THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
IN MEMORY OF
CARROLL ALCOTT
PRESENTED BY
CARROLL ALCOTT MEMORIAL
LIBRARY FUND COMMITTEE
MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
MANCHU
AND
MUSCOVITE
BY
B. L. PUTNAM WEALE
Being Letters from Manchuria
Written during the Autumn of 1903
WITH AN HISTORICAL SKETCH
ENTITLED
"PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS"
Giving a Complete Account of the Mancburian Frontiers from the
Earliest Days and the Growth and Final Meeting of the Russian
and Chinese Empires in the Amur Regions
iLontJon
MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1904
All rights reserved
RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED,
BREAD STREET HILL, E.G., AND
BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
DS
DEDICATED TO THE
GALLANT JAPANESE NATION
PREFACE
THAT there is a serious need for a book on things
Manchurian brought down to the very last moment
of the great Far Eastern crisis, no one will doubt.
The extraordinary ignorance in Europe about the
actual conditions existing in the disputed territory,
the very childishness of the statements made far
and wide, have prompted me to suppose that a
candid and unvarnished account by one who has at
least known his Far East since his first days will do
something to dispel this curious mystery surround-
ing the Muscovite in the Manchu's home.
So far as I have been able to learn there have
been but two books published since 1900 dealing
with the Russians in Manchuria. They are : Mr.
Wirt Gerrare's " Greater Russia," and Mr.
Alexander Ular's " Un Empire Russo-Chinois."
In both publications the authors, after dealing
exhaustively with questions foreign to the three
eastern provinces, stray apparently, as an after-
thought, into the Manchurian impasse, and become
hopelessly bogged. Of course Mr. Ular wrote his
viii PREFACE
book for the French public a public that has little
knowledge of the Far East. I have been forced to
take Mr. Ular seriously to task for some of
his statements, since it is largely the circulation of
such matter which has shaken people's judgment
on a not too difficult question.
Mr. Wirt Gerrare's work is of course not to be
compared with the " Russo-Chinese Empire," for
his book was written with the object rather of
making a sketch of modern Siberia than anything
else. The greatest fault I have to find is that a
subject so vast as the Manchurian one is so casually
treated, and tacked on, as it were, to the question
of Siberia. Unfortunately, nearly all Mr. Gerrare's
Manchurian data are likewise wrong, and Man-
churia seems to be completely misunderstood by
him. I need but give a few instances : Mr.
Gerrare states that the population of Manchuria
is 75- millions, whereas the most conservative
estimates place it at least 10 millions higher, and
the Japanese Staff at 20 millions. Again he says
that Fengtien province resembles China proper in
all respects, whilst Kirin and Hei-lung-chiang are
more like Siberia. This is quite wrong. The
entire colonised area in Manchuria that is, the
country from the Liaotung to a point about one
hundred miles north of Harbin is all the same in
outward aspect, although this cultivated belt runs
through all three provinces. The eastern half of
Fengtien is much like the eastern half of Kirin,
with mountains and forests ; but the colonisation
PREFACE ix
by Northern Chinese is rapidly changing the aspect
of the country. Tsitsihar in Hei-lung-chiang
province is just like any other Northern Chinese
town, although it lies hundreds of miles away from
Fengtien province. Petuna and Ninguta are also
ordinary Chinese towns, although they lie in the
extreme opposite corners of Kirin province. Mr.
Gerrare speaks of " Mantzi " labourers, and gives a
photograph showing a "Mantzi" village. I do
not know what " Mantzi " means, but I recognise
in the photograph ordinary Northern Chinese and
Northern Chinese houses. Perhaps the explana-
tion is to be found in the fact that illiterate Russian
soldiery have a way of calling Chinese " Mantzi " ;
possibly imagining that they are dealing with
Manchus, although the Manchus have long ceased
to exist as a separate race. Again Mr. Gerrare
gives some interesting details about Russian
colonisation in Manchuria, but what he says is in
no agreement with the facts in 1903. There are
no Russians in Manchuria or Kuantung, except
the eighty-nine thousand troops scattered along
the railway, twenty thousand women in the three
towns of Harbin, Port Arthur, and Dalny, and a
constantly diminishing number of male civilians
in the same places. Manchuria is as purely Chinese
as the Yangtsze valley, and there is nothing
mysterious about it. I could go on multiplying
the instances of inaccuracies and misconceptions
in Mr. Gerrare's book, but it would serve no useful
purpose to do so. It is a pity that an interesting
x PREFACE
book should have attempted a casual discussion of
Manchuria.
As a matter of fact, there is but one book on
Manchuria, and it is Mr. Consul-General Hosie's
excellent work. But Mr. Hosie is in the Govern-
ment service, and must therefore speak with cau-
tion. In addition to this, his book only brings us
down to 1900. It was impossible to deal with the
question of the Russians in Manchuria then, since
they had only begun to pour into the country whilst
his book was going to press. The most important
things are therefore necessarily omitted, and though
his "Manchuria" will long remain the standard
work of reference, some of the most interesting
pages in the history of the country will have to be
sought for elsewhere. I have used Mr. Hosie's
data in several places, and I acknowledge fully my
indebtedness to him.
Another interesting work on Manchurian travel
is Mr. James's " Long White Mountain " ; but this
was written some years ago, and Mr. James knew
nothing of the Chinese when he started on his
lengthy travels. A third work, sometimes consulted
by students of Manchuria, is " The Manchus," by
Dr. Ross. This is, however, at best a very obscure
work, and is far too dry for the modern reader.
The scope of my own pages is very easily ex-
plained. I was commissioned to write a series of
letters from Manchuria for some Far Eastern pub-
lications, and so during the months of September,
October, and November of 1903 I travelled the
PREFACE xi
country and gave my impressions. Although I
wrote as a new-comer, I will not disguise the fact
that Manchuria was perfectly familiar to me, and
that I had been there often before. But I wished
the country as it actually is since the Russians have
come, to grow up before the eyes of the reader : to
allow all to see with my own eyes, and to under-
stand the weakness of the Russian position. As I
travelled farther afield, it seemed to me advisable
that special points should be separately treated in
detail, and that subjects like the rouble, the railway,
and the Russo-Chinese Bank should be dissected.
This I duly did, and I have been assured that my
inconsiderable efforts have thrown some light on
somewhat obscure points.
These letters, therefore, thirty-two in number,
constitute the bulk of my book, and I have left them
practically as they were originally written. To these
letters, which I have arranged so that they may not
overweary the reader, I have added a " Prologue
to the Crisis," which is in the nature of an historical
sketch giving some detail of the Manchu and
Muscovite in their earlier days ; and showing how the
fates have slowly pushed them together. The data
concerning the Russian side of the question I have
taken from Ravenstein's book, " The Russians on
the Amur." Finally, at the end will be found a
general statistical note, embodying all the necessary
information.
Having paid some attention to the Manchurian
question, I am fully aware that my writings are very
xii PREFACE
faulty ; for many things which should be included
have been necessarily omitted. But to write a
complete history treating every phase comprehen-
sively would mean a volume of a thousand pages ;
and fat volumes are undesirable with the scant time
the world now has for study. If, however, I have
succeeded in giving a good general idea of the
complete failure which Russia has made in Man-
churia, of the extraordinary conditions which to-day
exist, the corruption, the licentiousness, the " life
apart" of the railway empire, and certain other
things, my object will have been accomplished, and
I shall be quite content.
Of late years, too, many have taken upon them-
selves the pleasant task of flashing through a
country and then writing an exhaustive account,
and the day is not far distant when a history of
China and its many-sided people may be expected
from the hands of people who have touched for a
few hours at Hong Kong and Shanghai in the mail-
boats. But as a matter of fact, it is the merest
foolishness for people to write books about anything
Chinese when they do not know the language,
the history, mode of thought, and most important
of all, the " atmosphere " of the country. In China
" atmosphere " is of the utmost importance, and
unless you understand that thoroughly, as well as
the language, you must necessarily be quite at sea.
Some few men, however, who do not know Chinese
have been able, by being thoroughly saturated by
the "atmosphere," by holding converse with men
PREFACE xii
who are practical sinologues, and also from the fact
that they have exceptionally keen intelligences, to
see things in their proper proportion. Such a man
is Dr. Morrison, the distinguished Peking corre-
spondent of the Times. He alone of all correspondents
in China is worthy of being listened to ; he alone has
seen things in their true light. In Ghina the great
Far Eastern war will perhaps be called the " Times
War."
But although the crisis has been acute for more
than half a year, the general ignorance is fitly
portrayed by the remark made scarcely three
months ago by one of the best informed periodicals
in London. " We do not know what it is all about,
but we suppose that it is the question of Korea," it
calmly said, and then let the question drop. Yet it
is not the question of Korea which is about to be
decided. It is the fate of the Far East.
B. L. PUTNAM WEALE.
CHINA, February, 1904.
Publishers Note
Readers should understand that Mr. Weale's very
timely and instructive book was written before the
outbreak of war between Russia and Japan, although
several of his forecasts, as, e.g., the taking of Dalny,
have already been fulfilled.
June, 1904.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS .... I
CHAPTER I
THE VOYAGE 66
CHAPTER II
DALNY THE DOOMED 73
CHAPTER III
PORT ARTHUR 8l
CHAPTER IV
SUNDAY IN PORT ARTHUR - 89
CHAPTER V
BUSINESS IN A NEW WORLD WAY 98
CHAPTER VI
ON THE ROAD TO HARBIN Ho
CHAPTER VII
ON THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT 123
CONTENTS
CHAPTER VIII
PAGE
HARBIN, THE RAILWAY CITY 137
CHAPTER IX
MINING AND LUMBERING IN MANCHURIA 150
CHAPTER X
HARBIN BY NIGHT 162
CHAPTER XI
THE HINDOO WATCHDOG A WORD TO INDIA 172
CHAPTER XII
WEST TO TSITSIHAR 179
CHAPTER XIII
SIDE LIGHTS 186
CHAPTER XIV
TSITSIHAR I9 6
CHAPTER XV
THE DEFEAT OF THE TRAVELLING ROUBLE 2IO
CHAPTER XVI
DOWN THE GOLDEN NONNI 22$
CHAPTER XVII
SLAV AND CHINAMAN 240
CHAPTER XVIII
PETUNA A SO-CALLED BRIGAND CITY 250
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XIX
PAGE
CHINESE ADMINISTRATION AND RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE . 26 1
CHAPTER XX
FROM PETUNA TO NINGUTA BY RIVER AND RAIL 30!
CHAPTER XXI
THE HUNGHUTZU, OR THE RED-BEARD BRIGAND OF THE NORTH 321
CHAPTER XXII
NINGUTA AND THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY 339
CHAPTER XXIII
RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL, alias THE CHINESE
EASTERN RAILWAY 3$O
CHAPTER XXIV
ADVENTURES ON THE ROAD TO KIRIN 4O2
CHAPTER XXV
THE MANLY MISSIONARY OF MANCHURIA 417
CHAPTER XXVI
KIRIN THE INLAND DOCKYARD 425
CHAPTER XXVII
FROM KIRIN TO MOUKDEN VIA K'UAN-CH J ENG-TZU 437
CHAPTER XXVIII
MORALS, MANNERS, AND MEN 450
CHAPTER XXIX
MOUKDEN THE OLD MANCHU CAPITAL 456
b
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXX
PAGE
THE RUSSIAN ARMY IN MANCHURIA, AND ITS TASK .... 469
CHAPTER XXXI
OUTRAGED NEWCHWANG 502
CHAPTER XXXII
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 517
APPENDIX
A GENERAL AND STATISTICAL NOTE ON MANCHURIA .... 533
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VICEROY AND ALL HIS GENERALS IN FRONT OF
THE PORT ARTHUR HEADQUARTERS .... Frontispiece
DALNY IN WINTER To face page 76
ARTILLERY INSPECTION, KUANTUNG TERRITORY . 80
THE AMERICAN VOICE IN THE MANCHURIAN
QUESTION. U.S.S. "HELENA" MADE SNUG
IN A MUD DOCK FOR THE WINTER AT NEW-
CHWANG 84
THE FAMOUS NARROW ENTRANCE TO PORT ARTHUR 84
PORT ARTHUR'S ONLY DRY DOCK 88
ANCIENT PAGODA AT LIAOYANG, A MONUMENT OF
EARLIER CONQUERORS IN MANCHURIA ... 88
REVIEW OF THE TROOPS BY VICEROY ON THE
RACECOURSE 96
ON THE ARID PLAINS BEYOND NEWCHWANG . . 112
THE SUNGARI AND HARBIN IN WINTER .... 144
ON THE SUNGARI 144
A MANCHU MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT 184
ON THE ADJOINING MONGOLIAN FRONTIER . . 256
A NORTHERN CROWD WITHIN THE GROUNDS OF
A TEMPLE 256
A MANCHU COUNTRY SQUIRE, HIS FAMILY AND
RETAINERS 264
CHINESE ADMINISTRATION AND RUSSIAN INTER-
FERENCE. THE SLAV POLICY OF THE BOOT
AND SWORD 272
RUSSIAN BARRACKS BEHIND NEWCHWANG .... 280
THE NEWCHWANG CUSTOMS HOUSE, FROM WHICH
RUSSIA HAS TAKEN MILLIONS 288
SOME AVENGERS OF IQOO 296
A MANCHURIAN FARM 304
xx LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
AN HISTORIC PICTURE. THE GREAT REVIEW OF
DEFIANCE HELD AT PORT ARTHUR BY VICEROY
ALEXEIEFF AFTER EVACUATION DAY, OCTOBER
STH, 1903 To face page 304
DOWN A PEACEFUL CREEK 304
CHINESE CART. NEAR THE BANKS OF THE LIAO
RIVER 312
RUSSIAN TROOPS QUARTERED IN A CHINESE HOUSE
ON THE ROAD TO THE YALU 340
THE PEKING CART THE CAB OF THE NORTH . 344
CHINESE TROOPS 344
TRAIN ON THE ROLLING PLAINS OF CENTRAL
MANCHURIA 352
A TYPICAL STATION ON THE MANCHURIAN RAILWAY 352
THE OTHER MANCHURIAN RAILWAY. TERMINUS
OF THE TIENTSIN-NEWCHWANG ON THE RIGHT
BANK OF THE LIAO 400
OUTSIDE A KIRIN LUMBER YARD 400
OUTSIDE A TEMPLE 420
SIBERIAN TROOPS AT A MANCHURIAN COUNTRY
HOUSE , 452
SOLDIERS IN SUMMER KIT ON THE ROAD TO KIRIN 454
A CHARMING MANCHU GIRL 464
MOUKDEN SLUMS, BEYOND THE WALLS 480
A STREET IN MOUKDEN 5 I2
SOLDIERS OF THE CZAR VICEROY ALEXEIEFF
COMING DOWN THE SALUTING LINE ....... 512
THE FOREST OF JUNK MASTS ON THE LIAO AT
NEWCHWANG jf 520
NEW RESIDENCE OF THE USURPING RUSSIAN CIVIL
ADMINISTRATOR OF NEWCHWANG 524
HARBIN n 524
THE NEWCHWANG LIKIN-STATION UNDER RUSSIAN
OCCUPATION }) 528
H.M.S. "RINALDO" WINTERING AT NEWCHWANG . 528
THE NOMINAL EVACUATION OF NEWCHWANG, APRIL
8TH > '903 532
MAP . At end.
MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS
IN the beginning, Manchuria must be merely
pictured as part of that vast expanse labelled by
mediaeval geographers as Tartary, which, stretching
from the oases of what is to-day Eastern Turkestan,
spread across the rolling plains and dismal deserts
of Mongolia, jumped where now is the great wall of
China, wound over river, mountain, and dale, and
ended only with ice-cold waters of the furthest
north-east.
Two thousand years before Christ, Chinese tradi-
tion has it that the whole of Manchuria of to-day
was peopled by savages, clothed in the conventional
rag and smeared with the conventional grease of
prehistoric times. Whether the descendants of
these men are to be found in the hairy and non-
hairy tribes still inhabiting parts of the island of
Saghalien, the shores of the sea of Okhotsk and the
B
MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
mouth and lower reaches of the great Amur, it is
impossible to say, but native story-books contain
curious fables about hairy men in the far north,
pointing towards this supposition.
If Chinese histories are right, concerning thirty
centuries ago, the conditions of to-day are, to some
extent, a reproduction of what was then to be
noticed. In those days the north and east were
peopled by hunter clans of indigenous tribes, and
the south, or what is to-day Fengtien Province, was
the settled and affluent portion of the country, with
hosts of Chinese and Koreans constantly pushing
the aborigines away.
According to tradition, the influx of these civilised
settlers led to the foundation of a kingdom in the
south of Liaotung as early as 1122 B.C., or over
three thousand years ago. It would appear that
this little kingdom represented a species of civilisa-
tion, and remained independent for upwards of a
thousand years, in strong contrast to central and
northern Manchuria, still only inhabited by nomadic
Tunguzian tribes. The great Chinese dynasty of
the Hans finally upset this kingdom in the second
century before Christ, and thus for the first time a
portion of Manchuria came under direct control of
the Chinese throne.
In due course, the power of the Hans waned and
collapsed, and the dependency of the Liaotung
underwent a number of changes. First it became a
feudal kingdom. Then a dynasty, called the
Northern Wei, seized it, only to be ejected by
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS
another dynasty in the third century of the Christian
era. A Korean dynasty ruling northern Korea,
and called Kao-li (the present Chinese name for
Korea), sent armies across the Yalu and captured
the Liaotung, which they ruled for several centuries.
Evidences of the Korean rule are to be met with in
many places in Fengtien Province even to-day ;
and there are some old mines with galleries extend-
ing for miles underneath the earth which have been
recently discovered by the Chinese and attributed
to the early Korean conquest.
In the seventh century another powerful Chinese
dynasty again annexed this much-disputed soil of
the Liaotung, and once more it passed under
Chinese rule.
It was about this time that the Tunguzian tribes
of Central and Northern Manchuria began to give
signs of future greatness. These ancestors of the
Manchus, originally called Su-chen, began by or-
ganising themselves into petty States. The different
stages through which they passed are not highly
interesting, and need not be considered. Probably
in the seventh century, the southern branch of the
organised tribes began to make great progress, and
finally developed into a powerful Tunguzian State
called Bohai. Early in the eighth century this
State had so extended its dominions that it had
absorbed the greater part of modern Manchuria,
including the much-desired Liaotung, and was
directly recognised by the Emperor of China. It
is believed that the neighbourhood of Ninguta was
B 2
MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
the centre of this mediaeval kingdom, and vast ruins
discovered in its vicinity point to this supposition.
This, according to the native chroniclers, was the
golden age of Manchuria, with every plain tilled
and thickly populated. Learning and literature
flourished and were assiduously cultivated ; but the
march of ages has destroyed all vestiges of this
ancient civilisation, and tradition is now our only
authority.
The State of Bohai was short-lived in spite of
its magnificence ; for, in the tenth century, another
powerful Tunguzian tribe, the Khetans, whose
habitat was in Central Manchuria, began to make
themselves felt and respected. After many decades
of raids, these barbarians succeeded in effecting a
lodgment in Peking itself, and in ejecting the
Chinese dynasty called Sung. This tribe's rulers
dubbed themselves the Liao or Iron Dynasty, and
ruled North China as far south as the Yellow River
and the greater portion of Manchuria.
A second Tunguzian tribe, from between the
Sungari and the Hurka, finally overthrew the Liao
Dynasty, and also placed themselves on the Peking
throne as the Chin or Golden Dynasty. This tribe
of men, called the Nu-Chens, were undoubtedly the
ancestors of the modern Manchus. The power of
these early kingdoms never extended south of the
Yellow River ; and, although they nominally ruled
Manchuria, it is plain that their control must have
been of the very feeblest character and confined
entirely to the cities.
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS
At length, in the twelfth century, we meet
Jenghis Khan, the great Mongol. This illustrious
leader of men is reputed to have been born in the
Hsing-an Mountains of Heilungchiang Province,
and to have swept south with that irresistible force
which so many tribes had already shown before
him. Decades of warfare broke down the Chinese
resistance and swept the Chin Dynasty of the
Nu-Chens back into Manchuria. Kublai Khan, a
grandson of the great Jenghis, founded the Mongol
Dynasty under the title of the Yuan Dynasty in the
thirteenth century, and succeeded in welding China
together again into one vast country after many cen-
turies cf division. History does not tell us whether
the Mongols extended their ruleover Manchuria orno.
These centuries of warfare, and the drafting away
of all the able-bodied fighting men from Manchuria,
had told on the country, and there can be no doubt
that about the time of the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries, Manchuria was quite depopulated. But
Manchuria was rapidly being prepared for events
of no little importance.
In the fourteenth century, the Chinese dynasty of
the Ming unseated the Mongols, and extended the
authority of Peking directly over the whole of the
Liaotung, although the independent tribes of Central
and Upper Manchuria were not interfered with.
During the Ming Dynasty, the Liao-chou-Wei, or
the districts adjoining the Liao, which enjoyed
Chinese rule, became more and more settled, and
trade and industry flourished.
MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
At last, in the sixteenth century, we come to the
Manchus. In a secluded valley, called Hotuala,
ninety miles east of Moukden, and sixty miles from
the frontiers of the Ming-governed province, a child
of a Nu-Chen tribe was born, called Nurhachu.
Nurhachu is said to have given early indications of
his future greatness. The native chroniclers naively
say that he was a thirteen months child, had the
dragon face and the phcenix eye, an enormous chest,
big ears and a voice like the tone of the largest bell.
Not content with this, his descendants claim a
miraculous ancestry for him, as is the manner for all
Eastern great men. They say that a maiden of
unsullied purity gave birth to the original progenitor
of the race from which Nurhachu sprang, and the
site indicated as the one in which the immaculate
conception took place, is a spot called Odoli, in the
middle of the Ever- White- Mountains. But the
fact that a lusty Shantung serving-man is men-
tioned in other chronicles in connection with the
maid tends to throw some doubt on the veracity of
the whole story, and points to a somewhat mixed
origin for the doughty warrior.
The hills and dales surrounding Nurhachu's
birthplace were divided at the time amongst
numerous little clans of his own countrymen, con-
stantly at war with one another, and so barbarous
that the Chinese of the settled districts of the
Liaotung would have no dealings with them. Nur-
hachu was the grandson of a petty chief, who owned
a few villages with probably only two or three score
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS
of inhabitants. In consequence of some trouble with
a neighbouring Manchu town, Nurhachu's father and
grandfather were treacherously slain by a countryman
of their own, named Nikan, who was in league with
the Chinese authorities on the Liaotung frontiers.
Nurhachu promptly swore vengeance, and vowed
that he would sacrifice 200,000 Chinese in honour
of his father's funeral. The Chinese seem not to
have doubted the sincerity of this threat, for they
sought to calm Nurhachu by hanging up the bodies
of the slain, and making a gift of horses. But so as
to protect their own frontier, they made Nikan lord
of the whole region, and responsible for the main-
tenance of order amongst all his countrymen.
Nurhachu replied by declaring war to the knife
against everybody, and, beginning with a paltry
army of 130 men, in three years he became so
formidable, that the Chinese handed up Nikan to
appease his wrath, and Nurhachu tore out his heart.
When Nurhachu was but twenty-eight years old,
he built his first small capital, a tiny town surrounded
by a small mud wall, whose outline may be traced
even to-day. At forty-four years of age, a second
and larger town Hsing Ching was constructed,
and the subjugation of surrounding tribes under-
taken on a far more extensive scale. Successes
everywhere crowned Nurhachu's efforts, and by
1625, when he was sixty-six years old, he was
practically overlord of all Manchuria.
In 1617, Nurhachu had declared war against the
Ming Emperor of China. In 1618, he captured
MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
Fu-shun, then a frontier town of Liaotung. But
such was the prestige of the Dragon Throne and
Nurhachu's own insignificance in those days, that
he appears to have been appalled by his own
audacity, and to have sued for peace and pardon.
His overtures, however, were treated with disdain.
The Chinese Viceroy of the Liaotung was ordered
to chastise the insolent rebel, and soon advanced on
Nurhachu's kingdom with four armies, said to have
numbered fifty thousand men each. Confronted
with a prospect of absolute annihilation, Nurhachu
rose to the occasion and showed consummate
generalship. Allowing the Chinese troops to ad-
vance into his own hills, he ambuscaded and de-
stroyed the first two armies, and by stealth and
strategy forced the other two into flight.
In 1620, the Ming Emperor, Wan-li, died, and
the sceptre fell into nerveless hands. As soon as
Nurhachu realised that the time had come to strike
decisive blows, he acted with commendable prompt-
ness. Advancing with every man he could muster,
he attacked and captured Moukden in 1621. A
few weeks later Liaoyang fell, and it is recorded
that Nurhachu made all the inhabitants shave
their heads and adopt the Manchu queue. Con-
tinuing his triumphant march, the conqueror headed
west, and crossing the river Liao, almost reached
the Great Wall of China at Shanhaikwan, when he
was stopped at the fortified town of N ing-yuan.
Unable to capture it, in spite of the most vigorous
assaults, he then retired, and in 1625 moved his
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS
capital for the third and last time to Moukden. In
1627 he died, and was succeeded by his fourth son,
Tai-tsung, who had greatly distinguished himself in
the previous campaigns. The Manchu Empire,
controlling a great portion of Manchuria, was now
firmly established, and the Manchus considered
themselves the equals of the Mings.
Tai-tsung continued the warfare with the Chinese
generals with varying success, but in spite of
numerous attempts he was unable to get through the
Great Wall and enter the metropolitan province of
Chihli. The city of Ning-yuan stood firm, and until
it was reduced his armies were hopelessly blocked.
Finally, seeing the uselessness of attempting the
passage of the Great Wall near the sea, Tai-tsung
adopted another plan of campaign. He formed an
alliance with the Korchin Mongols, whose territory
adjoins the west frontier of Manchuria, and march-
ing through their country, succeeded in entering
Chihli through a western pass, and at last attacked
Peking. But Peking was too vast a city for the
Manchus to be able to capture at that time, and
after a number of vain assaults, Tai-tsung had to
retire by the same road as he had come.
For fourteen years this warfare continued,
Tai-tsung constantly invading Shansi and Chihli by
the old road through Mongol territory, but always
unable to beat down the defence of Ning-yuan and
reach the Great Wall on its eastern extremity.
Finally, Tai-tsung died, worn out by exertions,
and was succeeded by his ninth son, the great Shun
io MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
Chin, destined to become the first Manchu emperor
of China. Shun Chin being but a child of five
when he succeeded his father, his uncle, Prince
Dorgun, or the Ama-wang, became regent. The
Peking throne, however, in spite of Manchu's
aspirations, seemed as far off as ever, when at last
an event occurred which gave the Manchus their
opportunity.
For many years previous, China had been at the
mercy of robbers and rebels, who infested every
province and who were one of the direct results of
the Ming degeneracy. So low had the Mings sunk
that the government of the country was carried on
almost entirely by eunuchs, who were numbered
by the thousand, and were to be found not only in
the capital, but also in many of the most distant
provinces. These parasites cared for money, and
for money alone, and so long as they were not
disturbed in their pleasant business, they were
indifferent as to whether China was torn to pieces
or not. One of the rebel bandits exceeded all
others in daring and cruelty. Through plundering
and murdering on a colossal scale, and showing the
most fiendish cruelty to all who refused to join him,
he was able to gather a vast army, and marched
on Peking. So weak had the Mings become, that
the Ministers counselled compromising with the
rebel, Li-tzu-Cheng, and not risking an open con-
flict. The last of the Mings, remembering his
dignity at the eleventh hour, dramatically cut his
throat to save himself from disgrace, an example
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS u
tearfully followed by his entire harem. Li-tzu-
Cheng, pleasantly surprised at the rapidity with
which success had crowned his plans, destroyed
the Ming temples and ancestral tablets to show his
contempt, and proclaimed himself Emperor of China.
In spite of this affront, there was only one man
left in the eighteen provinces who was willing to
challenge the usurper, and this man was Wu-san-
kuei, the Chinese general in charge of the defences
of the Shanhaikwan roads. No sooner had he
heard of his Emperor's fate than he addressed a
letter to the Manchu Prince Regent, proposing that
the Manchu and Chinese Imperial troops should
bury their old hates for the time being and march
in company to the relief of Peking, and for the
purpose of killing the usurper. Prince Dorgun
promptly agreed to this amiable plan, and such were
the Manchu powers of persuasion that Wu-san-
kuei's troops were induced to shave their heads and
adopt the Manchu badge of servitude, so that (in
the words of the Regent) "there should be no
danger of the Manchu troops mistaking them for
enemies and slaying them later on." After a few
short weeks' fighting Peking fell into the hands of
the avengers, and then the redoubtable Wu-san-
kuei politely thanked the Manchus for their assist-
ance and assured them that he did not desire to
exact any further service from them. But Prince
Dorgun calmly answered that they had no intention
of evacuating Peking, and once more exemplified
that pregnant saying : "fy suis, fy rested
12 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
Meanwhile, Tartar reinforcements began to arrive,
and Manchuria emptied itself into the Dragon
capital. Martini, a Jesuit priest, says that a vast
concourse of people and nations assembled at
Peking as soon as the news had spread that the
Chinese capital had fallen. Fish-skin Tartars, Mon-
gols, Kalmucks, Siberians, Poles, Turks, all heard
of the crash of the Chinese Empire, and hastened
to the capital to share in the plunder. The looting
of Peking has been the first act of every conqueror
since the oldest times, and the people are accus-
tomed to it.
In 1644 Prince Dorgun proclaimed the Manchu
Dynasty as the Ta Ch'ing or great pure dynasty,
and removed the capital from Moukden to Peking.
Four armies were detached to conquer the pro-
vinces of Northern China, but although the Manchu
regime dates from 1644, it was many years before
the whole of the eighteen provinces were success-
fully occupied. In the south the Ming adherents
proclaimed a grandson of Wan-li Emperor at Nan-
king, and risings took place everywhere. Rebel
kings formed little kingdoms of their own, and for
years the whole of China seethed in a hideous and
prolonged agony, and only fourteen years of in-
cessant warfare expelled the last rivals to the new
power.
Some writers have expressed surprise at the rapidity
of the Manchu success, and have said that it was
nothing short of a miracle which allowed a petty
Manchu State to seize and hold China's eighteen
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 13
vast provinces. But history has shown us that
China has always been an easy prey for semi-
barbarous conquerors from the north, and that, since
the bulk of the Chinese population has always con-
sisted of peaceful traders and farmers, so long as a
new regime affords them adequate protection and
does not arouse their enmity by oppressive taxation,
they are indifferent as to who their rulers really are.
The Manchus possessed active and well-disciplined
armies, whose ranks were filled with all the fiercest
renegades from China and Mongolia. A half-
century of incessant warfare had developed soldierly
habits to the highest degree. Sleeping on the
bare ground in summer's rain or winter's snow
was habitual to them ; and to such an extent
did this hardy soldiery love the open air, that in
towns they pulled down the walls of the houses
so that they might sleep fanned by fresh breezes.
If cooked meat was not to be had, raw was taken
and devoured just as heartily. The Manchus were
capital horsemen, although in the first instance they
had been mountaineers. The great raids which
they had made on China through Mongol territory
for thirty years had brought them in contact with
a race of born horsemen, where buckjumpers are
ridden bareback. The arms of the Manchu soldiery
were the long bow, the short stabbing sword, and
the lance. Firearms were practically unknown until
they had entered China, and were somewhat dis-
dained by them. In their conquests they showed
themselves humane when submission was quickly
I 4 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
made, and head-shaving and the Manchu queue
were the only things strictly insisted on. The civil
officials they appointed in the conquered provinces
were Chinese, as had been the case before, and the
Manchu authority was only represented by garrisons
of Manchus under their own officers at the great
centres. The so-called Tartar generals to be found
to-day at a number of points scattered all over
China are the last vestiges of the Manchu military
system.
Great importance was attached by the Manchus
to literary proficiency. In 1599 they had no
Manchu alphabet, and the people were unutterably
coarse. In 1636 it is recorded that a number of
Manchu youths passed examinations at Moukden in
Manchu, Mongol, and Chinese. Civilising and good
as was the influence exerted on the coarse Manchu
by the Chinese ethical system and culture, it was
this which destroyed the Manchu simplicity and
assimilated the whole race in very few years.
But while these far-reaching events were taking
place during the seventeenth century in Southern
Manchuria and China itself, others hardly less im-
portant in their influence on history are to be
noticed elsewhere. It is time to speak of the Mus-
covite, and see how the fates were gradually but
surely laying the foundations of the present crisis
two and a-half centuries ago.
The Russians crossed the Urals towards the end
of the fifteenth century. In 1587 they founded
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS
Tobolsk; in 1604 Tomsk; in 1619 Yeniseisk; in
1632 Yakutsk; and finally, in 1638, Okhotsk. It
will be noticed that the first line of Russia's irre-
sistible pressure towards the Pacific followed very
northerly latitudes, and left the Baikal and Amur
regions far to the south. All the towns of Eastern
Siberia named above lie between latitude 55 and 65,
and have the Tablonoi and Stanovoi mountains inter-
posed between them and the more desirable lands of
the Amur.
It was a party of Cossacks engaged in making
tributary the Tunguzians of the Aldan river, north of
the Stanovoi mountains, who first heard of the exist-
ence of the Amur ; and it is a curious fact that the
river was no sooner learnt of than it seems to have
exerted a mysterious attraction for all and to have
given rise to the most extravagant tales. As this
Tomsk party of Cossacks progressed farther and
farther east, until they finally stood on the shores of
the sea of Okhotsk, they heard fresh stories of
tribes dwelling far to the south, who cultivated the
soil and had corn for sale a priceless treasure in
these desolate northern climes ; and when they
reached a point near the mouth of the Amur a
tribe called by them the Natkani showed them
glass beads, copper vessels, silver ornaments, silk
and cotton stuffs, which they alleged they had
obtained from China and Japan.
In the same year another party of Cossacks from
Yeniseisk heard confirmatory reports regarding the
Shilka or upper Amur. They were told of a Prince
16 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
of the Daurians another Tunguzian tribe who
had strongholds, and whose people kept cattle and
tilled the soil, who worked silver and copper and
carried on an active bartering trade with Chinese
merchants in silk and cottons.
These various reports brought back and painfully
spread over Siberia would appear to have made an
immense impression. The Siberian settlements
lying so far to the north and separated by immense
distances, as distances went in those days, lacked
many things, owing to the extreme climatic con-
ditions from which they suffered, and it was therefore
with some reason that these southern latitudes were
constantly pictured as lands flowing with milk and
honey.
It was the rising town of Yakutsk, becoming
famous through the fur trade, that was destined to
be the starting-point for a number of expeditions,
and to have the honour of opening up an unknown
country. The first expedition sent failed igno-
miniously. The second ascended the Aldan river
in 1643, made sledges, and after suffering great
hardships, succeeded in reaching the Dzeya, a river
which falls into the Amur near Blagoveschensk of
to-day. Here the first reindeer Tunguzians were met.
As they proceeded down the Dzeya, other Tunguzians
with horned cattle were seen, and finally a Daurian
village was reached, the inhabitants of which tilled
the soil. These Daurians gave information about
the country beyond them the country contained in
the Manchurian provinces of Kirin and Heilung-
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 17
chiang. A khan, they said, named Borboi,
dwelt in a fortified town six weeks' journey from
them. He had not yet succeeded in making tribu-
tary all the tribes of the Amur, and occasionally
sent out two or three thousand men armed with
spears, bows, and firearms to collect tribute from all
who offered resistance. It is interesting here to
remember that Shun Chih, the first Manchu
Emperor proclaimed Emperor of China, ascended
the Dragon Throne in 1644, and that the province
of Heilungchiang was not incorporated with
Manchuria until 1671. It seems probable that the
khan named by the Daurians as dwelling in a forti-
fied town was a Manchu military governor at Kirin,
for it was from Kirin Province that Heilungchiang
was subdued.
The presence of this first Cossack expedition,
numbering nearly one hundred men, in a small
Daurian village, caused provisions to run short, and
from this moment the first friendly intercourse
between the natives and the Russians ceased.
From thence on, the story of Cossack adventure on
the Amur is full of murder and outrage, and is
unpleasant reading. The pangs of hunger forced
the leader of this expedition to despatch a lieuten-
ant with some men to forage, and orders were fool-
ishly issued that they were to entice the native
chiefs out of their villages and hold them hostage
until provisions were forthcoming. This fitly illus-
trates the Russian lack of intelligence in dealing
with new problems. No such stratagem was
c
i8 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
required, for in every case the simple native chiefs
went of their own accord and greeted the Russians
as friends, offering them their services. But the
lieutenant, instead of at once realising that the first
instructions could be disregarded, followed them to
the letter. He brutally seized the chiefs, and as a
result of his overbearing conduct provoked the
inhabitants to an attack. The Daurians resolutely
sallied forth from their village, and after a short
fight drove the Russians into the woods, where they
were surrounded. Matters then seem to have
arrived at a deadlock, for we read that in four days
the adventurers were able to escape and that they
arrived back in a state of utter collapse. The
failure of this foraging expedition entailed great
suffering on all the Cossacks, and half of them suc-
cumbed before relief came.
The leader, Poyarkof, then continued his journey
south without loss of time, and finally reached the
mouth of the Dzeya and stood on the banks of the
Amur. From here he pushed his way south-east
and discovered the Sungari on the opposite bank of
the Amur. Another month and a half was spent in
voyaging down to the mouth of the Amur, where
the whole force that had survived went into winter
quarters. Tribute was collected, explorations made
in various directions, and finally in 1646, after an
absence of three years, Yakutsk was reached again.
This voyage was a most noteworthy proceeding, and
if it had not been for the low order of intelligence
exhibited in situations demanding the exercise of
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 19
common sense, the Russian, by his manly energy in
the face of terrible sufferings, could have fitly claimed
the Amur province as his by right.
Poyarkof reported that in his opinion three hun-
dred men were ample to subjugate the whole of the
territories visited by him. Three forts, each with a
garrison of fifty men, should be erected in the coun-
try of the Daurians which practically comprises
most of the Russian province of the Amur of to-day
and the remaining one hundred and fifty should be
kept in hand, in order to enforce Russian authority
in case of need. Thus ended the first Russian ex-
pedition into the mysterious regions. In the record
there stands out that false policy of brutal domina-
tion which has been handed down until to-day, and
which has slowly but surely alienated sympathy,
where sympathy could have easily been won.
In 1648 news was received of a shorter way to
the Amur farther to the west and nearer to the
trans- Baikal regions. After some preliminary sur-
veys, Kharabof, a wealthy Siberian, proposed to the
Voivod or Governor of Yakutsk that he should
undertake the subjugation of the newly-discovered
territories. As he promised to send all the tribute
he could collect to Yakutsk, the Voivod consented
and placed some Cossacks at his disposal.
In 1650 Khabarof reached the Amur, but the bad
conduct of Poyarkof and his Cossacks had been so
noised abroad, even in these thinly-inhabited lands,
that the approach of the Russians was the signal
for all dwellings to be deserted. These upper Amur
C 2
20 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
regions were then under the control of a Tunguzian
chief, Prince Lavkai, and the inhabitants were far
more advanced in civilisation than those on the
lower Amur. Khabarof found five forts consisting
of wooden walls with turrets for archers, separated a
day and a halfs journey from one another. The first
two were deserted, but as they approached the third,
four horsemen commanded by Lavkai himself met
them and desired to know their business. When
told that they merely came for the sake of trade, he
pertinently answered that a Cossack had reported that
the Russians were coming to enslave the country.
Khabarof replied to this, in the calm Russian fashion,
that a small tribute might possibly be required, but
that in return the Czar would take all under his
powerful protection, and that the debt would be on
Lavkai's side. The Daurians discreetly rode away,
and Khabarof, after burning the forts as unnecessary,
since the Czar had now become the protector, wan-
dered about the country seeing what there was to
see. He discovered some pits filled with corn, and
then after collecting tribute returned to Yakutsk. It
is to be noted that some wheat discovered in the
Daurian country was sent to Moscow as a sample of
the richness of the Amur regions.
A year later we find Khabarof starting again for
the Amur with a largely increased force. In June,
1651, he voyaged down the Amur in a number of
large and small barges. Deserted villages were
constantly passed, the Daurians having fled on the
approach of the Russians. Finally, after some days,
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 21
Khabarof came in sight of a triple line of fortifica-
tions built by some Daurian princes with a view of
checking the Russian progress. The Daurian
garrison had been reinforced by fifty Manchu horse-
men sent by the Emperor Shun Chih to collect
tribute. It was hoped that these would prove for-
midable champions in the coming conflict. How-
ever, after a first discharge of fire-arms which laid
low twenty Daurians, the Manchu warriors fled pre-
cipitately inland. It is hard to explain this retreat
at a time when the Manchu prowess was at its
height, unless the use of firearms disconcerted men
who were armed with swords and lances. The
Daurians then retreated within their fortress, and
after some days' fierce fighting the Russians forced
their way in and slew without offering quarter. Six
hundred and sixty Daurians were killed and nearly
four hundred women and children made prisoners.
The booty included three hundred and fifty horses
and cattle and rich stores of grain. The Russians'
loss was but fifty killed and wounded. It is again
noteworthy that the historians stigmatise Khabarof's
conduct as unwarrantably cruel and short-sighted.
After this battle Khabarof attempted to force the
chiefs of the surrounding country to tender their
submission, but as his efforts proved unavailing he
was induced to continue his journey down the river
without diplomatic results. Lower down he surprised
another fort and compelled the chiefs and principal
inhabitants to swear allegiance to the Czar. Leaving
these villages, Khabarof continued his voyage down
MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
stream, and after a further two weeks reached the
mouth of the Sungari. Fresh tortures and brutalities
were practised by him, and caused the population to
flee. Passing the mouth of the Sungari, Khabarof at
last came to a large village of Achani men belonging
to the same tribe as those met by Poyarkof who sub-
sisted largely on fish, and are probably to be identi-
fied with the Goldi or Fish-skin Tartars. Here
Khabarof built a large fort and wintered a fort
which he named Achanskoi Gorod, and the remains
of which were discovered some time ago by the dis-
tinguished traveller, Maack. Again the presence of
two hundred Russians seems to have proved intoler-
able to the inhabitants, and accordingly a thousand
of them got together and attacked Khabarof, but,
of course, without success.
The Amur natives, being convinced of their im-
potence against the foreign invaders, now directly
invoked the assistance of the Manchus by sending
word to Uchurva, the Governor of Nadinni (? Kirin)
and asking him for help. The latter despatched
prompt orders to the Governor of Ninguta to as-
semble an army, march against the Russians and
take them all if possible, alive. This is the first
recorded instance of the Manchu and Muscovite
being brought face to face. But as yet the Manchus
were too weak to cope with the new danger, for the
flower of their armies were at this very moment
engaged in subduing China itself, and had no time
to turn their attention to the northern frontiers. The
Manchu General at Ninguta, however, gathered
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 23
about him two thousand horsemen, armed with bows
and matchlocks, and at daybreak on the 24th of
March, 1652, the Manchu and the Russian met in
armed conflict for the first time. The Manchus
placed their guns in position near the fort, battered
a breach, and rushed forward to the assault. The
Russians hurried one of their cannon to the threatened
point and opened a heavy fire, which completely re-
pulsed the attack. One hundred and fifty Cossacks
then sprang up and delivered a fierce sortie, which
left them masters of the field. The extent of their
victory may be measured by the fact that they killed
nearly seven hundred Manchus, captured eight
hundred horses and a number of cannon, matchlocks,
and standards, at a cost of but ninety killed and
wounded on their own side.
Khabarof seems to have been satisfied with this
victory, and tired of the country, for we see him
re-ascending the Amur. At the mouth of the
Sungari another force of six thousand Manchus and
native levies were waiting for him, but he managed
to avoid them and hurried on. Higher up the
Amur he met Cossack reinforcements from Yakutsk,
which brought his force up to 350 men. Consider-
ing himself now strong enough to maintain himself
on the Amur in the face of any odds, Khabarof was
about to build another fort opposite the mouth of
the Dzeya when the outbreak of a formidable
mutiny among his men put an end to all his plans.
A third of his force disappeared, and he urgently
sent to Yakutsk for reinforcements. Khabarof con-
24 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
sidered that six thousand men would be sufficient to
resist forty thousand Manchus, and he embodied his
ideas in a strongly-worded communication to the
Siberian Governors. There were, however, no such
numbers available at the time in Siberia, and the
Voivod of Yakutsk therefore sent messengers to
Moscow requesting reinforcements, as the question
of the conquest of the Amur was already being dis-
cussed.
During the nine years of Russian adventure on the
Amur nothing had been accomplished, and outrages
and extortions of every kind marked the progress
of the Cossacks wherever they went. It is on record
that ten years after the arrival of the first Russians
on the Amur all the cultivated fields had become
deserts, all the cattle had disappeared, and the
natives were decimated. Ravenstein, in his admir-
able book, fitly sums up the history of the nine years
of private exploration on the Amur with the figures
of the killed and lost. Five hundred and thirty-two
Russians in all left Siberia for the Amur ; of these,
2 39 were either lost or killed ; 230 remained in gar-
rison on the river, 69 returned home ; and this
insignificant force accounted for 1600 natives and
Manchus killed in battle or massacred, the looting
of all the cattle and grain to be found in the whole
country, and the complete alienation of any sym-
pathy the natives may have had in the first instance.
But the reports of the excesses committed by
these Cossack adventurers had finally reached
Moscow, and it was resolved to occupy the newly-
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 25
discovered territory with an army of 3,000 men.
