354 THE CHINESE PARADOX 



the present outlireak, ingenious!}' directing the anti-d_ynastic " Boxer " 

 movement against the foreigners. That too much stress is not laid 

 on this issue, that its significance is not overestimated, is shown bj^ 

 the astonishing fact, revealed in the latest British Blue Book on the 

 Chinese difficulty, that on June 6 last, when the envoys finall}' real- 

 ized the ominous situation that confronted them since theTsung-li- 

 Yamen had practicallj' thrown off the mask, they wasted precious 

 time b}' a futile discussion as to whether the}' had a right, not l)eing 

 ambassadors, to demand an audience with the government itself. 

 The spectacle is not a pleasing one. They were tlie envoys of the 

 greatest nations of the globe. Since January an anti-foreign move- 

 ment had been gaining ground, connived at b}' the highest officials 

 in province and capital, and secretly supported b}' the government 

 itself. The complicity of the government was evident in March. 

 Ever}?- member of the diplomatic corps knew he was dealing with an 

 inept and irresponsible government, to which duplicity was second 

 nature, which would onl}' yield to force or the threat of it, and 3'et so 

 tied up was each man b}^ the red tape of diplomatic tradition that 

 he hesitated over ])oints of etiquette! So humble, indeed, were the 

 ministers in the face of Manchu impudence that all that Sir Claude 

 MacDonald in his terrible dilemma could suggest on June 8 to Lord 

 Salisbury was this : 



"There is a disposition on the part of the diplomatic corps to request an 

 audience in order to represent the seriousness of the situation to the throne, 

 but as yet I am not aware whether this step will meet the approval of Her 

 Majest5''s government." 



A day later the Empress and Tuan decided to kill the legationers; 

 two days more and the women and children were huddled in the 

 British legation compound, and within a week, consequent upon Se}'- 

 mour's failure to get through, the attack on the legations had 1)egun. 

 The envoys, in fact, could hardly have been more helpless had the}' 

 actually been " tribute bearers from vassal states," as Chinese vanity 

 has not hesitated to dub them. Their inaction, with its fatal conse- 

 quences, was an echo of the past, and tlie home governments were 

 equally easy-going. We now see that instead of frittering away pre- 

 cious time in June, all respect for the worn-out fictions of a conspiring 

 piratical government should have been thrown to the winds, the issue 

 faced, and the suppression of the anti-foreign movement demanded. 

 Had this been done we should have been spared subsequent anxie- 

 ties and the large outpouring of blood and treasure. But the tradi- 



