CHINA. 



149 



whom only 90,000 hnvc been instructed in Euro- 

 pean ladies and armed with modern weapons, 

 including the guard of 18,000 men at I'ckin. In 

 cadi province of Manchuria and Mongolia is a 

 separate body of troops, 28 independent rom- 

 inamls altogether. Mongolia has also its native 

 militia, niimliering 117,000 men. The native 

 militia of Tibet forms a force of 64,000 men. of 

 whom ;;n,()00are constantly with the colors. The 

 ( 'hinese troops, or Army of the Green Flag, nuni- 

 U-r :>::!>,0<>0 men, not including 98,000 yung or 

 volunteers and 161,000 lienchun or militia avail- 

 able in case of war. In the province of Pechili 

 alone are 99.000 well-instructed soldiers, with 581 

 guns, of which 245 are of modern make. The 

 province of Kwangsi and the island of Formosa 

 are occupied by strong military forces trained 

 and armed in European fashion. The troops of 

 Kastern Turkestan and the territories of Kulja 

 and Tarbagatai number 80,000 men, of whom 

 s. | no have received military training. The total 

 numerical strength of the Chinese army is 1,038,- 

 000 men, but of these only 387,000 are supposed to 

 be efficient enough for a campaign against disci- 

 plined troops. An English officer, Admiral Lang, 

 was long employed in organizing the naval force, 

 and a German military engineer, Gen. von Han- 

 neken, in fortifying the coasts and improving 

 the arsenals. Both have been dismissed, and 

 Chinamen will continue their work. 



The Antiforeign Movement. There was 

 in 1893 a recrudescence of the antiforeign and 

 anti-Christian feeling that manifested itself in 

 the outbreaks of 1891. Investigation of those 

 occurrences proved that influential scholars, and 

 even officials, were the prime movers, and that 

 the scurrilous pamphlets and placards reviling 

 the Christian religion were written by literati of 

 rank. Chu Han, the head of the propaganda in 

 lliiiuin, seemed to have sympathizers in high 

 places in Wuchong, Pekin, and Tientsin, some 

 of them mandarins even, who held official inter- 

 course with foreigners. He was not punished or 

 degraded in rank, only reprimanded in an am- 

 biguous imperial proclamation which might be 

 interpreted as covert praise. The murderers of 

 Green and Argent were not brought to justice, 

 and the leaders of the mob that drove the Euro- 

 peans out of Ichang and sacked and destroyed 

 their buildings were not even reprimanded. A 

 pecuniary indemnity was paid for actual dam- 

 ages, and the outrages were condemned in for- 

 mal proclamations. The European governments 

 were not disposed to exact more, nor was the 

 Chinese Government willing to yield more in 

 the face of the truculent hostility to foreigners 

 that pervades all classes in China at the present 

 day. In former ages the Christian propaganda 

 was carried on in China without hindrance, but 

 since the treaties that closed the first China war 

 in 1842 and the second in 1860 imposed on the 

 Government the duty of countenancing and pro- 

 tecting the missionaries and their converts, and 

 especially since the recent French war, the sight 

 of a missionary or a native Christian is to China- 

 men a reminder of national defeat and humilia- 

 tion, and many of them consider Christianity a 

 serious danger to the social system and the exist- 

 ence of the state, remembering the Taiping re- 

 bellion, by which over 20,000,000 of their coun- 

 trymen perished, led, as it was, by a Christian 



convert with the object of Christianizing China. 

 On Dec. 2. 1M!2. there was an untiforcign riot at 



Ichang.a purely local and spontaneous outbreak, 

 but an indication of the influence on the masses 

 of the antipathy and distrust manifested toward 

 Europeans in high quarters. Two weeks be- 

 fore, while workmen were digging the founda- 

 tions for some houses that a foreigner was hav- 

 ing built, one of them drove his spade through 

 an old grave. An aged woman who was looking 

 on denounced him as the desecrator of the tomb 

 of her ancestor, and went round the town beat- 

 ing a gong and railing against foreigners. The 

 authorities, at the instance of the British consul, 

 warned her, and some days lafc>r, when she ap- 

 peared again and incited a mob to throw stones 

 at the new houses, posted a placard warning 

 every one against interfering with foreigners. 

 The town was full of students, and the proclama- 

 tion simply spurred them on to disorder. They 

 incited a mob to pelt a Scottish missionary 

 named Cockburn when he appeared in the street 

 on the following day, stopped work on the ob- 

 noxious buildings, and finally, when the foreign 

 officials of the customhouse were receiving a 

 new governor, they so inflamed the populace 

 that the foreigners were mobbed and compelled 

 to flee to the customhouse compound, into 

 which some of the students forced their way, 

 and were beaten after the gate was shut. The 

 riot went no further because a party of blue- 

 jackets was landed from the British warship 

 " Esk." Not long after this a ferocious attack 

 was made on the native Christians in the town 

 of Teatsui, 70 miles northeast of Amoy. A band 

 of ruffians, headed by literati, fell upon a com- 

 pany gathered for worship, beat some of them to 

 death, and subjected others to torture. The 

 ringleader was arrested a few days later, and 

 this so incensed the people that they made a 

 fresh attack on the Christians residing in the 

 city, and stoned the English missionary, the Rev. 

 R. M. Ross, who fled to another city under the 

 protection of an escort of soldiers furnished by 

 the magistrate. Another antimissionary out- 

 break occurred at Szechuen. which was quelled 

 by the authorities after the English ladies of the 

 mission had been compelled to take to flight. 

 An attempt was made to destroy the Italian con- 

 vent at Hankow, which ended in failure. On 

 July 1 two Swedish missionaries, named Wik- 

 holm and Johansen, were murdered at Sungpu, 

 in the province of Hupeh. 56 miles from Hankow. 

 They had come there in April to establish the 

 first Christian mission in that fanatical town, 

 and instead of making converts they went about 

 in constant fear for their lives. They knew from 

 their Chinese servants the day set for their mur- 

 der, and asked the mandarins for protection, but 

 got none. The Taotai at Hankow had learned 

 of the plot, and warned the Swedish consul to 

 call the missionaries away, but the latter said 

 that the Chinese authorities were obliged by the 

 terms of the treaty to protect missionaries. On 

 the day named a mob surrounded the house of 

 the missionaries and drove them out and over the 

 roofs with stones, until they fell into the street 

 and were beaten to death, a petty magistrate and 

 a small military guard having feebly attempted 

 to avert the tragedy. In the same month the 

 Italian mission at Mienyang, 90 miles southwest 