Whilst these forces were slowly on their way to
Eastern Siberia, and their chiefs engaged in con-
sulting with the local Governors as to the ways and
means to be employed, the Cossack messengers
whom Khabarof had sent for succour passed on
their way to Moscow, everywhere spreading the
most exaggerated and fabulous reports concerning
the riches to be found on the Amur. They spoke
of the abundance of gold, silver, cattle and sables,
and the wonderful future which awaited Russian
enterprise. An immense sensation was created
among the adventure-loving Siberian population by
these accounts, and hundreds hastened to seek their
fortunes on the Amur. It is very remarkable that
the military occupation of Manchuria two and a half
centuries later should have provoked the same
stories and filled men's minds with the same desires.
Cossacks sent to fetch back these fugitives met with
resistance in 1652, and all along the Lena lawless
bands plundered villages and devastated fields.
For years these disorders continued, and it is
recorded that in 1655 two brothers called Zorokin,
heading a band of 300 adventurers, plundered all
along the road and finally reached the magic Amur
only to meet with a miserable death. At last
measures were taken to check these lawless proceed-
ings, and, by the building of forts and the institution
of a passport system, the Amur was cut off.
The Khabarof settlements on the mighty river
were now taken over by Stepanov, another doughty
26 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
adventurer, and Khabarof returned to Moscow,
where he was presented to the Czar and rewarded.
He took with him some representative Daurians and
other natives, who were likewise introduced to the
Czar's presence, loaded with presents, and sent
home.
Meanwhile, Stepanov could not long remain quiet,
so he descended the Amur to the mouth of the
Sungari. In the spring of 1654 we find him engaged
with a hostile flotilla manned by 3,000 Manchus and
a number of Daurians and Ducheri. After fierce
fighting, in which the Chinese flotilla took to flight,
an insufficiency of powder and shot caused Stepanov
to retire. But the Manchus, who were now firmly
seated on the Dragon Throne, were evidently becom-
ing more and more alarmed at the increasing Russian
activity on the Amur, and each year saw them more
determined to eject the intruders. Stepanov doubt-
less realised this, for in the winter we see him
building a fort of great strength at the mouth of the
river Kamara, which empties itself into the Upper
Amur. The Russian garrison of 500 men waited
quietly for an attack, and they were not mistaken,
for in the spring a Chinese army of 10,000 men with
fifteen cannon, numerous matchlocks, and storming
apparatus, appeared before the place. Some
Russians were surprised beyond the fortifications
and made prisoners, and then the Chinese pro-
ceeded with the erection of batteries. After a
lengthy bombardment the Chinese at last resolved
to take the place by assault. Storming parties
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 27
advanced from four sides simultaneously, but after
some fierce hand-to-hand fighting, the Russians
made a sortie and compelled the enemy to retreat.
The Chinese, disgusted with their ill-success, finally
retired. For a couple of years Stepanov voyaged
up and down the Amur, collecting tribute and some-
times losing men by desertion.
In 1658 he met his doom. Descending the
Amur, he encountered a fleet of forty-five Manchu
boats below the Sungari, well-armed with large and
small guns. Stepanov had 500 men with him, but
nearly 200 deserted before the battle. Surrounded
by the Chinese, he found a heroic resistance of no
avail. Out of his entire force all were slain or made
prisoners, and he himself was stabbed to death and
flung in the river. The deserters drifted about the
Amur for some years, and finally either disappeared
completely or returned home.
Meanwhile, in the trans-Baikal province of to-
day, independent adventure was discovering hitherto
unknown land. Yeneseisk Cossacks, in the early
fifties of the same century, had discovered the Shilka
and collected tribute in furs the first sign of in-
tended dominion. Bekeolf was the first leader,
but, as had been the case on the Amur, he was soon
succeeded by another man, Pashkof. Pashkof,
after two years of preliminary surveys, set out in
1656 with nearly six hundred Cossacks from Yene-
seisk, and after varying fortunes he founded the
town of Nerchinsk, destined to become famous
through treaty-making. Although Nerchinsk lay
28 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
on the banks of the Shilka, Pashkof was made
Commander-in-Chief of all the forces on the Amur.
Pashkof sent to Stepanov to acquaint him with the
fact, and to order reinforcing Cossacks to be sent
to Nerchinsk. Stepanov was, however, dead, as
we have already seen, and the Middle Amur practi-
cally abandoned.
Ten years passed by quietly with the Amur
unmolested by Russian adventurers, and with
Nerchinsk growing in importance. In 1669 a new
era was inaugurated by an exiled Pole named
Chernigovsky, who established himself at Albazin,
the site of one of the old forts of Lavkai. Cherni-
govsky, who was a fugitive from justice, had with
him eighty-four equally desperate men, and Albazin
was destined to have a unique history. The first
thing the fugitives did was to build a fort with
towers and dig a big ditch round the whole. Beyond
the walls, fields were laid out, ploughed, sown, and
everything made ready for a permanent stay. The
reappearance of the Russians on the Middle Amur
immediately attracted the attention of the Chinese,
and in 1670 a letter arrived at Nerchinsk, the
nominal seat of government for all these regions,
complaining of the encroachments of the Cossacks
at Albazin. As a reply to this a Russian envoy
was sent to Peking, where he was well received by
the Emperor Kang-Hsi, who had succeeded Shun
Chih, whilst the question of Albazin was apparently
left in abeyance. In 1671, the curious fact is
recorded that the Governor of Nerchinsk sent a
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 29
man called Okolkof to assume chief command at
Albazin, thereby implying that the Siberian authori-
ties were indifferent as to who opened the door to
the Amur, so long as that result was accomplished.
This semi-recognition of Albazin's status caused
more fugitives to arrive, and the piety of the Russian
was evinced by the building of a monastery and a
church at the convict settlement, whilst a cathedral
and another chapel were projected but never
constructed. Albazin was now growing rapidly, and
half-a-dozen thriving peasant villages surrounded
the fort Chernigovsky, the original founder of
Albazin, and his companions in arms were now
graciously pardoned ; Tunguzians in the neighbour-
hood of Albazin were made subject to the authority
of the Cossack settlement, and parties of other
Cossacks ascended the Amur and built permanent
settlements in a number of places. By the year
1683, the northern tributaries of the Amur had all
been reoccupied, and Albazin had nearly three
thousand acres of land under cultivation. Near
Aigun, then a native Tunguzian town, the Russians
founded a settlement to carry on trade with the
Chinese. This is near Blagoveschensk of to-day.
The Chinese were now seriously alarmed with
these developments, and as the northernmost pro-
vince of Manchuria, Heilungchiang, had, by 1671,
been completely brought under the Manchu rule,
they threw a large force into Aigun and fortified an
island of the Amur preparatory to undertaking mili-
tary operations on a large scale. The first success
30 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
was with a party of Cossacks on their way down
river from Albazin. These were enticed into the
Chinese camps and made prisoners. The Chinese
then ascended the Dzeya, burnt all the settlements
and made prisoners of all those who were unable to
escape. Acting in this fashion, by the end of 1683
they destroyed the whole of the Russian settlements
on the lower Amur and its tributaries, and Albazin
alone remained.
In 1684 two Russian prisoners arrived from
Peking with a letter to the Governor of Albazin in
which promises and threats were freely used in an
endeavour to force the garrison to surrender. The
town stood firm, however, and ignored the
Chinese overtures ; a new Governor arrived, and
Albazin, at the height of its prosperity and on the
eve of its fall, received a coat of arms from the Czar,
representing a spread-eagle holding a bow and arrow
in its claws a suggestive device in the light of
recent history.
Early in 1685 the Manchus advanced on Albazin.
The Russians on their approach evacuated all the
neighbouring villages and burnt down all dwellings
standing outside the fort. The garrison, including
all able-bodied men, numbered only three hundred
and fifty, but large reinforcements were very shortly
expected. The Chinese army arrived in one hun-
dred large boats and totalled over eighteen thousand,
including other forces which came by land. Their
arms consisted of bows and sabres, fifteen cannon,
and numerous matchlocks. After some seizure of
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 31
cattle and preliminary skirmishing, the Chinese
general sent in a demand for surrender written in
Manchu, Polish, and Russian, and promising great
leniency should his request be acceded to. No
attention was paid to this summons, however, and
the Chinese bombardment commenced forthwith. In
a few days the Russians had lost over a hundred
men, and their priests, crucifix in hand, were reduced
to encouraging the Cossacks by word and deed. As
the wooden walls and towers of the fort had almost
been battered down and ammunition was beginning
to fail, the leading inhabitants petitioned the Governor
to make terms with the Chinese for a free retreat to
Nerchinsk. The Governor was forced to accede to
their wishes, and as a result the garrison was per-
mitted to leave with their baggage and arms.
Hardly a day's journey above Albazin the long
expected reinforcements were met ; had they arrived
but twenty-four hours sooner Albazin might never
have fallen, and the history of the Amur might have
been completely changed. The Chinese did not
molest the retreating Russians, but followed them
closely as far as the river Argun to see that they
strictly carried out their contract. Being satisfied
that this was done, the Manchu commanders ordered
their forces to retire down the Amur ; Old Aigun,
which was then on the left bank of the river, was
abandoned by the Chinese and New Aigun on the
right bank (the Chinese bank of to-day) constructed.
Leaving a garrison here of two thousand men, the
bulk of the Chinese withdrew up the Sungari.
32 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
It is interesting to see how quickly the Russians
were back in Albazin. Five days after the arrival
of the Albazin garrison at Nerchinsk, seventy men
returned to reconnoitre. Finding that the Chinese
had retired they joyfully brought back the news to
Nerchinsk, and within a few weeks detachment after
detachment of Cossacks poured into the deserted
settlements, finally raising the numbers to close on
a thousand men. The crops which were still stand-
ing, having been left unharmed by the Chinese, were
gathered in, a new and stronger fort was built, -and
by the spring of the next year a twenty foot mud
wall, nearly thirty feet thick at the base, protected
the adventurers against all attacks.
Hostile parties of Chinese now began to arrive and
lurk around the settlers. Being desirous of knowing
what were the proposed Chinese movements, an
expedition of three hundred mounted Cossacks was
despatched from Albazin, and rode into the heart
of Heilungchiang province. After a week's journey
a troop of forty Manchu horsemen were seen in the
direction of Tsitsihar and a hot chase and skirmish
resulted in thirty Manchus being killed and one taken
prisoner. From the prisoner it was learnt that the
Chinese had been apprised of the rebuilding of
Albazin and that at that very moment a Manchu
army was marching on the place.
The reconnaissance at once returned to Albazin
and the garrison prepared for battle. The Chinese
forces advanced by land and water and three hun-
dred Manchu horsemen coming along the left bank
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 33
of the Amur surprised and killed a number of
Albazinians on the fields. The fort was soon sur-
rounded, the fields laid waste, and the crops
destroyed. After a prolonged bombardment the
Chinese rushed to the assault but were beaten back
with great slaughter. Five fierce Russian sorties
accounted for a good many Chinese killed and
wounded, and the Manchu commanders could get no
nearer to their goal in spite of every effort. Scurvy,
was, however, at work, and so after a three months
siege the garrison was reduced to one hundred and
fifteen men. In spite of this all Chinese offers were
rejected, and urgent messages were sent to Nerchinsk.
At the end diplomacy made itself felt. The
Chinese received orders from Peking to retire three
miles from the fort and cease their attacks. This
gave the Albazinians breathing time. Four months
later the Chinese withdrew another mile, and during
this truce the besieged were at liberty to leave the
fort, buy provisions, and even admit reinforcements.
Such is the droll manner in which Chinese warfare
is conducted. On the 3Oth August, 1687, the
Chinese left Albazin altogether and returned to
Aigun and Tsitsihar. The Russians promptly rebuilt
their villages and cultivated their fields anew.
The reason for this strange conduct is found by
turning to the march of events elsewhere. The ever-
increasing complications with the Chinese had made
it appear desirable at Moscow before the events
which have been chronicled above took place to
arrange definitely the frontiers of the two Empires.
D
34 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
It cannot be doubted that, as both the Czar of Mus-
covy and the Manchu Emperor of China were still
consolidating their Empires, the disputed land did
not belong to either, nor could either Emperor lay
claim, except by nominal right of conquest, to vast
tracts of barren lands, inhabited only by semi-nomad
Tunguzians. The great value of these regions at
that time was the sable hunt for the tribute collected
by the suzerain power was mainly payable in valu-
able sables. The negotiations resulting in the Treaty
of Nerchinsk are of great interest to-day, for they
show that over two centuries ago a state of affairs
had arisen almost exactly similar to that of to-day in
Manchuria.
The first step towards a settlement was taken by
the Muscovite Government by despatching the
Chancellor Venukof from Moscow to Peking.
o
Venukof arrived in Peking whilst the siege of Albazin
was proceeding, and through his efforts the Manchu
Emperor was induced to send a few Mandarins to
stay the siege. This, as has already been stated,
took place in November, 1686. The letter written
by the Emperor Kang Hsi almost the greatest
Manchu Emperor in history to the Czar of Muscovy
is so important as showing the Chinese manner of
thinking at the time in regard to the Russian
encroachments on the Amur provinces that it is well
worth reproducing. Dated November 1686, it runs
as follows:
" The officials to whom I have intrusted the supervision
of the sable hunt, have frequently complained of the injury
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 35
which the people of Siberia do to our hunters on the Amur
and particularly to the Ducheri. My subjects have never
provoked yours nor done them any injury ; yet the people
of Albazin, armed with cannons, guns and other firearms,
have frequently attacked my people who have no firearms
and were peaceably hunting. Moreover, they have given
shelter to our deserters, and when my Superintendent of
the Chase followed some deserters of Kandagan to Albazin
and demanded their surrender, Alexei, Ivan, and others
responded that they could not do this but must first apply
to the Changa Khan for instructions. As yet no answer
has been vouchsafed to our inquiries nor have the deserters
been given up.
" In the meantime my officers on the frontier have
informed me of your Russians having carried off some
peaceful hunters as prisoners. They also roved about the
Lower Amur and injured the small town of Genquen and
other places. As soon as I heard of this, I ordered my
officers to take up arms and act as occasion might require.
They accordingly made prisoners of the Russians roving
about the Lower Amur. No one was put to death but all
were provided with food. When our people arrived before
Albazin and called upon it to surrender, Alexei and others,
without deigning reply, treated us in a hostile fashion and
fired off cannon and muskets. We therefore took possession
of Albazin by force, but even then we did not put anyone
to death. We liberated our prisoners ; but more than
forty Russians of their own free choice preferred remaining
amongst our own people. The others we exhorted earnestly
to return to their own side of their frontier where they
might hunt at pleasure. My officers had scarcely left when
four hundred and sixty Russians returned, rebuilt Albazin,
killed our hunters and laid waste their fields, thus compelling
my officers to have recourse to arms again.
" Albazin was consequently beleaguered a second time,
but orders were nevertheless given to spare the prisoners
and restore them to their own country. Since then
Venukof and others have arrived in Peking to announce
the approach of an ambassador and to propose a friendly
D 2
36 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
conference to settle the boundary question and induce the
Chinese to raise the siege of Albazin. On this a courier
was at once sent to Albazin to put a stop to further
hostilities."
This letter throws considerable light on the
Manchu pretensions of that time. For, be it noted
that the first Manchu seated on the throne of China
was Shun Chih in 1644, and when the famous Jesuit,
Martini, left Peking in 1651, that is, seven years
after the occupation of the northern capital, only
twelve out of the eighteen provinces of China had
been conquered by the Manchus, and the last of the
Mings who established a kingdom in the south-west
of China was not finally expelled until 1658. It
was Khabarof who first saw any trace of Manchus
in the Amur regions, for we read that in 1651, fifty
Manchu horsemen, sent by the Emperor Shun Chih
to collect tribute in furs, attempted to prevent the
landing of Cossacks on the right bank of the Amur
in concert with the native Daurians, but on the first
discharge of firearms fled. Had the first Russian
expeditions been armed with proper Government
sanction, there is no doubt that they could have
with justice laid claim to the north bank of the
Amur. As it was, being mere adventurers and
marauders, their brutal acts speedily inclined the
native Tunguzians towards the newly-established
Manchu rule, and destroyed any chances they may
have possessed at the beginning.
Immediately on the receipt of Kang Hsi's letter
the Czar despatched an Envoy Extraordinary, one
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 37
Golovin, to arrange matters. Golovin, accompanied
by a number of troops, took two years to reach the
trans- Baikal regions, and seems to have been in
every way a fit ancestor to the long line of pro-
crastinators that Russia has always employed in
the Far East. Whilst Golovin's secretaries were
absent arranging a meeting-place for the proposed
conference, Golovin was attacked by an army of
fifteen thousand Mongols, apparently acting inde-
pendently, and not under instructions from Peking.
But with a few hundred men he was able to beat
back this attack, and as a result fifty thousand
Buriat Mongol families acknowledged themselves
Russian subjects. Selenginsk, in the middle of the
Buriat country, appears to have been first chosen as
the seat for the conference. But the Chinese
embassy on its way from Peking had its progress
endangered by Mongol tribal warfare, and conse-
quently returned to the frontiers. After more
parleying, Nerchinsk was finally settled on, and in
June, 1689, an enormous Chinese embassy left
Peking. A month later they arrived at Nerchinsk,
and the momentous character of their mission may
be gauged from the fact that there were nine thou-
sand Chinese in the embassy, including officials,
servants, soldiers, camp-followers, and others. To
transport this vast force, four thousand camels and
fifteen thousand horses were used, whilst many of
the soldiers sailed up the Amur in large barges, and
only met the Chinese ambassadors on the banks of
the Shilka opposite Nerchinsk. The Chinese
38 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
camps were gay with many-coloured banners and
striped tents, and such was the Manchu prestige at
this time that the Governor of Nerchinsk trembled
at the sight of so many yellow men.
Meanwhile Golovin, the Czar's plenipotentiary,
had not arrived, and, in spite of the manifest Chinese
irritation and their urgent messages, it was nearly
a month and a half before he put in an appearance.
Ravenstein ingenuously remarks: " The nonchalance
of this gentleman, on embarrassing questions being
put to him, surprised even the Chinese and their
Jesuit interpreters ! " This Russian attitude has
been singularly well preserved with the march of
centuries.
The proceedings were opened with great cere-
mony, and with that scrupulous regard for the
protocol which the Chinese so love. A great tent
was pitched exactly midway between the fortress
and the river, and exactly one-half appropriated to
the Russians, and the other to the Chinese. The
Russians, having due regard for the fact that a good
appearance counts for much, had their half of the
tent covered with a handsome Turkey carpet, and
on their desks and writing-tables were costly clocks
and other articles of vertu. The Chinese side was
devoid of all ornaments, and the chiefs of the
embassy, seven in number, sat upon a cushioned
bench. Behind them stood military mandarins, and
in front of them the Jesuit priests, Fathers Gerbillon
and Pereyra, who had accompanied the mission in
the capacity of interpreters. Seven hundred and
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 39
sixty Chinese soldiers crossed the river, five hun-
dred being halted on the banks, and two hundred
and sixty advanced exactly half-way to the tent.
Similarly, five hundred Russians were drawn up
close to the fort, and two hundred and sixty halted
half-way to the all-important tent.
The conference opened with some questions of
etiquette. These settled, Golovin in his most non-
chalant manner proposed the Amur as the future
boundary between the two Empires. The Chinese
objected to this on account of the fine sables paid
as tribute by the tribes north of the river, and they
suggested that the Russians should surrender
Albazin, Nerchinsk, and Seleginsk. Golovin re-
fused, and the conference broke up angrily. In the
second meeting the Chinese proposed that Nerchinsk
should be retained as a trading post by the Russians.
This proposal was promptly rejected, and the Chinese
left the tent in high dudgeon. The Jesuits now did
all in their power to bring about a reconciliation,
but, as the Russians still refused to cede Albazin,
matters began to look threatening. The Chinese
called a grand secret council, and resolved to sur-
round Nerchinsk, to incite the neighbouring Tartars
to revolt, and send men down the river to seize
Albazin. The Russians likewise prepared for battle,
but at the last moment their uncompromising atti-
tude broke down, and they sent an interpreter to
ask for a renewal of negotiations, a request to which
the Chinese gladly assented.
It was now Father Gerbillon a French Jesuit
40 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
who was invested with plenary powers and des-
patched to Golovin. In a few days he had drawn
up a draft Treaty, and on the 2Qth of August the
ratifications were exchanged in a tent specially
pitched for that purpose. The Chinese plenipoten-
tiaries appeared in state the Treaty was signed,
sealed, and oaths taken for its maintenance. The
philosophic Chinese even declared their willingness
to swear on the crucifix as the Russians had done,
but even easy-mannered Golovin was surprised at
this and remarked that such a course could be
dispensed with. Copies in Manchu and Russian
were exchanged, the plenipotentiaries embraced one
another, a splendid feast was served, and the curtain
thus rung down on Russo-Chinese strife for a
century and a half.
The preamble to the Treaty sets forth the Chinese
case in clear language. It runs as follows :
"In order to suppress the insolence of certain rascals
who cross the frontier to hunt, plunder, and kill, and who
give rise to much trouble and disturbance ; to determine
clearly and distinctly the boundaries between the two
Empires of China and Muscovy : and, lastly, to establish
peace and good understanding in the future ; the following
articles are mutually agreed upon : "
Then follow six articles too uninteresting to be
inserted in full. The whole of the first article,
which fixes the boundary in very lengthy form, may
be conveniently compressed into a few words. The
western boundary to be the river Argun ; the
northern frontier to begin at the river Gorbitza and
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 41
to run irregularly to the sea of Okhotsk, so that all
the southern slopes of the Stanovoi Mountains with
the rivers flowing from them towards the Amur
should belong to China, and all the northern slopes
with the rivers flowing north should belong to
Russia ; and, finally, all Russian towns to the south
of Argun to be removed to the northern bank of
the river. The second article decrees the destruc-
tion of Albazin, the prohibition of hunting across
the frontiers, and the immediate reporting to the
competent authorities of the crossing of frontiers
by armed bands. Article three buries everything
that has gone before in the eternal oblivion of
diplomatists. Article four decrees that fugitives
crossing the frontier shall be arrested and handed
over to the nearest authority. And, finally, articles
five and six make free intercourse between the two
Empires permissible, subject to certain passport
regulations.
The Chinese had thus won all along the line and
were jubilant. Boundary stones were erected at
the frontier points. Albazin was abandoned and
the Russians excluded from navigating the Amur.
Excepting that they certainly looked with envious
eyes on the sable hunt, there is no doubt that the
Chinese were really indifferent about the trans-
Amur and the fate of the Tunguzian tribes inhabit-
ing these dreary wastes. But they fully realised
that to make the Amur the boundary would
be to leave the whole vexed question open and
merely to pave the way to future complications.
42 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
The Chinese indifference is proved by the fact
that the boundary stones were placed far south of
the supposed limits and that they willingly surren-
dered a territory twenty three thousand miles square.
Even on the north-west frontier the same indiffer-
ence was to be observed, for it was discovered
later on that there were two Gorbitzas and that the
Chinese did not know to which one the Treaty
referred. The periodical visiting of boundary
stones was carried out methodically when it could
be done by boat, that is, on the Argun and the
Gorbitza, but the northern land frontier seems to
have been largely neglected. So long as the
Chinese barges which ascended the Amur met with
no Cossack free-lances, the Manchu officials did not
trouble to journey several hundred miles inland to
the northern boundaries.
For a long time there is nothing to note in the
Manchurian territories. Although a few Russian
scientists and some escaped convicts found their
way to the Amur, the Siberian Government on
the whole may be said to have carried out the
frontier regulations with great rigour and to have
discouraged all attempts at breaking through the
barrier of exclusion which the Chinese Government
had insisted on erecting. But before leaving the
interesting subject of the wars between the two
Empires which resulted in the Nerchinsk instru-
ment, there is a curious piece of little-known history
to be told.
The Chinese in their several decades of warfare
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 43
with the Russians had taken many Russian prisoners,
and these numbers had been swelled by numerous
Cossack deserters who were not enchanted with the
rigours of life on the Amur. These were gradually
all sent to Peking and formed into a company
attached to the Imperial Bodyguard of the Manchu
monarch. When peace was signed, a church was
built for them in Peking, and as they expressed
themselves well satisfied with their treatment,
Russia was quite willing that they should remain
where they were. Later on, when Russian caravans
began to arrive in Peking over the Mongolian land
route, several priests were sent from Moscow, and
at the so-called Russia House a beginning was
made of the politico-religious Russian Mission which
exists to this day in the Manchu capital. Religious
ministrations were provided to the exiles when they
wanted it, from Russia House, but the majority of
the ancient Albazinians for most of them were
prisoners from Albazin soon succumbed to their
surroundings and degenerated into ordinary Manchus
with Manchu wives. By 1824 the descendants of
these prisoners had become merged in the Manchu
soldiery, and there were only twenty-three who had
even been baptised. As a separate organisation
they have ceased to exist.
Turning now to the northern provinces of Man-
churia, Heilungchiang and Kirin, there is not much
to note for many years. Up to the twenties of
the nineteenth century, these two vast provinces,
probably five hundred thousand miles square in
44 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
extent, had soldiery alone for settled population.
The nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes were on the
decline, and seem to have been very insignificant
in numbers. Many of the able-bodied natives were
enlisted in the Manchurian militia and given free
grants of land. The north bank of the Amur and
the country right up to the Stanovoi Mountains
were rarely visited by the Manchu officials, and
only officials in charge of the sable hunt dared
to wander about in this desolate country. At
the beginning of the eighteenth century, the
island of Saghalien appears to have become
tributary to China, but the indigenous tribes were
not disturbed.
Until the nineteenth century this policy of ex-
clusion and the restriction regarding immigration
into the two northern provinces were maintained
unbroken, but a change was soon to come. The
Manchus, after having eaten for a century and a
half from the flesh-pots of China, had changed from
a race of hardy horsemen and resolute warriors into
a ceremonious and privileged caste to all intents
and purposes exactly similar to the Chinese. When
they had descended on the eighteen provinces at
the head of ever-victorious armies they had laughed
at the indolent Chinese mandarins riding about in
chairs, and had called them women, had scorned
ceremonies and etiquette and the whole Chinese
system. But, scoffers though they were in the
beginning, they soon ended by being enslaved, just
as all conquerors from the north had been before
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 45
them. Already at the beginning of the eighteenth
century they had become effete ; by the nineteenth,
tradition and early prestige were their only claims
for superiority, and China had assimilated them
completely.
During the twenties of the nineteenth century
the empty condition of the Imperial Treasury
caused the Emperor Tao Kuang to inaugurate a
new policy in Manchuria. The public lands of the
northern provinces were put up to sale, the Chinese
emigrated en masse, especially to Kirin province,
and in a few decades the Manchuria of olden days
had ceased to exist. Many of the immigrants were
Mahommedans from the back provinces of China,
and mosques are to-day to be found in far-off places
in Manchuria, such as Sansing. The presence of
these Chinese in such large numbers soon caused
the few remaining tribes in all excepting the most
remote corners to yield to the newcomers in dress,
language, and customs, so that to-day Manchuria
is to all intents and purposes exactly similar to the
other northern provinces of China proper.
And now we come to the second Russian attempt,
after a lapse of nearly two centuries, to reach the
Amur an attempt made successful through the
genius of Muravief.
The Russian settlements on the extreme northern
shores of the Pacific, founded and gradually
developed with great difficulties, had to be pro-
visioned by pack-animal transport from Eastern
Siberia a very slow and costly method. All
46 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
through the eighteenth century, the desirability of
securing the right to navigate the Amur had been
again and again mooted by successive Siberian
Governors, but each time their proposals had
fallen through, owing to the lack of support from
the home Government. It was not until Count
Nikolas Muravief became Governor of Eastern
Siberia in 1847 that any real progress was made.
One of Muravief's first acts was to send an officer,
accompanied by four Cossacks, down the Amur to
explore the country and to report on the general
conditions. Then Muravief gave orders to explore
the coasts of the sea of Okhotsk to the mouth of the
Amur. As a result of this order, a number of
winter stations and posts, destined to develop into
places of some importance, were established on
Saghalien and other convenient points.
It was not until 1854 that anything really remark-
able occurred. In that year, General Muravief
himself descended the Amur from the trans- Baikal
province with a large force, and inaugurated a
policy that has had the most far-reaching results.
It was due to the Crimean war that Muravief
finally obtained the consent of his Government to
the taking of this momentous step, for the outbreak
of hostilities in Europe left the Russian Pacific fleet
(which had been gradually collected on the coast
after Muravief's surveys began) without supplies,
owing to the vigilance of English cruisers. With-
out waiting for Chinese permission, Muravief sailed
down the Amur in a small steamer accompanied by
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 47
fifty barges and rafts loaded with a thousand
infantrymen and Cossacks and armed with several
guns. On reaching Aigun, Muravief landed and
interviewed the Chinese Governor. A tent had
been pitched and the entire Chinese garrison of this
once important Manchu post drawn up to impress
the trespassers. The miserable appearance of this
so-called Manchu soldiery, and the absurdity of
their arms, showed that the Chinese on the Amur
had retrograded rather than advanced during the two
centuries which had elapsed since the days of the
early Cossack marauders. After a brief interview,
Muravief continued his journey down the river, and
at the end of June, hardly a month's journey from
the starting-place, the expedition arrived without
incident at Mariinsk, a newly-founded settlement on
the lower Amur.
The provisioning of the fleet, and sundry other
details, call for no remark. With the outbreak of
the Crimean war, the entire strength of Russia was
concentrated at Petropavlovsk, in Kamschatka, and
the Anglo-French attack anxiously awaited. The
French and English fleets mustered their forces on
the American coast, and on the 28th of August,
1854, an allied squadron of six vessels arrived off
Petropavlovsk. After a bombardment an assault
was ordered. A mixed force of seven hundred
English and French sailors rushed to the attack,
but were beaten back in great confusion by the land
batteries. After this repulse the Allies retreated,
and although a second attempt was imperatively
48 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
ordered to be made, the abandonment of this strong
place by the Russians made it unnecessary.
Meanwhile, completely ignoring the Chinese, the
Russians continued to display the greatest activity
on the Amur. In 1855 three more expeditions
sailed down the coveted river from the trans-
Baikal province, with three thousand soldiers, five
hundred colonists, and herds of cattle and horses.
In that year the operations of the Allies on the
Pacific were on a much more extended scale, but
the results were equally unimportant. Although
seventeen vessels were employed by the combined
forces, and were further reinforced by an indepen-
dent squadron from Hong Kong, no successes took
place, except for a few insignificant captures of
Russian sailing vessels, and the destruction of
stores at some of the settlements on the coast.
It is said with some plausibility, that the failure of
the Anglo-French allies to harm Russian expan-
sion on the Pacific convinced St. Petersburg's
statesmen that Russia's destiny as a sea-power
could only be fulfilled off the coasts of the Asiatic
Continent. The affair at Petropavlovsk was looked
upon as proof certain that Russia was really fated
to succeed in the Far East, and that the very
distance of these coasts from the beaten track made
them secure. General Muravief now proceeded
in person to St. Petersburg to advocate the
inauguration of a great forward movement, which
would not only secure the right to navigate the
Amur, but also to colonise the extensive regions
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 49
which were practically open to the first comers.
Whilst he was absent, the able lieutenants whom he
had left in charge sailed ever-increasing numbers of
barges and rafts down the river with supplies and
men for the settlements which were springing up on
the lower Amur and on the coast. In this fashion
did Russia push forward.
In 1857 Muravief returned, armed with the fullest
authority to act as he might wish. Accordingly,
during the month of June of that year, three thou-
sand infantrymen and cavalry were sent down the
Amur, and for the first time posts were openly
established along the left bank of the middle and
upper Amur. During 1857 a fruitless effort was made
by Admiral Putiatin, who sailed from the Pacific
settlements through the Sea of Japan to the Gulf of
Pechili, to force the Chinese to recognise the Rus-
sians on the Amur. It was reported at the time
that Russia was, in addition, demanding the cession
of the whole of Manchuria, including the provinces
down to the Gulf of Liao-tung, although both sides,
for different motives, took steps to deny promptly
that such was the case.
As a result of this failure of Putiatin's to induce
the Chinese to recognise in any way the Russian
right to the territories which they were opening up,
and because the Chinese officials along the Amur
were rapidly assuming a hostile attitude, Muravief
once more hastened to St. Petersburg, explained all,
and asked for heavy reinforcements and money.
Admiral Putiatin was ordered to co-operate with
E
So MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
the British and French in China (then engaged in
the war which was to break down Manchu conser-
vatism and open the gates of Peking to the Foreign
Legations), and large bodies of Siberian troops
were moved towards the Amur.
In 1858 the operations of the Anglo-French
expeditions against the Chinese forces made them-
selves felt on the Amur. The attitude of the
Chinese authorities underwent a sudden change,
and Muravief found them perfectly willing to con-
clude a treaty. In May, 1858, he was thus able to
sign the Treaty of Aigun, in which China ceded
to Russia the left bank of the Amur to the Ussuri,
and both banks below the Ussuri. Hardly a month
afterwards Putiatin signed the Russian Treaty of
Tientsin, the conditions of which were similar to
those contained in the Instruments signed by the
other powers, and are mainly of a commercial
nature.
But, although the door to the Amur was now
ajar, it was not really open for all time, since the
acts of the Chinese frontier authorities, who signed
the Aigun Treaty, could be repudiated by the
Central Government. Foreseeing this, Muravief
proceeded promptly to work and founded towns
along the newly-acquired river bank. Blagoves-
chensk, or the town of "good tidings," was the first
to be planned by him ; and Khabarovsk was founded
soon afterwards on the mouth of the Ussuri. In
August, 1858, Muravief was fitly rewarded for his
great services to Russia by being created Count of
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 51
the Amur, and henceforth he was known as Mura-
vief Amurski. In December of the same year a
Ukase was published by which the new territories
received a special organisation, and the maritime
province and the Amur province were organised as
separate governments. At the beginning of 1859
Russia had nearly eight thousand troops in these
two provinces, a wonderful advance considering the
difficulties which nature has imposed on all develop-
ment in these cold latitudes. In spite of this, how-
ever, Russia was in some danger of losing all she
had won, for the Allies had meanwhile suffered the
famous repulse at the Taku Forts, and been forced
temporarily to retreat. China promptly gave it to
be understood that the Aigun Treaty would not be
carried out, and matters looked very critical for
Russia. Muravief, who was absent on leave of
absence, once more came back post haste to the
Amur, and prepared against a Chinese attack. In
1860, however, other events made this unnecessary.
The Anglo-French expedition had entered Peking,
and General Ignatief, who was lucky enough to be
the first plenipotentiary to enter into close com-
munication with Prince Kung, whom the Court had
left in sole charge of Imperial affairs, succeeded in
concluding the great Treaty of November, 1860,
which demarcated the Manchurian frontiers anew to
Russia's lasting advantage. Seeing that these fron-
tiers nominally remain the same to this day, it is
not out of place to give them in detail.
It was decided that the western frontier of
E 2
52 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
Manchuria should be formed by the river Argun to
its junction with the Shilka. From thence the
boundary followed the course of the Amur in an
imaginary line drawn down the centre of the river,
so that the right bank remained Chinese territory
and the left bank was ceded to Russia. Where the
Ussuri enters the Amur, Russia also acquired the
right to all the territory lying to the east of it, and
the frontier line running down the bed of the
river ascends the river Singachi and enters Lake
Hinka. From Hinka it is continued in an irregular
fashion down to the Pacific coast, meeting the
northern Korean coast near the mouth of the
Tiumen river. In this fashion China completely
lost access to the Sea of Japan, and surrendered
what is to-day the important province of the
Primorsk to the northern power. The nearest
point on Chinese territory to the coast in this
extreme east is Chinese Hun-ch'un, which stands
some thirty miles inland from Passiet Bay.
The importance of this Treaty can hardly be over-
estimated. Russia had acquired an open and legal
right to territory on the Amur which she had long
coveted, and in addition she had the whole of Eastern
or maritime Manchuria, giving her access to seas far
more temperate and sheltered than those of Okhotsk
and the neighbouring waters. Ravenstein, forty
years ago, pointed out that the whole of Manchuria,
surrounded on more than half its land frontiers by
Russia, was in a highly precarious position ; and
predicted that when China tumbled to pieces Russia
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 53
would without a word march down to the Gulf of
Liao-tung. Possibly it is because English statesmen
have considered this inevitable, that they have so
consistently ignored the whole vast and important
Manchurian question and watched the Russian ad-
vance with indifference.
From the sixties onwards, everything possible was
done by the Siberian Governors to promote colonis-
ation and commerce in the newly-acquired terri-
tories. The Amur speedily assumed great importance
as a great highway. Companies were formed to
place steamers on the river at a time when steam
was but slowly driving the sails from their supre-
macy, and from the days of Muravief something of
that modern and forward spirit was to be observed
which characterises the Amur and Pacific provinces
to-day, and differentiates them so much from those
of European Russia. But from the first the same
unfortunate results in commercial enterprise greeted
the efforts of men who appear, either from training
or natural lack of ability, quite incapable of conduct-
ing sound business operations. Cossack settlements
were established from the Shilka to the Ussuri at
regular intervals along the left bank of the Amur,
and the Ussuri districts, which had been early pro-
nounced most suitable for Cossack colonisation, with
their cattle and horse-breeding propensities, were
rapidly settled. Great efforts were also made to
make the new territories self-supporting in corn
the one priceless treasure of the Amur but this
object was never attained. Although the Amur was
54 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
frozen during at least five months of the year, com-
munication in winter was almost quicker than in
summer. The Cossacks of the riverine settlements
were charged with making and keeping clear a
moderately smooth road over the frozen Amur, and
with staking out the way with stout posts at regular
intervals. In this way it was possible for three-
horsed sledges to travel from two hundred and forty
to three hundred miles every twenty-four hours, and
to maintain rapid communication between all points.
In the lower Amur regions the reindeer Tunguzians
and their fleet animals required no assistance.
Meanwhile, Manchuria itself had been undergoing
great changes. The great influx of settlers during
the reign of the Emperor Tao Kuang has already
been noted ; but although this was the only time
that the Chinese authorities openly invited immigra-
tion, the first great wave of settlers entering the
country in the twenties of the nineteenth century
was soon to be eclipsed. The great famine in Shansi
drove hundreds of thousands to lands where men were
badly needed, and the opening of Newchwang in the
sixties made rapid communication with other parts
of China possible and attracted adventurous spirits.
In 1844 the wave of Chinese civilisation in Kirin
province had only reached Sansing on the lower
Sungari ; in 1859, or only fifteen years afterwards,
populous villages extended another fifty miles higher
up, and every year saw countless new arrivals. The
province of Heilungchiang, a vast country in itself
capable of supporting tens of millions of people, was
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 55
still practically uninhabited, except for a few
thousands of Bannermen and roving Mongols.
Chinese agriculturists, attracted by the richness of
the virgin soil, began to encroach on the rich plains
adjoining Kirin province, and year by year saw
more soil broken. As soon as the Taipings had
been crushed in Central China, the military reor-
ganisation of the Manchurian province was com-
menced. And this brings us to a very important and
little noticed point.
In spite of their successes whenever the clash of
arms brought them into open conflict in anything
like equal numbers with the Chinese, the Russians
have always feared the Yellow Race. The huge
numbers of men that China has at her disposal,
and the vastness of her territories, have always
impressed the Russian imagination an imagination
that is more easily impressed than any other in the
world and the origin of the idea of the Yellow Peril
is to be found in Russian writings. Although the
decay into which the Manchu military organisation
had fallen, since the days of the early conquerors,
was perfectly understood in Russia, the fear that
some great irritation would galvanise into life the
dormant possibilities of yellow hordes always
remained. The preparations to place their forces
on a better footing, which the Chinese began during
the seventies in Manchuria, were viewed with the
greatest concern from Irkutsk to the mouth of the
Amur. For, although the Sungari, running through
the heart of Manchuria, was nominally opened to
56 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
Russian merchants and travellers by the Aigun
Treaty of 1858, practically no one dared to avail him-
self of this privilege and venture into the midst of
the Chinaman's country. It was the Chinese com-
mercial spirit, unconquerable and willing to brave all
difficulties to secure a profit, which opened up inti-
mate relations in trade with the Russians on the
Amur, and put an end to century-old exclusion.
The Sansing-Sungari line of villages, finding a
ready market for their wheat, vegetables, and other
food-stuffs, began sending down junks laden with
farm produce to Khabarovsk and elsewhere. The
demand ever exceeding the supply, this commerce
went on increasing from year to year, until the Rus-
sian provinces of the Amur and the Primorsk, with
populations largely confined to the towns, have
become to a large extent dependent on Manchuria
for their food.
But, in spite of this commerce, Manchuria con-
tinued to remain much of a terra incognita to the
Russians, even after they had acquired a frontier
along which were posted hosts of military villages at
regular intervals, separated only by the waters of the
Argun, the Amur, and the Ussuri from their
Chinese neighbours. In the main the Russian set-
tlements, with their soldier populations, had nothing
in common with the Chinese, who, prompted by
their officials and the ancient animosity, resented
with the utmost cruelty and rigour any trespassing
across the boundary line. The drilling and re-arm-
ing of Manchurian troops proceeded apace during
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 57
the eighties, and when Port Arthur became a
formidable Chinese strong-place by the building of
modern forts and the mounting of heavy Krupp
guns, when arsenals were established at Kirin and
Moukden, and the frontier garrisons at Sansing,
Hungchun, and Aigun were reinforced, Manchuria
became, from the Russian point of view, a most
formidable neighbour. The Cossacks, straining their
eyes across the frontiers of slowly-flowing rivers,
wondered what was in the vast and fertile country
which they knew to be behind, eagerly questioned
all travellers, and showed that child-like Russian
timidity in the face of the unknown. Broadly
speaking, however, there is not much to be chron-
icled in Manchuria between the sixties and the
Japanese war of 1894 5 but two points of some small
interest can be referred to without great digression.
The stories of the fabulous wealth in gold and
silver to be found in Manchuria, which Russian
credulity constantly circulated in the Amur province,
and which were apparently substantiated by the
secret traffic in gold carried on across the river by
illicit Chinese gold-diggers, led to a curious enter-
prise the founding of the so-called Republic of
Sholtoga. A few dozen miles higher up the Amur
than the ancient settlements of Albazin, but on the
Chinese side of the river, gold was discovered in a
secluded river valley. Adventurers, of whom there
is never any lack in Siberia, were soon attracted to
this spot, and there, safe from all interference, gold-
washing was commenced on a very extensive scale.
58 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
In time, these gold- washers grew in numbers to such
an extent that they organised themselves into a
" republic " and elected a president. The Chinese
soon heard of this encroachment, but appear to have
paid but little attention to it in the first instance.
Meanwhile, Chinese convicts and others made their
way to this new El Dorado and engaged themselves
at fabulous prices as labourers and miners. The
republic grew, the citizens became rich, and it
seemed as if a miniature commonwealth was to be
allowed to spring up in the deserts of northern
Heilungchiang. But, in consequence of difficulties
with the Russian authorities, the Chinese mandari-
nate was invited to exterminate the unauthorised
colony, which numbered, in its halcyon days, three
thousand white men and twice as many Chinese.
The extermination seems to have been partial in the
first instance, and it was not until the Chinese
directors of the semi-official mining camp at Moho
adjacent to the republic found their own men
deserting in large numbers that they really set seri-
ously to work. The Russians at Sholtoga were dis-
creetly given time to escape so that no questions
should be raised afterwards, but the Chinese were
mercilessly butchered to the last man. An interest-
ing photograph is extant, showing the frozen bodies
of the victims lying on the ground literally in hun-
dreds. In this manner Sholtoga disappeared for
the last time in 1889.
In the same year another little-known event
occurred, which, it is believed, threw many of the
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 59
most influential Manchu and Chinese officials in
Peking together for the first time. At that period
there was no telegraph communication between
China and Europe ; for the Siberian system, pass-
ing along the left bank of the Amur, did not connect
with the Manchurian lines across the river. The
cable companies, having a complete monopoly of
China business, were able to charge the most ex-
orbitant rates for the transmission of messages
O
between Europe and the Far East, and this led to
the formation of an English syndicate in Shanghai
which proposed to perform a droll office. The Man-
churian land-system was being extended from Tsi-
tsihar to Aigun so that the Chinese frontier-Com-
mandant might be in direct communication with
Peking. On the opposite banks of the Amur the
Siberian land-line passed west on its way to Europe,
and therefore, if this trifling gap could be bridged
over, an all-overland route would be available, and
messages transmissible at a rate amounting to the
Chinese and Russian domestic rates combined. The
Desmond Telegraph Company, whose system was to
be but a few hundred yards of wire rope and a dozen
wooden message-boxes, was duly organised. An
arrangement was soon arrived at with the Chinese
Telegraph authorities, who undertook to transmit
messages for the usual rates from Shanghai to Aigun
(Helampo) : the European firms in the Far East all
agreed to transfer their business to the new line, and
therefore the third step only remained that of
obtaining the consent of the Siberian Telegraph
60 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
authorities to the retransmission of code messages
in vast quantities from their station at Blagoves-
chensk. This was done, and for a brief period the
system worked satisfactorily, the wire-rope and the
wooden cages threatening the cable companies with
gradual extinction. But powerful influences were at
work, and the life of the venturesome English com-
pany was fated to be a very short one. The Danish
concern, the Great Northern Telegraph Company,
was the one most harmed, and as the Danish Royal
Family (including the then Czarina) were large
shareholders, diplomacy made itself soon felt. The
Russian Minister at Peking was instructed to stop
the new enterprise by fair means or foul, and he
proceeded to work without a moment's delay. Li
Hung Chang was then Viceroy at Tientsin and also
the Director-General of the Chinese Telegraph Ad-
ministration, and to him the Russian Minister turned
with friendly presents. After some blandishments,
Li Hung Chang succumbed to the attractions of
gold bars snugly nestled in silk-lined boxes, and the
Chinese telegraphs began a policy of obstruction
which, aided by the Siberian authorities across the
Amur, delayed messages for an indefinite period and
disgusted all. Finally, the death-blow was given
by the Berne International Telegraph Convention,
which decided that the uniting of frontiers in such a
fashion was not permissible.
