146,700 or 3.4%
Germany: Shan-tung 55,000 or 1.3%
j.a.pan: South Manchuria 90,000
Eastern Inner Mongolia 50,000
Fu-kien 46,000
Total 186,000 or 4.3%
Total area under foreign influence 79%
Don't forget these figures; turn back to them from time to time to refresh your memory. But remember one thing: it is not customary to speak of anything but of j.a.panese aggression. Whenever j.a.pan acquires another square mile of territory, forestalling some one else, the fact is heralded round the world, and the predatory tendencies of j.a.pan are denounced as a menace to the world. But publicity is not given to the predatory tendencies of other powers. They are all in agreement with one another, and nothing is said; a conspiracy of silence surrounds their actions, and the facts are smothered, not a hint of them getting abroad. The Western nations are in accord, and the Orient--China--belongs to them. But with j.a.pan it is different. So in future, when you hear that j.a.pan has her eye on China, is attempting to gobble up China, remember that, compared with Europe's total, j.a.pan's holdings are very small indeed. The loudest outcries against j.a.panese encroachments come from those nations that possess the widest spheres of influence. The nation that claims forty-two per cent. of China, and the nation that claims twenty-seven per cent. of China are loudest in their denunciations of the nation that possesses (plus the former German holdings) less than six.
Our first actual contact with a sphere of influence at work came about in this wise: After we had spent two or three weeks in Korea, we took the train from Seoul to Peking, a two-days' journey. In these exciting days it is hard to do without newspapers, and at Mukden, where we had a five-hours' wait, we came across a funny little sheet called ”The Manchuria Daily News.” It was a nice little paper; that is, if you are sufficiently cosmopolitan to be emanc.i.p.ated from American standards. It was ten by fifteen inches in size,--comfortable to hold, at any rate,--with three pages of news and advertis.e.m.e.nts, and one blank page for which nothing was forthcoming. Tucked in among advertis.e.m.e.nts of mineral waters, European groceries, foreign banking-houses, and railway announcements was an item. But for our young man on the boat, I shouldn't have known what it meant. We read:
<script>