CHINA. 



128,000 taels ; tin, 2,357,000 taels ; matches, 2,100,000 

 taels : machinery, 2,064,000 taels. The exports of 

 raw silk amounted in value to 31,672,000 taels; tea, 

 30,157.000 taels; silk goods, 10,418,000 taels; cotton, 

 5018000 taels; hides and skins, 4,471.000 taels; 

 straw goods, 3.907,000 taels; beans, 3,881,000 taels; 

 clothing and shoes, 2,088,000 taels; paper, 1,858,000 

 taels; fireworks, 1,828,000 taels; pottery, 1.628,000 

 taels- sugar, 1,478,000 taels; wool, 1,448,000 taels; 

 tobacco, 1,445,000 taels; oil, 1,422,000 taels. The 

 exports of tea were 1,712,841 piculs, against 1,865,- 

 680 piculs in 1895. . 



The value in taels of the trade with different 

 countries in 1896 is shown in the following table : 



The imports include re-exports to the amount, of 

 9,033,000 taels. In the figures for Japan are reck- 

 oned 5,821,000 taels of imports from and 666,050 

 taels of exports to Formosa, the former Chinese 

 dependency, which was ceded to Japan in accord- 

 ance with the treaty of peace and formally trans- 

 ferred on June 2, 1895. 



Navigation. There were 40,495 vessels, of 33,- 

 490,857 tons, entered and cleared at the ports of 

 China during 1896. Of this number, 19,711, of 21,- 

 847,082 tons, were British ; 15,969, of 7,251,292 tons, 

 Chinese; 2,090, of 1,945,019 tons, German ; 546, of 

 565,U92 tons, Japanese ; 427, of 434,415 tons, French ; 

 and 143, of 165.578 tons, American. 



Lease of Kianchan to Germany. The Ger- 

 mans, who obtained settlements in Tientsin and 

 Canton in October, 1895, have for years been in 

 quest of a coaling-station on the China coast to 

 serve as a point d'appui for their political influence 

 and growing commercial interests, justas Hong-Kong 

 hat! done for the English. Such a station had been 

 offered in southern China, but it was not accepted 

 for fear of offending English and French suscepti- 

 bilities. At length Kiauchau, which would open to 

 German enterprise the mineral and other resources 

 of the Shantung peninsula, was selected as a central 

 point where German activities would find a promis- 

 ing field without trenching upon the British sphere 

 of interest that centers in Shanghai or on the rec- 

 ognized Russian sphere in the north. A missionary 

 outrage opportunely afforded a pretext for action. 

 Two German Roman Catholic missionaries in Yeng- 

 tu were brutally murdered about Nov. 1, 1897. 

 The outrage was charged to a gang of bandits by 

 the Chinese, but the evidence of a missionary who 

 had managed to escape proved the falseness of this 

 explanation and the complicity of the authorities, 

 who had been prompted by the anti- European ex- 

 pressions of Li-Ping-Heng, the Governor of Shan- 

 tung province, just promoted to be Viceroy of 

 S/.iiclnnm. The German flagship "Kaiser," with 

 t ne " Prinzess Wilhelm " and " Arcona," on instruc- 

 tions from Berlin, proceeded to the north from 

 Shanghai, and anchored in the harbor of Kiauchau. 

 Admiral Diederichs sent word to the general com- 

 manding the garrison that he had come to obtain 

 satisfaction for the murder of the missionaries and 

 that he intended occupying the forts. Those were 

 hastily evacuated as the Germans lowered their 

 boats for landing, and the general sent word that 



he yielded to superior force. The Germans landed 

 600 marines on Nov. 24 and ran up their flag. 

 The "Comoran" and "Irene" arrived later, and 

 before the middle of November the crews of the 

 German ships had built themselves warm quarters 

 on the shore. The Germans had chosen Kiauchau 

 for a permanent naval station and commercial 

 entrepot on account of its prospective value as a 

 railroad terrain us, as the rich coal fields of Shantung 

 are easy of access and linos can be built at the least 

 cost westward into Honan and the great coal fields 

 of central China and northward to Pekin. There is 

 river and canal communication with the interior, 

 and the harbor is safer and better than the Chifu 

 roadstead, though the entrance has become silted 

 and the whole coast is upheaving. Kiauchau was a 

 flourishing seaport until first the completion of the 

 Grand Canal and afterward the development of 

 Chifu as a treaty port diverted its whole trade in 

 other directions. Railroads, which from the con- 

 figuration of the country can find no other outlet, 

 are expected to make it again the chief port of the 

 peninsula. Prince Heinrich of Prussia sailed for 

 China with re-enforcements on the " Gefion " and 

 " Deutschland," after a parting speech of the Em- 

 peror at Kiel vaunting achievements to be wrought 

 with the " mailed fist." His ships were detained by 

 accidents at Suez, and long before his arrival the 

 Chinese Government acceded to the German de- 

 mands. These were that Li-Ping-Heng be dismissed 

 from office and never be employed again ; that a 

 Catholic church be built and an imperial tablet 

 erected; that the murderers be punished, expiatory 

 chapels be erected in memory of the murdered 

 priests, and residences built for missionaries at seven 

 new stations; that the Government promise that 

 such attacks should never occur again ; that, should 

 railroads be established in any part of Shantung,' 

 Germans should be allowed to open coal mines ; 

 that German capitalists should have the privilege 

 of building railroads and operating mines through- 

 out the province ; and that China should pay 1,000,- 

 000 taels expenses incurred in the settlement of the 

 case. The Chinese Government demurred to this 

 last demand and to the one for the degradation of 

 Li-Ping-Heng, and agreed to all the other proposi- 

 tions. It consented to have a line of railroad built 

 by a German syndicate from Kiauchau to Tsi-Nang- 

 Fu, with' the prospect of connecting it with the 

 projected trunk line, both Germans and Chinese 

 being at liberty to take shares in these lines. While 

 the Chinese were pressing for the evacuation of the 

 occupied fort fresh missionary outrages gave the 

 Germans an excuse for continuing the occupation, 

 while renewing their demand for the punishment of 

 Li-Ping-Heng, which was in the end conceded. 

 Meanwhile negotiations were going on both at Pekin 

 and at Berlin, looking to a cession of Kiauchau 

 Bay and adjacent territory in return for the service 

 performed by Germany, in conjunction with Russia 

 and France, in securing the retrocession of Leaotonjj 

 by the Japanese. As a result of long discussions 

 the Tsung-li-Yamen agreed to lease to Germany for 

 ninety-nine years the Bay of Kiauchau and a strip of 

 territory, the sovereignty to continue to vest inChina. 

 In the event of Germany thereafter being desirous 

 to hand Kiauchau back to China, the latter country 

 agreed to reimburse all moneys expended and to 

 give Germany another suitable port. The treaty, 

 which was signed at Pekin on March 6 by Baron von 

 Heyking, the German minister, and Li-Hung-Chang 

 and Weng-Tung-Ho, gives the right of free passage 

 to German troops throughout a zone of 50 kilometres 

 surrounding Kiauchau Bay, in which zone the Em- 

 peror of China, while retaining all rights of sover- 

 eignty, will undertake no measures, issue no or- 

 dinances, nor station troops or undertake any 