The chief point of interest in the history of this
curious concern is the drawing together of Li Hung
Chang and his entourage with the Russian Legation
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 61
in Peking over a question intimately concerning
Manchuria. Li was given all sorts of assurances
over what was merely an affair of small importance,
and from that day onward China's greatest man
played a diplomatic game the secret history and
explanation of which have yet to be disclosed.
The Far Eastern tour of the Czarewitch in 1891
made the highest personages in Russia fully
cognisant of things the rising importance of Japan
and her future position in the Far East, and the
desirability of consolidating the Russian power
in the Far East before it was too late. A glance at
the map explains all this at once. As a maritime
power Japan is most favourably placed. Just as
England stands out like the sentinel of Europe, so
does Japan command the Pacific seas which wash
the coasts of the mainland. The three islands of
Yezo, Hondo, and Kiushiu are spread-eagled along
the Asiatic mainland in such a fashion from
Saghalien to the Straits of Korea as to make the
Land of the Rising Sun the absolute master of the
o
shallow seas adjoining the coast. For six months
of the year it may be said that Russian ships can
only escape from the ice-bound trap of the Sea of
Japan by steaming through the Straits of Korea,
which are commanded by the island of Tsushima ;
for both the northern and southern extremities of
Saghalien are practically impassable, the first owing
to the ice, the second because the Perouse Straits
are commanded from Hokhaido. The two facts
which so impressed Russian statesmen became in
62 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
the natural course of events but one, which is best
expressed in a new fashion : a race with Japan for
the mastership of the mainland the mainland of
Manchuria, Korea, and North China. If Russia
could seize fresh vantage points which would
minimise, if not largely destroy, Japan's undoubted
superiority in natural positions, Russia might yet be
the maritime master of the Far East.
The cutting of the first sod of the great Siberian
railway by the Czarewitch in 1891, near Vladi-
vostock, was really the official opening of a question
which may yet make Russia bleed to death. It was
perfectly understood in Japan that the linking up
of the Russian Far East with the far-away portions
of the great northern power must eventually bring
Russia face to face with a problem which would
mean war to the knife. For from the very
beginning the Mikado's ministers, and more especi-
ally the elder statesmen, have been working with
maps in front of them, and have realised that the
march to the south of Russian battalions would be
ordered one fine day, and the great peril confront
them.
But if Russia was quietly preparing, so was
Japan. The Japanese army and navy, although
small, were yearly becoming more and more efficient
and well-organised, and when circumstances arose
in Korea which the Mikado's Government consi-
dered to justify armed intervention, that intervention
was ordered and took place with a calmness and
rapidity which astonished the entire world. Japan
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 63
was determined that Korea should be dominated
by no one but herself, foreseeing that Chinese
statesmen might one day transfer the feeble claim
to suzerainty which the Dragon Throne possessed
over the Hermit Kingdom to another power, if that
power could not be bought off in any other way.
When, therefore, China despatched troops to Korea,
Japan resented it, and the result was that war was
formally declared on the 3rd of August, 1894.
Events marched very rapidly, and once more the
world was amazed. The successes of the Japanese
military and naval forces at Phonyang and Hai-yang
on the 1 6th and i7th of September opened the
way for the Japanese invasion of Manchuria by
land and sea ; so the Yalu was crossed and sur-
prise landings made on the Liao-tung coast. The
Yalu columns pushed rapidly across south-eastern
Fengtien and captured Feng-huang-ch'eng, Hsiu-
yen, and Hai-ch'eng without great difficulties. The
Liao-tung expeditions, landing at P'i-tzu-wo and
Hua-yuan-k'ou, north of Talienwan, in November,
marched down to Port Arthur and successfully
occupied it. During the winter there were several
desperate struggles in Manchuria. The Chinese
made four separate attempts to retake Hai-ch'eng,
fearing for the safety of Moukden, the ancient
Manchu capital ; and it was not until the month of
March, 1895, tnat t^ 6 inland town of Newchwang
fell into Japanese hands and that their combined
armies drove the last Chinese forces across the
Liao.
64 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE
But Japan, in gaining her own end and humbling
her huge adversary for all time, had helped Russia
at least for the time being. The Manchurian
spectre, looming so vast on the Amur horizon, ceased
to frighten the Russians, for they saw all the many
years of drilling and re-arming which had been going
on in the three eastern provinces destroyed in a
few blows. But if China had become for the time
being a negligible quantity, it was not so with Japan.
Almost before the Russians could realise it, Japan
had declared her intention of holding the Liao-tung
peninsula, was actively preparing documents and
treaties to that effect, and had become the dominant
power in Korea. The question of the Asiatic main-
land appeared solved to Russia's eternal ruin. But
Russia, although sorely alarmed, was not yet de-
feated, for in masterly diplomacy she has not her
equal in the world. Li Hung Chang, whom China
had nominated her Plenipotentiary to conclude the
Treaty of Peace at Shimonoseki, crossed the seas
with secret chuckling, for five years' intimacy with
Russian diplomatists made him certain that they
would not fail him in the hour of need. It was even so,
and "the Liao-tung ceded" soon read "the Liao-tung
retroceded," owing to the " friendly representations "
of a triplicate of powers. Japan, though she had
demonstrated her position in Korea with great clear-
ness, had undoubtedly been checkmated in Man-
churia ; and so, gritting her teeth, she redoubled her
preparations which would be called to a supreme
test at some not too distant date.
PROLOGUE TO THE CRISIS 65
The diplomatic year of 1896 in the Far East is of
great interest. Did Count Cassini, the Russian
Minister at Peking, conclude the famous secret con-
vention or did he not? Is the whole story another
one of those inventions which have been so copious
of late years in the Far East, or does it rest on a
substratum of truth ? It is hard to say, but although
memoranda of great importance may have been
exchanged, to anyone who knows the ability of
Chinese statesmen and the manner in which they
inevitably manage to introduce saving clauses, there
can not be a shadow of doubt about one thing that
no matter what promises China may have been in-
duced to make, she left herself a loophole through
which she could slip. The statement that she
virtually signed away Manchurian provinces in 1896
may be classed as a pure fabrication ; she may have
consented to some things, but only with the know-
ledge that other things were in course of preparation
which would sooner or later annul her private
arrangements.
I have discussed elsewhere various aspects of
these recent years, the beginning of the "active"
history of those baneful things, the railway, the rouble,
and the Russo- Chinese Bank, and so need not further
dwell on them. In 1900 we have the Boxers and the
Manchurian Question complete, throbbing, insistent
How it happened, how Russia has used her oppor-
tunities, and the present dismal state of affairs, are
all treated with some detail in the pages that follow.
CHAPTER I
THE VOYAGE
RUSSIA in Asia begins, nominally, when you step
on board one of the Chinese Eastern Railway's
" Express Steamers," as they are curiously called, at
Nagasaki or Shanghai. Three years ago there
was hardly a vessel of this growing Russian fleet on
the China seas. To-day the Chinese Eastern Rail-
way's sea-going service, as it is grandiloquently
styled, numbers nearly two dozen vessels, each new
one finer than the last, and more calculated to
impress the traveller with Russia's growing might in
the Far East. The very nomenclature of these
ships is in itself a confession of Muscovite
ambitions. First come the Manchuria, the Mon-
golia, and the Korea, fine vessels of four thousand
tons, each named after countries destined to become
mere Russian provinces, unless some one calls a
halt. Then come the Amur, the Argun, the
Shilka, the Sungari, and the Nonni, rivers to which
Russia alone, of all the European powers, has access,
and which she resolutely intends to keep closed to
the rest of the world. Manchuria's provincial
CHAP. I THE VOYAGE 67
capitals follow with the Moukden, the Kirin, and
the Tsitsihar. And finally come Manchuria's fron-
tier and lesser towns such as Nagadan, Khailar,
Ninguta, Petuna, and others, until the score and
more have all been named. From Nagasaki and
Shanghai, the finest vessels voyage to and fro,
making connection with the world-famed express
trains that steam from the end of Asia to the end of
Europe without a break. The lesser ones nibble at
the Korean ports, are scheduled to steam in and out
of your Gensans, your Chemulpos, and your Fusans,
so that Japan may clearly know that she is not the
only claimant to the Hermit Kingdom. So the
China seas from Shanghai to the Gulf of Pechili,
from the Korean coast right up to Vladivostock, are
covered with vessels flying the hybrid flag of the
Russian Railway Company the half Russian half
Chinese monster and Russia's object is near
accomplished.
I have said that Russia in Asia nominally begins
with the Express Steamers ; it is, however, only
nominally, for, the moment you step on board your
floating express, you realise that Russia has tackled
what is beyond her power. For it is not really
Russia that you meet with on your ship, and,
as all the Czar's ministers would have us know,
what is not purely Russian is not Russian at all,
and must be counted a source of weakness rather
than of strength.
My steamer, the Manchuria, was built in Austrian
Trieste, fitted with English fittings and Yankee
F 2
68 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
notions, with occasional relapses into rococo French ;
was officered by men from the Baltic of unmistak-
able Teutonic origin ; decorated with Bohemian
panels and burnt-wood picture work from southern
Germany ; had her engine-room and stokeholds
filled with Chinese firemen and artificers ; was
crowded with Ningpo deck-hands jabbering pidgin
English, and understanding nothing else ; was try-
ing to beat up Japanese, Chinese, and British cargo
for ports in the leased territory that are not loved ;
and, finally, we were fed by a China Treaty Port
cook, suddenly switched off under stern compulsion
with the most terrible results to Russian Far
Eastern Extension table requirements. Is the
confusion sufficiently confounded ?
But although I have enumerated some of the
cosmopolitan curiosities on what was originally in-
tended to be a purely Russian steamer to the great
glory of God and the Czar, it was in the saloon that
came the crowning blow of all. There a Chinese was
compradore, chief steward, and supreme major-domo,
and apart from a staff of his own countrymen
he employed and paid also half-a-dozen Russian
stewards, clad in clean white jackets and neat blue
trousers, whom he is under contract to provide.
Think of it, all you who study foreign policies and
politics a Chinaman an employer of foreign labour
on a Russian ship, and that labour Russian. The
Slav had best beware before he is hopelessly
engulfed in the bottomless abyss of Chinese in-
genuity and silent diplomacy. I thought it all very
THE VOYAGE 69
amusing until I saw one of the Russian stewards
aforesaid approach his Chinese chief and meekly
ask for something. Then I winced, for it is some-
how not good for the white man to be the servant
of the yellow.
The passenger-list of this good ship was the Far
Eastern question in a more or less concrete and
instructive form. Russian militarism was repre-
sented by half-a-dozen young officers of that de-
lightfully unknown quantity, the Manchurian Railway
or Frontier Guards, who smoked endless cigarettes
and played endless cards in a semi-mufti attire.
The usual number of Danes, Germans, and other
Continentals were to be noticed, with a heavy con-
tingent of doubtful Japanese in the steerage. A
strong force of Englishmen from all parts of the
world completed the list, for, in spite of the American,
the Englishman is still the premier globes-trotter in
the East, and the new trans-continental route must
be tested.
But, although we were the political situation in
the flesh, we were careful not to talk politics ; for
even in September the betting was heavily in favour
of war, and here, so near the disputed territories,
argument soon degenerates into pitched battles, espe-
cially when the passions are as fierce as they have
been of late in the Far East. So, when the land
disappeared below the horizon line, the Manchurian
question was likewise lost sight of, and armed
neutrality became the order of the day. The con-
versation turned on ships and men that go down to
70 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
the sea, and the prospects of these fine steamers
from the purely business point of view. Half the
men at the table knew ships and shipping from the
practical side, and each promptly pointed out defects
which disqualified vessels of the Russian fleet from
being dividend-earners. One man had just been
down into our engine-room and discovered that we
were only working our starboard engine. The port
engine was chronically out of order, and had been
so since the ship had been on the Nagasaki run ;
but the engineers shrugged their shoulders when
docking was suggested, and said that one engine was
enough for their purpose. Another man proved to
us conclusively with a pencil and a piece of paper
that the ship could never clear her running expenses
with the big margin that would have to be allowed
for depreciation and her small cargo capacity.
" Too light and too pretty," was the general con-
sensus of opinion ; too much show and too little
business. It is always the same story. However,
Russia's object has been temporarily attained, and
her flag flies everywhere on the China seas. But
can bad business methods and criminal carelessness
spell anything but disaster in the long run ? Time
alone will show.
We left Nagasaki with the typhoon signals flying,
although we had delayed our departure hour after
hour, and were willing to risk anything so long
as we only got off. The whole manner in which
the postponing was carried out was most significant.
First, we were going to leave at ten in the morning ;
THE VOYAGE 71
then, at the last minute, the agent, the sub-agent,
and the deputy-sub-agent for the Russian must
always work in numbers since he is not trusted alone
came hurriedly on board and argued the point with
the captain, the chief officer, and the chief engineer.
It did not transpire whether it was a wretched port-
engine which was causing the trouble, but after an
hour's wrangle, during which our hopes rose and fell
as the balance swayed this way or that, 1.30 was
made the corrected sailing time. Two minutes
before that fatal hour the company's launch with
the various agents and sub-agents, all waving
frantically, came off to us again and stopped us dead
just as we were casting off. There was another
conference, another postponement, and more talk.
Finally, late in the afternoon, we did actually get
off, but the frequently postponed departure and the
hopeless indecision afforded us plenty of conversa-
tion, and was an object lesson in the division of
counsels and the lack of authority so noticeable
among Russians.
At the harbour entrance we passed the Glory and
the Leviathan which had just arrived with Admiral
Bridge. These two splendid ships, decked in their
new grey-black war paint, looked veritable dogs of
war and created an immense impression among the
Russian travellers, an effect which was still further
enhanced by our passing a Russian cruiser of anti-
quated appearance a few chains further down. The
Russians shook their heads, looked again and again,
and confessed aloud that they were after all soldiers
72 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CH. I
and not sailors. Not a nice outlook this, when
supremacy is passing more and more from the land
to the sea. Soon night came on, and with it the
typhoon. The slaughter among the passengers was
terrible, for the typhoon is not a pleasant thing even
when you are sheltered by the islands of the Land
of Morning Calm, and we rocked until we could
rock no more. With tossing bow we headed
through the Korean archipelago, our starboard
engine pushing us along with groaning agony. In
the morning there was one very pale and anxious
man, but his pallor and anxiety were not the result
of sea-sickness. He was a Russian naval officer
travelling back to Port Arthur after a short furlough,
and he groaned his explanation in perfect English :
"All through the archipelago during the night at
full speed ! I have just charted the coast myself,
and I would not do such a thing for millions. The
captain is crazy. Every minute I thought we would
strike." It was but another instance of Slav un-
concern, another exemplification of the careless
" Nichevo."
CHAPTER II
DALNY THE DOOMED
THE tail-end of the typhoon had left everybody
longing for land, for the typhoon is a bitter fiend ;
and when at eleven in the morning a yellow blur
heaved up against the horizon, there was a general
sigh of relief and the cabins gave forth their quota
of seeming dead. There was not much to see, how-
ever, for some time to come, and it was not until we
were already several hours overdue that the coast
line became clear. Once one got a fair look, there
was no mistaking of what it reminded one. It was
the cold, barren hill-land of Shantung over again,
with deep, very deep, blue water right up to the
shores. Bays and inlets cut the coast into a hundred
quaint designs ; ragged cliffs of granite frowned
down on the water, and a lurching junk or two beat
in battle against the wind to gain the open. We
rounded a corner, and then Dalny burst into view.
I cannot say that the first view was impressive or
calculated to thrill one with the coming greatness of
the place. In the foreground you saw half-a-dozen
giant dredgers, sparsely distributed over several miles
74 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
of water and looking very dirty, very forlorn, and
very tired. Farther on there were two or three
steamers moored alongside the railway wharf, all
flying the Russian flag. Behind this you vaguely
saw a confused mass of buildings, but what they
were like it was impossible to imagine. Even a long
way off, a clear impression of the loneliness of the
place was somehow conveyed ; the distances were
superb, but you felt something was missing. In truth
something was missing, and that something is called
success. Briefly put, Dalny is a failure. Eighteen
millions of roubles have been pitched into the bay
in Utopian dreams, or squandered on buildings,
officially-built (save the mark !), that are already
crumbling in the super-dry air. Eighteen millions
have been lost, and irretrievably lost, as far as the
Russian Government is concerned. But I am going
too fast and am shouting before it is time. Our
overdue ship slowly floated alongside the railway
wharf, and a horde of dirty Shantung coolies pushed
up massive gangways. We were not yet allowed to
land, however, as our passports had to be vised by
His Imperial Majesty's police ; for Dalny is in the
leased territory of Kuantung, and is therefore subject
to the full rigours of the Russian system. This
visaing was a lengthy process, but it gave us an
opportunity to view our surroundings. Alongside
of us a triple line of track ran down to the end of
the pier. The pier itself was a magnificent structure
of solid granite, symbolical of the Russian indifference
to the spending of money even when that spending
II DALNY THE DOOMED 75
is sheer foolishness. On the further side of the pier
were stretched immense godowns, roofed with cor-
rugated iron and partly piled with chests of Yangtsze
tea. Lying round in the utmost confusion were
other rotting masses of miscellaneous cargo, and
half a dozen red-shirted isvostchicks with their two-
horsed droskies completed the picture. It was not
gay, of that you may be certain, although the sun
was shining brightly in an azure sky, and the hills
stood out in the distance as clear as cameos. There
was too much emptiness and too few men ; too much
planning and too feeble results ; something wrong,
although you could not precisely say what.
Presently we got our passports and tumbled into
droskies, which travelled rapidly over the bumps
and ruts that the Russian calls roads, towards the
town, distant a mile or two away from the wharves.
The first inhabited street we passed was in its
way surely unique. Briefly, there were rows of
barrack-like houses about fifteen feet high, made of
crumbling grey brick, with woodwork painted green
or muddy-white, and unutterably dirty. Most of
them were small shops run by Chinese or Japanese,
and apparently eking out none too cheerful an
existence. Further on we came to a large open
space, called a square in the town-plans. Then
we passed a bridge leading over an immense railway
open-cut, which runs right through the heart of
the town towards the sea. This open-cut is a
thing to which I shall again refer later on. Finally
we came to Dalny, the officially-built. I say
76 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
"officially-built" advisedly, for the Russian Govern-
ment is responsible for the building of the only
substantial part of the town. I puzzled for some
time, trying to think where I had seen a collection
of buildings resembling that before my eyes. At
last I remembered. It was Tsingtau again, minus
German thoroughness and attention to detail. But
although the town engineer had followed German
ideas and models, he was obviously not entirely tied
to them. Every species of architecture abounded,
from the Swiss cottage to quaint buildings faced
with Italian loggias, from Elizabethan houses to
strange fluted hybrids. The Government architect
must have allowed his fancy to run riot with a
vengeance, for never has such a heterogeneous
collection been seen. Each house is different from
its neighbour ; each strives after ideals that fight
with those across the street.
We had meanwhile arrived at the " Hotel Dalny,"
the premier hostelry of the town. A rather pretty
if dusty verandah-restaurant in front of the hotel,
decked with creepers and honeysuckle, led us
foolishly to suppose that we had reached tolerable
civilisation, but alas ! and alack ! when we inspected
the one remaining bedroom, our brief hopes were
dashed to the ground. Oh, that bedroom, if I but
had the pen to describe it ! Musty, evil-smelling,
and dirty, it was not a fit abode for a white man.
The bed was the worst of all, and uneasy must
be the head and uneasier the body that lay upon
it. However, I was luckily the last arrival, and
il DALNY THE DOOMED 77
so I made up my mind to seek a resting-place
elsewhere. I proceeded to the " Hotel Russe," an
establishment of the secondary class, and there I
was shown a room that was more promising.
Night, however, soon showed me that I had again
been guilty of foolish if innocent thoughts, for I
knew but little sleep owing to causes which it is
unnecessary to specify to this much-travelled world.
When morning came, I remonstrated with mine
host told him solemnly that the insects were too
awful. Mine host was, however, not apologetic ;
he was irate and even more than irate ; indignantly
waving his office pen above his head, he offered
me one rouble per head for captured trophies ! I
answered that capture was impossible, at least as
far as I was concerned. "Ah, then," he said, "do
not complain ; we are clean here, and we do not
understand you Englishmen who are always fight-
ing!"
Late in the afternoon I hired a drosky and went
to make further investigation. As in Europe all
paths lead to Rome, so in Dalny are you inevitably
drawn towards the great railway open-cut. It is
indeed a wonderful sight, and one truly illustrative
of the Russian Empire-builder. Four thousand
coolies were at work digging, digging away and appa-
rently trying to cut the Liao-tung peninsula in two.
Already there is room for a dozen double tracks,
but this not enough. Entire hills are being cut
away, put into baskets, dumped into endless trains
of open trucks and carted away rapidly towards the
78 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
sea. There the earth is used to fill up great piers
and wharves built in shell with blocks of massive
masonry which are still only half complete and
require vast sums more to finish them. In the
harbour itself, which could accommodate the fleets
of half the world and the commerce of the entire
East, gigantic dredgers are still dredging, and the
great cargo-boats go out with other massive blocks
of solid concrete to drop into the sea and build up
the titanic systems of breakwaters planned by the
man who wished to create a London of the Far East
by sheer expenditure of treasure. Everywhere are
the same strong armies of coolies, clumsily working
under the lazy superintendence of lethargic Russian
overseers, with no trade and no white population
except Government servants. The Government-built
houses have their bricks already crumbling, cracked
by the fierce rays of the northern sun. The
unofficial land bought up by eager speculators a year
or two ago, on which houses had to be erected in
consideration for the nominal price paid, is either
covered with miserable shanties which have doubt-
less managed to satisfy official requirements by a
liberal use of the purse, or is littered with bricks of
building operations suddenly stopped. The Russian
Bear still goes on doggedly with his absurd official
scheme, for it is too late to stop, and every extra
disbursement means something in the pockets of
officials to whom squeeze is as the breath of life.
In the official plan of the town the "aspect" of the
place when it will have been completed is glowingly
II DALNY THE DOOMED 79
portrayed. Here is official Dalny with the Govern-
ment offices and Government houses all grouped
conveniently together ; there commercial Dalny with
the merchants' and shopkeepers' streets standing in
ordered ranks ; farther on the Chinese quarters ;
then the harbour breakwaters, granite docks, electric
power-houses, waterworks and such-like. Each has
its place, every detail has been thought out, but of
all these vast undertakings little is really ready.
The speculator is disgusted, and so are all private
Russians. The bi-weekly European express and
the railway steamers remain the only raisons d'etre of
the place. The streets are deserted except for a few
dozen rickshas and half as many droskies. The very
dogs look weary and seem to long for the days gone
by. Occasionally, a company of infantry goes by or a
sotnia of Cossacks canters wildly through the streets.
At night the electric light sputters on desolation and
deserted roads, and mocks the genius whose brain
gave birth to them. On the hills which rise gently
up from all sides of the town you see blotches of up-
turned earth suggesting masked batteries, or the
occasional gleam of a bayonet in the sun's rays. Of
a Custom House there is no sign. I made inquiries,
and vainly tried to see two officials who are said to
be in town charged with the opening, but all without
success.
The story of the proposed Custom House is
worth recounting. Every leased territory in China
has its Chinese Custom House manned by Sir
Robert Hart's men as a convenience to mer-
8o MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CH. n
chants and trade ; so, since the Kuantung peninsula
was leased, it was proposed that a Custom House
should likewise be opened at Dalny, the commercial
centre of Kuantung. Russia, hearing of this,
promptly took steps. One morning in Peking,
M. Pokotilow, the deus ex machind of the Russo-
Chinese Bank, called on Sir Robert Hart, leading
by the hand Russia's nominee. " This," he said,
" is to be the Commissioner of Customs at Dalny ;
he must enter your service." Sir Robert Hart,
whose diplomacy excels even that of the Russian,
though he be but an Englishman, bowed his ac-
knowledgment and prepared to wait. Time in the
Far East is the greatest diplomatist ; procrastina-
tion defeats the weaving of a Machiavelli and
outwits all. The Dalny Custom House will never
be known.
So everything in the town is dead or dying except
for the Russian Government, its soldiers, and
coolies. Three years' unaudited accounts, it is
whispered, are frightening the officials with dread
fears now that their protector is gone. Briefly,
Minister de Witte's star has set, and with it that of
Dalny, if it ever boasted of such a tangible thing as
a star. No longer is it a sun of happy augury
which shines above Dalny. Dalny is doomed, for
the town is a failure, and Viceroy Alexeieff has
stamped that failure further by declaring that Port
Arthur shall alone be heard of in the Kuantung
territory in five years' time. Who knows if even
Port Arthur will be heard of then ?
CHAPTER III
PORT ARTHUR
A BELL clanged lazily as we drove up to the
Dalny station and warned us that we had but little
time to lose. My companion, however, who was a
Russian, smiled at my nervous haste and hinted
that there was no cause for alarm, as Manchurian
trains are nothing if not complaisant. It was true
that we were too late to buy tickets ; instead of
tickets we were given permits to mount the train
and buy tickets at the next station ; but in spite of
all this absurdly complicated procedure, this red-
tapeism raised to the twentieth power, it was a good
many minutes before the train actually started.
The first- class carriage in which we duly installed
ourselves was brand new, and smelt of it very much.
The carriage was of the usual corridor type, and
had half-a-dozen separate compartments beautifully
upholstered and finished off in stained wood. Each
compartment accommodated two people, and the
pulling of a few levers and bolts converted the
couch and the back of the couch into a couple of
comfortable beds, placed one above the other. The
Q
84 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
a local express and takes three hours to cover forty
miles is surely typical of Slav slow-footedness.
As we neared Port Arthur, the outward and visible
signs of a first-class fortress became more apparent.
It is true that military engineering has considerably
altered since the days of Vauban, and that massive
structures rising above the ground level are no
longer much seen ; but still it was possible to realise
how impregnable Port Arthur is even from the land
side. Everywhere signs are seen which indicate
the presence of masked batteries, and sometimes one
was able to enfilade optically a vast trench.
I have since learnt that there are four successive
lines of entrenched works, stretching from two miles
outside Port Arthur to far beyond the range of the
heaviest siege ordnance, and that numberless de-
tached forts cap these and render all attacks, in no
matter what force, enterprises of the most terrible
character. Common report has it that the Japanese
Headquarter Staff has long made up its mind that
only an immense sacrifice of life could crown a land
attack with success, and that such an attack would
entail a loss of from twenty to thirty thousand men.
It is likewise said that the Russians expect and
desire such an attack, and that a gap has been pur-
posely left through which the assault would have to
be made. This is, of course, copied from the
original on the northern Franco- Prussian frontier,
planned by the celebrated French general who was
responsible for the refortifying of France after the
disastrous war of 1870, which entailed the great
THE AMERICAN VOICE IN THE MANCHURIAN QUESTION U.S.S. "HELENA"
MADE SNUG IN A MUD DOCK FOR THE WINTER AT NE\V< II\V \\< ;.
THE FAMOUS NARROW ENTRANCE TO PORT ARTHUR.
Ill PORT ARTHUR 85
frontier rectification. Once troops, flushed with
victory, have poured through the gap, after the
sham retreat has been made, they would be caught
in a vice by the enemy, and relentlessly hammered to
pieces. So far as this deals with Port Arthur, it is
of course but the gossip of the man in the street ;
but it is hard to see, after having gone hurriedly
over the ground, and noted the natural strength of
the place, what other alternative remains.
If Dalny is a dead city, Port Arthur is the exact
reverse. It is bustling and teeming with life, and
everywhere there are signs that much money is being
spent and much profitably earned. The streets are
thronged with droskies and rickshas, coolies and
carts, soldiers and sailors, and finally with the much-
despised and variegated civilian of the north. All
are busy and have something to do. Three years
ago there were but thirty droskies and a few score of
rickshas ; to-day the number of carriages runs into
hundreds, and the rickshas have multiplied in like
fashion. Three years ago there were no hotels
dreamed of, except wretched inns outdoing the
doss-houses of Europe in stench and squalor. To-
day a vast hotel built on a palatial scale is almost
completed, and in three months' time the "Grand"
of Yokohama will no longer occupy the premier place
among the hostelries of the Far East.
Port Arthur was without a creditable church, so
the authorities decided that there must be a cathedral
worthy of God and the Czar. A site has been
chosen on the top of a hill, commanding a view for
86 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
many miles on all sides ; the hill has been pared off
flat, and eighty thousand roubles expended on the
foundations alone. In a year's time the Greek cross
will crown a building costing millions, and symbolical
of Russia's hugeness, but where the money comes
from no one knows or cares. Old Port Arthur was
cramped and shanty-like and the commercial popu-
lation growing and waxing fat on Government con-
tracts, so the construction of a new Port Arthur was
no sooner thought of than ordered.
Two miles away from the old town the new civilian
and commercial quarter is now being rapidly built
up. Broad streets and avenues are already there ;
the hotel is almost completed ; banks and hongs are
rising as if by magic ; scaffolding and beams choke
each vacant lot, and in a year or so old Port Arthur,
mostly composed of Chinese buildings, crudely
adapted to Russian use, will be torn down and given
over exclusively to the military and naval authorities.
On the other side of the town is the Chinese and
Japanese quarter. There you find your humble
Chinese trader in his thousands and tens of
thousands, not so humble, however, since he has
learnt to kick and cuff like any Russian, cheapening
his wares to crowds of coolies, carters, and who-not.
Seven hundred Japanese are also there, engaging in
every manner of traffic, and earning roubles where
they could scarcely earn sen in their own country.
The harbour is full of steamers, junks, and warships.
Godown-room cannot be had for a fortune, and
bearded Sikh watchmen guard countless stacks of
in PORT ARTHUR 87
food-stuffs and drinkables sufficient for years. On
the side of a hill, the viceregal residence of Admiral
Alexeieff surveys the harbour, the forts, and the
fleets. Right in front of the Viceroy's windows are
the famous narrows of Port Arthur harbour, so
shallow and so hemmed in by the neighbouring hills
that a single battleship sunk with care would block
the entrance for an indefinite period. To the
right, Golden Hill stands up proudly with forts and
batteries, armed with mammoth Creusot guns, defy-
ing attack. Behind are other hills all crowned and
capped with other forts. Bugle-calls and the gay
music of marching bands break the silence, and give
one the key-note of the place strutting militarism.
Below in the old town, sheltered as best they can,
are the vast warehouses of the commissariat, thrown
open so that every eye may see the countless sacks
of flour and grain, and all ready to provide the ten
million meals that must be in store should Port Arthur
be besieged and cut off. On the foreshore are huge
stacks of coal and lumber ; nearer the Viceroy's
palace, a single granite dry-dock with machine-shops
busily whirring in the air. Isvostchicks flog their
two-horsed carriages rapidly round corners, darting to
and fro with unerring skill in and out of the traffic.
Ships are discharging their cargoes with groaning
choruses from the Chinese coolie-gangs. Every-
body is in a hurry; everything is being rushed
through rapidly, for who knows what the future
contains in this inscrutable Far East who knows
what is going to happen ?
88 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CH. ill
Such is the Port Arthur of to-day, with the
eventful 8th of October, 1903, drawing near very
near. It is alive, armed to the teeth, provisioned
for three years, defiant, sanguine. Port Arthur is
symbolical of the Russian Bear, with paw raised
ready to strike or be struck. The Bear has climbed
down from the ice and snow of the bitter north, and
will not move.
PORT ARTHUR'S ONLY DRV DOCK.
ANCIENT PAGODA AT LIAOVANG, A MOMMKM 01 KAKI.IKR CONMI-KRORS IN
MANCHURIA.
CHAPTER IV.
SUNDAY IN PORT ARTHUR
I WAS awakened in the morning by the booming of
big guns and a noise of excitement in the town. I
got up hastily and found that there was a regular
battle in progress. The Russian fleet, which had
come down from Vladivostock, was attempting to
force an entrance into the harbour and the forts were
replying to the enemy's fire with terrible salvoes of
fortress artillery which shook the whole town.
After lasting half-an-hour or so, all ended as sud-
denly as it had begun and I heard afterwards that
both the naval and military authorities of Port Arthur
were thoroughly satisfied with the condition of the
sea-defences and the consequent impregnability of
the harbour. In any case, to guard against the un-
expected, during the past couple of weeks thirty
more heavy guns of about 1 5 centimetres calibre have
been placed in position on the sea-forts, and one
artillery officer was recently heard to declare that
they had no more room for any more guns, and that,
as it was, there was a heavy shortage in garrison
artillery-men. Even if it is a different story in
90 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Manchuria proper, there can be no doubt about Port
Arthur's readiness for war, although that readiness
may differ considerably from, let me say, a German
standard of efficiency.
To give an example. I witnessed the unloading
of some of the new fortress guns I have just referred
to, and it was certainly an eye-opener in many ways.
Instead of hoisting these guns from the railway
trucks in which they lay, they were carelessly flung
off anyhow by fatigue parties, with the result that all
their wooden-casings were smashed like so much
match-wood, tubes dented, screws lost, etc., etc.
This can hardly be good even for fortress guns, and
how the Russians ever keep anything in working
order must be a mystery to most people.
Sunday in Port Arthur is not a day of misery such
as one is condemned to in most places over which
the Union Jack floats. On the contrary, it is a day
of eating, drinking (very much drinking), and cele-
brating the beginning of another week of more or less
loaf for no true Russian really works, so long as
there is the foreigner and the Jew. It is all very
wicked, it may be, but it is infinitely more amusing
and more human to pass the Sunday as the Russians
do than in that most terrible Exeter Hall gloom and
godliness of which all Englishmen wot. In Port
Arthur you begin the day at mid-day or a little later,
with a tiffin of imposing title but disappointing size.
Saratoffs on the local Bund used to be the place to
go to, but it has been lately eclipsed by the Nicob-
adza in the New Town.
IV SUNDAY IN PORT ARTHUR 9 t
After eating a few Russian dinners and tiffins you
begin to understand the true innate reason of the
zakouska. 1 1 is not only not an appetiser, but it is even
a de-appetiser, if I may be allowed to coin and
explain a pretty word. To those who are ignorant
and allow themselves to be imposed on, the zakouska
is represented as the solid equivalent of and com-
plement to that liquid aperitif, the glass of vodka,
which precedes a meal so that you may the better
enjoy that meal. You may possibly be induced to
think this with the lapse of time, but so long as he
preserves his independence of mind and stomach the
intelligent man will recognise very rapidly the insuf-
ficiency of the Russian meal if he attacks it from a
purely European standpoint, and will understand the
true significance of the zakouska. To begin with
an imposing and really excellent soup and end sud-
denly with the next course or the one after is a little
jarring, and makes you remember bitterly that you
have transgressed the unwritten law for you should
have gorged yourself with zakouska and bread, and
eaten the meat in your soup with defiant knife and
fork to have satisfied the devouring appetite you
suffer from in this splendid climate of the north.
At least, this I learnt on my Sunday, and on Monday
I ate like those around me.
After your Sunday tiffin there are many ways of
amusing yourself in Port Arthur, but you should go
to the races if you are correct. Some blessed man
conceived the happy idea of these Sunday races,
during six weeks in spring and six in autumn, so
92 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
that Chefoo and Tientsin may send their jockeys to
ride, and that all Port Arthur, military, naval, and
civilian, may be free to watch them. From half-
past one onwards all roads leading to the race-course
are thronged with carriages and rickshas. Drunken
isvostchicks perform miracles of driving, and seem
to have but one object in view that of passing all
other conveyances at the most impossible rate of
speed. You reach your destination, however,
always in safety, for if there is one thing your Rus-
sian understands it is horses and their management.
The race-course is charmingly situated a mile or
two outside the town, on the parade-ground. It is,
in fact, the outer rim of the parade-ground, duly
staked out and roped off, with a funny, box-shaped
grand stand, stuck in the wrong place owing to mili-
tary exigencies, and with everything very impromptu
and very countrified. A good-natured and jolly-
looking general the Commissariat General is
chairman of the race-club, and shakes hands affec-
tionately with all Englishmen he meets on the
course, doubtless with the idea of doing homage to
the sport of kings.
A military band was playing when we arrived, as
only a super-music-loving people can play, and there
was an air of gaiety about the place. In the middle
distance two strangely-attired stewards were wrest-
ling with the scales, and a little further on, in a ring
perilously close to the band, was the horse-flesh of
the meeting five China ponies and four walers.
Add a few hundred people of all sorts and conditions
iv SUNDAY IN PORT ARTHUR
93
in and around the grand stand, the quantities of
soldiers perched on every eminence away from the
course, and you will see the picture as I saw it.
There was even a five-rouble pari-mutuel, where,
after the usual manner of pari-mutuels, you either
lost your five roubles or won back thirty or forty
kopecks and your punt. In Port Arthur everybody
backs the favourite, and the favourite always wins.
Soon the racing began. It was not very exciting
or very amusing, and there were only four races,
with from two to three entries in each, but still it
was jolly and rather like a picnic. There were
women galore of several sorts and varieties, but in
Kuantung and Manchuria the lady with a past is,
with few exceptions, the lady who is always present.
A singular code of etiquette is observed ; for
instance, I saw a lieutenant just off his ship salute
with great courtesy and give his arm to a lady of
indifferent virtue. No one paid any attention to
him, and he passed his superior officers and their
wives with the utmost unconcern. Everyone does
it in Port Arthur, so why be surprised ?
Port Arthur winners meet with the applause they
deserve, and everybody somewhat artlessly seizes
the opportunity to offer everybody else within range
drinks to celebrate each event. In Manchuria you
do not say after the manner of Englishmen, " Have
a drink," you simply drink, and then wait for the
next bottle to be opened. Consequently, by the
time the last race was over on the eventful Sunday
I am speaking of, nobody wanted to do such a dull
94 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
thing as go home, and there was a general adjourn-
ment to a bicycle track which, some genius had
discovered, was about to commence operations.
Another military band was playing here, and as we
entered a race was just finishing. It was coldly
received by the crowd, however, which was feeling
supremely cheerful and wanted something funny to
laugh at. As luck had it, we had not long to wait,
for the twenty verst record of Manchuria was about
to be attempted by a curious-looking young man.
Most lowly Russians are born with their top-boots
on, and forget to take them off the rest of their
natural lives ; but the record-breaker was an excep-
tion. He was mostly hair hair hanging down his
back, his face, his arms, legs, everywhere, in fact
straw-coloured, albino-looking, horrid hair, and he
had no boots. He was also clad in diminutive pink
tights, and he looked hungry at the start. The
race began with the stroke of a bell, and the record-
breaker, unpaced and solitary in his glory, started
to sprint. Everybody somehow guessed from the
beginning that it was going to be funny, and it
was with a vengeance. After a few rounds the
rider thought things were monotonous, so shouted
to the time-keeper to give him his time. The
time-keeper was diplomatic, and waited till he
came round again, and then attempted to whisper
it in his ear, so that the secret of his speed should
not be lightly divulged. The results were dis-
astrous. The record-breaker thought somehow
that the time-keeper wished to Kishineff him (this
SUNDAY IN PORT ARTHUR 95
was a happy delusion), swerved violently, nearly
came off, and was for a time apparently quite hope-
lessly tied up in his long hair. The crowd howled
with delight and waited for more. Then the cyclist
got thirsty, and called for a glass of water. It was
handed to him as he flew past at fifteen miles an
hour, and he proceeded to drink it with amorous
glances at the ladies. Fancy a champion engaged
in the heart-breaking process of lowering a short
distance record drinking whilst he rode ! It would
be impossible anywhere else ; it is quite natural
amongst Russians, where the unnatural is the most
commonly met with. On his returning the glass,
the man who tried to catch it missed it, and it struck
someone else on the head ; the house rose in its
enthusiasm everybody wanted to give him some-
thing, and he was invited to endless zakouskas,
drinks anything, everything. The man who was
hit accepted all the drinks, and could only be calmed
by being made speechless. Such is life on the Port
Arthur bicycle track.
When we left we had only half an hour to our-
selves, for dinner was soon due with more bands,
more music, more everything. Every regiment has
its band here, and as there are more regiments than
men know of, you have music wherever you go.
And such music ! They may not have the precision
of German bands, that absolute excellence which
only human automatons possess, but at least Russian
musicians play with a swing and a dash that is de-
lightful and soul-inspiring. Most of the bandsmen
96 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
are Jews, and are drafted into the bands partly
owing to their national musical ability. After eleven
in the evening the military bands stop, and the
cafes chantants open their doors. Opening at eleven
means an all-night performance, and indeed all the
figurantes of a show are under stern contract not
to evacuate their posts before four in the morning.
And then what drinking, what spending of
money ! Just as you must drive a drosky and not
patronise the humble ricksha in the day-time, so at
night must you only drink the sweet sickly cham-
pagne of Messrs. Roederer & Co. at ten roubles
a bottle, and nothing else. The man receiving a
hundred roubles or so a month will be seen drink-
ing it just as freely as the Government contractor
with millions to his credit, and no one is in the least
surprised. How does the poor man do it ? you will
ask, and you may well ask. He merely squeezes
like the Chinaman, only more coarsely, less artisti-
cally, and with a cynicism and a disregard for the
immorality of the whole thing that is almost discon-
certing. If he is an officer and is hard up, his
friends pull the wires and he gets the job of build-
ing a fort or something else where he can get his
fingers into the contracts. Or if he is a clerk, book-
keeper or what-not, he hangs in with the other
people and splits the extra profit he earns from his
master by spending it freely with his friends.
So the Sundays are gay, very gay, in Port
Arthur and in the Russian Far East which boasts
of a Viceroy. But if you go below the surface there
iv SUNDAY IN PORT ARTHUR
97
is a rottenness and a hollowness which is not reas-
suring for those who hope great things of Russia.
Everything is on a false basis, on a false scale.
There is reckless squandering of money by Govern-
ment and people, barbaric profusion and ostentation
side by side with almost primitive squalor. Men
who occupy good positions, Government engineers,
general officers, and merchants have houses of
which a British mechanic would be ashamed. The
outside is all right it is the inside which damns.
An utter lack of comfort, privacy, or cleanliness
is the distinguishing mark of all, and if ever man
confessed himself unworthy of the heritage of the
Far East, it is the Russian of to-day, who is reaching
out, with cries (charged with bluff alone) that his
Oriental destiny is fulfilling itself.
H
CHAPTER V
BUSINESS IN A NEW WORLD WAY
THE Chinaman has made a great name for him-
self in business, and China is a place where men
may deal for years and never know a pang. It is
not so with the Russian, for he has never been
looked upon in business except with suspicion ; but
it has been left for the new embryo empire on
Chinese territory to show how impossible it is for
either European or Chinaman to put trust in his
dealings, political, commercial, or any other kind.
When the blight of 1900 settled on Manchuria,
some beginnings in the new world trade I am about
to speak of had already been made. Port Arthur
and Harbin were towns of a sort troops were
there ; and where there are troops, commerce, as
it is understood here, commences. The position
of the Russian when he pushes a step forward
towards the southern goal is curious and without
parallel among the other nations of the world. For
the Russian comes like the model war correspon-
dent, without a thing except the clothes in which he
stands ; and instead of bringing things himself from
CH. v BUSINESS IN A NEW WORLD WAY 99
his own home, he entrusts to others the task of
procuring everything that may be necessary, making
no stipulation as to where it shall come from. To
buy from the outside world is absolutely necessary
for him, since he has but little of modern make
within his own borders. Now, when you begin
empire-building extraordinary, you apparently need
things without end. One want supplied merely
shows the pressing need for something else. Years
pass by, millions are carelessly and foolishly paid
out, and still it does not seem to end. It is a
splendid business while it lasts and if you manage
to be paid before the crash comes.
In Manchuria there were, and indeed still are, in
a somewhat lesser degree, four great sources of
business existing quite independently and apart
from the real trade of Manchuria, and carried on
either at the seaports or along the iron track.
These are the railway, the navy and naval works,
the army and the army commissariat, and what
might be called the general provisioning. The
railway means sleepers, iron, steel, iron roofing,
locomotives, tools, timber, and a thousand other
things which could be largely obtained locally if
the Russian had the Englishman's resourcefulness
in a new country. The navy and the naval
works comprise such things as dock-making,
machine shops, machine sheds, machine tools,
steam launches, dredgers, pontoons, &c., &c.
The army always needs absolutely everything,
for it comes out practically unequipped for the
H 2
ioo MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
new conditions of the service. As for general
provisioning, there are fortunes to be made so
long as you can supply the right brand of cham-
pagne (extra sweet) and do not put too much saw-
dust in the flour.
These are, however, simply a statement of the
main categories ; it is the methods to which I
would direct particular attention ; so let us proceed
to work and do business fortunately on paper.
The first thing you must be armed with in Man-
churia is a big pocket-book full of rouble notes.
