CHINA. 



171 



protest from the French Government, the 

 German authorities declared that they had 

 no power over the actions of private individ- 

 uals. The Germans introduced their own drill 

 and tactics in the camps at Shanghai, Tientsin, 

 and elsewhere. By the beginning of March 

 there were 150 German officers in the Chinese 

 service. The energy of Chinese administrators 

 and the knowledge and efficiency of the Euro- 

 pean experts soon Avrought a change in the 

 character of the Chinese army. Torpedoes 

 were planted in the harbors at Canton and the 

 other principal ports. The navy was improved 

 at so rapid a rate that the authorities expected 

 soon to be in a position to meet the French 

 fleet in an open sea-fight. Li-Hung-Chang had 

 two of the German officers commissioned as 

 generals, and intrusted them with 120,000 men. 

 They began by arming the whole force with 

 the Mauser rifle. In the navy the Germans 

 had Armstrong guns discarded for Krupps. 



The Blockade of the Coast of Formosa. The so- 

 called "pacific blockade" of Formosa the 

 English Government contended was illegal. 

 It was prepared to admit that there was a 

 state of war in Chinese waters; but, if France 

 insisted that peace existed, it denied the right 

 of French cruisers to seize English vessels that 

 attempted to force the lines of the irregular 

 blockade. Other governments were prepared 

 to admit the principle of a blockade in a u state 

 of reprisals," but only so long as it was effect- 

 ive. For several weeks the blockade was sus- 

 pended, but without notice. The renewal of 

 the blockade between the South Cape and 

 Eyka was announced to begin January 7. 

 After the French vessels were most of them 

 called away from the coast of Formosa there 

 was no blockading vessel at some of the ports, 

 and the Chinese seized the opportunity to send 

 over large quantities of provisions to the island. 



Proclamation of the British Foreign Enlistment 

 Act. In January the British Government issued 

 instructions to the governors of its Eastern 

 colonies to enforce the foreign enlistment act 

 of 1870, thus depriving both belligerents, espe- 

 cially France, of the advantages of carrying on 

 war without a formal declaration of war. The 

 act had been gazetted in Hong-Kong several 

 months before, but no steps had been taken to 

 enforce it. It not only prohibits the enlist- 

 ment of men to serve against a friendly state, 

 but makes it an offense to equip a ship, or add 

 to the equipment of a ship, by furnishing 

 tackle, apparel, furniture, provisions, arms, 

 munitions, or stores, or anything that is used 

 to adapt a ship for the sea. The Chinese com- 

 plained that the French ships were allowed to 

 coal, revictual, and refit at Hong-Kong, that 

 they were subjected to no quarantine, and that 

 English pilots were supplied for the navigation 

 of the Min. A cause of bitter complaints was 

 that Chinese laborers were punished by the 

 British authorities for refusing to work on the 

 French men-of-war docked for repairs. The 

 striking coolies were in an unfortunate plight, 



because, if they helped repair the ships, their 

 families would be subjected to severe penalties 

 by the Chinese authorities on the mainland. 

 Although they demanded that France should 

 be treated as a belligerent, the Chinese were 

 not entirely willing to be deprived of the 

 privilege of purchasing arms, ammunition, tor- 

 pedoes, vessels, and other materials of war 

 and supplies in British markets. In December 

 the Marquis Tseng urged his Government to 

 protest against the purchase of transports by 

 the French in England, at the same time re- 

 serving China's right to purchase arms and 

 munitions everywhere. The Governor of 

 Kong-Kong issued a proclamation on January 

 23, announcing the enforcement of the act. 



The action of the English Government im- 

 pelled the French to exercise all the rights ot 

 naval belligerents against neutrals, although 

 they as well as the Chinese still refrained from 

 a formal declaration of war. The blockade of 

 Formosa was a failure. It was constantly be- 

 ing forced by Chinese junks, and later by Eng- 

 lish and American blockade-runners. "With- 

 out injuring the Chinese, it exasperated neu- 

 trals, and was likely to lead to complications. 

 In the land operations, the French command- 

 er retired before the victorious Chinese, and 

 was .obliged to abandon the plan of operations 

 against Tamsui for the time being. He then 

 conceived the idea of starving the capital prov- 

 ince by intercepting the rice- supply that is 

 brought into the Gulf of Pechili after the ice 

 breaks up in March. He sailed away from For- 

 mosa with seven of his ships in quest of the Chi- 

 nese fleet, and with the object of blockading 

 the Yang-tse-Kiang and the Gulf of Pechili, and 

 intercepting junks and other vessels laden with 

 rice for Pekin. His squadron consisted of the 

 ironclads Bayard and Triomphante, four cruis- 

 ing frigates, and a gunboat. On the 15th of 

 February he encountered a Chinese squadron 

 in the roads of Sheipoo. Torpedo-boats with 

 spar torpedoes were sent against the Chinese 

 ships. They were driven off several times by 

 the machine-guns. At length they crept up 

 in the night under cover of a thick fog and 

 planted torpedoes in two of the five Chinese 

 vessels. The crews escaped from the sinking 

 ships in boats. The vessels destroyed were the 

 frigate Zu-Yuen, with twenty-six guns, and 

 the corvette Chinching, with seven guns, both 

 slow, unarmored, wooden vessels. Some weeks 

 later the Pingon, carrying dispatches to For- 

 mosa, was captured. No other Chinese war- 

 vessel was destroyed or taken until just before 

 the arrival of the notice of the conclusion of 

 peace, when the cruiser Estaing captured a 

 ship with 750 men, officers, and three manda- 

 rins on board. On March 1 a cannonade was 

 exchanged with the' fortress of Chinghai, at the 

 mouth of the Ningpo river. The Chinese 

 naval vessels there escaped beyond the range 

 of the French guns. 



Before his departure from Formosa the com- 

 mander of the French naval forces received 



