CHINA. 



163 



A project for a British line, 700 miles long, 

 from British Burmah into Yunnan was sanctioned 

 by the Chinese Government, but engineers who 

 examined the ground reported that it could not 

 be built profitably. An easier route was after- 

 ward discovered, but the project is not attractive 

 to capitalists, although by extending the line 

 northeastward to Chungking and the head of 

 navigation on the Yangtse-Kiang it would ac- 

 complish the political object of connecting with 

 British India the special sphere of interest re- 

 served for Great Britain by the engagement of 

 the Chinese Government that it shall never be 

 alienated to any other power, embracing the 

 provinces now the most productive and having 

 the largest commerce with the outside world, and 

 also those containing the greatest prospective 

 wealth in coal and iron not yet utilized. 



In the southern provinces the British come in 

 competition with the French, who had obtained 

 from the Chinese Government an assurance, simi- 

 lar in terms to that given to Great Britain rela- 

 tive to the basin of the Yangtse-Kiang, that no 

 part of Kwangtung, Kwangsi, or Yunnan should 

 ever be ceded or leased to any other power. By 

 the same agreement China granted to the French 

 the right to build a railroad from the frontier of 

 Tonquin to Yunnan-Fu, and also gave to the 

 French Government a lease for ninety-nine years 

 of the Bay of Kwang-Tchao-Wan as a naval sta- 

 tion. The French immediately set .about the con- 

 struction of the railroad from Laokai to Yunnan- 

 Fu. In the Chinese province their engineers en- 

 countered riotous opposition, and their consulate 

 at Mongtse was destroyed by a mob. Instead of 

 asking exorbitant damages, the French minister 

 simply demanded that the consulate be rebuilt. 

 In contrast to this mild procedure a claim was 

 presented for 1,200,000 taels and the concession 

 of mining rights around Chungking as compensa- 

 tion for the destruction of mission property in 

 Szechuen. The English minister made repeated 

 demands for the removal of the Governor of 

 Kweichau because he failed to punish the mur- 

 derers of a missionary named Fleming. 



The delimitation of the frontier between Yun- 

 nan and Burmah was completed by an Anglo- 

 Chinese commission on April 24, with the excep- 

 tion of the Wa territory, which was left till 1900, 

 as difficulties were expected requiring a previous 

 understanding with the Viceroy of Yunnan. The 

 line demarcated, running due east from the Nam- 

 yang river, adds to the northern Shan States of 

 Burmah several hundred square miles that were 

 excluded by the line laid down in the agreement 

 of 1897. 



While the discussions over railroad and other 

 concessions were going on marines were sent up 

 to Pekin from English, Russian, German, Ameri- 

 can, and French war ships to guard the legations 

 on the ground that disturbances were feared. 

 After the principal points in controversy were 

 settled these guards were withdrawn. 



At the beginning of the year, when the French 

 representative was pressing the Chinese Govern- 

 ment for an extension of the French settlement 

 at Shanghai, having already come to an under- 

 standing with the British minister by waiving 

 jurisdiction over British property owners in the 

 area in question, the United States minister, sup- 

 ported by his British colleague, protested against 

 the extension of the French concession, urging 

 at the same time the desirability of extending 

 the limits of the general European settlement. 

 The Pekin Government consequently withheld the 

 concession that the French desired, and agreed 

 to an enlargement of the cosmopolitan concession 



as soon as the opposition of the French and Rus- 

 sian ministers could be overcome. The British 

 Government could not consistently refuse to con- 

 cur in the French extension, since it had agreed 

 in 1890 to all that the French demanded, includ- 

 ing the Chinese bund of the native city, the suburb 

 of Passejio, and roads leading some miles inland. 

 Lord Salisbury held, however, that the situation 

 was now essentially different, and that the ces- 

 sion of so much land would constitute an aliena- 

 tion of a part of the Yangtse basin. He finally 

 agreed that the extension should be limited to 

 the suburb of Passejio only, which should be 

 strictly defined. On this understanding the Chi- 

 nese Government agreed to both extensions. 

 While negotiations over the Anglo-Russian agree- 

 ment were in progress Sir Claude MacDonald ex- 

 asperated the Russians and caused a hitch in the 

 negotiations by securing without their knowledge 

 an extension of the British settlement at Niu- 

 chwang, the Russians having some time before 

 obtained an extension of their concession at 

 Hankau. 



Antiforeign disturbances near Ichau-Fu and 

 at other points in Shantung province were fol- 

 lowed by the German occupation of Ngan-Tung- 

 Wei, near the frontier of Kiangsu, whence ma- 

 rines marched to the neighborhood of Ichau-Fu. 

 The disturbances began with the imprisonment 

 of a German priest within the neutral zone. A 

 German naval patrol was afterward fired upon 

 and compelled to retire by Chinese soldiery. The 

 marines simply punished the villages where the 

 patrol was attacked, and then returned to Kiau- 

 Chau. The Chinese, stirred to action by the 

 prompt move of the Germans, increased the mili- 

 tary and kept better order in the province there- 

 after, but the precedent established by Germany 

 gave her the future right to interfere in the in- 

 terior of Shantung for the preservation of order 

 independently of the Chinese authorities. 



The British about the same time began to 

 press for a revision of the treaty ceding the dis- 

 trict of Kaulung, opposite Hong-Kong. Thjpy 

 threatened to remove the Chinese customhouse 

 from British territory if the demand for more 

 territory were not acceded to. The area leased 

 to Great Britain by the convention of June 9, 

 1898, was 376 square miles. The neck of land 

 connecting it with Chinese territory is deeply in- 

 dented by Mirs Bay on one side and Deep Bay 

 on the other, and through the greater part of its 

 breadth of 11 miles the Shan-Chun river forms 

 a natural boundary. The British, however, de- 

 sired to include the whole valley of the river 

 and the range of hills inclosing it on the north, 

 whose summit would afford a more strategic fron- 

 tier. They objected also to the Chinese retain- 

 ing and garrisoning the walled city of Kaulung 

 within the leased territory. When they landed 

 troops preparatory to taking formal possession 

 on April 17, Chinese soldiers made a show of 

 opposing them at Taipo-Fu. The populace had 

 previously burned some sheds erected for the ac- 

 commodation of the police. The Chinese troops 

 took to flight when the British opened fire, but 

 appeared again in the same place on April 17, 

 the British flag having been raised a day before 

 the time fixed on account of the resistance en- 

 countered. The Chinese were shelled when they 

 showed themselves on the heights, and when they 

 hastily retreated the Hong-Kong regiment pur- 

 sued them. These encounters gave Sir Henry 

 Blake, the new governor of Hong-Kong, ground 

 for demanding the evacuation of the fortified post 

 of Kaulung reserved to China by the treaty. The 

 Viceroy of Canton, instead of complying, strength- 