Unless you have this, you might as well take the first
steamer and go home, for in the Russian Far East
the axiom that money makes money is propounded in
an odd way, and you must be prepared to accept the
ingenious local reading or none at all. Assuming
you have the pocket-book, what do you do ? You
proceed to spend its contents apparently carelessly
and without thought, but really on an admirable
principle. You admit by deed that the pay of
Russian employes, officials and high officers, in fact,
of the whole official world, is on a ridiculously inade-
quate scale ; that life is expensive and that contract-
making is a legitimate source of revenue. For it is
bona fide Government contracts, quasi-Government
contracts, semi-Government contracts, and even
demi-semi-Government contracts, which practically
constitute all Russian trading in interesting Man-
churia. As for the real trade of the country, neither
the Russian, nor the merchant who has followed
him, knows or cares anything about it.
BUSINESS IN A NEW WORLD WAY
Having duly ingratiated yourself with the official
world both large and small, and engaged a poor,
pale-looking person clothed in a uniform to act as
your private intelligence officer, you calmly wait to
see what the zephyrs, duly propitiated, will blow
your way in this best of worlds. You may wait for
weeks, and then suddenly one morning, as you are
pondering over the curiousness of life and sharpen-
ing your pencils for want of something better to do,
your poor pale youth aforesaid will dash in on you
with face aflame and eyes sparkling, and exclaim,
" Contracts, contracts, much contracts ! 100,000 bags
of flour for the army, ten locomotives for the rail-
way, and 1,000,000 square feet of wood. Private
tenders only." Ah, kind words, " private tenders
only." For you have not to face the scrutiny of a
righteous committee, each member of which is deter-
mined that the others shall not make more than he
does. The glare of publicity will not shed its fierce
light on your shortcomings, on your private ar-
rangements. You may work quietly and quickly
alone, and provided that you are blessed with
average brains you need have no fear. So to work ;
count your notes and go forth. If you are well
armed, the battle to be fought is already won.
So, mounting your carriage, you begin your work
for those contracts. It may last a day, two days,
five days, a week, two weeks, who knows? The
Russian is sometimes slow to act, even when his
percentage is duly fixed, for he will always want
more. Suddenly one night, it might even be
102 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
three in the morning, he makes up his mind ; con-
tracts are brought to be signed, you sign them, and
one-half is completed.
In the old days, when both Port Arthur and
Harbin were a good deal smaller that is, before the
great invasion your chase after the contract was a
matter of local interest. In Port Arthur, for in-
stance, there was only one small circle of streets
to drive round after the contract-givers. You
began on the local Bund, stopped for a moment
at the small restaurant where so many millions have
changed hands, and took a hasty look round. No,
your man was not there, so, saying " Go on " to the
isvostchick, you went round and round that small
circle. If you had not caught up the man you were
looking for on the third or fourth round, you knew
you were going the wrong way. So you stopped
your carriage and started the other way round.
Sooner or later you certainly came across the
mighty one going in this direction. This gave a
local interest in the affair, and was the daily play.
Rivals would ask frantically "What is it?" and
without waiting for an answer, would start the chase
after the rouble too, even with the heavy time-
handicap against them. Now, however, the growth
of towns has stopped all that, and on the modern
telephone you may accomplish in a few seconds
what once took you hours of excited and frantic
driving round a half-mile course. Those were the
good old days of two or three years ago, already
bemoaned by all.
BUSINESS IN A NEW WORLD WAY 103
The contract duly secured means certain impor-
tant things agreed to. It is sufficient to say that
it has become an understood thing in Manchuria
that number one of the department with which you
are dealing gets seven and a half per cent, of the
gross contract price ; that number two has his two
and a half per cent., and that numbers three, four,
five, and six, down to the very palest and poorest
young man in the shabby uniform on four or five
pounds a month, split another five per cent, among
themselves. This fifteen per cent, is in itself no
small amount to have to add on to a huge invoice ;
but even this does not finish all. Nearly every-
thing comes into the country by sea, for the railway
is after all rather a make-believe, and only loves
rich passengers and quick freights of the vodka
type. Ships have to come into ports, and ports
have port officers who are miserably poor, but
withal have expensive tastes. So, unless you have
a few thousand roubles handy for the port, these
port officers may be your ruin, for they can very
easily stop your unloading indefinitely until demur-
rage kills you.
So you must have your few thousands ever ready
for eventualities, no matter how complete your
arrangements may be. Prices, it is true, are not
as exorbitant as they used to be. Money, so tight
in other parts of the world, is even harder to find
among the Russians of the Far East since the
crisis. But, in spite of the dangers which immedi-
ately menace them unless they obey the unwritten
104 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
law, sometimes men are found who absolutely
refuse to be parties to Russian deceit, corruption,
and fraud. A noticeable instance, though it oc-
curred some time ago, is still the talk of Port
Arthur, and men take sides and argue fiercely, not
about the right or wrong of the whole matter, but
merely whether it was good business or not.
The thing occurred in this way. A big American
house secured a giant contract for hay. Everything
was settled ; the hay arrived, the transaction was
practically finished when the trouble only began.
That is the worst of it where the Russian is con-
cerned you never know when you are safely out
of the wood. The inspectors inspected the hay,
fixed their commission among themselves, and sent
a duly-authorised deputy to the offices of the big
American house to receive the roubles. Imagine
his surprise when he was told that the entire
transaction was ended, the books closed, and that
there was therefore no more money for anybody,
not excepting the Czar himself. The duly-author-
ised deputy stormed ; the agent of the big American
house remained firm. "All right," said the Russian
at last, "we shall see who wins." So he went back
and nothing was heard for a day or two. Then
a big departmental despatch came saying that as
the hay was not up to standard and contained a
heavy percentage of dirt, the entire consignment
was rejected and delivery could not be taken.
What could be done ? Nothing at all, for there
is no appeal against the Russian Government, since
v BUSINESS IN A NEW WORLD WAY 105
it can do no wrong ; and a loss of ,20,000 sterling
had to be faced by the contracting firm a ruinous
price even for righteousness.
This sort of thing has been disgusting decent
people more and more until the big American house
has received orders to close up all its agencies as
soon as it can collect its money, and others are
rapidly following suit.
But a more interesting and flagrant case, in which
the Russian won, has gone down in local history
and is worth repeating.
Several thousand tons of Cardiff steam-coal had
been bought by the Russian authorities and were
being delivered when the senior engineer of the
squadron in harbour descended on the managers of
the contracting firm : " This coal you are selling the
Russian fleet is good, very good, but it has one
drawback, it is too cheap," he said.
" Too cheap!" replied the astounded agent, " what
do you mean ? "
" You are selling for fourteen roubles a ton what
is worth eighteen roubles a ton to me. Make out
the contracts at the higher price ; I will pay you at
that rate. Two days after the money is paid over
to you, I will call at your office and you will pay me
the difference between the original price and the one
I have just named. It is my share."
The agent, who was very young, refused point-
blank. " All right," said the fleet engineer, " then
your good coal is bad now, it will not burn. The
Russian fleet does not like it."
106 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
The Czar's officer left irately,and the young agent
cabled in despair to an older agent for instructions.
The older agent finally came himself, and, as his
firm could not face the loss of a broken contract, he
had to order the younger man to give in. And do
you know the supreme argument used by the fleet
engineer, and one to which he recurred with parrot-
like insistence, probably believing to this day that it
won for him ? Hauling out a huge gold watch on
which was a magnificent Imperial monogram, he
cried bitterly in broken English : "I am the friend
of the Czar ; when he was a young man and
Czarewitch, and came out here, he like me and gave
me the watch. He is my friend, please pay the
money ! I am very good, the Czar he like me ; please
pay me the money ! " Have you ever heard of such
an argument ? On the principle that the King can do
no wrong, it was undoubtedly a fixed idea with this
officer of the Czar that erstwhile Imperial friends
are above ordinary codes that an Imperial watch is
a passport of respectability to all, and that it was
miraculous, impossible, absurd that ordinary mer-
chants should not recognise this excellent logic and
bow to a well-reasoned decision.
The unsophisticated will have realised what an
extraordinary state of affairs prevails in this
new-world trade. Americans are apt to talk of
the wear and tear of life in American cities. It is
nothing to the nervous strain of having busi-
ness dealings with either Government or private
Russians on or along the railway empire in
107
Manchuria. The prospective profits are, however,
so great that the temptation to remain is nearly
always too strong. Everyone is always going in
for one final coup and then finish and home. Like
all unwholesome speculations, the fever finally gains
you until it becomes a mania and your departure is
postponed from day to day, from month to month,
and then from year to year. Everybody is anxious
to make a pile rapidly and then to leave the sinking
ship before the waves engulf it. Everything is for-
gotten in the frantic chase after the travelling
rouble. Morals are cast to the winds.
Each night you are forced to go and drink
champagne amidst sordid surroundings with the
smell of top-boots offending your nostrils. You
dare not halt a minute, for if you do you will drop
out of the running and be known no more. Credit,
extended to unlooked-for and dangerous propor-
tions, supports the whole vain fabric and may
collapse at any moment. To be seen is to be
trusted. When you are not there, who knows what
may not happen and what stories will not be
circulated ? Only fierce wrangles succeed in extort-
ing sums long overdue. The Government will not
pay until the very last minute. Private contractors
are worse and simply have no hearts at all. As for
small merchants, shops, restaurants, and the minor
fry, only blows will bring them to reason. All is
honeycombed with bribery, corruption, venality,
false accounts, and every deceitful thing. Every
man is squeezing his neighbour for all he is worth.
io8 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Nobody will move until his palm has been greased.
Chinese are aghast and ask how it is that their own
officials have acquired such a name for squeeze,
when in Europe squeezers and renderers-of-false-
accounts exist to such an undreamt-of extent.
From very top to very bottom, without exception
and without one blush, this state of affairs is to be
found in the boasted Russian Far East. Com-
mercial travellers who arrived joyously by rail from
Austria, France, and Germany a year or two ago
mostly commercial travellers with hooked noses
and who made contracts right and left with twelve
and fifteen months' credit, are dismayed to find that
there is little chance of their ever being paid, and
trail the streets with downcast looks. Day after day
men are " missing " mysterious disappearances, to
find the clue of which you must look for the overdue
rouble.
Everybody is hoping that it will come out all
right in the long run, and is meanwhile piling on
the percentages higher and higher, so that if the
crash really does come they will at least have
something to the good with which to make their
escape.
This, therefore, is a rough sketch of Russia
almost down to the warm waters. Since everything
is seen in the bright rays of a sun that is scarcely
ever clouded over, a moral disorder unparalleled in
the history of the Far East is the direct result.
The railway, the' army, the navy, the commissariat,
merchants, traders, shopkeepers, all of them are
v BUSINESS IN A NEW WORLD WAY 109
mere speculators, speculating with Government
funds ; inflating credit until it is credit no longer
but mere make-believe ; each determined that this
golden East is going to make his fortune or that
he will rot in the attempt. Sell up Government
stores, take Government money, do anything so long
as the roubles roll in ! All are hungry, and a few
thousands won merely whet the appetite for count-
less roubles more. Smooth Hebrews, basking in
the sunshine of official favour, have won the most,
but there are others. Young men who have little
moral stamina are whisked in a few months from
the pleasant dream times of youth into pale, over-
strained men, their manhood sapped before it has
grown mature by excesses thrust on them through
force of example, and because they are determined
to love Mammon alone. A hundred or even five
hundred roubles spent in a night is nothing extra-
ordinary for men whose legitimate incomes scarce
exceed three figures in sterling per annum. Do
not stop, for he who stops is trampled to death by
the eager crowds which surge after.
Meanwhile, the cunning ones are rapidly settling
up at any figure. Square-jawed men are losing
their determination under the strain, and feign a
false gaiety to conceal the fear which gnaws at their
hearts. After all, let war come, they think ; it is
best for you and best for me. Perhaps after the
deluge life will be worth living. It certainly is not
so at present.
CHAPTER VI
ON THE ROAD TO HARBIN
IF you stan for Harbin from Port Arthur, you
are soon rudely reminded by the railway that you
are slighting Dalny Dalny, the all-ready-built and
not-yet occupied ; Dalny, the would-be terminus for
the trade of a continent. To catch your eleven
o'clock European express at Dalny you are forced
to leave Port Arthur at half-past seven in the
evening, without your dinner, and full of bile and
bitterness against the world at large and the
Chinese Eastern Railway Company in particular.
Hardly have you left your station before your train
stops stops dead, apparently with the idea of
remaining there for ever. You wonder whether it
is the mythical Hunghutzu at work, or the Japanese
war at last. Just as you are getting desperate and
contemplate returning to Port Arthur on foot or by
trolley, you move on again, slowly, grudgingly, and
with much squeaking protest from the wheels and
couplings, but still you move on. After an hour or
so you stop again in the middle of a valley closed in
on all sides by hills that look like giants in the dark.
CH. vi ON THE ROAD TO HARBIN in
It is a station of no importance, and you learn you
are only stopping to keep up your wonderful average
of slowness. Then on again ; another step, a short
agony of suspense, and finally you reach a junction
where the branch line not the main line, mind you
runs down to Dalny. At last you reach that haven
of rest and steam right alongside the home-going
express, which looks cheery, well-lighted, and com-
fortable after your gloomy run in the dark. Above
all, it has a dining car, a "wagon-restaurateur" to
give it its official name, where you may get all
manner of things, somewhat high-priced it is true,
but infinitely good to eat after your furtive gnawing
of wayside station delicacies.
As all the world now knows, the European
express trains leave Dalny twice a week, on
Tuesdays and Saturdays, and dump you in Paris
or London, if you have any reasonable luck, well
inside of eighteen or nineteen days. For fifteen
hundred versts you run through Manchuria, see
the country through your doubled-glassed windows,
and, if you are of that respectable type of manhood,
the globe-trotter, you return home with the trite
tale that Russia has absorbed Manchuria. Nobody
questions your right. Nobody is in the least
surprised at what you say, for it is what they have
been taught to expect and your statements merely
confirm what every man has somehow vaguely
thought for himself.
But if any man, after having walked the streets
of Canton or Peking and gaped at the sign-boards
ii2 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
and spirit-screens, imagines he has absorbed the
classical learning of China, he is speedily taught the
error of his ways and is cruelly sat on by one and
all. In Manchuria it is different. You see nothing
except a railway track and a few dozen stations ;
talk with nobody except a felfow-traveller from the
other end of the world ; know nothing about a
thousand things of which you should know a
great deal to be of any value, and you are
acclaimed a heaven-sent news-giver when you
reach home. Such is the glamour of the Russian
Far East. My tale, however, is different, but that
will come in due time.
Sharp on time our train steamed out of the
station a monster Baldwin engine, one first-class
car, two second, a dining car, one miscellaneous,
ending up with the famous postal car, stuffed full
with correspondence in a hurry to get home.
There was no difficulty about room or over-
crowding, for there were only seven passengers
distributed over eighty berths. I thought this
exceptional until I struck an American to whom
the Chinese Eastern Railway is apparently a
perpetual joke as a business undertaking. He
assured me that the most he had ever seen on an
express train was five and the least three ; that
he was " in wheat " at Harbin and knew the
railway ropes, and that things were evidently
booming this trip. But then he was something of
a professional joker. The home traveller is correct
in at least one thing. The second-class car
F'S 1
^ ' .'.
4 1 ;' -
VI ON THE ROAD TO HARBIN 113
provided by the Manchurian Railway is quite equal
to the first, and if you can only avoid the pitying
stare of the first-class attendants and find a place
for yourself alone in the second, it is obviously a
waste of money to buy first-class tickets.
All night long we were steaming up the
Kuantung peninsula, which is highly uninteresting
from a scenic point of view, and is mainly a replica
of Shantung province. You find the same sad-
looking, treeless hills, the same stony clay soil, and
wretched, hungry-looking people ; it is deadly dull,
so I will not describe it. True Manchuria only
begins far north of the leased territory, and is
incomparable with the rest.
At seven in the morning we reached Ta-shih-
ch'iao, from whence a branch line runs down to
Newchwang, twenty versts distant by the railway
map. Ta-shih-ch'iao is a junction of the utmost
importance, both strategically and commercially, and
the Russians have shown their appreciation of the
fact in many ways. There you will find railway
repair shops, machine shops, an iron foundry, huge
locomotive sheds (in which I counted on this
occasion thirteen engines), godowns, barracks for a
couple of thousand men, and, finally, a hetero-
geneous collection of houses. Far behind all this
you will see the walls of the native city which lives
its own life completely separate and far away from
the turmoil of the railway.
A year ago, when I stopped at this station, a
few miserable Siberian peasant women attempted
i
ii 4 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
unsuccessfully to sell us milk and eggs. To-day
they have vanished never to return again, and the
Russian has learnt that you cannot colonise where
the Chinese thrive. Every inhabitant of the
Russian settlements along the railway, both here
and elsewhere, owes his existence and his daily bread
to the railway and to the soldier, and to them alone.
Destroy the railway, or stop its working, and
automatically you starve every Slav south of the
Amur. For, although the self-same Slav may not
be actually a railway servant indeed, he may be
very much the reverse in point of fact, he is living
as a result of Government subsidy and war-scale
wages. Think only of the Mesdames Sans-Gene in
Manchuria, and the room they occupy. There
must be thousands of them if there is a single one,
and everywhere they crowd the streets and towns,
jingling their soldier earnings, and represent
Russian colonising. Then building is still going on
everywhere along the railway, and when you build
you require contractors and overseers, and other
people to feed and board them, and yet others to
provide them with drink and music, for your
average Russian is not amused without much noise,
and unless he can be both amused and get drunk,
he will not work.
In Ta-shih-ch'iao it was very evident that there
was much military and other activity. In the event
of war, the place will become a point of paramount
importance, and although it is useless to hazard an
opinion as to what extent it has been fortified, there
vi ON THE ROAD TO HARBIN 115
can be no doubt that it would only be abandoned
after the most desperate fighting.
Once past Ta-shih-ch'iao, you enter the agricul-
tural and strategically important districts containing
Hai-ch'eng and Liaoyang. Here begin those vast
grain-growing fields which stretch almost unbroken
for two thousand li due north, and can provide food
and fodder for countless millions of men and ani-
mals. Here also run caravan roads north, south,
east, and west, in fact, to every point of the com-
pass ; but, most important of all, to the promised
land of Korea. Invading or defending armies must
use this vantage ground whether they will or not,
and if the clash of arms is soon to be heard, it is
upon this soil that will be fought most desperate
engagements.
Hai-ch'eng is but a few dozen miles from Ta-
shih-ch'iao. It is a hsien or district city, and is
admirably adapted for defence. Low hills surround
the four walls of the town, and it was in this neigh-
bourhood that great slaughter was seen in the
Chino- Japanese war of 1894-95. Until quite
recently the Russians do not appear to have
given the place the strategic importance it de-
serves ; but as we steamed into the Hai-ch'eng
station, it was evident that they were hastily at-
tempting to make up for lost time. Apart from
the permanent brick barracks and buildings, lines
of muddy white tents flanked the railway on either
side, and regiments of Shantung coolies were
engaged in throwing up shacks and makeshifts
I 2
n6 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
sufficiently strong to withstand the rigours of the
winter.
It was impossible to make any reliable estimate
of the number of men in camp, for figures fluctuate
almost daily and accurate calculations become impos-
sible. It is sufficient to say, however, that there
are approximately two or three thousand men in
and around Hai-ch'eng, and that these numbers can
be doubled or trebled in a few hours by drawing on
neighbouring forces. It should be noted, however,
that every man is well within the thirty-verst rail-
way strip, over which China has by treaty irre-
vocably conceded to Russia the right of policing
without any stipulation.
From Hai-ch'eng there is cheap water communi-
cation with the outside world through an affluent
of the river Liao. North of Hai-ch'eng you sweep
on mile after mile through country which in late
autumn is wonderful to the eye. Everywhere is
the same cultivation of each foot of fertile soil, and
everywhere, as we steamed along, stood giant crops
of kaoliang, or the tall millet of the north. To the
east were range upon range of hills and mountains,
sometimes advancing a little nearer to the railway
as if angrily challenging its right to monopolise the
soil over which they have watched so long, some-
times receding so far that one's vision confounded
the dull grey of mountain peaks with the dazzling
blue of the horizon. A bright, clear sunshine
flooded the land, and occasionally the sight of great
country carts, with teams unyoked and joyously
VI ON THE ROAD TO HARBIN 117
scampering in the fields, added to the general
impression of peace and plenty. What a land
flowing with milk and honey is Manchuria, even
if there is a winter of terrible cold and blizzards !
Some four hours after leaving Ta-shih-ch'iao
we reached Liaoyang. Liaoyang is a walled city
famous for its fruits, its samshu, and its industries.
It has a population variously estimated at from fifty
to a hundred thousand inhabitants, and in Fengtien
province it is only second in importance to Mouk-
den, the capital of the province. A lofty pagoda
stands like some sentinel outside the city, which is
seen indistinctly from the railway through screens
of elms, willows, and pine trees. Liaoyang has an
ancient and interesting history, to which I have
referred elsewhere.
Liaoyang station showed even more military ac-
tivity than Hai-ch'eng. There were soldiers in tents
and soldiers in railway trucks in fact, soldiers every-
where ; and an enthusiastic Russian assured me that
there were 15,000 men in all. This was, of course,
absurd, and only an example of the monumental and
childlike ignorance you find among a people with
whom a critical discussion of Governmental or poli-
tical affairs is generally taboo. The best-informed
Chinese state that the Liaoyang figures vary from
two to four thousand men and that latterly many
have been drawn away to Hai-ch'eng.
A few miles north of Liaoyang you pass a
branch line which leads to the Yentai coal mines.
These coal mines, which, under good management,
ii8 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
could supply fuel for almost every engine on the
Chinese Eastern Railway, have been reduced to a
more or less hopeless condition. A few weeks ago
all non- Russian engineers, after being for months
hampered in their work, were summarily dismissed,
and the Russian engineers lost but little time in
celebrating this auspicious event by having a first-
class fire-damp explosion in which fifty or sixty men
were killed or wounded. And yet the Russians
are demanding exclusive mining privileges in
Manchuria !
Some sixty miles from Liaoyang lies Moukden,
the capital of the province. Formerly the railway,
after the manner of most Russian railways, made a
broad sweep away to the west so as to avoid the
city, and it could only be reached after a most tire-
some and bumpy journey by cart over fifty or sixty
li of assuredly the worst roads in the world. Now,
however, they have corrected this, and the new
Moukden station is but two miles beyond the city
walls. With Moukden itself I shall deal separately
later on. At the station there was nothing to see
and no garrison beyond a few files of Manchurian
railway guards. Somewhat extensive barracks are
being erected, however, behind the station, into which
perhaps a battalion of men could be squeezed. There
was little animation beyond the usual Chinese crowd
gazing curiously at the train or shouting wares in
pidgin Russian.
From Moukden onwards we jogged at our un-
varying express rate of fifteen miles an hour, always
vi ON THE ROAD TO HARBIN 119
through the same rich and pleasant country. As we
got farther north it was not only the usual village or
small town that we saw. Sometimes nestled at the
foot of a hill and embowered in clumps of willow and
elm was to be seen the residence of a vanishing
breed, the Manchu country squire or magnate. In
the old days even his womenfolk used to go forth
mounted on stout ponies and hunt with the hawk or
bow and arrow. The iron horse, with its hideous
screech, has frightened almost all that away now,
and the unromantic but frugal Shantung coolie is
completing the destruction of Nurhachu's descen-
dants and their old-world ways.
Every couple of miles or so long stretches of broad
Chinese cart roads winding through the country and
crossing the railway over level tracks were to be seen.
Each approach was carefully staked with stout posts
painted grey, and at nearly every crossing stood
teams of fettlesome and healthy-looking ponies, har-
nessed to great country carts stacked mountain-high
with kaoliang and wheat. Harvest was beginning.
As the day wore on we passed T'iehling, a town,
as the name shows, in the middle of the iron-
producing districts. Tall hills were to be seen
beyond the city to the far east and still farther on,
dim looking mountains stood right up to the horizon
line. T'iehling station, as far as my investiga-
tions showed me, was but feebly garrisoned and that
only by railway guards in the workmanlike green
and black uniforms.
As we swept farther north it became more and
120 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
more apparent that the great concentration is all
south of Moukden, and that for several hundred
versts, in fact, say, to Harbin, the railway is prac-
tically unprotected.
A couple of hours after T'iehling we drew up at
K'ai-yiian, another town of some importance, and
again, except for some building at the station, there
was no animation.
After a protracted breathing space for our
ponderous and infinitely tired engine, we moved on
once more with the dignity and slowness which so
becomes the Manchurian express. During the
eighty miles to K'uan-ch'eng-tzu I saw only two
things of interest ; one a Tientsin juggler somehow
stranded far from home, performing at a little
wayside station, and the other a Chinese soldier in
full war paint belonging to the vanguard of the
K'ai-yuan horse contingent, as his red coat plainly
informed one. The latter became justly indignant
when I asked him if there were any more like him
left in Manchuria, and he assured me that he was
one of a faithful band of two hundred " who all had
their horses," and that he was travelling back free
gratis on the railway after a short furlough.
When I further asked him whether his Kopitan
(phonetic for Russian captain) was Russian, he
refused to speak and marched off indignantly to
my great grief, as I wished to have his opinion on
the evacuation and sundry other things.
The stars were already shining when we reached
the station at K'uan-ch'eng-tzu. If you are bound
vi ON THE ROAD TO HARBIN 121
for Kirin city it is here that you must shoot off
your traps and ride or cart it over pretty bad roads.
There were large Chinese crowds at the station,
all waiting for the trains, for K'uan-ch'eng-tzu is a
bustling and important city of a couple of hundred
thousand inhabitants, and is, in fact, the greatest
Mongolian and Manchurian mart in the north.
Strictly speaking, we were no longer in Manchuria
but in Mongolia ; for although the district in which
K'uan-ch'eng-tzu lies is administered by the Kirin
provincial Government, it is really Mongol terri-
tory. A few long-coated, bare-pated Mongols
strolling about the station emphasised the fact that
only a few miles to the west were the rolling grass
lands from whence the China pony of virtuous
memory is exported in crude condition to the
eighteen provinces and beyond.
If you are apt to be irritable over Manchurian
railway speed during the day-time, it is not so at
night. The gentle rocking of the heavy train and
its slow, deliberate manner of stopping and starting
is eminently conducive to sound sleep, and so much
so in my case that I woke up in the morning to find
that we had already crossed the upper bend of the
river Sungari and were only three hours from
Harbin.
At the first opportunity I got out to stretch my
legs, and our engine immediately attracted my
attention. Stacks of roughly-chopped logs were
piled on the bogie and showed that we were so far
north that we had crossed the coal-using line and
122 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CH. v
were burning wood. Where this line exactly is, it
is hard to say, as railway officials are not communi-
cative gentry ; but, roughly speaking, it may be said
that out of Fengtien province the Chinese Eastern
Railway has to burn wood, and plenty of it. This
cannot go on indefinitely, for Chinese dealers
have told me since that wood is becoming
dearer and dearer and that they have always to
go farther and farther afield to draw their supplies.
If the Manchurian railway authorities would but
hire half-a-dozen Scotch or English engineers, in
two years they would have coal to throw at the
birds, for there is an abundance of coal to be found
everywhere in Manchuria. But instead of this they
think only of building super-solid stations at
primitive out-of-the-way places, and thus squander-
ing every paper rouble (with a commission bitten
out of the edge) that comes into their hands.
Suddenly, as the clock struck a quarter to eleven,
and before we knew it, we were entering Harbin,
and puffing and panting we drew up proudly, as
befits an express that has accomplished over 800
versts, or some 500 miles, in 36 hours.
CHAPTER VII
ON THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT
To the average man, and certainly to anyone
who does not know his Far East from the inside,
the name of the Russo-Chinese Bank suggests
nothing much in itself, and is indeed quite innocu-
ous. Even in places where it actually functions, it
is ostensibly a bank established with the philan-
thropic object of facilitating commercial intercourse
between Chinese and Russians a financial institu-
tion concerning itself with the squeezing of big
exchange profits out of dealers in roubles and
dollars, and nothing else. But, know all you who
are not already informed, that this prince of modern
and up-to-date banks is divided into two great
departments the financial and the political and
the first somewhat coarsely masks the second,
which is the reason-of-being, the leading motive of
the whole ingenious creation, and that it is this
bank which, more than anything else, is responsible
for China's troubles during the past eight years.
Indirectly, the bank may be said to be a manifes-
tation of the Russian's very real admiration for
124 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP
English success in the Far East, that astonishing
success which has attended the spread of Anglo-
Saxon trade and ideas under the aegis of England's
undisputed naval might.
When Prince Uktomsky toured the East with the
then Czarewitch, almost exactly ten years ago,
nothing impressed him so much as the results
accomplished by Anglo-Saxon energy at those
great marts, Hong Kong and Singapore, and in a
lesser degree at the China and Japan Treaty ports.
All the observations of this great empire-builder
were carefully noted down, and after he returned to
Russia, time only was needed to see his ideas take
practicable shape. Uktomsky fully realised that
unless Russia took early steps to combat the
rapidly-growing influence of Englishmen and
English ideas, propagated, not by Government help,
but indeed rather against the Downing Street wishes,
the Far East in a few short decades would be so
saturated with Anglo-Saxon methods, ideas, and
standards that no other culture or power could hope
for success. Speedy action was therefore necessary,
and speedy action soon came.
The Chino-Japanese war interrupted the im-
mediate prosecution of Uktomsky's schemes, but
no sooner was that far-reaching little war ended
than the Russian bugles rang out clearly for such
as had ears to hear. The message of those bugles
is told in the eventful years of 1895 and 1896.
I have already elsewhere discussed in detail some
features of these years, but others have yet to be
vii ON THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT 125
told. What diplomacy can effect has never been
more brilliantly demonstrated than in those times.
1895 should have been a glorious year for one
Power alone in the Far East Japan ; instead of
this, Russian diplomacy converted Japan's victory,
which was such a terrible menace to all St.
Petersburg's expansionist schemes, into a Russian
paper success, and left the Island Empire, though
its martial spirit was still throbbing with exultation,
at heart solely alarmed by the unexpected turn of
affairs.
Two names must be writ large on the Chinese
canvas of '95 those of Cassini and Uktomsky.
These two men did more than any others to set
the snowball rolling down from bitter Siberia on
to China a snowball that at this very moment
terrifies all, onlookers and the men who launched
it alike, with the hidden possibilities of the future.
Cassini, the Russian Minister at Peking, began
in that year those plottings and coquettings with
sorely-offended Chinese and Manchu officials
which are responsible for the apocryphal Cassini
Convention ; and, in December of the same year,
Uktomsky organised the great politico-financial
Russo-Chinese Bank and secured his Imperial
master's consent to the prosecution of numberless
schemes, which embraced the ultimate destruction
of China, and the reduction of Japan to the rank
of a secondary Power. And so successfully were
Uktomsky's ideas carried out that the Russo-
Chinese Bank, nominally with a capital of but
126 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP
fifteen million roubles, or roughly a million and a
half sterling, has in eight years done more in the
Far East than the British Government in half a
century ; has secured vast concessions ; and has
opened fifty branches in widely different places
which stand like the points of cavalry patrols from
Central Asia to the sea of Japan, showing observers
the vastness of Russian aspirations ; for where
those points are, one day will the Russian tricolour
be hoisted.
Brutally put, the Russo-Chinese Bank is merely
the weapon forged by Uktomsky to assimilate
China, which, by elevating Russia to the proud
position of the arbiter of Eastern and Central Asia,
is to reduce automatically all the other Powers, but
more especially England and Japan, to positions
of secondary importance.
The task which confronted the promoters of this
political concern when it was launched on the world
was no mean one, for there were enormous odds to
be fought against ; and it is only fair to acknow-
ledge that the greatest diplomacy and generalship
of the intriguing sort were shown from the very
moment of its official birth. At first it was made
to appear that Petersburg capitalists were dis-
inclined to find the necessary money to insure a
successful flotation of the Bank (although no flota-
tion was really necessary) ; and consequently that
continental Europe had to come to the rescue.
This was a most clever move, for as soon as Paris,
Brussels, Amsterdam and other great centres were
vii ON THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT 127
financially interested in the success of the business
part of the venture, the sympathies of Europe
could be counted on ; and Russia relies greatly on
continental sympathy. The fifteen millions were
very easily found were indeed many times over-
subscribed when they were called for ; and on the
eventful loth of December, 1895, an Imperial
Ukase, launched from St. Petersburg, announced the
organisation of the Bank. The words ''organised
under Imperial Decree " which are used by the
Bank, are practically the only true and open ones it
has ever spoken, for theyrnost aptly describe what
was actually done, and hint at the secret arrange-
ments between Government and financiers which
were undoubtedly made. The promoters of the
Russo-Chinese Bank borrowed the idea of their
institution directly from the well-known Chinese
model : for in China big undertakings of modern
date are nearly always semi-official and are directly
supervised by the Central Government. In China,
as soon as a brilliant idea germinates in the brain
of a yellow genius and is approved of by the
powers that be, officials are appointed to organise
the undertaking planned, while contributions are
invited from the mercantile classes ; then, when the
capital needed is fully subscribed, the shareholders
or bondholders appoint representatives to look after
their own interests and to secure that a fair share
of the profits accrue to them, whilst the actual
management remains in the hands of Government
officials. The profits earned are largely possible
128 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
because the Government is directly interested in the
welfare of the undertaking and therefore gives it
something in the character of a monopoly.
In the case of the Russo-Chinese Bank, a similar
procedure was adopted. The Petersburg Govern-
ment had vast plans in its portfolios, and needed a
convenient covering both to mask them and to
make them feasible. That covering was provided
by the genius of an Uktomsky and his brilliant
lieutenants, and other men were not found wanting
to work out the minor details. Once the Russo-
Chinese Bank was floated if such a term can be
applied to a Government concern it was necessary
to have an efficient working plan, and no time was
wasted in finding that plan. It was decided that in
each branch of the Bank, beginning with the head
office in St. Petersburg, and ending with the most
insignificant outpost-bank, there were to be two
departments one concerned with actual banking
and the guarding of the interests of the bona fide
shareholders, the second with the winning of
political influence by the obtaining of so-called
concessions in mining, railways, lumbering, and any
other field which suggested itself to the fertile
brains of the directors.
The whole undertaking was soon crowned with
success, for the Russian Government can, and does,
find brilliant agents to carry into execution its
projects of world-empire.
The very first thing the bank had to do was to
turn its attention to Manchuria. The results of the
vii ON THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT 129
Chino- Japanese war had given a terrible shock to
the astute gentlemen who dwell on the banks of the
Neva. Relying on their agents in the Far East,
they had supposed that China would inevitably
defeat Japan ; and when the reverse occurred, and
it seemed as if the Island Empire was about to
close the roads down to the Yellow Sea by the
seizure of the Liaotung, Russian bureaucrats were
aghast, and lost no time in organising the triplicate
of powers which forced the retrocession of the
peninsula on Japan. The rapidity with which this
was effected is astonishing when one remembers
with what slowness diplomatic pourparlers generally
proceed. The Shimonoseki Treaty of Peace was
signed on the i7th April, 1895 ; the ratifications
were exchanged on the 8th May, and only two days
after this ratification a Japanese proclamation was
issued stating that Japan was prepared to return the
ceded Liaotung territory to China owing to the
friendly representations of neighbouring powers.
Russia's terror is plainly shown by this haste to
restore the status quo ante, and it is interesting to
recall that when Li Hung Chang, the Chinese
Plenipotentiary, was demurring about signing away
Chinese territory, Colonel Wogack, the Russian
confidential agent, arrived at Shimonoseki and told
him to put his signature without fear to any
instrument he liked, as Russia was coming to the
rescue.
These things hastened the work of the Russo-
Chinese Bank, and by September, 1896, nine
K
i 3 o MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
months after its official birth, this political weapon
secured the concession for building the trans-
Manchurian railway, and the Manchurian question
had been opened, although English statesmen
remained incredulous.
The Russian Government was fortunate in having
a most redoubtable agent in the Bank in Peking,
the great Monsieur Pokotilow, through whose untir-
ing efforts so much has been done, and the bulk of
the far-reaching railway concessions arranged. When
he arrived in Peking in the early days of 1896, he
was a young man in the thirties. When he left the
scene of his activity in 1903, seven years' work had
given him a bent and broken appearance, and
strangers supposed him to be a man of sixty. In this
manner do Russian agents work.
The first concession obtained by the Bank was
but the prelude to a second, to a third, and then to
many others ; for the chief idea of the planned
Russian conquest was to envelop China and her
outlying territories with a strategic network of rail-
ways, which would choke the officials and people to
death as soon as it was deemed prudent to throw off
the thin disguise. The second concession, tied up
in a single clause of the Port Arthur leasing agree-
ment, was even more important than the first. To
arrange the final details, Prince Uktomsky himself
visited Peking in 1897, an d brought verbal instruc-
tions to the Russian Charg d'Affaires, M. Pavlow,
and the Bank manager, Pokotilow. Prince Uktom-
sky's diplomacy had already succeeded in persuading
vii ON THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT 131
Mr. Victor von Grot to join the Bank and proceed
to Mongolia, where he was to become the com-
mander of the line of advanced posts which were
being established. Mr. von Grot was a splendid
acquisition. But thirty-three years of age, trained
for ten years under Sir Robert Hart, he had given
unmistakable signs of extraordinary ability, and was
therefore a marked man to the Russians. He was
accounted in Peking facile princeps in the difficult
art of Chinese despatch writing, and was one of
those curious men to whom work is the reason of
existence, and recreation an unknown thing. But
he had an even more important accomplishment.
He possessed a complete knowledge of the myste-
rious Peking world, and had been so closely con-
cerned with the preparation of documents of great
value, for several years previous to his enlistment in
the service of the Russo-Chinese Bank, that he
thoroughly understood the local atmosphere and the
working of all the many political levers. And it is
significant that, only a few months before his resig-
nation from Sir Robert Hart's service, he had trans-
lated an exhaustive memorandum for the Chinese
Government, containing remedial suggestions under
every head, calculated to prevent a recurrence of
disasters similar to those of the years '94 '95.
Five months after Prince Uktomsky's visit to
Peking the Russian cruisers steamed into Port
Arthur, and a few weeks after this the famous leas-
ing agreement was openly signed. In article 8, the
Chinese Eastern Railway was soberly given the
K 2
i 3 2 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
right to build the Central Manchurian Railway, and
connect the leased territory with the trans- Man-
churian section. No sooner was the agreement
signed than another crop of agencies sprang up in
Manchuria ; after a brief spell, others were opened
in Mongolia and Eastern Turkestan, and by 1900
the Bank had reached the high-water mark of
prosperity.
Meanwhile, the shareholders who had supplied
the initial capital, and through whose efforts further
funds were obtained in the shape of loans to
carry into execution the various concessions obtained
by the Bank, were not disappointed with their
investment. The Bank profits of the purely
business side of this hybrid institution, in spite of
bad and unscrupulous methods, were large, and big
dividends therefore possible. Bonuses and private
" chances " were likewise given to the big share-
holders, mainly continental banks, and everything
done to satisfy the worshippers of Mammon. All
seemed rose-coloured, and still further profits
possible, when 1900 interrupted the triumphant
march. But 1900 only meant a temporary set-back,
and as soon as things began to settle down again
the greatest efforts were made to extend the field
of the Bank's operations in Manchuria. By 1901
there were ten branches in the three eastern
provinces, and the leased territory and many others
were planned. There can be no doubt that at the
beginning of 1900 there was a great deal of talk
concerning the advisability of directly taking over
VII ON THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT 133
the Manchurian finances and ousting the Chinese
officials. But the lack of trained men, the opposi-
tion of all classes of the native population, and the
vastness of the undertaking, made the directors
hesitate. Fortunately for them, the signature of the
Evacuation Protocol of April, 1902, demanded an
indefinite postponement. Had the Russian Govern-
ment decided to embark on this doubtful policy, a
fresh rebellion in Manchuria would have been a
foregone conclusion, and the country devastated far
and wide.
But although the political department of the
Bank was constantly urging the establishment of
more branches and a general opening out in
Manchuria on a far more extensive scale, the
business managers were not sufficiently convinced
of the financial stability of a concern which was
something of a banking abortion, and on their
refusing to agree to this, an internecine war began.
The heavy interest and discount rates charged by
the Bank where it held a monopoly allowed profits
to be made, but those profits were "ragged " were
always too big or too small and did not read
well in the half-yearly returns. Some branches in
Manchuria steadily lost money and only showed a
credit in their balance-sheets by an inadmissible
juggling of figures ; one branch even had to be
closed ; and other offices, for instance, the Port
Arthur and Harbin branches, made too much money
to suit the Government. At Newchwang the im-
pounding of Customs revenues allowed a juggling in
134 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
silver, which was vastly profitable, but this was only
a temporary profit. As time went on, the consider-
able internal friction I have spoken of became more
and more evident, and it seems useful to explain
the curious recruiting which takes place of the
Bank's personnel and the rivalry which must result
from such a system.
Two separate and distinct bodies are empowered
to appoint representatives and employes. The first
is, of course, the Ministry of Finance in St.
Petersburg. In all the Bank's important branches
this Ministry is represented by carefully selected
men who are in direct communication with the
Russian Government. The exact extent of their
powers it is, of course, impossible to gauge, but
there seems some reason to believe that they
practically control the Bank's general line of action
and policy at the posts at which they are stationed,
and rank above the purely business managers.
They do not interfere with the routine work of
banking, but the general funds are controlled by
them, and they keep a jealous eye over everybody.
It would also seem that in places that are looked
upon as already " captured," for instance, in
Manchuria and Mongolia (although this capture is
a mere myth), the St. Petersburg Ministry of
Finance takes over charge from the business
representatives and attempts to have only its own
nominees in such offices.
The second body which appoints the men to
carry on the ordinary banking work is the special
vil ON THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT 135
committee of shareholding banks sitting at Paris.
Continentals of all nationalities are selected by this
committee, having apparently due regard to two
things ignorance of banking methods and a parti-
ality to Hebrews. It is commonly reported that
numbers of clerks employed have quite ele-
mentary ideas on the subject of accounting, and
that books are kept in a manner which would be
deemed highly suspicious in a common-place English
bank. But in spite of all that has been done in
every department of the Bank's business, the French
aphorism is amply demonstrated, that, whilst genius
creates ideas, hard work alone brings them to a
successful conclusion. Genius there has been in
plenty from the very beginning of the Bank's short
history, but hard work, except by your Pokotilows
and von Grots, has been conspicuous by its absence.
And one of the unfortunate results of too much
genius is the almost certain absence of routine and
system the jumping straight from an idea to its
conclusion without a substantial structure being built
beneath to support it and the leaving to a few men
what should be understood by many dozens.
In Manchuria it would seem at first sight that a
portion of Uktomsky's idea in creating the Bank
has been realised that Manchuria is lost to the
world and gained for Russia. But probing beneath
the surface shows one at once that empire-
builders should employ capable architects to see that
foundations are not sunk in sand, and that although
what has been created by the Bank the Chinese
136 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CH. vn
Eastern Railway with its hundred solid stations, im-
pregnable Port Arthur, bustling Harbin is very
striking to the eye, there is something unnatural in
the whole thing, some curious setting aside of inex-
orable laws which must lead to trouble and an
eventual toppling over.
CHAPTER VIII
HARBIN THE RAILWAY CITY
ALL the world knows of the mushroom growth
of Harbin. Hardly six years ago, two railway
engineers, mounted on Siberian ponies, ambled
down to the solitary Chinese distillery on the
banks of the Sungarr and pitched their tents.
To the west of them the Hsincr-an Mountains offered
o
such formidable engineering difficulties that railway
construction and movement of materials were im-
possible without a base nearer than the far-away
Siberian frontier. To the East, with the exception
of a few rolling plains, it was the same story. So
the site near the broad Sungari was chosen from
whence to begin operations, for the Sungari flows
calmly into the Amur a few hundred miles away to
the north. Stern-wheelers could thus tug barges
laden with materials from the Siberian sea- board
right into the heart of Manchuria, and so lighten
the construction work enormously.
Unfortunately for the Russians the Sungari hap-
pened to be in flood at the time of the founding of
Harbin, and no less unfortunately the railway
138 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
engineers did not happen to notice it. Old Harbin
was therefore built with lavish expenditure, the rail-
way was pushed forward with ferocious rapidity, and it
was not until some time had passed that the engineers
discovered that the Sungari was a good many miles
away from their budding city. This at least was the
semi-official explanation which I was given on the
day of my arrival, accounting for the existence of
two distinct and separate towns, known as Old and
New Harbin respectively, in a place, as I have already
said, hardly six years old. Then there is a settle-
ment which I promptly labelled Rational Harbin, of
which I shall speak later on.
The station of Harbin presented the most astonish-
ing and bewildering activity the day we arrived.
Dense crowds jostled one another, and shouted and
cursed and laughed. Shantung and Chihli workmen
coming and going formed the vast majority of this
motley and odoriferous human concourse, but there
was no lack of other varieties. Mongolian horse-
dealers with long coats, rough top-boots, and queue-
less heads gazed dog-like at the puffing engines.
Yellow-clad lama priests rolled strings of beads in
their hands and muttered, possibly prayers, but most
probably curses, on the heads of the lusty Chinese
railway police, who, clad in semi- Chinese soldier
attire, wielded unmercifully heavy sticks on all who
did not keep moving. Buriat cavalrymen, with
high Mongol cheek-bones and a purely Chinese
aspect, swaggered about in their Russian uniforms.
Red-turbaned Sikhs from down-town stores and
vin HARBIN THE RAILWAY CITY 139
godowns chanted Hindustani at one another; and
Russian officers of every grade and size ran about
looking for their wives or belongings, saluting and
clicking their spurs endlessly at one another.
Inside the station rooms and restaurants it was
even worse. The crush was so great that at times
one became hopelessly tied up in men, women, and
children, and could not move for minutes. It was a
Thursday, and expresses had arrived from three
directions, south, east and west, and a number of
ordinary trains were about to start. Harbin was
trying hard to keep up its reputation of a railway
centre, and was succeeding admirably as far as I was
personally concerned.
I looked hard to see some of the true, genuine
Siberian emigrants, with whom the papers say
Manchuria is shortly to be peopled, but not an
emigrant was there anywhere. All were of the
middle or lower classes, city birds unmistakably,
such as they are here, and my friends who met me
at the station were mildly amused when I asked
to be enlightened. " They are all store-keepers,
workmen or mechanics," they explained ; " no
peasants come here." So, sans what I was looking
for, I was forced to stow my vile body amidst my
luggage in a more or less dangerous drosky.
Before I could speak we were galloping towards
Rational Harbin at break-neck speed. I asked not
a question, for I am somewhat tongue-tied in
Russian, and it is wisest not to speak when your
words are few. I was able to observe that the
140 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
horses were worse than the horses of Port Arthur,
that my trap was number 500 and something,
proving that droskies are more numerous here
than in the naval port, and finally, that my istvo-
schick was clad in cast-off civilian clothes, and not
elegant, as he is at vice-regal headquarters, in long
blue coat, red sash, and white cap.
To the right of the station, as you drove towards
the Sungari, the new town was rising or had risen.
Conspicuous amongst all the new buildings were
two as yet hardly completed one the railway
administration headquarters, and the other the new
railway hotel. Both are enormous masses of red-
brick and stone, and tower above the hosts of
smaller buildings stretching in every direction.
Everywhere building is going on ; every place
is crowded with Chinese workmen. Meanwhile we
were driving rapidly over roads that compare un-
favourably with those of Peking. What carriage
springs are made of by Russian and Siberian
builders, I would dearly love to know, for a drop
of a foot or two mto a rut while you are going at
some twelve miles an hour, which violently slams
the body of the drosky down on to the axle-bars,
is simply nothing, and merely leaves your istvo-
schick delighted and calling for more. Clouds of
black dust are raised by yourself and everything
that passes you, for the roads are simply broad
tracks of original Manchurian soil, uncorrupted by
metalling or doctoring of any sort.
Half a mile from the station you cross the
viii HARBIN THE RAILWAY CITY 141
railway over a rough wooden bridge a couple of
hundred feet along. Underneath runs the railway
track, or rather many railway tracks, through the
usual enormous open-cut. This insensate love for
open-cuts seems to be common to all Russian
engineers. They will never tunnel if they can
possibly help it, but always open-cut, even when
they are dealing with hills or mountains.
It must be some two or three miles from the
railway station (which, by the way, is a purely
temporary structure) to riverine or Rational Harbin.
After you have passed the railway bridge you cross
a desolate waste, mostly decorated with empty tin
cans and inartistic rubbish. Then you come to the
streets, such as they are. First, very dirty small
houses and shops which had two-foot broad wooden
pavements covering up a prehistoric system of
surface drainage. Then better streets with bigger
houses, cleaner people and less Chinese. Finally, you
reach the most civilised part, with good shops, much
building going on, and the Sungari a few hundred
yards off.
This, however, is not a portion of New Harbin,
although it is only half- built. It is a purely unautho-
rised version of the town, for the Government has
decreed just where New Harbin shall be, and
nowhere else. However, commercial and other
interests are more powerful than any government,
and the man who has any sense will continue to buy
land near the river, where, as in China, will always
be the scene of activity.
142 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
The name of my hotel (save the mark !) I will not
divulge, for my hosts were passing good people, and
I am about to damn their beds and rooms more
unutterably than anything has ever been damned
before. That bed I slept on, what tender memories
it left, both mentally and corporally ! It had the
outward aspect of the latter-day mattress, but the
inward and actual virtues of the stone-age couch.
It was harmless to the eye, but not so to the touch.
Innocently snuffing my candle too soon at night, I
stretched out my hand and struck the bed. Result,
one broken finger nail and many severely wounded.
So do not trifle lightly with the Harbin mattress ; it
is capable not only of assuming a defensive attitude,
but one of absolute offence. It will be a potent
factor in the coming Japanese war if it comes.
Others have often described the horrors of Russian
beds, but those in Manchuria have to be seen to be
believed. There is, I feel certain, nothing like
them in the whole world. And then the rooms !
One jerry-built box, twelve feet by ten ; very soiled
furniture, an unspeakable strip of carpet, a tin basin,
one chair, and an atmosphere resulting from the
windows remaining shut ever since the house was
built. Also, mentally add a stream of unclean per-
sons who have peopled that room incessantly with-
out its having been swept for four years ! After this
you will do well not to stop in Harbin until the rail-
way hotel is built.
The midday dinner ended, I chatted with mine
host. He was communicative and gloomy. Dull
vni HARBIN THE RAILWAY CITY 143
times and many bad debts were, he alleged, his
present portion in life. In the old days in Harbin
this means two or three years ago the profits
were great and rapid, but now everyone was hard
up and money very tight. Government officials
were getting timorous about their accounts ; people
were building their own houses ; and altogether he
was indignant with kind Providence. " The Chi-
nese," he said, " have got all the money. We have
been spending millions, hundreds of millions, and
what have we got for it in return ? " What, indeed ?
But it is at least a hopeful sign when people, and
Russian people at that, start asking such a pregnant
question at such a time as this.
Presently I drove out to see the flour-mills. The
greatest of these is the Sungari mill, which has
a capacity of 2,500 poods a day, or say roughly,
100,000 pounds of flour turned out every twenty-
four hours. There are four mills working at the
present moment, and they work without stopping
from one end of the month to the other. Nearly all
of them are practically on the river banks, and are
fitted with the latest American or European machi-
nery. Several others are going up, and by 1904
Harbin will be turning out nearly a million pounds
of flour a day. What interested me most was the
little pioneer mill of the place now closed down,
weary from nearly five years' incessant work. This
mill was put up in fear and trembling by cautious
and not over-rich speculators soon after the first
sods of the railway had been cut. It cost but
144 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
12,000 roubles, or .1,200. It was worked night
and day until it could work no more, and it had
such a dazzling success that from its profits many
acres of priceless riverine land have been bought
and paid for, a new mill with a capacity of half a
million bags yearly erected, warehouses, staff
buildings and quarters built, and finally several
hundred per cent, in dividends distributed.
Of course, after this a host of imitators have
sprung up, but these must be content with sound
business profits and nothing else. Manchurian grain
five years ago cost twenty-five kopecks a pood,
to-day it costs sixty-five, a rise of over 150 per
cent., and it is still rising. At any rate, I can
vouch for the purity of Harbin flour. The miller
makes four grades, two for exacting Europeans
and two for less discerning Chinese. I ate my
dinner at the back of a mill, and I can almost
truthfully say I dined off bread. What bread !
It is so sweet and pure and light that you
can eat on for ever, blessing the generous soil
which can grow such crops. If the railway would
only learn sense and forget that it is a strategic
line, all the Far East might eat of this finest of
flour, and suffer less from dyspepsia. An American
in Harbin assured me that the Harbin mills were
producing stuff superior to American winter wheat
flour and he added that he held no Manchurian
mill shares. He was, for the time being, "travel-
ling in champagne " the best of all things to travel
in along the railway empire.
THE SUNGAKI AND HAKKIN IN WINTER.
()N THE SUNCARI.
vin HARBIN THE RAILWAY CITY 145
As I was so close to the river-bank, I proceeded
to explore the Sungari in a mild sense. When I
said that the mill properties abut on the river, I
was guilty of an inaccuracy. I perceived that there
was a narrow strip running all along the Harbin
bank reserved for the railway. A huge earthen
embankment had been raised here which serves
a double purpose that of penning in the river
during flood time, and of providing track-room for
a double line of rails.
From the top of this rampart the view was
splendid. To the north, distant half a mile or so,
the great Sungari railway bridge rears itself com-
mandingly above the level of the surrounding
country, a monument to the good work the Russian
can do when he for once forgets the paper rouble.
Massive piers of granite masonry, looking snow
white against the muddy waters of the river, sup-
port span after span of huge iron girders painted
a clean chasseur grey, and a train rumbling over
this engineering triumph with a distant screech
looked by comparison like some puny worm
wriggling rapidly away, ashamed of its diminutive
size.
On the river itself crowds of shallow-draft stern -
wheelers, flying the railway or the Russian flag,
lay moored side by side with still more numerous
junks. The junks were choked with grain or firewood,
and the steamers with cargoes of sawn timber and
Russian stores. Crowds of coolies ran down the
embankment and returned groaning and panting,
L
146 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
laden with staggering weights. Below the embank-
ment, on the town side, mountain upon mountain of
firewood and lumber was being stacked, for winter
was approaching rapidly, and in three weeks the
river would be frozen to a depth of several feet, and
all water communication interrupted for nearly half
a year. In the flour-mill yards, carts could be seen
discharging cargo after cargo of Manchurian grain,
two or three tons at a time, and galloping off for
more. Scores of men and boys were breaking open
the hempen bags as fast as they could and pouring
the contents into those enormous mat-made recep-
tacles built up gradually from the bottom, such as
the Chinese store grain in all over China. The
mills are greedy monsters, and such is the local
demand for flour that buyers literally fight with one
another at the very gates, contesting for the privi-
lege of purchasing with all the vigour of American
wheat pit operators. From the embankment
Harbin stretches out before you like some lumber-
ing, careless monster in patch-work clothes, and
you wonder what would happen to the world were
the men who bred this giant to acquire the capacity
for orderly organisation which is now so conspicuous
by its absence.
Turning to have one last look at the river, I
counted the steamers ; twenty-seven were lying
moored to the banks and ever so many more were
puffing up and down stream. The junks were an
impossible task, so I returned to my carriage. We
whipped on towards old Harbin and once more I
vin HARBIN THE RAILWAY CITY 147
marvelled at the springs. Tell, oh, tell, the secret
of the steel process which gives birth to such
toughness !
Soon we left the streets of Rational Harbin,
where grammaphones and diamond necklaces are sold
next door to pauper volka-booths, and passing
through unfinished miles of the new town, we
reached the open plains.
Away in the distance I descried the abandoned
city. An hour's jolting and we were there. It was
not an inspiriting sight, for the similarity between
dead men and dead houses is too marked for it to
be pleasant. Old Harbin is, however, not quite
dead, for there are apparently still a few luckless
inhabitants left, but in a year or two it will
have rotted away and will be known no more.
As I returned, we passed a regiment of Siberian
infantry-men marching steadily with their long,
slow stride and singing lustily some song of
their plains, company after company taking up
the refrain and chanting it back with admirable
voice and rhythm. No man in the world can sing
like the Russian soldier, and his choruses have a
curious sad note in them all, even when they are of
victory and the confounding of all the enemies of
the Czar ; a sadness which makes everyone pause
for a moment and think old memories and of days
gone by. Even the Chinaman stops his foolish talk
when he hears the singing, and looks with big open
eyes. Has it perhaps struck some chord, the exist-
ence of which he has never suspected ? or is he
L 2
148 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
merely calculating how much rice it takes to make
men sing so lustily ?
So I returned to Harbin, thoughtful and a little
sad. Who is to conquer in the climax of national
anger, hatred, and greed, which must come some
day and tear this fair country ? Harbin is in the
very centre of Manchuria, and, being the key of
many hundred versts of railway, and the brain
which orders the coming and going of every truck
and waggon, it, even more than Port Arthur, is a
place which will be reached for at all costs by the
enemy. Its downfall would be the Sedan of
Russian Far Eastern dreams, and even the Russian
officer allows that the open plains which surround it
can never be adequately fortified.
To-day it has a Russian civilian population of
nearly thirty thousand, inhabiting a vast scattered
mass of houses rather than any organic city. In
five years' time, over two hundred and fifty thousand
Chinese have congregated here, and although many
are migratory birds who go south to Shantung with
the cold weather, they were all there for the
summer census, and must be taken into account.
Harbin has flour-mills, and saw-mills, and brick
kilns. It is Russia's distributing centre for her
troops, her provisions, her ambitions, and her
canards. Inside of Harbin you feel that Russia has
captured Manchuria ; once outside you know that
this is but an idle dream. Twenty millions of
Chinese surround it on all sides. Twenty millions
vin HARBIN THE RAILWAY CITY 149
are waiting with Oriental indifference, and are
meanwhile garnering in all Russia's gold.
This is Harbin of to-day, Harbin while there is
still peace in the land. Let war be but declared,
and all will be changed. Your Chinese will
disappear, conjured away as if by magic ; Russian
men, women, and children will float down the
Sungari once more on giant rafts and lighters as
they did in 1900, fleeing the Boxer wrath. Harbin
will be deserted, its houses abandoned just as they
stand. Harbin knows this, and thinks this anxiously
and daily in its secret heart. Russian Manchuria is
something of a myth made possible by gigantic
bluff. It is a remnant of 1900 and China under
foreign occupation. Even if there is no force used,
Chinese ingenuity alone may push the Russian back
to the Amur.
CHAPTER IX
MINING AND LUMBERING IN MANCHURIA
STARTLING stories have from time to time found
their way into print describing the results which
Russian enterprise has already succeeded in accom-
plishing in mining and lumbering in Manchuria,
stories sometimes even supported by so-called circum-
stantial evidence ; but in spite of all this, careful
investigation reveals a very different state of affairs.
Briefly, very little of value has been actually done
by any Russian company in Manchuria, and for the
major part things are as nebulous and as vague
as everything else about which I have written, or
am about to write. An exception must be made in
the case of gold-mining in the Kuantung territory,
to which I shall refer in due course ; and so
delighted are the Russians with the feeble results
accomplished in the leased territory, that they
already speak of the advisability of establishing a
Mining Board to control this great industry.
Before the Russians came to Manchuria, the
Chinese Government was itself the biggest mining
corporation in the Three Eastern Provinces. The
CH. ix MINING AND LUMBERING IN MANCHURIA 151
plan on which the Peking Government worked was
as follows. A territorial or other official would
report that a certain district was reputed rich in
mineral deposits. On his petition being handed in,
the Governor of the province sent it on under a
covering despatch to Peking, praying for Imperial
sanction to ts ou ku, or invite share subscription
from the trading classes, so that exploitation might
take place. Immediately an Imperial rescript was
received, sanctioning the undertaking ; by a system
of active canvassing, shares were taken up by
wealthy merchants, and capital, which might range
anywhere from ,10,000 to "100,000, was collected.
The company organised on this basis was one of
those curious concerns which had no counterpart in
Europe until the creation of the Russo-Chinese
Bank. Although the capital subscribed was private
money, the management was distinctly official, and
specially detached officers were employed, protected
by strong guards of soldiers, to carry on the actual
working of mines opened. Each year a regular
sum was set aside for the interest account, and the
balance, after the soldiers had been paid and the
numberless local officials' demands satisfied, was
handed over to the Central Government. From
the fact that the interest usually paid remained the
same, no matter what the mine profits might be, it
appears correct to describe the certificates issued to
the subscribing gentry, in exchange for capital
supplied, as bonds rather than share-warrants.
The most important gold-mine in Manchuria is
152 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
the Moho mine, on the upper Amur. This mine is
situated in the same regions as those once exploited
by the so-called Republic of Sholtoga, and is not
far from Albazin. The last time the " republic "
was wiped out was in 1889, and the reason was not
so much Chinese official indignation at this invasion
of Chinese territory, as the fact that the Moho
mines could not be satisfactorily worked with a
community of freebooters in their vicinity. The
Sholtoga Brotherhood paid very high wages to the
Chinese workmen whom they so badly needed to
help in their mining work, and protected them by
a regular system of fortifications. Consequently,
the Moho mine management had great difficulties
in retaining the labourers they recruited in Southern
Manchuria ; and Li Hung Chang, who was as-
sociated with the Moho mines, and actually over-
saw their working for a time, determined to exter-
minate the unauthorised promoters of rival enter-
prises ; and a little effort on his part succeeded in
accomplishing that result.
The actual amount of gold annually extracted at
Moho is quite impossible to ascertain ; but, until quite
recently, there were several thousand workmen em-
ployed there, guarded by a thousand infantry and
cavalry, all of which points to a very large produc-
tion. Chinese shareholders or bondholders have
told me that since 1900 there have been no divi-
dends, and that it was believed that, previous to
that date, the average annual output was valued at
two million taels, or a quarter of a million sterling.
ix MINING AND LUMBERING IN MANCHURIA 153
North of Tsitsihar, along the valleys of the upper
Nonni, there were also a number of semi-official
mining camps, and in Kirin province, near Sansing,
two more semi-official mines. The deposits worked
were all dry alluvial, and the methods employed
very primitive. In Fengtien there were likewise a
number of semi-official ventures in the districts of
T'ung-hua and Huai-jen, near the Yalu, but these
were abandoned some years ago, and the rights
acquired by a British firm at Newchwang. Again,
north of Moukden, there were at various times
many thousands of men employed in gold-washing
on a ticket system, and previous to the Japanese
war there was also a good deal of digging in the
Kuantung territory. But, apart from all these semi-
official enterprises started in the manner I have de-
scribed, there have always been numbers of private
mines in Manchuria ; and these, again, have been
exceeded by the many groups of illicit gold-washing
communities to be found in many of the gold-bear-
ing valleys. The export of gold through the New-
chwang Customs has sometimes reached several
million taels in a single year, and the precious metal
which finds its way out of the country in this man-
ner only represents a very small part of the actual
amount won. China is reputed to produce two
millions sterling a year of gold, and practically
all comes from Manchuria. Since 1900, how-
ever, most of the official gold mining has stopped,
but the extracting of iron ores near Tiehling
has continued uninterrupted, and recommence-
154 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
ment on the Government gold mines is daily
expected.
The Russians, when they entered the country in
force in 1900, were fully aware of the mineral wealth
of Manchuria ; in fact, they were so much aware of
it that they grossly exaggerated all reports received
from prospecting parties, and painted the country in
their letters to their friends and relatives as a verit-
able Golconda, where all might become rich with
but little work.
The first result of this was the influx of numbers
of Siberians from the Russian Government mines on
the other side of the Amur men who expected to
pick up nuggets in every river-bed. Parties ex-
plored some of the country adjoining the Amur
and a portion of Kirin province, but although
they brought in many samples of gold-bearing rock
with beads of free gold to show the sceptical, not
one of them became rich, or could even survive a
few months' expenses.
The next people to take up the search, when the
first were exhausted, were richer individuals, who
sought to locate deposits, and then obtain Chinese
official sanction in the shape of permits, granting
sole mining rights over extensive areas before sink-
ing any capital or beginning work. The best known
" concession " of this class has been derisively nick-
named the "Grand Dukes' Concession," and covers
about twenty thousand square miles of Kirin pro-
vince, and is held in the name of the two Grand
Dukes who are interested financially in the Chinese
ix MINING AND LUMBERING IN MANCHURIA 155
Eastern Railway. It is an undoubted fact that the
Kirin military Governor granted a provisional per-
mit a couple of years ago, allowing prospecting to
be undertaken within this area ; but he did so with
the full knowledge that his permit was useless with-
out the Imperial seal. In spite of this, however,
the Grand Ducal agents have not made much use of
their opportunities, and nothing has been done
except perhaps a little timber-felling. The Rus-
sians in Manchuria allege that a mining concession
also confers the right to fell timber, and so timber
is felled to a moderate extent. But although
timber-felling should be controlled in Manchuria
by the Chinese territorial officials, as a matter of
fact, any one who undertakes it on a small scale, and
pays the recognised squeeze, is allowed to do so
without interference, for the eastern forests of Man-
churia have enough wood to last for centuries, and
the Russian action is therefore without significance.
Apart from this one concession, there appears to
be no one else in Manchuria who has even nominal
gold-mining rights. I am told that notwithstanding
this, some small works have been started near San-
sing, but they are quite without importance. In the
extreme north, owing to the abnormal winter, a
considerable outlay is necessary before any results
can be obtained, and there are no Russians who are
foolish enough to do this until the political horizon
is vastly different.
In the Kuantung territory a little progress has
been made, and there are actually two gold mines
156 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
where crushing has commenced. These are the
" Austra " mine, which has a twenty stamp mill
with ores running two ounces to the ton, and the
" Marco Polo " near Port Arthur. In neither case,
however, is sufficient capital available to allow of
proper development, and the results so far obtained
are very poor.
Turning from gold to coal, it is much the same
story. Along the thirty verst railway strip within
which coal mining is permissible, there are extensive
coal basins in Southern Manchuria. The Yentai
coal mines, north of Liaoyang, should by this time
be raising quantities of coal, but bad management
is responsible for a complete failure. These mines
were worked by Chinese previous to the coming of
the Russians, and have been acquired by purchase
by the Chinese Eastern Railway. They lie in the
centre of an enormous coal-basin, probably covering-
several thousand square miles of country, and suffi-
cient to supply the country with fuel for centuries.
North of Moukden there is another coal mine in
the Fushun district, and in Southern Liaotung, a third
one at Wa-fang-tien. All these mines should be
raising quantities of coal, for they were opened up
years ago by Chinese, and a great deal of tunnelling
done. As a matter of fact, the coal raised is insuffi-
cient to supply even the southern section of the Central
Manchurian Railway. The Yentai output some-
times reaches the fine total of 100 tons a day ; Wa-
fang-tien fifty tons, and Fushun practically nothing.
Apart from these three mines, other seams have
ix MINING AND LUMBERING IN MANCHURIA 157
been worked in an aimless and shiftless fashion by
the same owners, the Chinese Eastern Railway, and
then abandoned for want of competent people to
direct the opening-up. The Russians seem in-
capable of coping with such difficulties as water and
subterranean fires, and hopelessly give things up as
impossible immediately they encounter anything but
the very plainest sailing.
The two Kuantung gold mines and the three
Fengtien coal mines are therefore the only mines
which are being even nominally exploited in the
whole of Manchuria, for the Sansing venture is too
insignificant to be seriously spoken of. The Russo-
Chinese Bank has had such bitter experiences in
Mongolia that it is unwilling to finance even semi-
Government ventures in Manchuria except under
direct orders from headquarters ; and apart from the
Russo-Chinese Bank, a few foreign commercial
houses in Port Arthur, and the Harbin mill-owners,
there is no one with any capital worth talking about
along the railway empire.
It is interesting at this point to remember that
Mr. Alexander Ular has supplied a leading London
review with details concerning the conquest of
Mongolia by gold-mining concessions obtained
through the agency of Mr. Victor von Grot and
the Russo-Chinese Bank. There happen to be in
Port Arthur and Harbin several men who were em-
ployed on these Mongolian concessions, and in spite
of Mr. Ular's rose-coloured accounts, they all con-
fess that they had to evacuate the country and crawl
158 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
into Manchuria in a starving condition, without
having unearthed the riches reported to be lying
at their feet. The bank lost three million roubles
in the venture. Mr. Victor von Grot was ruined,
and the politico-financial institution has therefore
had a bellyful of mining experiences which should
last it for many a long day. Glowing stories
of the Ular character should be received with
caution in London, where the actual conditions
in Mongolia and Manchuria are not completely
understood.
As the bank will not be tempted to invest further
in this field, the foreign commercial houses and the
Harbin millers have been approached, hat in hand,
and a few thousands obtained, which have been sunk
in the preliminary development work. Nobody is
very sanguine, however, nor is any real success ex-
pected so long as the present uncertain conditions
prevail. The Grand Duke's agents have tried to
enlist capital in European Russia, but none is forth-
coming. Well-informed men say that so many
fortunes have been lost in Urals during recent years
that Russian capitalists understand the word " wild-
cat " as well as the sharpest operators in the Jungle
Markets.
Turning to lumbering, it is much the same story,
although a certain amount of timber has been
actually felled and carted away. The big company
is, of course, the Yalu Lumber Co., which is just as
much a Manchurian as a Korean venture. The com-
pany has an imposing head office on the Port Arthur
ix MINING AND LUMBERING IN MANCHURIA 159
bund, so it is permissible to treat it under the present
heading. The company's chief agent is Baron
Gunsberg, so well known to everyone in the Far
East ; and he and Monsieur Pavlow are engaged
in unremitting wire-pulling to get things put on a
more solid footing on the Korean side of the Yalu.
Everyone is fond of saying that it is merely a
political undertaking, that the company never ex-
pected to make any money, and that figures should
not be quoted. This is, however, incorrect, for the
Russian Government is highly anxious to acquire
the entire Yalu lumber income, now in the hands of
the native dealers, which is said to amount to about
a million sterling per annum.
The Yalu Company, although it is, according to
Russian accounts, so purely political, is already in
difficulties, for it is reported that there is a trifle of
four million roubles to the Company's debit, and
that there are directorial troubles over the ques-
tion of the divisions of spoils which threaten to
upset the whole concern. Not being able to hit
upon a working plan which produced a reasonable
amount of lumber, let alone income, and with the
Port Arthur head-office clamouring to know where
all the millions had gone, the Yalu agents had a
brilliant thought. They decreed that all Chinese
rafts floated down the Yalu should be brought to
them, so that they might be taken over at a fixed
valuation. This has worked after a fashion, and
several million feet of wood have been successfully
corralled during the past half-year. A great part of
i6o MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
this is now lying on the Port Arthur foreshore. A
big saw-mill is also said to be in process of erection ;
but this should not needlessly alarm Far Eastern
dealers.
It is likewise interesting to learn that the Yalu
Company is also engaged in mining that is to say,
it has a mining engineer an Italian in its employ ;
and that constitutes mining in Manchuria according to
the Russian ideas. Mines, according to this Italian
gentleman, are not a very rising market in the Yalu
valleys. One evening, after his arrival from the
Korean frontier, he became very entertaining in his
description of Russian ideas concerning the earth's
hidden wealth. "They are so funny," he said, with
his fervid Italian accent and his broken English.
" They ask me where is gold ; I said I do not know.
Then they become very angry, and do what English-
man call ' Goddam.' I answer we must look pros-
pect ; they say no ; they have said there is gold, I
am engineer, I must work it ; if not, I must go
home ; so I go home. Ah, they are very funny, the
Russians ! "
So even the most optimistic man cannot really
say that much progress has been made in either
industry in Manchuria, and the whole thing is
but another dream a very extravagant and ex-
pensive dream.
But some day, when the Russian is beaten out of
Manchuria, vast fortunes are going to be made in
Manchurian gold ; so, oh, London Stock Exchange !
ix MINING AND LUMBERING IN MANCHURIA 161
when the South African markets have become pos-
sible again, and the crisis in the far East is ended,
remember this corner of the world, and be quick to
act. There are plenty of Englishmen who can give
you the necessary information, and are praying that
Manchuria will not be forgotten.
CHAPTER X
HARBIN BY NIGHT
THE sun had scarcely set in the far-away West,
more distant here to the eye on account of the vast
plains which surround the city, before the tempera-
ture dropped with a suddenness that made one
shiver. The day had been warm, almost too warm,
in the sun, and even summer clothes did not strike
one as being incongruous, although in three weeks
there would be ice on the Sungari. Once King
Sol had disappeared, however, the thermometer
shot down remorselessly twenty-five .degrees, and as
the night wore on it got colder and colder, until
freezing point could not be very far off in the small
hours of the morning.
Your early supper finished, you do not go wisely
to bed in Harbin (as doubtless you ought to), for
the real life of the place, such as it is, only begins
with the lighting of the lamps, and the aphorism
concerning Rome applies with special force to
Harbin, since the beds are too miserable to be invit-
ing. The stranger in Port Arthur is apt to be sur-
prised at the rate of going which he finds in the
CH. x HARBIN BY NIGHT 163
fortress city ; but if he has friends there they will
tell him, with meaning looks, " Ah ! but you should
see Harbin." Since I was now in that delectable
place, I was determined to earn merit by beginning
at the beginning and finishing at the bitter end, cost
what it might. Nine o'clock found me, therefore,
with others, at the theatre, for Harbin boasts of a
theatre, where not only are comedies and tragedies
performed, but also divine operas. To-night, how-
ever, they were burning incense at the shrine of
Thalia, goddess of comedy, and so I looked forward
to some hours of sleep. It is difficult to laugh
when you do not understand, and the thick air of a
Russian interior always induces slumber, if not
asphyxiation.
At the door we met with a serious difficulty ; the
ticket-office man was overwhelmed, bitterly put out,
he assured us, but there were no more seats, and he
could do nothing for us. It is curious how often
this happens in Russian Manchuria, how often cruel
fate condemns you to disappointment unless your
pocket-book happens to be there. The leader of
our party sighed bitterly and deeply, opened with
no undue haste the private door leading into the
box-office, and disappeared for a brief space.
Whilst I was still looking on wonderingly, and
meditating deeply on the curiousness of things,
he reappeared holding a stage-box coupon in his
hand. Yes, he said, we had been singularly lucky ;
one box, almost the best box, too, in the theatre,
had been overlooked ; the ticket-clerk was sure,
M 2
164 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
quite sure, that it had been reserved that he
would get into trouble through reselling it to us ;
but that for the time being we might occupy it,
provided we left after the play was finished, and
did not cart it away with us. This much I gathered,
but it is best not to investigate too closely when the
golden key has accomplished its task.
Meanwhile, we made our way into the gardens,
for the theatre is but one of the manifold attractions
in this Harbin establishment, and outside, amongst
dusty trees and glaring lamps, you have broad
promenades, cafes, juggler shows and other things.
The Russian must be amused or he will die of
ennui, and so he amuses himself as best he can
even in the centre of Manchuria. Polite Harbin
was all there, either seated at little tables, with
overcoats on and looking mighty cold, or circling
round and round the walks waiting for a bell to
ring or something to begin. The distinguishing
characteristic of a Harbin crowd, as opposed to
a Port Arthur crowd, is that it is almost entirely
civilian, with but few bright uniforms to enliven
it. A Caucasian, clothed in his handsome, mauve-
brown national costume, and with tall Astrakhan
cap, arrogated to himself the entire attention of
my unworthy eyes. I mistook him for at least
a general of wild irregular cavalry, and was bitterly
disappointed when I was assured that he was a
most commonplace Harbin merchant, interested in
carpets. Fancy a carpet merchant with the air of
a conqueror and the clothes of a Genghis Khan !
x HARBIN BY NIGHT 165
Presently a bell rang to inform us that the local
Coquelins and Tooles were ready to amuse us. I
was more than glad, for the pleasures of drinking
Roederer, extra-sweet and treble-sugared, in the
open air with an overcoat on, were beginning
to pall on me. Drink we had to, however, for
money earned during the day must be spent at
night in Russian Manchuria, or else you will fall
under suspicion.
Harbin's playhouse is an evil reproduction of the
one you will find in Saigon, if fortune wills that you
should ever turn to French Indo-China. It is not
unlike an oblong box, and apart from the seating on
the floor, there is only accommodation in a broad
gallery which runs round the whole auditorium some
fifteen feet above one's head. The boxes are like
little cattle pens, and are only separated from one
another by partitions three feet high, consisting
merely of rough wood unadorned in any way.
It will be seen that things are somewhat primi-
tive. You likewise keep your hat and coat on
in your Harbin theatre, and if you feel so in-
clined, although it is strictly prohibited, you puff
at a cigarette behind your hand. The boxes are
always select, very select in fact, and du cott des
dames are very high-priced. The front rows of
the stalls were filled with gilded youth of the
place, smartened up and attempting to appear most
reckless dogs ; for to enchant the ladies and win
their smiles in Harbin, you must be devil-me-care
above your fellows. Behind them sat a class of
166 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
more humble persons, la petite bourgeoisie of Harbin,
which in day-time concerns itself with minor trade,
and in the evening is too worn to look anything but
tired. In the gallery were booted gods, smelling
most persistently of leather, and accompanied by
their women-kind, who, gay with coloured handker-
chiefs tied over their heads, chatted incessantly.
The audience was good-humoured to a degree, and
intensely enthusiastic, for your Russian has generally
the best heart in the world, and is only eccentric be-
cause he is the creature of a Government which is
intent on arresting his civilisation and natural de-
velopment. The play was not very interesting to
me, and was punctuated by huge intervals, during
which one sat outside and gazed at open-air jugglers,
or listened to a military band. On the promenades
there was always the same crowd slowly circling
round and round, and raising pillars of dust. Soon
after eleven the play was over, and the curtain fell
on actors and actresses clothed in last century
fashions. Straight-fronted corsets and bell-shaped
skirts have not progressed as far as Harbin yet.
The clothing is still of the fashion of the early
nineties, and half-forgotten photographs come back
to one.
The hour when the real business of the night com-
mences was now fast approaching, for all the cafes-
chantants and tingle-tangle shows only open their
doors shortly before twelve o'clock, and the theatre
plays merely because you have to do something be-
tween nine and midnight, for you can get in all the
X HARBIN BY NIGHT 167
bed-time you want in the morning. We slipped
into a drosky at the theatre gates for it is not
good to wander about Harbin at night on foot.
Only a few nights before, fearful screams had been
heard in the very centre of one of the main streets,
and when morning came it found two dead men
lying stark and naked with skulls beaten in. I my-
self had seen in the afternoon a ruffianly giant seated
on a big cart and chained hand and foot, who was
being sent back to Saghalien for life, under an armed
escort of six men. He was wanted for half-a-dozen
murders, and had been captured that morning in
Harbin after the most desperate struggle ; and the
young soldiers who guarded him were looking at
him with frightened eyes. Harbin is full of criminals
and men that are badly wanted, but the Government
is too intent on other business to pay any attention to
them. When you have seen one of Russia's criminals,
you realise that she is not treating them too harshly
by condemning them to life-sentences in Saghalien.
We were glad when we drew up safely at the
doors of the " Golden Anchorite " and heard the
scraping of violins. At least there would be some
satisfaction in an artistic death. Your Harbin cafe-
chantant is a strict reproduction of the singing cafes
of other countries a small stage, small tables, and
the usual allowance of women, and high-priced
drinks de rigueur. But in the matter of drinks they
have got things down to a finer point in Harbin.
If you are a true man you drink either coffee or
champagne and nothing else. Should you be poor,
168 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
you emphasise the fact by ordering coffee, and you
need say no more you are classified in your
proper category, and given up as hopeless. Are
you rich, then you order champagne, and are
immediately courted by all. Roederer, extra-sweet,
is the measure of a restaurant-keeper's profits. In
the morning he calculates his gains by a brief,
pregnant query of " How many cases yesterday ? "
He multiplies the number given by fifty roubles,
and he knows approximately at once what he has
gained, for his profits are five pounds a case.
Everything else is regarded as unprofitable, and
your waiter will not tell you what coffee costs. It is
a sweet and primitive system, and fills the average
man with envy.
Presently the orchestra struck up a gay air, as an
invitation to remember where you were. The
musicians were clad in yellow flannel trimmed with
fantastic designs in red braid, and had blue noses, as
a silent protest against the folly of their attire.
They imagined they looked like Neapolitan boat-
men, and I suppose they were satisfied. After
their introduction came a women's chorus, given by
the entire strength of the troupe. If there is one
thing Russians can do well it is singing, and even
in this little one-horse show one heard voices of
surprising power and clearness, which were well
worth the champagne.
Meanwhile the little tables were being rapidly
filled up by ladies and gentlemen of various kinds,
whose taste in clothes was divine. The most
x HARBIN BY NIGHT 169
impossible combinations of colours were to be seen,
and Paris and London would have moaned could
they have but witnessed the sights.
Presently the masculine habitues of the place
began to appear. These gentlemen have a mode
of life so original that it is worth recounting. They
go to bed at eight in the evening, get up at mid-
night, put on some scent, and proceed to supper
at their favourite resort, staying there till the
closing hour, which is about four or five in the
morning. Thus Harbin's special requirements are
met, and eight hours' sleep obtained in addition,
an eminently satisfactory result. I protested with
one man against the absurdity of the system, but
he quoted back Rome and Romans at me, and said
that life in Harbin was so little worth living any-
way that debauch was preferable to dulness. Our
genial cafe was in the meantime going stronger
and stronger, and as the night advanced and the
number of dead bottles increased, the pace became
more and more rapid. Passions find primitive
expression in Harbin, for only a week before an
officer had drawn his sword and attempted to
slaughter a girl who was engaged in the pleasant
task of transferring her affections to another pocket-
book. Suicides also punctuate time and relieve
monotony. Women drink poisons because other
women have charms more potent than theirs, and
fall gasping at their lovers' feet with imprecations
of Italian fervour. "We have had two suicides
this week," whispered a man to me; "who is to
i;o MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
be the third?" "Not yourself, I hope," I an-
swered. "No," he said, grimly, "I have got
beyond that." Life is certainly rapid in Harbin,
and somewhat chequered. Long before the final
galop began, a mysterious person came up to us
and whispered that there was some fun to be had
not a verst away a gambling saloon where the
limit was the roof of the house. We promptly
assented, and walked out. Our guide stepped
briskly off the wooden pavement, and took the
middle of the street. The hint was significant, and
we duly followed, keeping close together and not
stopping to look at the moon, which was flooding
the streets with a silver light. Our way lay
through some of the better streets of the town,
but still there were sounds of revelry everywhere.
Occasionally we passed drunken wretches lurching
along full of vodka, and cursing deeply as they fell
over ruts and stones. The doors of cheap drinking-
shops, where you can get crazy drunk for a few
kopecks, leered at us every few yards, and made
us feel sorry night birds. At last we reached our
destination. At the back of a vast, barn-like house
was a big room, choking with smoke and full of
people. In the centre was a roulette wheel, sur-
rounded by stacks of paper roubles and a ring of
vile faces. No one spoke when we came in, for
all were too interested or too far gone. We staked
a little, and were careful not to talk of going until
we had lost. It was too low and senseless for any
man, in spite of champagne fumes and the remote
HARBIN BY NIGHT 171
possibility of winning. Soon we had enough of it
gave our guide a ten rouble note and abruptly
left, some cheerful and the others gloomy.
For my part, I understood the meaning of all
this so-called gaiety. The Russian house in Man-
churia is even less of a home for any one than it
is in Russia itself. The Russian builds himself a
house in his Far East, but does not occupy it
properly. He camps in it with some rattletrap
bedding, heats up his stoves, and when he is not
sleeping, takes care to remain outside. Can you
wonder that he comforts himself with wine, one-day
wives, and song ? Can you wonder that things are
so bad? He must learn a great deal before he can
be taken seriously as a permanency beyond his
natural boundaries. He must be taught in the
school-room of bitter experience. Looking at these
things, I cannot believe in the Russian's permanence
in Manchuria. . . . However, I have got a long
way from my night in Harbin, and I do not think
that I am exactly sorry.
CHAPTER XI
THE HINDOO WATCHDOG A WORD TO INDIA.
IN all the important towns you will find them long-
Sikhs and short Sikhs, thin men and fat men, men
with bristling beards and men with proudly-curled
mustachios ; and finally boy-men on whom the face-
hair is but beginning to sprout. Sometimes they
are clad in cast-off clothing of English make, above
which mountainous turbans of pink or yellow but
more often red tower, and fittingly becapping elo-
quent heads. More often they have forsaken such
tangible signs of the Englishman's faint sovereignty
over Indian souls in exile, and appear bravely
attired in long Russian boots, baggy trousers, coats
embroidered with mock astrakhan, and tall fur caps
in a word, veritable Siberiaks, duly assimilated.
And in Port Arthur there is even one man he is of
the short variety with the bristling beard who on
warm summer nights may be seen watching his
warehouse in the bright yellow and scarlet of a
native regiment, the fleeting souvenir of his former
service to the English raj. What an irony of fate
a former soldier of the King-Emperor guarding the
CH. xi THE HINDOO WATCHDOG- A WORD TO INDIA 173
goods of the traditional enemy on a spot acquired
mainly owing to England's weakness !
How they all got there, nobody exactly knows.
Even so far north as Manchuria lies, the native of
India is at home, for is it not true that wherever the
Chinaman is, it is still the inscrutable and immutable
East, where all Easterners may congregate, fraternise,
and be content? It probably began, however, on a
big scale when the Russians poured into Manchuria
in 1900, and commerce, as it is understood by people
who are simply army-sutlers in gross, accumulated
great stores of edibles, drinkables, clothables, and
many other things which require diligent watching.
The lower-grade Russian, the man who may be
hired for three pounds a month even in the expen-
sive dream- Empire, was obviously untrustworthy.
Having heard that a state of war had existed between
him and all Far Easterners for a space, he was
pleased to pretend that the peaceful trader's wares
were as legitimate loot as any Chinese silver or
bronze idols ; so in the most cynical way he stole
wherever he could, and was henceforth stamped as
impossible so far away from his home. Then Chinese
were tried, but the Chinaman is only too human in
his own country, and too generally weak with the
white man; and when some fierce-looking rascal
approached at night and offered the alternatives of
comparative wealth for a few short minutes' sleep,
or the pressing attentions of a heavy knobbed stick,
sleep was promptly feigned and the next day much
was missing.
174 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
So the Sikh watchman the well-nigh universal
watchman of the Extreme East had to be requisi-
tioned, whether the authorities liked it or not. At
first the authorities pretended that they did not
like it. Then they thought a little and smiled.
"All right," they said, " bring your Sikhs, as
many as you like and as quickly as you
please, and on second thoughts we may even take
a few ourselves." You see the Russian powers
that be are cunning, very cunning, and they love
little experiments, especially little experiments which
may forecast big results in some dim future. So
the Sikhs duly came, just a few at the beginning
and with great hesitation, Sikhs who had blood-
brothers at Newchang, where the Englishman is,
and where the new thing could be first explained.
The newcomers inquired much, talked a great deal,
fingered paper roubles with head-shaking doubts,
and were not satisfied until this mere paper adorned
with the head of the mythical great white Czar was
duly exchanged into hard ringing Mexican dollars.
Then there was no doubt at all. The money was
good, the pay was far higher than in mere China
ports of the old type, and there was drink, plenty of
drink too, and so cheap !
So the Sikh coming by way of Newchang was
duly installed in office at Port Arthur and Dalny,
seaports where ships sometimes came in with bronze-
coloured men, such as they working the cargo-holds
and the engines, and quite ready to chant them in
high-pitched voices the news of their older world.
XI THE HINDOO WATCHDOG A WORD TO INDIA 175
Letters in time went forth, curious letters with
envelopes addressed by friendly Englishmen in bold
English characters, to relatives, friends, and ac-
quaintances all over the East. " Brother, we are
here in the Far North amongst the Russians, and
we are not unhappy. It is a land pleasant in summer,
with no great heat. In winter the winds are deadly
cold, black dust that chokes blows in dense clouds,
so that the sky is not seen. We must wear skins.
The money, though all paper, is good. Our pay is
also high. The Ruski is first hard to meet. Then
when he is known we like him better. Food we
have in plenty, and much drink. Brothers, we are
not unhappy."
In this spirit the first letters were written, if
English eyes that have seen are true, and as the
news spread that respectability is no northern virtue,
the headmen were bothered with countless applica-
tions. Hopeless drunkards, men once policemen and
watchmen in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and further
south, mere driftwood until this fresh current
caught them, floated mysteriously north and were
duly engaged. Followers and renegade soldiers
from the last China Expedition likewise heard the
news, and packed all the way by rail from Tientsin
to Newchang until they were safe in Russian hands.
So from the triad of seaports this strange invasion
of alien watchmen pushed further and further north
until Harbin was reached. Then, as the Russian
became more and more familiar, they forgot their
halting English and went begging at railway head-
176 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
quarters in fluent speech for posts in smaller places
where they might be headmen too. So the faithful
Sikh is to-day the watchdog of central and southern
Manchuria. He guards countless stacks of vodka
at Port Arthur, chests of tea at Dalny, shirtings at
Newchang, railway goods at the junctions, shops
and stores at Harbin, and nameless places in other
spots. Already they are numbered by dozens in
the chief towns, and are continually coming. So are
all beginnings made. Beware of the tares in time.
At first there was some bloodshed and fighting.
The low-grade Russian, taught by a cheap-grade
literature that these dark men are the traditional
enemies, who, officered by white Englishmen, bar
the advance south, where an irresistible destiny
should have already carried the Czar's eagles,
taunted the Sikhs with their colour, called them
coolies, and so knives were drawn and heads broken.
This was, however, only at the very beginning.
Soon the tall Sikh's weakness for strong waters was
discovered. Men who have drunk together and
become drunk have an odd fellowship for one
another. The next day and the day after, and then
for all time, they are willing to shake hands and be
loving. So the Sikh and the other men from India,
by endless drink and endless talk, were won over by
the low-class Russian, were pleasantly surprised
with the familiarity and the terms of equality on
which they were met, and were inwardly delighted
to find at last white men who did not verily profess
to be their equals, Then the Russian told stories
XI THE HINDOO WATCHDOG A WORD TO INDIA 177
of how he was one day coming to liberate all those
crushed by England's haughty dominion ; how all
Asiatics would rejoice to find themselves governed
as they loved, loosely with a great corruption, by
which all the cunning ones might become rich, and
the people attain an untrammelled liberty, un-
dreamed of at present.
In this fashion have the King's dusky subjects
been reconciled, and to-day the Sikh in Manchuria
is happy and content, and sad truth likes the Rus-
sian looseness far better than any British strict-
ness. For may he not drink and be merry end-
lessly ? May he not indulge in unspeakable vices
openly, and without fear of punishment ? May he
not, in fact, do just as he likes so long as he is
obedient, and submits without a murmur ? Already,
in most cases, poorly-learnt English is forgotten
and the mongrel Russian the lingua franca of the
railway is jabbered with much fluency. To all
Easterners there is no doubt whatsoever that the
Russian idiom, with all its silky softness, its rhythmic
sentences, is more facile than hard English. And,
likewise, to most Asiatics freedom to indulge in all
pleasures without restraint is a tempting bait. . . .
So, take note, India! At the Tientsin siding
the armed Sikh and the armed Cossack faced each
other for the first time with all the traditional hatred
that the schools love to speak of gleaming from their
eyes, and itched to dash across the narrow rails and
have at one another. To-day, in Manchuria, the
unarmed Sikh and the peaceful Siberian have mixed,
N
M- jVITE CH.XJ
fraternised, and to their surprise found each other
sympathetic in their cap*. Letters have gone forth ;
news has traveled fast and far : men have jabbered
fmflfiiJy Who knows how far die poison has
already gone? Who knows what the resuhs will
be? Each day pushes the Indian and Russian
frontiers nearer in the Middle East ; in the Farther
East die frontiers of <fi*iiitct hare been almost
broken down.
CHAPTER XII
WEST TO TSITSIHAR
IT was with no feelings of regret that I shook the
copious dust of Harbin from my feet and took my
place in the train. Except for such as are making
money rapidly through fat railway contracts or
through some form of debauchery, Harbin is not a
place which beckons to one in one's dreams. Per-
sonally I despise the place most utterly as it is at
present, and know that unless things within the next
year or two are placed on a better basis, there will
be a first-class smash. The flour-mills are the only
liquid assets in the whole town ; everything else is
but the result of the abnormal spending of railway
money, which cannot go on indefinitely, and is even
now being daily curtailed. Prohibitive and absurd
freight rates isolate Harbin even from its lusty
brother, Port Arthur, and make legitimate trade
with the outside world an utter impossibility.
Tin; absence of all sound business methods
among Russian firms must sooner or later have one
result that of finding themselves rut off from all
N 2
i8o MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP
money-making by being underbid or undersold by
Chinese traders, who are fully alive to the vast
possibilities of Manchuria. Already hard-headed
Shantung merchants are pushing away the smaller
Russian fry. The wonderful Chinese guild system,
and the freemasonry which exists between all fellow-
provincials, enable them to work in combination with
one another, attacking any particular field with an
irresistible cutting of rates which spells starvation
to improvident Siberian traders, and fills them with
sombre rage. One of the biggest railway contracts
went to Chinese whilst I was in Harbin, and the
head of a guild where I was entertained assured me
that in a couple of years, when they had more in
capital, they would begin a policy of losing money, so
as to kill off all competition. The Chinese counter-
invasion in peaceful commerce will gradually oust
out every Russian from Manchuria who is not a
mere pensioner of his Government, of that I am
convinced ; and instead of its being one triumphant
march applauded by all, the Muscovite will have
reason to shortly curse Far Eastern expansion in
the bitterest terms.
With such thoughts in my head, I watched the
train rumble over the great Sungari railway bridge.
The chimney of the giant engine puffed out clouds
of steam slowly, as if gasping at the great weight
it was forced to drag ; below us, on the river, the
far-away cry of a junk-man was wafted up as he
called to his brothers on the railway embankment
that he had arrived. Flop, flop, went the railway
xii WEST TO TSITSIHAR 181
wheels ; we had crossed the Sungari, and were now
in wild Hei-lung-chiang.
Hei-lung-chiang has always been more or less of
a " No man's land," inhabited mainly by Chinese
convicts and banished mandarins labouring on the
post roads, by gold-seekers, and sable hunters. It
is true, however, that of late years Shantung im-
migrants have been slowly pushing up to this
Manchurian north-west, and have settled in in-
creasing numbers in all the rich river valleys.
Virgin soil is constantly being broken, and much of
the splendid grain going to the Harbin flour mills
is floated down by water from the Black Dragon
province.
It is not far, as distances go in Manchuria, from
Harbin to Tsitsihar, but on the parliamentary
slow-coach I had taken an attempt was evidently
being seriously made to see how long a train could
really take to cover something under three hundred
versts, or say two hundred miles. Whatever they
were trying to do, they succeeded admirably in
making even the Russian third-class passengers
ultimately savage and despairing ; and as for
myself, I conceived the wild hope that, including
stoppages, we would average under eight miles an
hour, and so arrive at Tsitsihar early in the
morning instead of in the dead of night, as we were
timed to do. The engine-driver was more drunk
than usual, and at each station only the united
arguments of all the local officials, and they are
many since the railway apparently gives employ-
182 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
ment to every Russian youth who solicits it could
induce him to mount his cab and pull the lever. It
was funny for a couple of hours ; then it got
monotonous. The engine-drivers in Manchuria are
curious birds. Only a year ago one of them
refused to drive his train any farther unless the hat
was sent round for him among the passengers.
After nearly three days' delay the hat did go round,
and 200 roubles was collected. The train then
moved on, and so did the engine-driver when he got
to headquarters. . . .
For many miles after we left Harbin the country
showed the same continuous cultivation as in the
southern provinces. Undulating plains stretched
out on either side of the track, and without a break
stood interminable kaoliang or wheat. The harvest
was nearly finished here, however, and the crops
stood stacked in many places in huge ricks twenty
or thirty feet high, ready to be carted away. Here
the teams harnessed to the carts were even more
numerous than in Kirin and Fengtien, and, attached
to one single conveyance, I counted fourteen
animals mules, ponies, donkeys, and oxen all
mixed up together, and looking as happy and as
well fed as any animals I have ever seen. Droves
of great black pigs were careering about the stubble
of the fields, lashed into order by boys armed with
heavy stock whips that cracked with the report of
pistols. Pig breeding is a great industry all over
Manchuria, and it is these northern provinces which
supply much of North China with their pork.
xii WEST TO TSITSIHAR 183
The absence of trees gave the plains a cold
dreary appearance as the day wore on, but the
setting sun, turning the rich soil a golden-brown,
stamped the correct impression of the country on
one's memory. Agriculturally, it is rich beyond the
dreams of avarice, and that is the last word about it.
As we got farther away from Harbin the aspect of
the country changed somewhat. To the north of
the railway the land was still tilled and tilled again,
but to the south, open, uncultivated patches of plain
became more and more frequent. We were
approaching central and western Hei-lung-chiang,
where the Mongol frontier (a purely imaginary
frontier, by the way) is only distant some fifty miles
from the railway. Gazing anxiously through my
glasses to the south, I was at last rewarded with the
sight of a multitude of small black dots that shifted
unceasingly with tiny movements. It was a herd of
-Mongol ponies grazing at large, or coming in slowly
to some horse-market in Manchuria.
All along the south of Hei-lung-chiang province
the Chinese foreigner has only been slowly pushing
back the Mongol nomad with his flocks and his
herds, and even to-day the Shantung settler has
only conquered a little corner of this north-west.
I need not have been so excited at the distant
sight, for an hour afterwards, when we drew up at a
poor little station, possessing practically no railway
guards at all, and looking very miserable, there
was a Mongol encampment with ponies galore,
evidently just halted for the night. I hastily
184 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
jumped down, and as I have the Mongol to the
extent of exactly a dozen words, I fired them off
promptly. Imagine my surprise when I was
promptly answered in pure Shantung. The gentle-
man who did me the honour of replying was a
Chinaman from the Laichou prefecture in Shantung,
and was minus his pigtail. He told me that in
consequence of a little affair in his native province,
he had been condemned to the post roads in
Manchuria, and that after the Boxer trouble he had
run away and become a Mongol ! He incidentally
told me that he was supposed to be a slave, but
since he had " pao lo " (run away), he thought that
that had been forgotten, and that he was going into
Harbin in consequence. A singularly frank gentle-
man was this, and a very lusty one. He professed
the utmost contempt for Mongols and Russians, and
said that one Chinaman was worth at least ten of
these. "In war?" I asked. "No," he answered,
" not in war, because we are still afraid ; but later on
that will come." . . . Ponies were getting dearer all
the time, he added, because the Russians were
buying all they could, and it was impossible to find
any which had not been bespoke by some dealer
or another. Whereupon he promptly offered to sell
me his whole consignment ! Such is the Chinaman
even in exile ; always ready for a deal.
Meanwhile our train was slowly steaming off, and
I had scarcely time to jump on board before the
driver began to make things lively. Tired
evidently of the gay life on the iron track, he pro-
XII WEST TO TSITSIHAR 185
ceeded to let her rip, and rip we did, until things
were distinctly dangerous. We rushed the next
station at about forty miles an hour, and in spite
of everybody and everything we did not stop until
we reached the following one. I was then able to
taste the pleasures of the Westinghouse pneumatic
brake operated to its utmost capacity, and for a
solid shake-up I can thoroughly recommend it.
The difficult feat of stopping a train in its own
length was successfully performed, and the driver
was led away protesting to the station-master. He
said that war had been declared that he wanted to
be the first to carry the news to Russia that he was
working for his country . . . We were now in a
serious dilemma, because even the Chinese Eastern
Railway does not keep spare engine-drivers at way-
side stations, and the two Chinese stokers were
hardly qualified to run us to Tsitsihar. However,
the driver was finally quieted down, the vodka-
bottles taken out of his capacious breeches pockets,
and after a peaceful weep he was allowed to mount
again. In this manner we finally reached Tsitsihar,
or rather Tsitsihar's station (for the town is miles
away), in the small hours of the morning, and I
peacefully encamped myself on the buffet-table and
slept the sleep of the tired and dirty, awaiting day-
light, breakfast, and an adventurous future.
CHAPTER XIII
SIDE LIGHTS
ALMOST the first things that struck me on landing
at Dalny were, first a sweeping condemnation of all
Russian methods in Manchuria spoken by a Russian
in most fluent English then a sketch by another
man of the manner in which Dalny has been built,
compressed in two expressive words, " damned
robbery " and lastly the sight of a ricksha coolie
giving the revolver-and-sword-armed policeman on
the jetty ten cents so that he might be the first man
to get a fare. These three things served as con-
venient sign-posts to hark back to mentally when-
ever things went more than usually wrong elsewhere.
Most people suppose that where the Russian is
with his Government listening behind his back, open
talk and strong criticism are out of the question, and
are never heard. This may be the case in revo-
lutionary centres in Russia itself, where the Govern-
ment and its police agents are on the look out and
have special instructions to enforce ; but in the
Russian Far East it is certainly not so. Indeed it
CH. xin SIDE LIGHTS 187
seems to be rather a pose to be " agin the Govern-
ment " as much as you possibly can, and as openly as
possible, and to swear at anything that goes amiss
just as lustily as any Englishman would dare to do
on his own ground.
Perhaps Russians are forced to talk more than
other men because they have no papers which do the
talking for them for the Russian Far Eastern Press
is hopelessly tame and repressed, and is entirely in
the hands of the Government. Of course the Novo
Krai of Port Arthur is the best known newspaper,
for it is Viceroy Alexeieff's mouthpiece, and roars
blood and thunder. The Novo Krai is the property
of a Colonel Atemieff who has made a fortune in
bookstalls and job printing through his connection
with the Press. Once a week, and more often when
things are extra grave, the gallant Colonel tiffins
with the Viceroy of the Far East at the Viceregal
Mansion, from which a magnificent view of Port
Arthur harbour is to be had, and high politics and
the education of local public opinion are minutely
discussed ; with results which appear in print in a
very short time.
The Novo Krai is very out-spoken, and believes
with great earnestness in its mission in life. The
mission is to preach a strange doctrine, which may
be called the mainland for the mainlanders, and those
mainlanders are the Russians. Thus it constantly
states that Japan must not be allowed in Korea
that, if necessary, Japan must be driven out of Korea,
and that it may be even necessary to annihilate Japan
188 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
in the process. A singularly amiable and frank
paper is the Novo Krai, and a true Empire-builder
after Rhodes's own heart.
Manchuria is very seldom discussed by the Novo
Krai, for the fate of Manchuria has already been
settled according to this organ. The ingenious
proprietor has been so entranced with the success of
his newspaper, his bookstalls, and his job-printing,
that he is quite willing to risk a few thousand
roubles in another venture. An English newspaper
a weekly is going to be started by him, and the
type and the extra machinery have already arrived.
This speaks well for his decision of character, for,
generally, things in the Russian Far East never get
much farther than the paper stage. However, it is
as well to remember that his publication has not got
to the paper stage yet ! The Russian compositors
are now busily studying the English alphabet, and it
is hoped that by the ist of January they will have
become sufficiently expert to be able to set up
English texts. The English editor is likewise
already in Port Arthur, hard at work on the Russian
alphabet, for he has a mighty task in front of him.
Colonel Atemieff, the soldier-proprietor, is a student
of practical politics, and is to be the author of a vast
series of articles which will run for a year or two in
his English newspaper, and prove historically what-
ever that may mean the friendship which should
exist between Russia and England. He will begin
with Peter the Great at work at ship-building in his
shirt-sleeves, and end with the Tientsin siding
xni SIDE LIGHTS 189
incident, giving the first authentic explanation of
why the Sikh and the Cossack only gazed down
each other's throats and did not let their rifles pop
off. This should all be very interesting.
Apart from the Port Arthur semi-official organ,
there is the Dalny Vostok, and also a Harbin paper.
The Dalny Vostok devotes itself a great deal to
articles of the how-to-become-rich-in-a-hurry type
doubtless with special reference to the sudden
prosperity which may come any day to the drooping
and doomed international port. The Harbin
organ loves to compare the Russians in Manchuria
to the hardy settlers of the Western prairies of
America. Harbin is the Russian equivalent of an
American Western town Harbin has prairies
around it Harbin, therefore, will be great, must be
great ; in fact, is already great. It forgets that
hustling American cities have no yellow men to ruin
them by underselling. The prairies of Manchuria
are already, unfortunately, mostly settled, and the
population is increasing.
None of these newspapers appear daily. With
the strict control exercised there is not enough copy
for that, as even the Russian reading public gets
tired of fairy stories and colourless comments on
topical events. The Novo Krai appears tri-
weekly ; the Harbin and Dalny publications only
twice a week. Whilst I was in Harbin there was
an unconfirmed rumour that the local oracle was
shortly coming out every other day, and people
were rubbing their hands over the rumour and
igo MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
attributing it to the growing prosperity of the place.
Fancy an English town with thirty thousand
inhabitants and no daily newspaper !
There is little telegraphic news in these sad
publications, and Reuter is strictly taboo. Occasion-
ally, special wires do come through, but not very
often. Batoum and a fire in the oil fields is a
veritable godsend, for even the Russians cannot
smell sedition in kerosene. But in spite of this
strict censorship of Russian newspapers in the
leased territory, and beyond, English publications
are allowed everywhere without any question being
raised. In Vladivostock they are not so lucky.
Foreign newspapers had, until quite recently, to
be sent all the way to Moscow to be censored,
and whenever the word Russia was found the
whole column was simply inked out. A man told
me of a funny case in which the ridiculous-
ness of the whole system was fitly illustrated.
An advertisement in a Far Eastern paper about
candles had the word Russia in it by chance,
and, of course, the whole thing was obliterated.
My informant was anxious to know exactly how
the passage ran, so he sent and got a duplicate
by letter. Imagine his amusement when he dis-
covered that it was a highly complimentary refer-
ence to the Russian demand for these candles in
the Far East, and stated that copies of Russian
testimonials would be sent on application. But the
censor may have thought that it all had something
to do with the ancient legend concerning the
xni SIDE LIGHTS 191
practice of candle-eating among the Muscovites, and
that it was therefore seditious.
The real reason for the establishment of an
English newspaper at Port Arthur is a very simple
one. It is in order that Russia may have an
instrument to fight the formidable English news-
paper belt which stretches from Singapore to Tokio,
and numbers so many publications. The Russian
Government attaches great importance to the news-
paper war of words, and argues that it is solely
owing to the uncompromising hostility and activity
of the English Far Eastern Press that St. Peters-
burg's plans have miscarried so much of late, and
that so much ill-feeling has been stirred up against
Russia.
" You only hear one side of the question," an
official in Port Arthur complained to me ; " you
only revile Russia and say that she is always bad
and treacherous, because your Press is so strong " ;
and what he said represents the bulk of Russian
opinion. The Far Eastern Press, although it is so
inveighed against, is most carefully read. Every-
body who is anybody in the Russian Far East
subscribes to one or more English publications, and
practically all authentic information is derived from
this source. Amongst men who do not read
English papers, the ignorance exhibited on ques-
tions of the day is appalling and quite unbelievable.
In Harbin, for instance, there are men who after a
couple of years in what is the very centre of Man-
churia, have not an idea of the actual conditions of
192 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
the country round about them. They speak of
the Chinese as Mantze, whatever that may mean ;
and I notice that even a well-informed writer
like Mr. Wirt Gerrare talks of a Mantze village
in Hei-lung-chiang, which he illustrates with a
photograph of some Chinese carters and carts
and the ordinary Chinese mud village in the
distance.
Nothing has irritated Russia in the Far East so
much as the Anglo- Japanese Alliance. Well-
informed Russians are never tired of inveighing
against such a cowardly policy, as they call it, as
that of allying ourselves with an Asiatic Power to
make common cause against a European one.
" Who says it is an alliance against an European
Power?" I have often asked. "We do not ally
ourselves because we wish to fight, but because we
don't ! " The invariable answer to this is merely a
repetition of the same statements, and the accusation
that we have betrayed Europe to gain our own
base ends. It is remarkable that this view obtains
amongst all non-Britishers in the Russian Far East,
and that Continental Europe thoroughly sympathises
with Russia. All the Germans in Port Arthur and
Harbin are intensely pro- Russian ; so are the French
and the minor nationalities.
The great and final argument of all Russians on
the Manchurian question is, that too much money
has been spent by them to make a real and uncon-
ditional retreat possible. When you argue that
their 1900 campaign has been paid for by the Chinese
Xili SIDE LIGHTS 193
Indemnity and that the railway, if properly run,
should be able to look after itself, they stop you
short and tell you that the railway can never be paid
for, or made to pay, except by an open seizure of the
country that it has cost Russia five hundred millions
of roubles already, and that the interest on five
hundred millions is fifty millions a year an impos-
sible sum for them to earn. If that does not
quiet you, they talk of Egypt why do we stop in
Egypt when we, too, said that we were going to
evacuate? It is the same thing, they continue, but
England has one code for herself and another for
her enemies. You can only answer this with
remarks about Russia's unpreparedness to under-
take a civilising mission until she has set her
own house in order, and has entirely changed
her policy.
But if this creates a stormy argument it is nothing
to what the mention of Japan does. Japan should
not be discussed in Manchuria except with ample
sea-room, for your Russian loathes the Japanese
with a deadly loathing and affects to despise him.
At heart he really fears his Prussian precision, and
knows that it is going to make trouble for him
sooner or later. Sometimes, generally after the
seventh vodka or the second bottle of Roederer
he will confess that his Government is a fool, that
there has been too much bluff and too little prepara-
tion ; but in spite of this he will end up by comforting
himself with the statement that Russia has never
been really beaten, and that a Manchurian disaster
o
194 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
at most only means a temporary set-back is merely
an incident in Russian history.
The Russian is proud of one thing the manner
in which he believes he succeeds with the Chinaman.
" Look how they all come to us," he exclaims,
and forgets that he is paying all labour at least 50
per cent, more than it is worth, and that naturally
no Chinaman ever born will let such a heaven-sent
opportunity slip whilst the breath of life remains.
Then the Russian Far East owns Chi fun-tai, the
millionaire Chinaman, who has become a Russian
subject to save his head. They are very proud of
Chi fun-tai in Port Arthur, and always throw him
at you as an example of Russia as an assimilating
Power. Yet Chi fun-tai is simply a Shantung coolie
who has amassed three million taels (and is credited
with twenty millions), because he talks Russian.
Chi fun-tai has hundreds of houses at Port Arthur
and Dalny, charters thousands of junks, contracts
for tens of thousands of coolies, and is getting
very rich in the process ; but, for all that, is a mere
illiterate coolie who has been very lucky. He
could not earn a living in Central or Southern
China except with a shovel, for Chehkiang and
Canton dealers are in a sphere far above him and
will hardly deal with him. It is only because Man-
churia is the Shantung native's happy hunting-
ground, and that respectable Chinese hold aloof,
that Chi fun-tai has become wealthy. The Mouk
den electric lighting scheme is partly promoted by
xin SIDE LIGHTS 195
him. The Chinese say that if the authorities can
get the fat man into their hands his head will fall
for his treachery to his country, and so Chi fun-tai
carries little opium balls in his capacious sleeves
warranted to take but three minutes to do their
work.
o 2
CHAPTER XIV
TSITSIHAR
TSITSIHAR lies some distance away from the left
bank of the river Nonni, and is the capital of the
province of the Hei-lung-chiang, or the " Black
Dragon river." The province derives its name
from the fact that the Black Dragon river, or
Amur, used to flow through the province instead
of forming the Northern boundary as it does at
present. Tsitsihar is the Manchu or Tartar name,
call it which you please, and the town is known
to the Chinese as P'u-kuei. The river Nonni is an
affluent of the Sungari, which it enters a hundred
miles south of Harbin.
The Nonni is navigable by large junks and
small steamers as far as Tsitsihar and by smaller
craft up to a Chinese garrison town called Mergen,
which is only a little over a hundred miles by road
from infamous Blagoveschensk on the Amur. In
1900, after the childish bombardment of the Amur
shipping from that town by the Chinese garrison
town of Aigun and the subsequent noyade, a
Russian column crossed the Black Dragon river,
CH. xiv TSITSIHAR 197
reduced Aigun to ashes, and entered Tsitsihar in a
few days via the Aigun-Mergen-Tsitsihar post-road.
Tsitsihar, therefore, although separated from
Transbaikalia in the west by the Hsing-an
mountains, lies in an extremely vulnerable position,
owing to the comparative proximity of the Siberian
frontier in the North and the extreme facility with
which reinforceing troops could be pushed into it
from Blagoveschensk and the Amur province.
Not only are the post-roads fairly well kept and
easy to negotiate for troops with indifferent or
improvised transport, but in addition, after three
days' march from the Amur, all impedimenta can be
flung into sampans and junks even before Mergen
is reached, and carried without difficulty to the
Hei-lung-chiang capital by water.
The Russians have been slow at realising this,
and are only to-day seeking to repair their
negligence by demanding from China the right to
establish an exclusively Russian settlement at
Tsitsihar. They have also suggested that, as
Tsitsihar is sufficiently remote from anywhere, the
erection of Russian powder-mills and arsenals there
would have a civilising influence on the country
at large.
As dawn broke I was aroused from my none too
comfortable couch at the railway station. A singu-
larly dirty coolie came in, looked at me with suspicion
and retired slamming the door. Chinese employed
by the Russians are always super-dirty and super-
ignorant. I got down and stretched myself,
ig8 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
bemoaned a fate which compels people to rise at
ungodly hours, and went out into the cold. It was
certainly frigid in Hei-lung-chiang, and winter had
almost arrived. Hoar frost covered the ground, and
the idea of washing was very distressing. Sleepy
railway guards in their eternal green and black were
coming out of their guard-houses scratching their
heads and buckling on their belts as their share of
washing and dressing. Resolutely seizing a bucket
I washed and was duly rejuvenated. Presently the
samovar was lighted in the buffet-room, hot tea
became an actuality, and life distinctly more bearable.
All these illustrates what a funny creature is man.
Let him wash a little and eat a little, and the world is
rose-coloured, even in far-away Hei-lung-chiang. The
inner man satisfied, I looked for transport to carry
me into the city. Three methods seemed possible
by bone-breaking Peking cart, by diminutive
donkey transport, or by jibbing pony. I chose the
donkeys ; and, hoisting my traps on top of one
animal and myself on another, we sped away.
Like all stations on the Manchurian railway, the
one at Tsitsihar is some miles away from the Chinese
city, roughly speaking. I should say that the distance
is thirty Chinese li, or ten miles, although the donkey
drivers said it was more. We soon left the small
mass of railway buildings behind us, and with cries
and shouts the drivers urged on the plucky little
donkeys, seated on whom travel is certainly easy.
The city walls could be seen a long way off, and far
away to the south-west were rising hills and dales
xiv TSITSIHAR 199
the outposts of the main ridges of the Hsing-an, now
only some eighty or hundred miles distant. Numbers
of people were going towards Tsitsihar, some in
carts, others on ponies or donkeys. Nearly all of
them were Chinese, as much strangers in the land
as myself, and engaged on various businesses. The
ill-sounding Shantung variety of northern Chinese
was the one most commonly heard, and it was
amusing to listen to the uncomplimentary comments
of the carters and local people, all of whom spoke
the purest Pekinese, and disdained all other dialects.
Racing along the dusty roads, we at last approached
the city gates. A dirty Russian flag tied to a long
bamboo waved above the South Gate, through
which we entered, but the only persons of military
aspect we saw were two unkempt-looking Chinese
police armed with heavy cudgels, who gazed at me
with open mouths. In answer to my question about
the presence of Russian troops, they answered hastily
and evidently under instructions, " Yi ching t'ui liao "
(they have been already withdrawn) ; but when I
pointed significantly to the Russian flag, they swore
gently under their breaths and refused to parley with
me further. The donkeymen, however, were more
communicative. " The Russians have not gone," they
said ; "but how many they are, or what they are going
to do, no man knows." I tried to get them to give me
some estimate of the number of men actually in
Tsitsihar, but I could get no satisfactory answer,
and had to content myself with listening to vague
generalities.
200 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Tsitsihar is very much like Kirin and Moukden
probably more like Moukden in outward appear-
ance ; that is, a Peking on a small scale. Lofty
mud walls surround the city, and a number of gates
give access within. The gates are surmounted
by " lou " or towers, where in olden days constant
watch was kept against surprise attacks of marauding
bands. Beyond the walls are streets upon streets
of houses and hovels, whose existence is, properly
speaking, unauthorised, and which stand on land
generally without title deeds and belonging to the
Government. To the north of Tsitsihar, several
miles beyond the gates, are some permanent camps
of Chinese bannermen, the hereditary soldiery who
are to-day so useless.
In Tsitsihar itself the streets and houses, to my
mind, have that inexpressible charm which is the
peculiar hall-mark of an old-world city. There is a
subdued bustle even in the busiest streets, and men
move with a dignity which is not to be found in
China itself, far away from where the Manchus
once throve. A graceful memorial arch crowns the
main street ; Peking carts, covered with red and
blue cloth, speed slowly along, dragged by sleek-
looking mules, and their carters, instead of rudely
rushing past you in the narrow places, jump off
their seats and beg that your honourable self will
move a little to one side so that their clumsy cart
may not bespatter you. Horsemen seated on gaily-
upholstered saddles jingled past my humble donkey,
and bowed their apologies at taking the road before
xiv -TSITSIHAR 201
me. Politeness is more than pleasant ; it is the oil
essential which allows the wheels of life to run
smoothly. At last I reached my Chinese inn and
dismounted. A gong announced my entry, and the
servitors rushed to await my commands. Soon hot
water was brought, tea was brewed, fresh matting
spread on the floor in answer to my orders, my
blankets and skins laid out on the k'ang.
After you have drunk tea till you can drink no
more, you order your meal, for the drink precedes
the meal in China. What would I have ? Chinese
maccaroni and flour dumplings were the dishes I
favoured, and three ancestral goose's eggs were
added to the feast. What more could mortal man
desire, provided always that his stomach is duly
salted and attuned to native food. Having eaten
and smoked, I stretched out on my skins, mightily
content. It was better than a Russian hostelry, and
I was soon asleep.
" Fine brushes for sale, fine Western soap, and
the best self-illuminating matches." This was the
cry which mixed itself in my dreams and finally
woke me up. At the door of my room stood a
lusty Manchurian pedlar with the wares he was so
ardently crying strapped to his back, and with a face
bronzed to a deep chocolate by years of exposure to
the wind and sun. His head was covered with
a peaked cap of soft, brown felt ; his wadded blue
coat was fastened in at the waist by a red girdle ;
his trousers were a deep claret red, a colour much
affected in Manchuria, and on his feet were the
202 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
peculiar Manchurian boots the wula which, when
stuffed with soft grass, make almost the warmest
covering there is against bitter cold. A typical
Manchurian this, and as different in outward respect
from the Chinaman in ordinary, as is a Scotchman
in kilt from your trousered lowlander. His speech
was also a treat to listen to ; tone and rhythm were
the realisation of the ideals of a Thomas Wade, who
has revealed to men how they may learn to speak
to perfection the most difficult language in the
world by following a system. A pedlar, after all, is
a man to be cultivated, for he may wander almost
anywhere he wills in a Chinese city, and he holds
converse with all manner of people. So I pro-
ceed to pump him, having first purchased a " fine
brush," and thereby successfully stopped him
from urging on me his other unexampled wares.
His answers were plain, satisfactory, and apparently
reliable.
Before the winter of 1900-1901, that is, after the
Boxer trouble, four columns of Russian troops had
entered Tsitsihar, their combined numbers being
about 8,000 men. Although Tsitsihar offered no
resistance, the Military Governor having fled, the
Russians used their rifles and guns against the city,
and reduced the population to a state of panic.
Then they left abruptly for the south, Tsitsihar
being only provided with a garrison of a few hun-
dred artillery and infantry. These were from that
day quartered in the Chinese arsenal and powder
mills, in the telegraph offices, and around the
XIV TSITSIHAR 203
Military Governor's Yamen. Sometimes this num-
ber of men was increased suddenly, without any
apparent reason, and sometimes again reduced until
there seemed hardly any left. Of course, this was
the old Russian practice over again of shifting and
re-shifting troops from place to place, so as both
to baffle any attempts at estimating the actual num-
ber of men in Manchuria, and to bluff the ignorant
into supposing that Russia had really overwhelming
forces at her disposal. Continuing, my friend
informed me that the Chinese officials had returned
to Tsitsihar over two years ago, and that the juris-
diction of the city was, to-day, nominally in their
hands. There were, however, sixty-five soldiers at
the telegraph offices, and a guard of forty at the
Military Governor's Yamen. The arsenals were
likewise still in the hands of the Russians, but there
were a number of returned Chinese soldiery there,
who were armed with " Mo-so " (Mauser) rifles, and
who were being drilled by their own officers. The
city gates had likewise been handed back to the
Chinese, and Chinese military police guarded them.
This is what my pedlar told me, and as I passed
the rest of the day sitting on the shafts of a cart and
investigating, I was able to verify nearly all his
statements. Meanwhile, I sent for the inn-keeper,
and asked him to have my Chinese card sent to the
Governor's Yamen. He did so, and within twenty
minutes I got a prompt return card, and a polite
reply that I could not be seen.
I did not wish to press the point, so I went to call on
204 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
another official, to whom I had a direct introduction
from a Moukden official, and I succeeded in seeing
him almost immediately. This man's manner was
an explanation of everything. From what he said,
I have reason to believe that the Russian military
authorities have directly threatened that they will
take the lives of every high Chinese official in Man-
churia in the event of war being declared ; arguing
that they attribute the present crisis entirely to the
failure of the Chinese local officials to cooperate
with them in hoodwinking the world. Of course,
this is merely a threat, but it is a pretty significant
one, after what Manchuria has recently seen. This
Taotai begged me to desist from calling on pro-
minent officials in Manchuria, as it only got them
into trouble with the Russian military authorities,
and I could find out more from non-officials. So,
after an hour's talk, I left this official's house with
one settled conviction : that if war comes, hundreds
of Russians (unless they are careful) will be murdered
in their beds or sleeping places, at the instigation of
men who boil at their present impotency and hate
the Slav with a deadly hatred. But there is one
important point to be here noted by the intelligent
reader. Just as, in India during the Mutiny, only
the sepoy rose against the British raj, and the other
classes were not affected to any great extent, so in
in Manchuria only the Chinese officials hate the
Russian and long for his expulsion. The people at
large have forgotten bitter 1900, or if they have not
forgotten, they have at least hidden away all re-
XIV TSITSIHAK 205
membrances deep down in their hearts, knowing
that the Boxer was a madman ; and further, the
Russian soldiery in Manchuria is such a mere hand-
ful, and is so inferior in intelligence to the ordinary
Chinaman, that the latter does not believe for one
moment in its permanence, or in its ability to re-
strain the people once Manchuria's twenty millions of
hardy folk find its presence irksome. Then again,
as I have already written repeatedly, the Russian is
only seen along the railway, and is thus in no way
in intimate relations with the people at large, nor
can he in any way interfere with them without
prompt retaliation.
As in the case of all great agricultural countries,
such as the United States, the real strength of Man-
churia does not lie in the towns and cities, but in the
enormous rural districts, containing foodstuffs and
cattle sufficient for endless armies, and a population
so scattered as to make an effective control by aliens
an impossibility. The Russian Government has
foolishly supposed, or has wished to have it supposed,
that by purchasing influence through the political
agency of the Russo-Chinese Bank, in half-a-dozen
towns adjacent to the railway, and by scattering a
few thousand men along the railway, they have Man-
churia entirely and irrevocably within their grasp.
A more patent fallacy it is impossible to conceive.
One instance alone will show thoughtful people a
terrible hole in the seemingly perfect armour of
Russian bluff. There are not half-a-dozen Russians
in the whole of Manchuria who have a sufficient
206 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
knowledge of the northern Chinese dialect to allow
them to conduct business in person with the native
mandarinate or with the common people without the
aid of Russian-speaking Chinese interpreters. These
interpreters are almost invariably Shantung Chinese
of the most inferior class, are deficient in a knowledge
of their own language, and are therefore looked
upon with contempt by their own people. For to
be without a proper classical education is as bad for
a Chinaman as the dropping of h's is for an English-
man.
But there is still more to observe. Chinese local
officials collect dues, taxes, and likin, administer
justice, perform every function and duty as they have
always done and account to no one except their
superiors ; Chinese provincial trade is carried on
entirely by carts or by river as it has been of yore
without any great regard for the railway, which it
indeed ignores completely ; and finally the Russian
rouble is only accepted to be promptly sent away
and cashed into silver dollars or sycee. That is to
say, it has no part in the commercial life of the
people. But upon all these things I have more to
say separately.
Meanwhile, my excellent carter had driven me to
the telegraph office, where I wished to try a little
experiment. At the door lounged a couple of dirty
Russian soldiers, who stared at me with astonished
eyes. Where the devil I came from, they evidently
wanted to know. Going through the big gate I
came to the office. Fresh astonishment met me
xiv TSITSIHAR 207
there. The operators were Russians and Chinese
mixed. Although the 8th of October, the great
Evacuation Day, had already passed, no attempt
had evidently been made to hand back the tele-
graph office to the Chinese authorities. I gravely
asked one of the Chinese operators, a Cantonese,
for a form, and, choosing a London address at
random, I wrote out a most incendiary message
about the condition of affairs in Manchuria. The
operator knew some English, and shook his head
doubtfully over my wire. Excitement had now
reached fever pitch among the Russian employees,
and they eagerly asked for a translation from their
Chinese confrere. When he had given it to them, I
thought my dearest wish was about to be fulfilled.
I was longing to be arrested, and for a time it
looked very much as if I would be. I waited quietly
to see what would finally happen, and I was at
length told that my wire was "out of order" and
would be referred to the Russian Commissary ; that
my Tsitsihar address must be handed in, and that I
must not leave the city. I pretended to be justly
indignant, and refused to make a deposit to cover
the cost of a wire which I knew would never be
sent. Finally I escaped, vowing many foolish
things, and I supposed the " Tsitsihar Office of the
Imperial Chinese Telegraphs in Military Occupa-
tion," as it is called, is still cursing me, for I left at
daybreak the next morning.
From the telegraph office I went to look up the
Russo-Chinese Bank. There was nothing very
208 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
characteristic about this establishment, which was
merely a semi- European building erected to the
greater glory of the travelling rouble, and so I drove
on to the arsenal. Here, again, there was nothing
much to be seen. A few Russian soldiers, a few
Chinese soldiers, a lot of suspended building opera-
tions, that was all. Briefly put, I had exhausted
Tsitsihar and its possibilities, and was already long-
ing to get away. In Tsitsihar it is the same story
as elsewhere a few Russian soldiery to overawe a
countless Chinese population. I directed my steps,
or rather those of my mule, to the offices of the
" Northern Districts Fire Wheelship Company,"
otherwise the Northern Steamship Company and
said I wanted a passage to Petuna. Petuna is a
brigand city, the home of the cream of the " Hung-
hutzu," or red beards according to the Russian
authorities, a place where no man may go. The
Hunghutzu, however, are not very dangerous, and
are warranted not to kill so long as you pay up
promptly. In answer to a fat Chinese clerk's warn-
ing, I assured the " Northern Steamship Company "
that I was languishing for excitement, and the only
thing I asked of them was to take me down the
Nonni quickly. For twenty taels I purchased all
the cabin accommodation there was to be had on a
big junk that was being towed down the next morn-
ing. I was told to pack and be all ready that night,
as I must go down to the river immediately the city
gates were opened in the morning else lose my
XIV IbUMHAK 209
boat. Everything seemed arranged ; I got home,
packed, purchased three days' rations, hired a two-
mule cart, and went to sleep in my clothes. There
is but little ceremony in Manchuria, and it gets
wilder the further one gets away from Port Arthur,
which is itself wild enough for any man.
CHAPTER XV
THE DEFEAT OF THE TRAVELLING ROUBLE
WHEN the Russians first came to Manchuria they
were ostensibly only concerned with railway build-
ing, and empires, for the nonce, were not on the
carpet. It is true that some months after the
Liaotung Retrocession Convention, which gave
back southern Manchuria to China, and only eight
months after the last Japanese troops had been
withdrawn from the scenes of their recent triumphs,
the world was startled by the publication in
Shanghai of the so-called Cassini Convention,
which purported to lease certain ports in Man-
churia and China to Russia, in addition to granting
the right of building a railway through the three
eastern provinces. But that is another story, which
will be dealt with separately. What is certain, is
that in September of the year 1896 the Russo-
Chinese Bank that mighty engine of the travelling
rouble signed an agreement with the Peking autho-
rities whereby Russia acquired the right to form a
company, to be called the Chinese Eastern Railway
Company, for the purpose of building a railway
CH. XV THE DEFEAT OF THE TRAVELLING ROUBLE 211
through Manchuria from east to west ; that is, from
the trans- Baikal province in the west to the frontier
of Russian Primorsk in the east.
This demand of the Petersburg bureaucrats,
readily assented to by China still smarting under
the agony of the crushing Japanese defeat, was in
itself not unreasonable. The Trans-Siberian Rail-
way, so boldly planned to traverse thousands of
miles of barren steppes and ultra-inhospitable lands,
in order to link up the Russian possessions on the
Pacific with the other domains of the mighty Czar,
would have to come to an abrupt halt at Stretensk ;
for beyond this point the physical difficulties to be
overcome by the Russian engineers were so great
that, even if their skill were sufficient, the State
coffers would never bear the strain. It was abso-
lutely necessary, therefore, that permission be some-
how obtained to run the Russian railway for a
thousand versts through Chinese territory. If this
could be done, hundreds of millions of roubles would
be saved, the line considerably shortened, and finally
a concession obtained which would be something in
the nature of a first charge on northern Manchuria.
So that pleasantly unknown quantity, the Russo-
Chinese Bank, under the presidency of a Slav
empire builder, Prince Uktomsky, came to the
rescue with the results already described.
On the 28th August, 1897, therefore, the first sod
of the long-dreamt-of railway was cut with great cere-
mony on the eastern frontier of Kirin province, only
a hundred miles or so distant from the Pacific strong-
p 2
212 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
place, Vladivostock, and the breasts of Russian
bureaucrats palpitated with secret exultation. At
last this mysterious China for China is far more
mysterious to imaginative Russians than it is to
common-sense Englishmen was being eaten into,
and who knew what the future might not hold ?
Who, indeed !
But this was but the beginning, for Russia had
so far only the right to traverse Manchuria from
east to west, and the warm seas and the ice- free
harbours were still eight hundred versts to the
south of the conceded strategic line. The Russian
Bear, however, does not have to be periodically gal-
vanised into action like the British Lion, for he
possesses a fixed and definite policy, the key-note
of which is " Vorwaerts, Marsch." He may not
know, it is true, when each step is going to be
taken, but at least he knows that each forward step
is but the forerunner of another such step, and that
of permanent retreat there can be no question.
In the winter of 1897-98, we find some Russian
men-of-war in the harbour of poor, dismantled Port
Arthur, helpless and apparently hopeless since the
Japanese war, and therefore quite at the mercy of
the first-comer. As luck would have it, however,
some British war-dogs also steamed most casually
into the harbour, having left their woodwork for
safe-keeping at Chefoo, and with their guns cast
loose ready for action. It is curious how convinc-
ing are trivialities ; for the Russian ships had no
sooner seen the cross of St. George than they were
XV THE DEFEAT OF THE TRAVELLING ROUBLE 213
persuaded that they must seek a new anchorage
elsewhere. Everybody knows what happened after
that, but it is nevertheless good and proper that
Englishmen should be reminded. The telegraphs
ticked, an order was flashed, and miracle of
miracles, the British disappeared. Historians will
weep over this cowardly retreat, and date from it
the beginning of England's dependence on others
in China after a century-old independence. But
this is going away from the present story.
In March, 1898, therefore, Port Arthur and the
Kuantung peninsula were leased to Russia a fit
reward for a bluff of bluffs the right was given
to connect the Manchurian railway, planned until
then only to run from east to west, with the new
Russian possessions in the south, and the great
Manchurian question was officially born.
You will perhaps ask what all this has to do with
the travelling rouble and its defeat, with which
appropriate title I have headed this chapter.
Everything, because the railway, the Russo-Chinese
Bank, and the rouble are almost synonymous terms
in the Far East, and so intimately are they con-
nected, and so well are they planned to work
together, that you cannot explain one without
mentioning the other in the fullest detail. If you
take any one of the three away, the others can
have no separate existence. In brief, they are a
three-headed Medusa that turn their threatening
faces on poor China, and either enchant or quell
her with their looks. If China is recalcitrant, then
214 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP
is only the alluring face of the rouble to be seen
softening all hearts and turning away wrath. If
China is ready for a deal, then up trots the famous
bank, draws up parchment deeds full of dismal
significance for China, and forces them on impotent
mandarins. And finally, when all is ready, then,
" Brumm, Marsch," dig up fresh embankments, lay
down more rails, the trumpets are merrily sounding
the advance, and Russia is moving forward towards
the final goal of her desires.
All through 1898 and 1899 and up to May, 1900,
the digging up of soil and the laying down of rails
went on uninterruptedly in Manchuria. At first
there was no question of the travelling rouble being
used to pay Shantung workmen ; for the Chinaman
generally spits on paper money issued outside its
own home district and understands it not. There-
fore good, clean ringing Mexican and other dollars
had to be bought up by the shipload by the Russian
Administration, doled out to thousands and tens
of thousands of workers, coolies, and contractors
engaged on the construction of the iron road, and
finally bought back by the ever-present Russo-
Chinese Bank with rouble credits after much
journeying in rough palms. This went on for
months, if not for years, and immense quantities
of subsidiary and large silver coins had to be
transported ever farther afield as the work pro-
gressed. This could not be accomplished without
considerable danger, for you cannot send hundreds
of thousands of dollars through unsettled districts
xv THE DEFEAT OF THE TRAVELLING ROUBLE 215
without risking to lose a good many in the process.
So all the time this was going on, the travelling
rouble was dying to be accepted by Chinese in
lieu of silver, although the astute railway builders
saw each day bring them no nearer to a solution
of the problem perplexing them.
Meanwhile, in Port Arthur the rouble could act
in a more arbitrary fashion. Immense works were
being built, and tens of thousands of coolies were
being employed, who were simply paid in paper
money, whether they liked it or not. These latter
found to their astonishment and delight that, by
virtue of some mysterious law, of which they had
not suspected the existence, Russian paper was
better than Chinese silver, inasmuch as its value did
not fluctuate day by day. So they took the paper
and hoarded it, and when winter came they scat-
tered to their homes, cashing their savings whenever
they came across a foreign bank, and spreading the
news far and wide that roubles were good and ser-
viceable. This was before the Boxer trouble, and
from the Boxers everything is now dated.
Then the Boxers came, tore up rails, tore up
all that had been so painstakingly built up. Every-
thing stopped as if by magic ; the Russians fled in
every direction, and were not thought of for several
entire weeks. Then retribution came. All Sep-
tember, October, and November of the Boxer year
found Russian troops pouring into Manchuria in
big continuous streams, which gave off little trickles
of men in every direction. Division, brigade,
216 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
battalion, and company commanders had but one
currency in their military chests rouble-notes and
anybody who was sufficiently lucky to be offered
payment and refused Russian paper was a fool, and
could go and hang himself.
So by 1901 the rouble had a very firm and en-
viable position, and bid fair to become master of
the economical situation in Manchuria. The Chinese
Eastern Railway, which was being rebuilt at a truly
phenomenal rate, now jumped into the fray, and
arbitrarily, and without any right to do so, decreed
that henceforth passenger tickets and freight charges
must be paid for in rouble notes without distinction.
Up till then, you see, the Harbin Railway Ad-
ministration had not felt sufficiently strong to tackle
the Chinese on what is a matter of life and death
to every one of them as soon as they are old enough
to walk that is, on the dollar question. But the
presence of large bodies of occupation troops made
the Slav foolishly confident, and caused him to
commit a first great faux-pas, which was to be the
ruin of the rouble. Tell a Chinaman he has got to
o
do something that you have neither the organisation
nor the power to make him do, and you are simply
inviting disaster. Above all, when it is a question
of the Chinaman's pocket, act most warily and be
warned in time.
Here it is necessary to explain that the real
currency of Manchuria, as in other parts of China,
is merely copper cash, not the small copper cash of
the central and southern provinces, but the so-called
xv THE DEFEAT OF THE TRAVELLING ROUBLE 217
large cash of the north. As these cash are of too
small a denomination in which to conduct com-
mercial transactions of any magnitude, it may be
said that the " tiao " is the unit of value in the big
market places. What is the tiao ? The tiao is
simply a certain number of copper cash. In North
China, or, say, the metropolitan province of Chihli,
it is one hundred large cash ; in Newchwang it is
one hundred and sixty ; in Moukden more, and
finally in Kirin several hundred cash go to the tiao,
and, roughly, in this last-named place, two tiao equal
one provincial dollar. But there is another point to
note. The tiao is an imaginary coin ; in fact it is
no coin at all. It is simply a multiple of copper
cash settled on long ago in the dim past and
varying according to the district in which you
happen to be, and is not coined into silver pieces.
To simplify matters, Chinese bankers in Moukden,
Kirin, and in fact in every mart of importance,
issue paper tiao notes of various denominations,
and these notes correspond almost exactly to the
country bank notes of European countries. These
notes are therefore only negotiable in their districts
of issue. If, for instance, I have got a thousand
tiao in Moukden notes, say twenty pounds sterling,
and I propose to go into Kirin city to buy produce,
I must first cash my notes in Moukden and get a
Kirin credit in silver taels ; that is, an order on a
Kirin bank to pay me so many local taels' weight of
silver on demand. Arrived in Kirin, I present my
draft and am told that my credit in Kirin tiao at
218 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
the current rate of the day is so and so and so
much.
Are you beginning to see what a hornet's nest
the Russians were disturbing when they attempted,
unauthorisedly, to tamper with the Chinaman's
birthright, the exchange question and the vast
profits it brings him ? However, there is yet
another point.
In 1897, I think it was, mints to coin dollars of
the same nominal weight and fineness as the
Mexican dollars were opened in Kirin city and in
Moukden. Unfortunately, no figures are available
to show what number of coins were yearly placed
on the markets, but there is some reason to suppose,
although the work was very intermittent, that the
totals ran into millions. More attention, however,
was given to the minting of subsidiary coins, that
is, five, ten, twenty, and fifty cent pieces, than to
dollars, because adulteration and short weight are
not so easily detected or so objected to in minor
coins as they are in big ones, and the mint profits
are therefore more secure. These mints were
opened with one object, that of supplying convenient
tokens for the ever-growing minor trade and traffic
between foreigners and Chinese in Manchuria.
Reviewing rapidly what has been written above,
the reader will see at once that the real money of
Manchuria is the large copper cash ; that for com-
mercial transactions, the tiao, a certain multiple of
copper cash is the value used ; that for petty
dealings of a semi-foreign character minted dollars
XV THE DEFEAT OF THE TRAVELLING ROUBLE 219
are locally employed, and that, finally, for settling
adverse trade balances, silver bullion or sycee is
shipped from one point to another. The rouble
was, therefore, in every way an interloper, at first
tolerated by the Chinese bankers because they
could squeeze a beloved exchange profit out of it,
whether they were buying or selling. Once,
however, they saw their entire monetary system
threatened by the arbitrary decrees of Russian
bureaucrats, they prepared for battle, and when the
dollar-loving Chinaman prepares for battle, look
out for squalls.
During the first part of 1901 nothing much was
noticeable, but after the evacuation protocol of
April, 1902, was signed in Peking, ominous rumours
became suddenly current in every tea-house and
hong in Manchuria. The Russians were going,
everybody said, and were leaving their useless
paper money behind in millions of innocent Chinese
hands. Who guaranteed this paper ? What was
this paper, and was there no redress ?
These were the questions that were being freely
asked and nervously answered, and the Chinese
bankers, the conscious instigators of false rumours
untraceable to anyone, smiled quietly in their back
parlours, knowing that they would succeed. Briefly
put, the battle, although just commenced, was already
won. Distrust and suspicion, those twin fiends that
conquer the strongest, had taken hold of the
multitudes, and the game was absolutely in the
hands of a thousand native banking people. For
220 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
although the Russian did not probably in the first
instance dream of forcing his paper money on to
Manchuria, events so shaped themselves that he
thought he could use the rouble as a powerful
weapon of conquest. Manchuria had a Russian
railway ; Russian guards everywhere ; Russo-
Chinese Banks in many important towns ; Russian
authorities controlling the seaports ; in fact, it
seemed like Russia herself to purblind employees
who travelled up and down the Empire of the five-
foot track. Therefore, why not make an end of all
pretence at once, and spread the famous paper
money, of which there is apparently no end,
stamped with the effigy of an omnipotent Czar,
and symbolical of Russia's victory all over the
country ?
But, as I have already said, it is best not to go
too far in a country the size of France and
Germany rolled into one, and withal possessed of a
population to whom money is as the breath of life.
Two years, or even one year ago, tens of millions
of rouble notes were hoarded in every native bank
in Manchuria ; to-day, who will find me a million ?
A year ago the Harbin Railway Administration
addressed a query to St. Petersburg as to what
should be done with the millions of silver dollars,
and hundreds of millions of copper cash, stored in
the railway city, and representing railway receipts
during pre- Boxer days. The answer promptly
came : ship away the dollars, and keep the copper
cash pending further instructions.
xv THE DEFEAT OF THE TRAVELLING ROUBLE 221
So the dollars were duly sent away. A million or
so came to Shanghai, were sold on the local market
only to be promptly bought up by native houses
from the North that have Shanghai branches, and
shipped back to Moukden and Newchwang inside of
a fortnight. Some of the dollars went to Tientsin
and were back within forty-eight hours in
Manchuria. The Russian was vainly attempting
in a most puerile fashion to kill the minted dollar in
Manchuria ; which, after all, is itself something of
an intruder in the country. If such small success
attended the fight against a semi-foreign coin, what
were the chances against the elusive and imaginary
tael, the still more fictitious tiao, and the very
matter-of-fact copper cash ? Absolutely nil, of
course.
So to-day we find a conservative English banker
estimating that nearly seventy million paper roubles
are exported to Shanghai from Manchuria by
Chinese merchants and changed into silver dollars
or silver credits ; native bankers stating that more
than this amount goes to Tientsin and Chefoo,
carried there by Chinese hands, and once more
promptly cashed into beloved silver. What does
all this mean ? That the rouble is entirely dis-
credited by astute Chinese, and that whether the
Russo-Chinese Bank in Manchuria makes its
payments in paper or not is a matter of entire
indifference ; for no sooner is paper received than
prompt measures are taken to cash it into some-
thing more finite than a mere piece of parchment
222 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
bearing an excellent likeness of his Imperial
Majesty the Czar.
And with this huge drain going on every Russian
enterprise is being rapidly crippled. Harbin, to take
one instance only, has spent all its money and, what
is more, all its credit in building itself new houses
capable of more effectively resisting the terrible
winter. The Chinaman is the only man who has
profited by this, for although the houses are nearly
all ready, there is no one with money enough to
live in them, so slack has business become. The
roubles have all disappeared and been hidden in
the coffers of the Russo-Chinese Bank, alone able,
among a host of would-be empire builders, to purchase
back in silver what has been emitted in paper. In
both Port Arthur and Dalny it is the same story.
Tight money, or no money at all, are the cries one
everywhere hears. Where have all those fabulous
tons of paper roubles disappeared to ? Where,
indeed !
So the real commercial life of Manchuria rolls on
uninterruptedly in spite of the Russian invasion, in
spite of Imperial decrees, in spite of every attempt.
Chink, chink, go the silver dollars ; chunk, chunk,
the heavy sycee of pure silver ; clank, clank, the
iron and copper cash of a people who understand
business ; and these sounds are full of ominous
meaning for the incautious Slav. The railway, it
is true, must still be paid for in roubles, but then in
no country in the world is the native such an adept
at exchange banking as in the land of the blue
XV THE DEFEAT OF THE TRAVELLING ROUBLE 223
gown. If you want 100 roubles or even 10,000,
you can buy them almost anywhere in Manchuria,
for Chinese dealers are quite ready to make a profit,
and the soldiery are being daily fleeced of more
millions. But, though you purchase roubles with
ease, you are simply buying a foreign currency
which has no more entered into the commercial life
of the people than the golden sovereign has at
Hong Kong. And then in Hong Kong England
has at least some trade, which is more than can be
said of the Russian in Manchuria.
The fact is the Chinaman is inordinately a lover of
the tangible. He likes his money in solid coins or
solid bullion, even if they are all debased or fallen
in value ; that is something that he can handle, and
that is intelligible to the merest child. It is true
that he may conduct huge transactions in mere
credits ; but in every case he knows that differences
and balances are going to be settled in solid bullion
payments. The rouble, therefore, has had its fling,
and after a half-hearted attempt to oust the Man-
churian currencies, it is condemned like everything
else Russian in Manchuria to the dreary existence
of a railway life.
A year ago in Moukden you could put down your
paper money anywhere unchallenged. To-day bring
out a fifty-rouble note and your bland Chinaman
asks you to be good enough to wait a minute while
he runs and changes. It is true that the wily Jap
has somewhat contributed to this unkindly suspicion,
for quite unauthorisedly he took upon himself to
224 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CH. xv
make up for the tightness in the Northern markets
by opening private rouble factories in Osaka, and
flooding the place with truly excellent likenesses of
the great Czar's money. But apart from this,
the local Chinese have been asking, with all the
rest of the world, how long this enormous Man-
churian expenditure, which has made them richer
than they ever were before, can go on without
bringing an almighty crash ; and they are quite
right to ask the question. Russia must have
spent five or six hundred million roubles if she has
spent a hundred in Manchuria during the past few
years, and most of this has gone into Chinese
pockets. The Chinaman has surely had his revenge
in the sweetest way possible for the brutalities of
1900, by killing the rouble and pocketing the
change. The political crisis may be settled one
way or the other, but it can have no influence on
one thing the fate of the rouble. The rouble is
already defeated and paid for. The Chinese have
triumphed with a cash victory in spite of a material
defeat. Russia may pin down Manchuria with her
bayonets, but the Chinaman has his hands in the
pockets of the Ruski soldiery and civilianry, and
will starve them all to death when he likes.
CHAPTER XVI
DOWN THE GOLDEN NONNI
LUCK was against me from the very beginning,
for the fates had apparently decreed in the middle
of the night that I should surfer many uncomfortable
jolts before I was permitted to reach the river. . . .
I had gone to bed early, at seven o'clock ; that is, I
had kicked off my boots and stretched on my k'ang.
Everybody knows what a " k'ang" is, or if they do
not, I will enlighten them. It is simply a hollow
brick and timber couch, built into the room,
backing against one side and running the whole
length of your palatial apartment. Generally speak-
ing, the k'ang is about six feet broad and ten or
twelve feet long, and raised about two feet off the
ground ; on it you sit, you sleep, receive your
guests, eat your dinner, in fact, do everything
for there are few chairs in a Chinese inn. In
v
summer, if you are a stranger, you will sneer at
the k'ang and ridicule its glaring primitiveness. In
winter, you will worship the k'ang and its creator,
for it keeps you from becoming a block of ice, and
is at once your hot water bottle, your stove, your
Q
226 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
steam-heater and your reviver when you are numbed
nigh unto death by the bitter north wind.
And all this is accomplished with such simplicity.
In the courtyard outside there is a square hole
opening into the hollow of your k'ang. Huge
sheaths of brittle-dry kaoliang stalks are thrust in,
set on fire, and the hole closed up. The flames and
the smoke for smoke is very hot, and is only
properly utilised by Europeans in the spiral-chim-
neyed Russian stove heat up the bricks of your
k'ang and keep you warm for an indefinite number
of hours. The cost is infinitesimal and the result
excellent, except that sleeping on a heated k'ang is
apt to give the beginner a headache for a few days.
As I was saying, I had gone to bed too early, for
the inn people had heated me up at seven, and at
two in the morning I woke chilled to the bone.
The reason was not far to seek. It had begun to
blow from the north. In China proper the blow
from the north is the signal that all one's summer
troubles are over ; in China improper that is Man-
churia since the Russians have come prepare to
weep and be grievously distressed when it blows
from the north, for you are about to suffer an agony
of nose and eyes and finger-tips not easily surpassed.
But at least you have one statistical satisfaction
in Northern Manchuria. The winter minimum of
fifty degrees below zero Fahrenheit, or, say, eighty
degrees of frost, is almost the lowest in the world.
Console yourself with that, if you can.
As I shouted vainly at my door for slumbering
xvi DOWN THE GOLDEN NONNI 227
inn-people at two in the morning, I tried to comfort
myself with the thought that compared to a January
or February wind, what I was experiencing was
nothing in fact, almost summer heat ; but still my
teeth went on chattering. After a while, I gave it
up. It is useless, absolutely useless, shouting at a
Chinaman to wake him. Even lusty blows on the
stomach, a somewhat susceptible spot in the case of
a white man, will only make him groan slightly.
There is but one effective means, cold water, and
alas ! all the cold water in this part of the world had
been converted into ice during the last few hours.
... So I went to bed again, cursing exceedingly
and longing for the gray dawn. After several cen-
turies had apparently slowly gone by, I struck a
match and looked at my watch ; a quarter past three
said my time-piece, and no one would stir for an hour
or two yet. The thought made me desperate, and I
decided on an instant action. Two tins of Epps's
comforting cocoa were staring at me with pained
labels ; they should come to my succour. A candle
was soon lighted, my boots were put on. I shook
myself and was dressed with that celerity which is
the Russian birthright. Gingerly, I made my way
to the kitchen, in terror lest the inn-dogs should
wake up and mistake me for a Chinaman. All who
know the Mongolian and Manchurian dog, which is
quite different from the Chinese wonk of damnable
memory, will sympathise with me. The Mongolian
dog is the size of a young donkey and as fierce as
a wolf half-a-dozen of them acting in concert can
Q 2
228 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
make you feel more miserable than anything short
of an earthquake ; and I was not feeling exactly
like dog-fighting. However, I was at last favoured ;
I reached the kitchen in safety, lighted a fire, made
some boiling water, and drank cocoa until I hated
the taste of it.
Meanwhile, outside, things were stoking up, or
rather, stoking down. The wind had veered to
the west, and in addition to the cold, there was
the dust. The Sahara has an unenviable reputa-
tion in the matter of dust storms, but it can hardly
surpass North China, Manchuria, or Mongolia
when they are doing their best. Mine was
evidently not to be the common-place dust storm,
which is simply the whirling about of more or less
local dust, but the veritable and inimitable variety,
in which the red dust of the Gobi and the larger
brickbats of Mongolia are impartially mingled and
blown down your throat, eyes, ears, mouth, and
silted into your entire system, until you are reduced
to a pulpy impotence and blasphemy, the like of
which you have never conceived in your wildest
dreams. But this was not to be the sum total of
my woes.
Presently, daylight actually did come, a very
bleary, drunken-eyed sort of a daylight, it is true,
but still it was undeniably daylight. Carters and
other people woke up too, scratched themselves,
and were obviously not enchanted with the
prospect. However, plentiful abuse made the
carter at last start. Oh, that drive to the river !
XVI DOWN THE GOLDEN NONNI 229
It was not far, but it was very bitter. With nose,
eyes, and teeth clotted thick, I at last arrived at
the banks of the Nonni and found my junk. My
cabin was, of course, appropriated by someone
else, for in China what is yours is also everybody
else's.
My junk was a two-masted, brand new yellow
boat of some thirty tons burden, smelling abomin-
ably of bean oil and hailing from Kirin the
inland dockyard of Manchuria. We carried a
stevedore of sorts, who seemed to think he had
a half-share in my cabin, until I made him change
his mind quite suddenly. Two women, with high
Manchu head-dresses, red cheeks, and speech as
clear as bells, were the only other passengers, and
although I cordially invited them to take the
stevedore's vacated place, they modestly refused,
and stowed themselves forward.
Alongside of us lay the dirtiest little launch I
have ever seen. She was piled high with stoke-
hold wood, grimy with smoke, filthy with dust. A
fat coolie was splitting wood with a rusty chopper,
and constantly cursing the relatives, ancestors, and
female slaves of a person unknown, who had
apparently sneaked off and eternally insulted him by
leaving him work to do. No other sign of life was
there on the launch, only the flying dust mixed with
the steam and smoke that must have been leaking
out of the scrap-heap engine-room, and made me
think we were fated never to start. It was now
nine o'clock in the morning, and I had been up five
230 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
hours, so I spoke to the junk-people sternly, and
told them if there was no haste, there would
likewise be no money at the end. Then men were
fetched with yells out of the mud buildings along the
brown banks ; neighbouring junk-crews gazed at
us curiously, for we were starting with entirely
unprecedented celerity. The man chopping wood
stopped chopping, and lowered himself bodily into
the engine-room save the mark ! with an armful
of his fuel. Chunk ! chunk ! went log after log into
the fire ; some sparks flew up. Presently, the
captain of the launch sprang from nowhere, loafed
along the deck and looked in an exhausted manner
at his diminutive wheel-house. Suddenly, he
turned round on me, gasped with astonishment,
changed his expression as if struck by lightning,
and finally held out his hand, although six feet of
muddy water separated his grimy launch from my
highly-polished junk. " Hullo," he said, by way of
introduction. " Hullo," I answered laconically, and
waited for developments. Never be surprised in
Manchuria, for it has been turned so upside down
of late that the unexpected always happens.
" How fashion, Englishman come this side ? " he
finally said in his elegant pidgin. That is the
worst of it; your stupid Chinaman can always tell
an Englishman from a Russian as easily as you
can tell a Scotchman from an Italian. " How
fashion you come this die," I answered, countering
and gazing suspiciously at his tell-tale Shanghai
mechanic's cap. After much parleying, his story
XVI DOWN THE GULDEN JNUNNI 231
was duly evolved, and it presented no new fea-
tures. In fact, it was the very old story about
"littee trouble" culminating in the "foreign man
wanchee catchee my," and ending somewhat ab-
ruptly with the explanatory, " I think so come this
side more better ; by'm by'm all man forget, can go
home."
Thus is Manchuria rapidly becoming a far Eastern
Alsatia for China, Siberia, and Japan ; a place where
all men may run to, and be most completely and
thoroughly lost for the time being.
After the acquisition of this new friend, all went
most excellently. Our tow-boat launch sheered
off for the captain to try the engines. At first,
there seemed to be a little difference of opinion
between the engine-room levers and the noble
ship's propeller, for it would not revolve. But
the fat coolie again came to the rescue. Arming
himself with a long pole, he bent over the stern
sheets and assisted the propeller to start by
shoving it round. After that, who will say the
Chinese do not understand machinery ? Soon every-
thing was ready. A rope was cast to us, we made
fast and off we started. In five minutes, there was
nothing to be seen of the crowds of junks, sampans,
and mud buildings that mark the riverine port of
Tsitsihar. The dust whirls became less and less as
we got away from the shores and steamed peacefully
on the river. The crews disappeared, as all crews
do once their ship is out of port ; the steersman of
our junk, squatting thoughtfully alongside his huge
232 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
wooden tiller, was the only man alive, and he seemed
to be dreaming. After an hour or so, we passed
under the huge Nonni railway bridge, not much
smaller than the one over the Sungari at Harbin,
and as it faded away in the distance I realised that for
some days the Russian would be a myth, swallowed
up by the huge Manchurian territories and surely
most unreal. At twelve o'clock, I realised that I was
very dirty, and what is more, very hungry, so I ate
roughly, and sluiced Nonni water over me. It is
only by travelling that you learn how little and how
badly any man can eat, without feeling a whit the
worse for it that is, if he has an optimistic
stomach.
Thus, I travelled down the muddy and golden
Nonni, for the Nonni is golden at times. As you
go down the river, at your leisurely six or seven
miles an hour, the country round about you changes
in a most surprising manner. For fifty miles from
Tsitsihar, far beyond your right bank, you see dis-
tant mountains, which advance and retreat like the
marshalling and manoeuvring of giant armies. Be-
yond them lie the great Hsing-an mountains,
through which the railway twists and turns, seeking
the easiest path, forced to content itself with a tem-
porary way until the tunnel is complete.
Engineers say that this tunnel is a triumph of
man's skill, for it curls up into the bowels of the
mountains, and down the other side in a shape
resembling the figure 8, and its approaching success
is the fit reward for a daring attempt in the middle
XVI DOWN THE GOLDEN NONNI 233
of wildernesses. Still farther on, beyond the
Hsing-an, are two hundred miles of rough lands,
where scarce any man lives. True, there is one
town, or was one town, Khailar what a barbaric
ring it has ! an outpost, garrisoned once by Man-
churian soldiery until the Boxer trouble. Then
Cossack horsemen swept into it, and with fire and
sword chastised celestial ignorance. Eighty miles
from Khailar is the true Russian frontier, and at a
place called Manchuria Station, on the Argun
river, which rolls out of Lake Dalai-nor, distant
only a few thousand yards from the iron track, you
finally pass from immense Manchuria into still more
Gargantuan Siberia. That is what you would see
if you could jump the vision of your eyes as far as
your thoughts so easily go. On the left bank of the
Nonni, you see mud and sand plain, and hills
stretching away into infinity. Twenty miles from
Tsitsihar, there are formidable sand hills on your
left ; your launch puffs and pulls, and onward you
go until you come to high riverless plains. You
see hardly a living person, or a hut, for the villages,
such as they are, are ten, twenty, or thirty miles in-
land, scattered along the great post-road which runs
from Tsitsihar via Petuna, to Kirin city. These
post-roads are the chains which connect uncivilised
Manchuria with the moderately civilised, and on
them labour, or are supposed to labour, the political
convicts of the eighteen provinces. Thus we went
on hour after hour, until far after dark. Then as navi-
gation was getting harder, the launch pulled up, and
234 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
was tied to the bank. Everybody got off, walked
about, and talked. The mechanic skipper accepted
a cigar, skilfully bit off the end, and told me our run.
Two hundred li in ten hours. Pretty good going,
all things considered.
The second day was very much like the first day,
except that we started a good deal earlier. The
evening before I had turned in before nine o'clock,
after concluding a small drinking entertainment, to
which I had bidden my friends, the two captains.
Vodka and tea were the beverages of the night, and
these, paltry as they may seem, unloosened the tongues
of men who were tired of unending voyages up and
down lonely rivers, and were highly willing to talk.
What I learnt about the general situation, and about
the real feeling in Manchuria, was very interesting,
but what pleased me most was the remarkably
intelligent and accurate manner in which these two
Chinamen, both really as much strangers in Man-
churia as myself, summed up things from every
point of view, and seemed to understand the why
and the wherefore of many things that are most
involved. Just as it is always Russia in the Far
Eastern Press since the crisis, so once you are quiet
with Chinese in Manchuria do they turn to the
absorbing topic.
As it is not uncommon in the north, the night
brought a change in the weather. The vile westerly
winds dropped suddenly, and when I woke up, some-
where about five o'clock in the morning, cloudless
blue skies greeted and smiled at me entranced me.
xvi DOWN THE GOLDEN NONNI 235
We were already gliding smoothly and rapidly down
stream, tugged willingly by our dirty little launch,
and the world looked so peaceful and happy that
one's spirits jumped up with mercurial rapidity.
Presently the sun rose, huge, magnificent, and lusty,
as he never is in wilted South China. The hoar
frost about the banks disappeared as if by magic,
and the nipping, clear air felt like so much nectar
in one's lungs as soon as one's numbed body was
warmed by the bright rays and life was worth
living. You do not wonder at the hardy health of
Manchurian corps, Manchurian beasts of burden, and
Manchurian men and women when you have breathed
the air of this Chinese Canada ; it is too splendid for
words. The crew were as happy as mudlarks, and
rough jests were bandied to and fro as the men sat
and drank and ate. Splendid fellows these, all tall
and shapely, and with faces burnt by the sun and
tanned by the wind until they were as dark as the
lighter-hued natives of India.
To the right of us, due west, the mountains and
hills of the day before had now disappeared, and in
their place were the rich-rolling grass-lands of Mon-
golia. We were fast approaching the River Cholo,
the junction of which with the Nonni is one of the
theoretical boundary points of Mongolia, although
the Mongolian nomads, as a matter of fact, have
always occupied the country on the left bank of the
lower Nonni. On this left bank the scenery was
most curious. Instead of mud, sand largely pre-
dominated here, and sometimes when the river made
236 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
a sharp bend, huge sandstone cliffs frowned down
on us, fifty or a hundred feet high. From the roof
of the stern sheets, built up to an enormous height, as
is the case with all Chinese junks, a splendid view
was sometimes obtainable, for the rains had been
exceptionally heavy all over Manchuria during the
autumn, and the water was consequently very high
everywhere.
Twice during the day we stopped, once at a gold-
washers' village, and once at a ford. The gold-
washers' village was almost deserted, for the winter
was coming on rapidly, and nearly all the Hei-lung-
chiang population is nomadic when it can afford to
be so.
Gold-washing is a great industry all along the
Nonni, for the Nonni is golden beyond the dreams
of avarice. Sometimes a solitary Chinaman, living
in a wretched hovel, will pan out in a short six
months season five hundred, a thousand, or even two
thousands taels' worth of rich, red gold, and when
the winter comes on he hides away his dust in fear
and trembling about his person, and tries to sneak
home by devious ways. More often than not he is
caught and held up by the brigand hunghutzu, who
only rob men of two things, gold or skins, and he
loses his all. Or, if he is more cautious and willing
to put his trust in desperate men, he takes out what
we may call an insurance coupon with the nearest
hunghutzu thief, and agrees to pay over at least one-
half of his earnings in return for a safe conduct
pass, or open letter, to all other hunghutzu of the
XVI DOWN THE GOLDEN NONNI 237
district, which will carry him thus unrobbed to his
home.
Gold-washing is, therefore, a highly dangerous
occupation, for apart from the brigands, the poor
placer-miner may have to reckon with his own
Government. Mining is illegal in Chinese territory
except under official supervision, and when an un-
sanctioned gold-washer is caught by his officials he
loses his head. Although the profits are great and
wonderful, only very bold men will risk so much, for
the Chinaman is above all things a man who must
be satisfied that what is doing is sane and good
business before he will embark in it.
Soon after noon we passed the mouth of the
muddy Cholo River, which looks a mere creek, even
when compared with the now narrow Nonni. On
the left bank there were always the same mono-
tonous cliffs and hills of sand, with not a living
thing in sight. At five we reached a narrow place
with a creek running into it, and the captain pulled
up for half an hour, on the left bank.
We got out and scrambled up the highest hill.
Nothing much to be seen at first. Yes, but far
away in the distance I saw a narrow brown ribbon
through my glasses. I gave my glasses to the
stevedore, and he looked too. It was the great
post-road that had swerved nearer the river, but was
still many miles away. Beyond that there was
nothing to be seen but rolling brown distance.
What a country is Manchuria, for there is ample
room for a hundred million of men ! A shrill
238 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
whistle from the launch bade us return, and we
raced furiously down the banks. Again we were off,
puffing and panting down the interminable river.
It became dark long before six, but as the moon
was shining brightly it was easy to find one's way
along this peaceful river. At eleven we tied up for
the night, having accomplished not much under four
hundred li in nineteen hours. The next day came,
and found us early afoot. Even the Manchu lady
passengers were thawing, and who knows what
might not have happened had the journey been a
little longer. They sat with me and drank cocoa
by the hour, and said it was better than tea. So
take note, cocoa-makers of England ; there is a
vast market in the Far East if you can only
reach it, for cocoa is cheaper and more filling than
tea.
During the morning we passed villages and junks.
Every hour was bringing us nearer Chinese civilisa-
tion and inhabited places. Before noon we reached
a large village on the right bank, I think it was
Pu-chia-h'un, and we were now only a few miles off
the Sungari. After a short halt, on we went again,
and at one o'clock we passed from the Nonni into
the broad Sungari, and headed pantingly upstream
against a moderate current. Petuna was now only
twenty milesa way, and it was a race whether we
could fetch it before dark. At a quarter-past five, a
cloud of masts hove up in front of us as we came round
a bend, and on the banks were mud-huts galore.
xn DOWM THE GOLDEX NOXM : -
Joyously, I watched the launch tog us proudly up
into the middle of the shipping, and beat her may
amid shouts and yefls to the H?"lre And then, as I
turned to get my things, the captain of the junk
had his innings. "This is not Petuna,"" he said
pleasantly ; ** Petuna is twenty fi inland.'"
CHAPTER XVII
SLAV AND CHINAMAN
IT is very hard to pronounce a reliable opinion on
the results of the three years' intimacy in Manchuria
between the Slav and the Chinaman. Of course,
non- Britishers will scoff at the idea that an English-
man can give an impartial and unbiassed opinion,
and will be inclined to argue that facts which are
unfavourable to his conclusions are, if not suppressed,
at least grotesquely distorted, and prominence given
only to those which tend to throw doubt on the
Russian assimilating power or the Russian capacity
for winning Asiatics. However, as mere assurances
will never convince anybody, it is best that he who
reads should decide whether the array of facts and
the conclusions arrived at are based on solid and
reasonable premises, and whether a spirit of fairness
is shown.
At the outset, it is best to take the material evi-
dences, and afterwards wander into fields of specu-
lation. It must be confessed that there can be little
doubt that the Chinaman learns the Russian idiom
with extraordinary ease, and takes to it like
CH. xvn SLAV AND CHINAMAN 241
a duck to water. In Port Arthur, in Dalny,
even more in Harbin, and also along the rail-
way, there are thousands, tens of thousands,
and even hundreds of thousands of Chinese who
speak Russian. Some, in fact, it may be said
without prejudice the vast majority, only talk a
curious kitchen-Russian, in which numbers of
newly-coined Russo-Chinese words and idioms have
already entered ; but there are thousands who can
talk in a manner surprising to the Muscovite him-
self, and who also write after a fashion. When it is
remembered that, at the most, three or four years
have elapsed since the new language became at all
generally heard on Manchurian soil, surprise
is permissible. For, in Hong Kong, where the
Englishman has been for more than sixty years,
how many of the four hundred thousand Chinese
there congregated have even a working know-
ledge of the Anglo-Saxon's tongue ? Very few,
indeed.
This fact must therefore be conceded to the
Russian : that, whatever his faults may be, he is
able to impress the superficial observer with the
idea that he so thoroughly dominates and sets his
mark on alien peoples, that he forces them to speak
his own language, and thus forces them to come to
him even when they are on their own ground.
Language, after all, is a most potent weapon, and
it is therefore well to inquire at once how the
Russian succeeds so well in this respect, and
whether the opinion that a first step towards
R
242 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
assimilation has been taken is correct in the case of
the Chinese.
Indirectly, the explanation can be compressed
into a single sentence : it is due to the low intel-
lectual standard of the average Russian who follows
in the train of conquering armies, to the lower
standard in the ranks of the conquering armies
themselves, to the Russian's simplicity of character,
and, lastly, to his real love of talking. The average
Englishman I do not necessarily mean the educated
man is always inclined to be curt with Easterners.
Whether he confesses it or not, he believes that
he is dealing with inferior races, and instinctively,
as he opens his mouth, he shuts down on his
feelings with a steely reserve. But, at least, the
Englishman has none of the American's foolish
sentiment for the "little brown brother," which has
been nauseating the dwellers in China treaty ports
since the Stars and Stripes were hoisted over
Manila.
With the Russian no such thing is apparent.
Like the Irishman, a born talker, his desire for
talk increases in arithmetical progression the farther
he gets away from home. In Manchuria and in
the Kuantung, where the authorities are not per-
turbed with fears of nationalist risings or the
outbreaks of discontented men, this desire to
"bukh," as they say in India, can be indulged in in
a manner delightful to the down-trodden lower-class
subjects of the great white Czar. The Russians
are, indeed, in no way repressed or nervous in what
xvn SLAV AND CHINAMAN 243
they are pleased to style their new province ; they
are as free as the birds or the air, absolutely un-
conventional and talk as they like ; for is not the
variegated civilian of the east for once the ally
and the friend of the uniformed authorities and
the booted soldier, helping in the great game of
bluff?
The next point to inquire into is, how this newly-
learnt knowledge has acted on the Chinaman. Has
it impressed him deeply in any way ? does he feel
Muscovite influence more acutely owing to the
language bond which is every day becoming more
marked in a word, does it prepare the ground
for assimilation ? The answer is emphatically
" No," for the following reasons. The Chinese
who have learnt to speak this curious new Russo-
Chinese have only done so in order to increase
their market value, and are mainly men of the very
lowest classes without any of what I may call caste
feeling at all. For although sufficient attention has
not been directed to it, there can be no doubt
whatsoever that the Chinese, like all Asiatics, have
a great deal of so-called caste feeling, or caste
worship. Nobody can tell the man who is a gentle-
man in his own country so quickly and so instinc-
tively as the better-class and well-to-do Chinese ;
and nobody is secretly such a worshipper of the
ordered ranks of society. Hence, although, for
purposes of gain and for reasons of expediency,
Chinese thrown into daily contact with the Russian
have been quite willing to use the Muscovite
R 2
244 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
idiom, the matter ends there, and there is no
sequel.
And the lower Chinese, even if they do not know
enough to judge for themselves, are soon instructed
by the better classes. In no country in the whole
world are the opinions of those who, by birth,
acquired influence, or natural ability, occupy leading
positions in the village, the town, or the countryside
so sought after and followed as in China. An
eternal causerie, percolating from top to bottom,
leavens the whole mass, and the opinions of master
money-bags, master official, or master head-man,
become ultimately the opinions of the plebs.
Thus in Manchuria your Shantung coolie, your
Chihli workman, and your local native, who, after
months or years of work at railway station or
railway town, thought his Russian masters the
arbiters of his fate, has been rudely shaken up on
returning home. He has had his ideas " corrected,"
so to speak, and has been told that, although the
earning of Russian roubles is a praiseworthy act,
seeing that it enriches all, care should be taken not
to let matters go any farther. For the Chinaman
is, after all, but the obedient child of a vast family
of four hundred millions of living men and countless
myriads of dead ones ; in life he is the direct
servitor of his own family, and the indirect one of
unnumbered other families, and is so tied by bonds
that he can never escape without becoming a despised
blackleg, disgraced by all. It is only when death
comes that he is recompensed. Then he is exalted to
xvn SLAV AND CHINAMAN 245
the proud position of an ancestor, and picturesquely
surveys through the march of ages the germination
and birth of countless other beings of whom he is
the part-begetter, and who extend to him the
veneration and care which others exacted from him
when he was on this terrestrial globe. It should be
realised that, until the heads of this great family
the local gentry, merchants, officials, and others of
prominence are gained over, what the coolie,
the workman, and the agricultural classes do and
think is absolutely without significance in the Far
East.
It will be seen, therefore, that what might be
taken at first sight for a partial Russian victory
this learning of Russian by countless Chinese
thrown into daily contact with the railway Empire
is, on analysis, no victory at all except perhaps
for the coffers of the Chinaman. The enmity of
the officials, the hurt feelings and rage of the well-
to-do who lost so much in 1900, are far greater
factors in the whole Manchurian question than
people realise at the present moment.
The next point to be considered is whether the
Russian has broken into that close preserve, the
Chinese family life, in Manchuria, and influenced it
at all. Again, the answer is even more emphatically,
No. The attitude of the Chinaman here, even
amongst the very lowest classes, is one of open de-
fiance, something akin to the clucking hen that
gathers her brood around her on feeling that a vague
danger is near. The Russian is privately looked
246 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
upon as a man who is sometimes good-natured,
sometimes brutal, but always a person to whom very
little is sacred. And here it is necessary to say that
woman in the Far East plays as great a part behind
the walls as her sisters in Europe outside them. It
is one of the missionary poses to talk of the poor
down-trodden women of China, waiting to be rescued
from the bondage that enslaves them. Nothing is
more foolish, nothing more at variance with solid
facts, for the Chinese and Manchu woman, like
every other w r oman in the world, is thrice armed
with a tongue the terror of the yellow man and
does very much as she pleases. Just as an Empress
Dowager, who has no business to do so, rules China,
so are all the million of Chinese homes ruled by the
womankind, who, large-footed or small-footed, are the
men of their family. A little story illustrates this
better than reams of arguments. When the Manchus
conquered China they ordered the men to shave
their heads and plait up queues under pain of death.
Those heads were duly shaved and the queues
promptly made. But when the women's turn came
and they were told to unbind their feet under pain
of similar penalties, what happened ? Nothing at
all ; not a foot was unbound, and not a head came
off, for the Chinese woman knew her strength. Put
your money on the woman in China, just as you do
in other countries, for she always wins.
So the Chinese and Manchu women of Man-
churia, being the rulers in private life and hating the
Russians with a deadly hatred, for their virtue has
xvn SLAV AND CHINAMAN 247
been frequently assailed, daily put poison into the
hearts of the milder male. Even when he returns
home and exhibits comparative wealth in the shape
of Russian rouble notes galore, she is not appeased.
For has she not at her tongue's end the disgraceful
case of Madame Yung and Miss Li, both relatives of
hers, both victims of Cossack lust ? For in China
the " lost face " of one person creates endless other
lost faces for which there is no healing. Local life
in Manchuria is very much like local life in
countries not in the immutable East, and the same
standards under different names and different garb
are to be found.
So the Russification of the Chinaman in his own
Manchurian home is rather more of a myth than
most of the fanciful tales that have been so assidu-
ously spread for political purposes. The Chinaman
is as untouched and as unregenerate, according to
the Western standards, as he ever was before ; and
such influences as are at work are the influences of
Anglo-Saxon ideas coming from the south across
the seas, and not down by land from the cold north,
where is the Russian's home. Everywhere in Man-
churia, even in such far-off places as Tsitsihar,
Petuna and Ninguta, Shanghai and Tientsin, ver-
nacular newspapers are to be found newspapers
reproducing the ideas and utterances of the English
Press of the Far East. Everywhere below the
surface there are signs that the Russian has lost
instead of gaining ground since 1900, and that he
has wasted on material things much that should
248 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
have been stored up for moral suasion and " educa-
tion " in the future.
And, now I come to think of it, there is not
much more to say. I started with the idea of mar-
shalling a terrible array of facts, of convincing all by
admirable logic, but there are, after all, very few
facts worth recording. The Chinaman has not cut
off his pig-tail ; has not changed his dress or his
habits ; has not been influenced either externally or
internally, mentally or morally. In fact, he has not
been changed at all by the Russian. It is true he
smokes Russian cigarettes. But then he only does
so when he can get them cheaper than his own
tobacco. He even despises that great Central
Asian Russifying influence, vodka, and says that it
is not half as good as his own shao-chiu. What is
there left to say ? Do you think that the Chinaman
feels himself in the presence of a higher civilisation
when he lives in Russian towns amidst Russian
men and women ? Not in the slightest, for more dirt
and more dirty habits are to be found there than in
his own native towns.
The Chinese officials have as little to do with the
Slav as possible the gentry despise him the
traders bleed him the common people learn his
language along the railway, only to insult him in
their own only the very lowest Chinese will take
domestic service with the Russian. This is the
position of the Colossus in Manchuria. Once more
I must recur to what I have so often expressed ;
Russia is simply dominating the country with an
xvn SLAV AND CHINAMAN 249
expensive army, and trembles to retreat from the
false position she has created. There is no
sympathy between the Chinaman and the Slav.
Ideally placed, the Slav has signally failed, simply
because the task he has attempted is far beyond him.
The Russian may be a Tartar- Mongol after you
have scratched him, he may be as Asiatic as you
like ; but it is well to remember that the Tartar-
Mongol, from whom the Russian partly descends,
and the Chinaman of to-day are separated by
mighty gulfs which militarism can never bridge.
CHAPTER XVIII
PETUNA A SO-CALLED BRIGAND CITY
PETUNA is a city of some importance from the
Chinese official point of view, and still more so
from the hunghutzu, or brigand's private point of
view. As I have already said, it lies some little
distance inland from the river Sungari, and is the
half-way house, so to speak, on the great post and
caravan road between Tsitsihar and Kirin city. It
has, therefore, likewise considerable commercial
importance. A Manchu Military Deputy- Lieu-
tenant-Governor should reside here with a force of
so-called foreign-drilled-banner troops ; but his
troops are now no more. There is, likewise, an
independent sub-prefect in Petuna, a civilian official
which is a rare thing to find in Hei-lung-chiang or
Kirin, for these provinces are still nominally
governed on a purely military basis. Chinese
officialdom has, however, been forced of late years
to give a more or less civil regime to all those towns
in the centre and north of Manchuria which have
risen to places of commercial importance ; for
militarism is essentially a Manchu product, and is
CH. xvin PETUNA A SO-CALLED BRIGAND CITY 251
not looked upon with favourable eyes by the
Chinese, who are, first and last, a nation of
traders.
The stevedore of my junk gleefully accepted a
place on my cart the morning after our arrival, and
saved himself the spending of a few tiao ; under the
benign influence of a Manila cigar, he further
volunteered to have me put up at the guest-house of
his honourable steamship company, in Petuna itself.
I was not slow in accepting the proffered hospitality,
for alone amongst strangers the most valiant heart
gets a little weary and I was very tired of cocoa
and eggs.
No sooner had we arrived at Petuna, after a
dusty journey of a few miles along country roads,
than I saw that I was to be indeed the honoured
guest within the gates. Everything possible was
done for me by the stevedore's people ; I was given
a huge room, which was unfortunately much colder
than a small room ; I was asked if I would like a hot
bath ; I was told that the cook of the establishment
had some skill in the foreign culinary art ; that he
could make beef steaks, soups, and what not ; that
bread was obtainable from a Japanese shop ; that I
could be shaved by a man with a foreign razor ;
and so on, until I was bewildered beyond speech.
So this was the brigand town, and these were
reputed brigand people, or at least people in league
with brigands ! As I gazed regretfully at my long
dirty-white sheepskin coat and my still more fan-
tastic fur cap (Tsitsihar purchases, these), I realised
252 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
that the positions had been reversed, and that I
was now the sorry rogue and they the most excel-
lent masters. Within an hour, however, I had
removed the marks of travel and donned a decent
coat. I was asked whether I would care to go out
for a ride on a mule with one of the clerks of the
establishment, and see the little there was to be seen
in the town. Of course I accepted, and we toured
the town in style, mounted on splendid black mules
fifteen hands high. The mule of Manchuria and
North China is more suited in appearance for saddle
than for shaft work. He is not loose-jointed and
sprawl-legged like the great American mule, which
in addition has an abominably ugly head. The
northern mule is delicately made, and is more aris-
tocratic-looking than probably any other mule in the
world, and a well-bred animal will very often cost
five hundred or a thousand taels.
Petuna, or Peihsincheng, as it is locally called, has
a population which, according to my informant,
fluctuates between twenty and thirty thousand
people, and is exactly like every other small
Chinese town. In the winter it fills up with
Mongols, for Mongolia is practically across the
street ; with summer labourers from the great farms,
carters, gold-washers, and nondescripts of all sorts ;
in summer the town empties, and the dead season
sets in. Thus Petuna has its fashionable months
like every other place in the world. I have already
said how cold it had turned before I left Tsitsihar,
and although Petuna lies 150 miles farther south,
xvin PETUNA A SO-CALLED BRIGAND CITY 253
the roads even here were getting hard and ready
for the great winter traffic.
As we passed various huge caravanserais in the
town I saw numberless teams of mules and ponies
being hitched to the great country carts, pre-
paratory to leaving for the north-east. The
clerk said that harvesting had been finished a
couple of weeks ago in the districts round Petuna,
and that as there had been enormous crops in
South-eastern Hei-lung-chiang and Northern Kirin,
preparations had been completed to begin caravan
work much earlier this year ; that cart-prices were
jumping every day and every farm-animal had
been called in already to help in the work. Thus
Manchurian draft-animals do not get much rest.
All spring and summer they are at work in the
fields, and no sooner is the harvesting through
than they are rushed away in every direction to
bring produce down to the great southern marts,
whence it is shipped away all over the Far East.
Never had local conditions been brighter,
continued the clerk, and foodstuffs were so cheap
that the poorest man could eat his bellyful daily.
Here the ponies and mules are not pinched in
their rations as in other parts of the East. Three
times a day they are stuffed as full of rich
kaoliang grain and chopped straw as they can
stand. I have watched animals being fed again
and again, and in hardly any case did I find that
they could eat their fodder baskets clean. It is
only by thus allowing them to eat to utter repletion
254 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
that caravan-masters can call on their animals to do
the enormous cartage work they are able to per-
form from day to day without evil results. In no
other part of the world are such great distances
covered daily as those done with ease by
Manchurian carts, very often carrying from five
thousand to eight thousand pounds of dead-weight ;
and in no other country in the world has the
cartage system been so perfected as here. At a
rough guess I should say that there were fully one
million draft animals employed in the winter
caravans' work. What this means from a military
point of view every soldier will readily recognise.
Instead of being tied to the railway, enormous
bodies of troops could find, if necessary,
unexcelled transport facilities awaiting them in
every town and village of Manchuria, and would
thus be able to move with ease in any direction
with supplies sufficient for weeks being hauled
after them as fast as the quickest infantry could
march.
Touring the town I discovered that there were
several dozen Japanese men and women living in
Petuna. Some had small shops ; others had no
visible means of existence. The company's clerk
told me that most of their business was with the
small Russian steamboats that passed up the river
to Kirin city, and that nearly all were undesirable
characters who had found Korea and China proper
too hot for them. Japan, however, finds these
people extremely useful as intelligence officers,
xvin PETUNA A SO-CALLED BRIGAND CITY 255
although all decent Japanese express the greatest
contempt for them. Low associations have robbed
them, men and women alike, of that wonderful
Japanese politeness and charm of manner which is
so noticeable in their own country. Nearly all of
them speak Russian and Northern Chinese with
some fluency and are making money.
So far not a sign or a word about hunghutzu or
brigands had I seen or heard, and so with some
embarrassment, for I had heard of the intimate
relations which are supposed to exist between
traders and these gentry, I asked my companion
the truth about the matter. At the first mention of
the word "hutzu " he shied visibly, and did not look
on me with favourable eyes. But as I continued to
press him, and assured him that it was a matter of
utter indifference to me whether the whole town
was a brigand headquarters or not, and that I merely
sought for information to amuse myself, he relented
and turned to me with the inexplicable and mys-
terious Chinese laugh. "In the first place," he
said, " the term hutzu is not used here ; or if it is,
it is only by people who have no knowledge. We
are all honest people, and have clean hearts. The
real hunghutzu are found in Central and Northern
Kirin, and are utter scoundrels who live in moun-
tains and deserve to lose their heads." Thus far
so good, but when I asked for further details he was
more obscure. Finally he confessed that in Petuna
arrangements had been come to whereby traders
and the former men of the road worked together
256 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
for mutual protection and gain. Ever since the
Russian invasion by rail and river the Chinese civil
and military authority had ceased to be able to do
much more than collect reduced revenues, and could
no longer afford much protection for traders. One
course was therefore only open to traders they
must compound with brigand chiefs or be unable to
trade. They had chosen the former course, and
now the erstwhile brigands lived in the town, col-
lected a fixed and moderate insurance rate on all
goods in transitu, and furnished escorts, armed with
hidden weapons and looking exactly like all other
northern Chinamen, to all strings of carts and boats
carrying valuables, and protected them from any
free lances who still kept the road. This was there-
fore the whole local brigand question in a nutshell,
and a very innocent and excellent nutshell, in all
truth. I was therefore doomed to disappointment,
and was not fated to meet burly horsed men,
disguised with henna-red beards, as I had pic-
tured to myself, who would hold me up and
shoot the icicles off my moustaches by way of
intimidation !
So we rode home, having done Petuna most
thoroughly. It looks innocent enough for anybody,
and exactly like every other northern town in
Manchuria. But from Port Arthur to Harbin, and
then east and west along the railway, all Russians
warn you about Petuna, and tell you that only strong
bodies of troops can go there.
An excellent meal had been prepared and was
O.\ THE ADJOINING MONGOLIAN FRONTIER.
A NORTHERN CROWD WITHIN THE GROUNDS OF A TEMPLE.
xvin PETUNA A SO-CALLED BRIGAND CITY 257
awaiting us, all smoking hot, when we got back, and
we fell to with gusto. I ate salmon from the Hei-
lung-chiang, venison broth, vermicelli, chicken, and a
dozen other things, and finally finished by drinking
flat beer out of a liqueur glass. I asked about the
Russians and whether they had seen many of these
gentry in their town during the past three years.
Not many, was the answer I got. It appeared that
a sotnia of Cossacks had occasionally paid the place
a visit, but had never remained there for long. It was
extraordinary to see the indifference and veiled con-
tempt with which they spoke of the Russian military
here, and the Buriat cavalryman was apparently the
great local joke. The Buriat is of course a rather
debased and indifferent form of Mongol, and as
Petuna lies on the Mongolian frontier, Petuna's
merchants apparently know the exact market value
of a Mongol, which is evidently not a very high one
from their accounts. The Buriat is a small man
and a badly-made, stupid, and ugly man at that, and
his only virtue is that he can ride ; which is not
extraordinary, seeing that the Mongol Sagas say
that good horsemen are born whilst their mothers
sit astride. Of course Petuna sees the Russian flag
a good deal on the river Sungari, for baby-steamers
pass up and down the river between Harbin and
Kirin city almost every day. These steamers, how-
ever, are now mostly chartered by Chinese mer-
chants and the Russian crews of half-bred Amur
natives are being gradually but surely replaced by
Shantung Chinese. Are you beginning to appreciate
258 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
the Russian position in Manchuria? Manchuria,
instead of being conquered by Russia, is becoming
the happy-hunting ground and the home of the
frugal Shantung coolie, who is being brought there
in increasing quantities by the railway. Three
years ago there may have been some talk, or some
reason for talk, concerning Russian immigration
into Manchuria ; to-day there is none. The Russian
immigrant, if he ever existed, has disappeared after
contact with the Chinaman. A few dozen or a few
hundred linger, it is true, in Harbin, Port Arthur
and Dalny, eking out a miserable existence ; but
beyond that the civilian Russian is mainly a
myth, and a bare-faced myth, made possible only
by the credulity of the Press where Russia is
concerned.
Taking the north-west province of Hei-lung-
chiang, which has an area of nearly two hundred
thousand miles, and is therefore somewhat bigger than
the other two provinces of Manchuria put together, I
do not believe that there are at present one hundred
civilian Russians, or say one to every two thousand
square miles of territory. And coming next to the
military, the province has been stripped of every
man along the railway (for Russia has hardly ever
ventured off the railway) that can possibly be
spared. The paucity of the number of railway
guards at the stations in Hei-lung-chiang province is
more laughable than anything else a few wretched
men to garrison places that could eat them up in
half-an-hour if the tug-of-war with Japan really
xvui PETUNA A SO-CALLED BRIGAND CITY 259
comes, and Japan calls for help from Manchuria's
millions.
In long arguments, and with much drinking of
tea, I passed the afternoon with my hosts and
dealers of all sorts and descriptions crowding in to
talk over the news. One fat man with a generally
meek and mild demeanour was pointed out to me as
an ex-brigand. He looked more harmless than any
of them, and surely had never hurt anybody.
Presently the question arose as to what I
proposed doing. I told them that although one
hundred years would seem like but one day in their
company, and that my conversion to pig-tailed life
was now merely a question of time, it seemed to me
that I had better be leaving Petuna. There was
nothing more for me to find out there, and the little
I had learnt was not of startling importance.
Petuna is the same to-day as Petuna was five years
ago, and as Petuna will be five years hence, so what
could I learn ? As luck would have it, the launch
was going down stream the next morning to
Harbin. I decided to take her, and pass the day in
her archaic engine-room watching the curious fight
between rust, dust, oil, steam, and steel, and the
Chinaman as the operator. At six in the evening I
went out and bought a present for the senior lady
of the establishment a looking-glass that made
you look as if you had the mumps and a partially
corrugated face. It was accepted with delight,
however. Even in Manchuria, make friends with
the ladies, and they will see you through. At
S 2
2 6o MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CH. xvm
eight o'clock I turned in ; at four o'clock in the
morning I was up again, and by seven I was once
more speeding down the Sungari, this time sans
junk and sans worry of any sort. The worst part
of my travels was over.
CHAPTER XIX
CHINESE ADMINISTRATION AND RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE
THE administration of Manchuria was originally
conducted on a purely military basis. When
Nurhachu, the founder of the Manchu dynasty,
began the overthrow of the effete Mings by leading
armies of Manchus, in whose ranks were many
Chinese and Mongols, against those of the Chinese
Emperor, he placed the government of conquered
districts in the hands of trusted lieutenants. Starting
from a point to the north east of Moukden of
to-day, this resolute leader of men began by first
subjugating all the many tribes of his countrymen
around his own little kingdom. When they were
conquered, he turned his attention to the Chinese-
settled districts in Southern and South-western Man-
churia. These acknowledged the overlordship of
the Mings and were governed from Peking as the
Liao-chou-wei or the districts surrounding the Liao.
The Liaotung Peninsula of to-day and the country
west of the Liao known as Liao Hsi are the areas
referred to. Only years of hard fighting conquered
all the territory comprised in the provinces of
262 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Fengtien and Kirin, for the yellow soldiers of nearly
three centuries ago were no cowards, and many of
the Manchu tribes were jealous of the growing
power. Nurhachu died, leaving his work uncom-
pleted, and Peking still in the hands of the Mings,
and it was a grandson of his, the great Shun Chih,
who first ascended the Dragon Throne of China.
From 1644, the first year of the reign of Shun
Chih, the government of the southernmost and the
most settled province of Manchuria, Fengtien, has be-
come more and more similar to that of the other
eighteen provinces of China, until to-day it may be
said that, with one important exception, it is practically
the same. What this difference is will be shown later.
The northernmost, or the Hei-lung-chiang province,
was not brought even nominally under the sway of
the Manchu government until 1671, or say nearly
half a century after Kirin and Fengtien had acknow-
ledged the new regime. And up to the time of the
Boxer troubles the Hei-lung-chiang military adminis-
tration had continued unbroken for two centuries
and a quarter. The province of Kirin is like
Hei-lung-chiang, governed by a Chiang Chiin or
Military Governor, but although the administration
should be more or less military, the ever-advancing
tide of Chinese settlers coming from the south,
tillers of the soil and peaceful traders, has ended by
making the so-called military regime impossible in
all but the extreme northern and eastern parts of
the country. These are still largely covered with
virgin forests in which wild beasts roam at will, and
xix CHINESE ADMINISTRATION 263
only venturesome hunters and searchers after the
priceless ginseng root are found in these desolate
stretches, so that their mode of government has no
importance.
Of Manchuria's recently estimated population
of twenty millions, the great bulk is in Fengtien.
It would be foolish to attempt to give a really
accurate estimate of population province by pro-
vince, for even the gross total of twenty millions
is probably either too large or too small. But for
the sake of illustration and for driving home the exact
condition of each province, there is no harm in saying
that Fengtien has probably thirteen million people,
Kirin five millions, and Hei-lung-chiang but two.
This will give the reader a good idea of the country
from the Chinese trade point of view which is the
one of the greatest fundamental importance. It is
necessary, likewise, to remember that Hei-lung-
chiang is nearly twice as large as Kirin, and that
Kirin itself is double the size of Fengtien. Fengtien
therefore may be said to be civilised, Kirin half-
civilised, and Hei-lung-chiang very little so.
I have already said that with one important excep-
tion the province of Fengtien is to-day governed much
as the other provinces of China. The highest official
is the Governor-General, who corresponds in rank
to the great Viceroys of China proper. As Governor-
General, he is the Commander-in-Chief of all the
Banner and Chinese troops within the province of
Fengtien, and by virtue of his high office is also
High Commissioner in charge of all the defences of
264 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Manchuria. In this capacity, when the defences of
the other two provinces, Kirinand Hei-lung-chiang,
are concerned, he has as colleagues the two Military
Governors residing at Kirin and Tsitsihar, and is,
therefore, to some extent their superior. Not en-
tirely, however, for the Chinese administrative
system is so cunningly devised that the authority of
every official, no matter how high in office he may
be, is always hedged around with reservations calcu-
lated to check him from becoming too presumptuous
and thereby dangerous to the Throne. It would be
impossible without wandering considerably away
from the point to deal satisfactorily with the subject
of overlapping authority, but it will suffice to say
that the Chinese Government, ever nervous lest some
powerful satrap should accumulate too much authority
and power, seeks by this curious multiplication of
office and overlapping of authority, to render the
overlords of far-away provinces never certain of
their own prerogatives, and thus forces them to
consult inferiors in matters of special nature.
Railways, telegraphs, and the steam-road will, in
time, greatly modify this, but to-day the old fear is
still present.
The highest civil and military official a dual
office, it will be observed of Fengtien is therefore
the Governor-General. Under him, at his provincial
capital of Moukden, there are five Boards of
Ministries which are to all intents and purposes the
counterparts of the great Boards of Pekin the one
exception being the Board of Civil Office, which
xix CHINESE ADMINISTRATION 265
does not exist in the Fengtien Government, and
thus the Moukden Viceroy may not appoint his own
officials. Each Board is presided over by a Vice-
President (note how cunning this is, as the Pekin
Boards are of course controlled by Presidents higher
than the Moukden seigneurs), and each of these
Vice- Presidents is in his own special department a
colleague of the head of the province, the Governor-
General, and therefore something of a restraining
influence. The five Boards are the Board of
Revenue, the Board of Ceremonies, the Board of
War, the Board of Punishments, and finally the
Board of Works.
It will be therefore seen that the chief Manchurian
province enjoys a special distinction from the other
provinces of China and that this special provincial
Government, a reproduction of the Peking system,
shows the peculiar character of Manchuria in the
eyes of the Manchu rulers and their desire to keep
it somewhat distinct from China proper. All these
somewhat tedious details are necessary in order to
understand fully the nature of the self-appointed
task of the Russian and the extraordinary difficulties
which any one, no matter how astute, would ex-
perience in attempting to substitute an alien regime
in the place of the extremely complex Chinese one
which has obtained for so many years.
Under the Governor-General there is a Civil
Governor, who enjoys the same rank as that of a
provincial Governor of China, and this official is
likewise a colleague of his nominally supreme chief.
266 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Each Board, apart from its Vice- President, has a
large staff of secretaries and minor officials, each
of whom has a special department under his ex-
clusive care, and in addition to these there are in
Moukden the head Government offices of such
special services as the military gendarmerie, the
police, the Imperial hunting grounds, the pasturage
and stud departments of the Throne, and finally
various tax offices. Comparatively recently, a
Bureau of Foreign Affairs has been added to this
imposing list, and the wretched officials in charge
of this last-named office have been almost led to
suicide during the past two years owing to the
Russian worries. But all the officials so far enumer-
ated merely correspond to the great Government
Officers of any European country, and reside alto-
gether at Moukden.
The actual work of governing the people is
entrusted to prefects and magistrates, who constitute
the general administrative body of the service, and
are charged with the collection of revenue, the
maintenance of order, the primary dispensation
of justice, the conduct of literary examinations, the
control of the Government postal service, and in
general with the exercise of public administration.
The highest of these officials is the Taotai, or the
Intendant of Circuit, who corresponds almost
exactly to the Commissioner of the Indian system.
The Taotai is an official exercising administrative
duties over two or three prefectures, the biggest
provincial sub-division, and he has also control over
xix CHINESE ADMINISTRATION 267
the military forces within his jurisdiction. The
actual provincial divisions are first the prefecture, or
fu ; second the sub-prefecture, or t'ing ; third the
department, or chou ; and lastly the district, or hsien.
It is impossible to deal here with the complex
subject of how these various divisions and sub-
divisions down to the hsien or district are arranged,
or to detail the guiding principles followed. It
will suffice if it has been understood how excellent
on paper, and how highly developed, is the system
on which the Manchurian Government is conducted.
An index to the efficiency which should result is
given when it is pointed out that each official is
directly responsible to someone else, that every step
and possible contingency is also provided for on
paper, that no one man is so highly placed that he
is not directly responsible to someone else, and
finally that these bonds of custom, etiquette, and
precedent have become such a part and parcel of
the body politic and of the lives of the common
people, that even the greatest upheavals, flinging
men here and there, and involving things in an
apparently inextricable muddle, find all, when quiet
finally comes, looking for the status quo ante, and
achieving it as fast as possible.
But although the administration of Fengtien
is so well ordered and complete, it must not be
supposed that there is no element of self-govern-
ment in the province ; for there is, and Chinese
officials rely much more than is commonly sup-
posed on the cooperation of so-called headmen
268 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
of villages, towns, and cities. These headmen
or Hsiang-yao are selected by their fellow villagers
or townsmen, as the case may be, and are ap-
proved of by the civil authority of the district.
In a village or countryside there is only one ; in
a town each ward has its representative. The
duties of these men may be expressed in very
few words. They are simply the recognised inter-
mediaries between the local inhabitants and the
civil power. They represent their constituents in
disputes, they appear in cases of litigation in the
local courts, they stamp title-deeds, report sus-
picious death cases, armed robberies, &c. It will
be seen that the Chinese system is wonderfully
balanced, and that the peaceful and well-conducted,
unless they become involved in lawsuits, the curse
of China, have almost all men can desire.
But there is another point to observe. The great
gentry and merchant guilds, unions vastly more
satisfactory than the European variety, play a large
part in all financial and revenue-collecting matters.
The oil to grease the wheels of officialdom is largely
obtained from these guilds, and although originally
formed for the protection of their members against
the rapacity of squeeze-worshippers, they are to-day
looked upon with favour by the local authorities, for
they can always be relied upon for prompt cash
payments, settling contributions in gross, to the
mutual profit of all concerned without undue delay.
It is amusing to glance for a moment at what
Mr. Wirt Gerrare, the latest authority on Russian
xix CHINESE ADMINISTRATION 269
expansion in the Far East, says about Fengtien
province. Talking of Mr. Hirschmann, the builder
of the Central Manchurian railway that is, the sec-
tion from Port Arthur to Harbin he casually says,
" he is an able negotiator, understands the Chinese
character better than his fellows, and has set about
the difficult task of russifying the Fengtien province
of Manchuria ! " In a single sentence, the vast and
populous province of Fengtien is thus dismissed,
and those who have not the time to investigate for
themselves are led to believe that thirteen millions
of hard-headed people, with a governmental system
which has become part of their very being, are being
russified by a railway engineer, when he has a few
hours free from railway construction !
The province of Kirin is entirely differently con-
stituted to that of Fengtien. As I have already
said, its administration is practically on a military
basis. Provision has had to be made, however, for
the government of the Chinese on a purely civil basis
wherever they have settled in large numbers in the
province, and, therefore, to-day there are nearly a
dozen prefectures and sub-prefectures, presided over
by civil officials, which cover large areas and contain
big settled populations. Taking Harbin as the
centre of a circle, it may be said that all these civil-
administered and well-settled districts lie within a
two-hundred-mile radius. All the Kirin civil offi-
cials are of course subject to the authority of the
military Governor of Kirin, but, as a matter of fact,
the Governor-General of Fengtien and his entourage
270 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
at Moukden are mainly instrumental in appointing
and removing Kirin civil officials, although the
Board of Civil Office at Peking is the Ministry
which nominally deals with them.
The province of Hei-lung-chiang may be dismissed
with very few words. It is under a purely military
regime) and there are only two civil territorial
officials in nearly two hundred thousand square
miles of country. These are stationed at the inde-
pendent sub-prefectures of Hulan and Pei-tuan-
lintzu both not more than a few miles to the
north-east of Harbin, and lying in the valleys of
the river Hulan, a tributary of the Sungari. These
sub-prefectures form the limit of the thickly-settled
districts of North-Western Manchuria. The only
other part of Hei-lung-chiang in which Chinese are
to be found to any great extent is the valley of the
upper Nonni, between Tsitsihar and Mergen. Popu-
lous villages of recent growth were to be found
here before the Boxer regime, but the disastrous
year of 1900, and the Russian brutalities which fol-
lowed, have greatly reduced the number of inhabi-
tants.
The reader will now have some idea of the civil
administration of the three Manchurian provinces.
It is now time to speak of the military.
The forces to which the throne even to-day
nominally looks for unquestioned support in Man-
churia are the Banner troops. Only in theory,
however, and to that theory every day is adding a
little more of the absurd and improbable. These
xix CHINESE ADMINISTRATION 271
Banner troops are formed from the descendants of
the Manchus, Northern Chinese, and Mongols, who
assisted in the conquest of China, and Banner people
are known under the general name of Ch'i Jen.
The major part of the Manchus and their allies
who conquered the eighteen provinces remained to
garrison the newly-acquired territory, but such as
were left behind in Manchuria were included in the
complex Manchu military organisation, which obtains
to this day.
The headquarters of the Banners are, of course,
in Peking, but the whole system extends to Man-
churia. Each Banner is divided into three Kusa,
or divisions, and each division has only one nation-
ality in its ranks Manchu, Mongol, or Chinese, as
the case may be. These subdivisions are to-day
somewhat nominal, and are only quoted to show
that a difference exists in theory between the various
nationalities of Ch'i Jen or Bannermen. A com-
petent authority estimates that there are not more
than from one-and-half million Banner people or
Manchus call them which you like, in the whole of
Manchuria, and this figure includes men, women,
and children. In appearance the men cannot be
distinguished from the ordinary Chinese, for they
dress everywhere almost exactly alike, and it is only
in a few almost purely Banner towns that a few
peculiarities may be observed. These have been
kept up more because it is more chic to be known
as a Manchu than as a common Chinaman than for
any other reason. With the women it is different^
272 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
for their dress is very distinctive, and in Manchuria,
as in other countries, it is fashionable for the
women to follow the lead of the upper ten in the
North by being Manchus if they can possibly
manage it. Numbers of men are constantly by
bribery getting their names placed on the rolls of
various Banner corps in Manchuria, and it is hinted
by the gossips in the towns that the ladies have
generally something to do with it. The women's
head-dress is very fantastic, and their feet are shod
in long high-soled shoes of very peculiar design.
Manchu men and women have naturally much smaller
feet than the Chinese. Although nominally all be-
longing to the Banners, in practice only a very small
portion of the able-bodied male Manchu population
put in any sort of service with the colours. The
Banner population of Manchuria may, in fact, be
called reservists pensioned off before they have
served, and this archaic force has, of course, had
absolutely no value in the field for many years.
Every male receives a small monthly subsidy which
is just enough to feed him, and, therefore, turns him
into a loafer, for to obtain even this trifling sum he
must attend his pension office monthly in person
a state of affairs highly unsatisfactory from every
point of view.
To fill the active cadres of Banner battalions
which before the Boxer business might sometimes
be seen drilling in provincial capitals and elsewhere,
certain examinations: were held in exercises, in-
teresting in this age of smokeless powder and quick-
xix CHINESE ADMINISTRATION 273
firers. The first qualification is shooting with bow
and arrow on foot. When a candidate has passed
this stiff test, he is required to mount a fiery steed
and drive full tilt down a narrow trench, making a
certain number of bulls with the bow and arrow on
targets, placed about three yards distant from the
cutting. In order to prevent deception it is cus-
tomary to mark the boot of each candidate with a
number, but for a consideration the official boot-
markers put the mark on the side opposite to that
on which the judges sit, and, therefore, any candi-
date may hire a crack shot to win distinction for
him, without any fear of detection. Weight lifting,
with great stone weights, qualifies you for the upper
grades, and a Chinese Sandow would probably get
a divisional command in the Banner forces without
an hour's delay.
This brief sketch of the Manchu or Banner
population of Manchuria will have shown the
special position of the men, the pride of caste of
the women, and how the throne still does not dare
to tamper with ancient privileges, which are retard-
ing the development of the country, and which
keep alive old evils.
The active Banner forces of Manchuria were sup-
posed to number between forty and fifty thousand
men before the Boxer war, and were posted mainly
at the provincial capitals Moukden, Kirin, and
Tsitishar and at certain towns in Fengtien where
the Banner population predominated. Thousands
of Manchu families still live in cities that are prac-
T
274 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
tically contemporaneous with the old-time victories
of Nurhachu.
In spite of the early military prestige of the
Manchus, of late years, even the Chinese Govern-
ment has rather laughed at their capacity in the
field, and so the effective garrisons of Manchuria
became some time ago, foreign-drilled Chinese
troops. When I say foreign-drilled, I use it in the
sense understood in China that is, drilled after
supposedly foreign standards and armed with
Mausers and Krupp guns. The number of these
troops was estimated previous to the coming of the
Russians at about thirty thousand men.
The military administration of Fengtien, although
under the supreme control of the Governor-General
of the province, is carried on directly by a specially-
appointed Military Governor. Under him are four
Military Deputy- Lieutenant-Generals residing at
Moukden, Chin-Chou-t'ing, Hsing-Ching, and until
recently, Chin Chou, in the Kuantung territory.
The approximate number of men in this force was
ten thousand, at least one-half being stationed at
Moukden. This concludes both the military and
civil government of the province of Fengtien.
In the quasi-military administered province of
Kirin, the foreign-drilled Chinese troops were
divided into six commands of Military Deputy-
Lieutenant-Governors, each having approximately
two thousand men under him. From a military
point of view the province of Kirin has always been
rated much more highly than Fengtien. Three of
XIX CHINESE ADMINISTRATION 275
these six commands were spread-eagled along North-
Eastern Kirin, and although two of them were some
distance from the frontier, they were obviously de-
signed for protection against Russian encroach-
ments.
The first or most northerly post, Sansing, situated
on the junction of the Hurka with the Sungari, was
strategically as excellent a position as could have
been chosen. A dozen big guns and a trustworthy
garrison posted here would have stopped any
advances from the Amur up the Sungari, and once
the Sungari was closed, it would be almost impos-
sible to get into the country by this route, for the
roads are practically non-existent. In 1900,
although the big guns were there, Chinese military
corruption was of course responsible for a complete
fiasco. Sansing fell into the hands of Grodokof
without a shot being fired, and that commander's men
steamed peacefully up the Sungari to the " relief of
Harbin " as he called it, with a flotilla of barges and
stern wheelers that could have been sunk with a
single pom-pom.
The second post, Ninguta, commands the great
Eastern highway to the provincial capital Kirin,
and was designed to prevent an advance into
Manchuria from Nikolsk in the Primorsk before the
railway was either thought of or built. It was also
the centre of a second line of defence for Hun-ch'un,
the important frontier post on the Korean- Russian
frontier. This third post, Hun-ch'un, was rightly
esteemed by the Chinese authorities a place of the
T 2
276 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
first importance, and was the subject of a special
appointment.
Of these garrisons, nominally linked together by
a vague system of outposts, although they lay
immense distances apart, Hun-ch'un alone did any
fighting in 1900. Obeying the insane orders of the
Peking usurper, the Hun-ch'un military mandarin
opened fire on the Russian forts opposite. A few
days went by, the Russians were reinforced from
Khabarovsk and Vladivostock, the Chinese Com-
mander heard that no resistance was being offered
elsewhere in Manchuria, and that his rear was already
threatened by Grodokof ; so he fired a few more
shots, and then, under cover of night, raced for
Ninguta. From Ninguta he went to Kirin by road,
bringing fearful stories of the excesses committed
by the Russians, which made all palsied with fear.
The other three Kirin garrison towns had not much
strategical importance they were mainly concerned
with brigand-hunting and the guarding of the great
inland highways, duties that have been more and
more neglected. These three posts were the
provincial capital Kirin, Petuna, close to the
Mongolian frontier, and A-shih-ho, a market town
twenty miles to the east of Harbin. None of these
garrisons fired a shot in 1900.
The six Kirin Military Deputy-Lieutenant-
Governors, being all more or less occupied with
civil duties had, with the exception of the
Hun-ch'un Commander, for years ceased to regard
the military side of their office seriously. Corrupt
xix CHINESE ADMINISTRATION 277
to a degree, hated by the common people and the
merchant classes alike, on account of their general
ignorance and autocratic ways, they were not even
fit food for the cannon they should have been
hanged. Time has now swept them away, and
even with the armed Russian astride of the railway,
the Chinese authorities are reappointing civil
officials ad interim in the place of the former
so-called military. The Kirin hunghutzu pest,
which used to exist to such an extent, was solely
due to the inaction of these military mandarins
who, leading a lotus life in the town, refused to sally
forth and patrol the highways.
Turning now to the last and purely military-
governed province of Hei-lung-chiang, there were
likewise six military mandarins (Deputy-Lieutenant-
Governors) stationed here, who carried on the
government of the country under the Manchu
Military Governor at Tsitsihar. Of these six
commands, four were posted in what I will call the
upper Nonni valleys. Beginning with the provincial
capital Tsitsihar, the other posts were Pu-T'e-ha,
thirty miles to the west of the river and half-way up
to the next post, Mergen ; Mergen, the highest navi-
gable point on the Nonni ; and finally Aigun on the
Amur, twenty miles as the crow flies from infamous
Blagoveschensk. The two detached posts were
Khailar, on the other side of the Hsing-an mountains
and two hundred and fifty miles away from any-
thing ; and Hulan, near the banks of the Sungari,
and within a stone's throw of Harbin.
278 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
The Nonni line of garrisons were more or
less under the immediate control of the Military
Governor at Tsitsihar ; the two detached posts were
too far away for much supervision to be possible,
and, as at Hulan, there was a civil official, a great
trade in produce, peaceful conditions, and much
money to be made ; the military mandarin and his
forces mostly paper forces, I believe, only mobi-
lised by enlisting coolies for periodic inspections
had degenerated rather more than usual. At
Khailar, however, there were no inducements
whatsoever to degenerate. The trans-Hsing-an
regions are desolate and hardly inhabited at all,
so the military mandarin, although he could not
rely upon formidable walls from behind which he
might defy his foes like his confrere of Tientsin, at
least could take to the country and indulge in
De Wet tactics. This is exactly what he did in
1900. The only mobile field force in Manchuria
during that year was the Khailar command, and
although Khailar fell without any fighting, the 4,000
men of the Western Hei-lung-chiang battalions on
two occasions attempted attacks on overwhelming
Russian forces in different parts of the country
and then fled, as men do who have no support.
The importance of the really respectable numbers
of Hei-lung-chiang Banner and Chinese troops scat-
tered along the Nonni line from Tsitsihar to the
Amur lay in the protection of the gold mines and
also on account of ancient tradition. The great
gold mine of Manchuria is of course the Moho, on
xix CHINESE ADMINISTRATION 279
the Amur. The Moho mines employ thousands of
men and numbers of soldiers to guard them. It
has been rightly or wrongly estimated that the
output of alluvial gold at this one mine is about
2,000,000 taels a year. But apart from the rich
deposit, the Chinese Government works, or rather
superintends the working, of a number of semi-official
camps of gold washers in these regions, from Moho
to Aigun. The gold won is taken over by the
Government at a fixed valuation, weighed, made up
into parcels at Tsitsihar, and forwarded at regular
intervals by caravan to Peking under heavy escorts
of cavalry. At least fifty per cent, of China's gold
is obtained from the province of Hei-lung-chiang,
and the Amur and the Nonni are responsible for
most of Manchuria's output.
The ancient tradition handed down since the
times of the treaty of Nerchinsk has also a great
deal to do with Hei-lung-chiang's military forces.
Less than 250 years ago, the Chinese, or rather
the Manchus, by their firm action, extorted this
Treaty of Nerchinsk from the then unimportant
State of Muscovy. Aigun stands almost exactly
where it was when, using it as a base, the Manchus
destroyed the old-world Russian adventurer's town
of Albazin two and a half centuries ago, and
Hei-lung-chiang has therefore tender memories for
the Manchu rulers, as the place from which they
have had their first and sole success against the
ever-encroaching Slav.
It will be thus seen that the wild province of
28o MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Hei-lung-chiang was but very feebly ruled under
the so-called military regime, and that it was only
where Chinese enterprise had expressed itself in
agriculture in the extreme east of the province and
along the upper Nonni that there was any settled
population worth speaking of. In fact it may be
said that of the 190,000 square miles of country
comprised within the provincial boundaries, at least
seven-eighths is either barren or only inhabited by
nomad Mongols, who, although nominally super-
intended, are practically free-rovers without any
restraint whatsoever.
Chinese and Chinese Bannermen have at most a
few thousand square miles of land under cultivation,
and the area has decreased rather than increased
during the last three years. Hei-lung-chiang, which
could support with ease millions of people and raise
enormous crops of wheat, to-day has less than two
millions, of whom great numbers are Mongols, or
that curious indigenous people, the Solons, and kin-
dred tribes, still found in the little visited north-
western triangle of mountain-lands adjacent to the
Amur.
It will have now been understood that the three
provinces of Manchuria have different conditions,
different methods of government, and require differ-
ent treatment, and that to speak of the whole
vaguely as Manchuria is to misunderstand the whole
question. The Russian has misunderstood, and
misunderstood most lamentably, from his point of
view, the immensity of the problem he has so
XIX CHINESE ADMINISTRATION 281
thoughtlessly tackled and it is now my task to
show what has been done and what not done.
The Boxer outbreak only began in Manchuria
during the month of July, 1900. It took many weeks
for this insane propaganda to filter across the Chihli
frontiers by land and come by sea on steamer and
junk from its home and starting-place Shantung.
Its rapid growth in Manchuria may be accounted
for by the fact that tens of thousands of Chihli and
Shantung workmen and field-hands yearly cross over
the narrow Gulf of Pechili to seek either temporary
or permanent occupation in the three Eastern pro-
vinces, where strong men are at a great premium
and the population is insufficient to garner in the ever-
increasing harvests. Manchuria in this respect
greatly resembles Britain's granary, Canada. Men
are more badly needed than anything else. The
building of the Manchurian railways had brought
over during '98, '99, and 1900 even greater num-
bers of Shantung coolies than usual, and when the
Lao-T'uan-yeh or Boxer chiefs began to appear in
the flesh, calling on the faithful to rise, their fellow-
provincials needed but little inciting to beat railway-
iron into crude swords, and with horrid yells frighten
the Russian into precipitate flight.
The following sections of the Chinese Eastern
Railway had been completed at the time of the
outbreak, say the month of July. From Port
Arthur north, the railhead had nearly reached
K'ai-yuan ; from Harbin south, over one hundred
versts had been built down towards the Kuantung
282 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
territory, leaving, therefore, a blank of three hun-
dred versts, or, roughly, two hundred miles, on the
Central Manchurian section. From Nikolsk in the
Primorsk, about one hundred and fifty versts were
half completed, and from Harbin south-east, to meet
this section, two hundred versts were more or less
ready. Thus, on the eastern half of the trans- Man-
churia section, there was likewise a gap of two
hundred versts. West of Harbin, on the road to
the trans- Baikal, the railhead was on the left bank
of the Nonni that is, had not yet crossed the river.
From Kaidolove, the point on the Siberian line
where the railway leading to Manchuria branches
off, it has been impossible to ascertain exactly how
much of the line was ready, but it is safe to say
that it was hardly much more advanced than across
the western Manchurian frontier. Here, therefore,
was the most important gap that is, the unbuilt
section between the western Hei-lung-chiang frontier
and the Nonni river a gap of possibly four hun-
dred versts. These railway details are necessary
to understand the exact nature of what subsequently
happened.
July of 1900 passed by, and the stampede of
Russian railway builders and Russian guards was
followed by the burning and tearing up of about
twenty per cent, of the construction already com-
pleted. In Fengtien the damage was the worst
in Hei-lung-chiang the least.
As soon as the Boxers had their short-lived fling,
the counter-movement set in. Russian troops
XIX CHINESE ADMINISTRATION 283
began to move forward, weeks after they should
have done if their boasted military arrangements
had really had any foundation on fact ; and slow
retribution overtook quick-handed maniacs. For
a long time nobody knew exactly what had
happened, or why really all this fuss and commotion
were necessary. The position was terribly com-
plicated, and certainly too much so for the Russian
to see clearly, China had begun, in May, 1900, by
disavowing the Boxers. Then, as official support
and their growing vehemence had frightened the
Peking Court, the Throne determined to sit on the
fence an undignified and dangerous position for a
Throne at the best of times. Finally, the bombard-
ment of the Taku forts decided wobbly Imperial
counsels. They resolved that they must henceforth
throw in their lot with the people, and support the
rising or else the Throne might go too. Edicts
were therefore issued to eject the trespassing
foreigner from the eighteen provinces from Man-
churia, from Mongolia, in fact, from everywhere ;
and chaos immediately followed. Every viceroy,
governor, and military commandant adhered to his
own ideas and consulted his own safety alone. We
are, however, now only concerned with Manchuria,
and, interesting as the subject is, it is impossible to
follow the Boxer business in all its curious ramifi-
cations.
We have already seen how the Aigun and Hun-
ch'un military mandarins from their forts, and the
Khailar Deputy-Lieutenant-Governor in the field,
284 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
were the only men of the twenty odd high military
officials in Manchuria who obeyed the famous
general expulsion edicts and the special Manchurian
and Mongolian one notifying all that a state of
war existed between China and Russia. It is here
necessary to once more insist on the strange but
clear distinction between the Boxers and the bond
fide military. For the Boxers and the Manchurian
soldiery, although friendly to one another, did not
openly cooperate. As was the case in Tientsin
and Peking, the Boxers scorned soldiery drilled
after foreign methods, and the soldiers on their
side looked with thinly veiled contempt on the
great article of faith of the Boxers their invulner-
ability. The wailing assertion of the Boxers that
they " Pu P'a Ch'iang tao " feared neither the
gun nor the sword was a shibboleth which the
anti-foreign party in Peking was pleased to conjure
with, but withal secretly derided as being too
absurd for real belief after China's many years
experience of firearms.
When Aigun and Hun-ch'un had been reduced
to ashes and the Khailar flying columns had quick-
ened their pace until they more than justified their
name, the Russian columns had nothing much to
do but chase small detached parties of desperadoes
that the disbanding of the Chinese military and the
general chaotic condition of the country had created.
For the Boxers in Manchuria collapsed as soon
as the Tuan regime was ended in Peking. The
operations against these insignificant disturbers of
Xix CHINESE ADMINISTRATION 285
the peace were unduly prolonged, partly because
extreme mobility is the birthright of every one
living in a country where draft and saddle animals
swarm, and partly because these Boxers, who in
many cases developed into hunghutzu or mere
bandits, were very convenient excuses for Peters-
burg diplomatists to have at their disposal when
Europe should have sufficient time to look at
Manchuria.
The great August- November " invasion of Man-
churia " may be divided into two distinct movements
that from the south coming via the seaports of
Port Arthur and Newchwang, and that from the
north from Siberia, by which expression I include
the trans- Baikal, the Amur, and the Primorsk.
The Grodokof flotilla, starting from Khabarovsk
and sailing up the Sungari, was the first to get in ;
and Grodokof with a few hundred Cossacks swept
across Kirin and entered the provincial capital
amidst a thunder of applause. Meanwhile, detached
corps and battalions were tramping across the arid
steppes of western Hei-lung-chiang, suffering bitter
wants and finally reaching Tsitsihar. Down from
guilty Blagoveschensk, across mountainous post-
roads, hastily mobilised Siberian battalions likewise
reached Mergen, threw their packs with sighs of
relief into small junks, gazed with wonder on the
hordes of brown-yellow men, and at last met their
comrades at Tsitsihar. Nikolsk pushed men into
eastern Kirin as fast as possible. Port Arthur and
Newchwang slowly accounted for Moukden, Tieh-
286 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
ling, and K'ai-yiian. Detached bodies tramped into
the distant magistratures of T'ung-hua and Huai-jen
on the Yalu frontier. Feng-huang-ch'eng, an im-
portant resting-place on the road to Korea, saw the
northern tricolour hoisted. Halt, then, stand at
ease the occupation is completed ! This is stormy
1900.
The watchword of 1901 was, Complete the rail-
way at all costs and build, build until there is
nothing else left to build ; build so that the Empire
along the iron track shall be unmistakable, insis-
tent, undeniable. So an unparalleled bustle was
witnessed during 1901, and millions and tens of
millions were spent like water. Moreover, the
Russian had been very cold during the winter
months of 1900, and he was determined not to
suffer again. Indeed, they say that the winter of
1900 was as unpleasant to many Russians in Man-
churia as the famous retreat from Moscow was to
Napoleon's men. So the railway was built at a
very wonderful rate. Sections sprang into life,
touched by the magic hand of the rouble, and with
rabbit-like rapidity gave birth in turn to other
sections ; and from these sections stone and brick
houses started up, challenging native life and
causing all to marvel. Temporary settlements full
of contractors' men dotted the Hulungchiang
steppes, and these being in fear of their lives had
to be protected by numerous Cossack posts which
unusual animation gave rise to the stories of
Russian towns springing up everywhere. The
xix CHINESE ADMINISTRATION 287
year 1901 was therefore eventful, very eventful,
and the Russian was so full of vainglorious con-
fidence that he thought there was nothing he could
not accomplish. Had he not indeed an Oriental
destiny ? he exclaimed, for white life was spring-
ing up unmistakably where he had made yellow
deserts ; the Chinaman was subjugated, conquered,
ready to be assimilated ; and, intoxicated with the
clamour of his own voice, the Russian argued that
Manchuria was his own. It is sad to think how
often he who leaps takes long to discover that
where he has jumped is but a pit from which he
can emerge with difficulty.
The Russian voice of 1901 was unfortunately too
loud, and attracted the attention of outside nations,
who had been too much interested in the main
Chinese tragi-comedy to take note of the side-shows.
Manchurian trade was, however, being seriously
hindered, and, as it is only in trade that the rest of
the world is ostentatiously interested in the Far East,
the clamour grew. Finally it became too loud to be
ignored, and so in April, 1902, the so-called Man-
churian Evacuation Agreement was signed in Peking,
and diplomatists pretended that the question was
completely ended.
Russia undertook in this agreement to retire from,
and hand back to the Chinese authorities, the whole
of the Chinese Trans-Amur in three time-periods.
Six months after signature, i.e., on the 8th October,
1902, the country west of the Liao and the ex-mural
railway to Newchwang were to be given up ; half a
288 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
year later, on the 8th April, 1903, the rest of the
province of Fengtien, including the great capital
Moukden and the treaty port of Newchwang, were
to be restored ; and finally on the 8th October, 1903,
the two northern provinces, Kirin and Hei-lung-
chiang, were to be surrendered. Foolish diplo-
matists allowed the railway-guard clause again to
slip in without any specification as to what number
of troops could be included under this heading : and
the result of this and other acts of carelessness is
that we have the great Far Eastern question brought
up a couple of years after the Manchurian settle-
ment was nominally effected.
The three eastern provinces, as they really are,
should now stand up before the eyes of the general
reader ; the southern, Fengtien, populous, contented,
containing large towns and just like the northern
provinces of China proper ; the central, Kirin, settled
in the great rich valleys and plains through which
the railway runs to Harbin wild in the north and
east which were once controlled by so-called Chinese
military ; and finally the northern province, Hei-
lung-chiang, practically uninhabited except for the
small Chinese cultivated area adjoining Kirin pro-
vince and the Tsitsihar-Mergen valleys. On top of
this comes 1900, the disappearance of the Chinese
and Manchu military, the great inrush of Russian
troops, the rebuilding and completion of the railway,
and the temporary disruption of the Chinese adminis-
tration of Manchuria, a disruption nominally termi-
nated by the evacuation agreement.
XIX CHINESE ADMINISTRATION 289
These are the general facts which stand out and
are fairly well known. But what went on under-
neath the surface ? Is it true that the Russian, in
spite of all his agreements and protestations to the
contrary, succeeded in the comparatively short time
at his disposal in assimilating the Manchurian
people, destroying the Chinese system, and making
all contented with Russian rule ? Not in the
slightest, not even outwardly.
The first thing Russian commanders did when
they came into the country was to seize the telegraph
stations. They said : " The telegraph wires are the
sensitory nerves of even the Chinese body-politic to-
day ; let us seize hold of them, grip them with such
insistence that the Chinaman, feeling our hands so
constantly, will end by being enslaved." This looks
well on paper, but like many theories does not work
out satisfactorily in practice, especially with such an
elusive thing as the yellow man.
The Imperial Chinese telegraph administration
has a system of some two thousand lines in Man-
churia. The most important line is the Shanhai-
kwan-Aigun main line, which links Peking with the
great provincial capitals and trade centres, and,
crossing the Amur, connects at Blagoveschensk
with the Siberian system. The exact route of this
line is as follows : Shanhaikwan, Newchwang,
Liaoyang, Moukden, Kirin, Petuna, Tsitsihar,
Mergen, Aigun, and then across the Amur. At
Kirin the line bifurcates, and an important branch
wire runs via Ninguta, down to Chinese Hun-ch'un,
u
290 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
and connects from thence, by means of the Primorsk
system, with Vladivostock. Again, north of Liao-
yang, there is another branch line which crosses the
Korean frontier, after leaving the central valley and
following the important strategic and caravan route
K'uan-ch'eng-tzu, Mo-tien-ling Pass, Feng-huang-
ch'eng, Antung, and the Yalu.
By November, 1900, practically every one of the
telegraph stations of these towns were in Russian
hands, and have remained so to this day.
With the seizure of the telegraph offices the first
step of the military was completed. The second
was the appointment of a Commissair, or high
military officer, at each of the three provincial
capitals, Moukden, Kirin, and Tsitsihar. The
Commissair was nominally a Military Commissioner
charged with the representation of the supreme
Russian military authorities, at the Yamen of each
Manchu Governor, his actual duties and his
course of action were, however, ill-defined, after the
manner in which the Russian loves to act in far-off
places. The Commissair was practically given a
free hand, and told to make the most of his oppor-
tunites to bluff, bully, cajole, menace, implore in
fact, to do anything he liked so long as he made
headway in the great work of wresting privileges
from the Manchu, and getting really worthless
paper agreements, acknowledging the Russian right
to interfere in various directions, which would pave
the way to ultimate absorption and open dominion.
Through all 1901, the Chinese territorial authorities
XIX CHlNJibt: AUMIMlbTKAllUJN 2QI
and the high Manchu officials at the provincial
capitals lay extremely low. Many of them had
been actually driven away in 1900, or had dis-
appeared in some mysterious way, but the more
courageous ones simply bided their time, were very
cautious, conciliated the people as much as possible
by not mentioning the word taxes, and quietly
entered their Yamens through the back-doors. So
long as the Peking Court was at Hsianfu, or on its
slow-moving progress back to the northern capital,
the Chinese officials hedged. The Russians are not
bad people, they said ; it is true they kill people,
but that does not matter, for in China other men
are soon born. How convenient is Chinese
philosophy !
In 1902, however, a change took place. The
Peking Court was finally back, although nobody had
really believed that such a thing would ever occur,
evacuation was coming, and all began to pluck
up courage. Even Tseng-Chi, the trembling
Viceroy of Fengtien, calmly told his oft-cursed
taskmaster, the Commissair, who for months, it
seemed almost years, had dealt out knout-like words
to him, that his agreements were not worth the
paper they were written on until they had received
the Chinese Imperial consent ; that that consent
would never be forthcoming ; and that the law of
foreign countries admitted that agreements extorted
by intimidation had no legal value. By these
resolute utterances he provoked terrible scenes, in
which the shouts and curses of angry Russian
u 2
292 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
voices startled the people in the streets, and sent
them home with heart-shrinkings.
The two defiant Military Governors at Kirin and
Tsitsihar, when it was once definitely decided by
the Governments that evacuation must really take
place, became as calmly insulting as only Manchus
can be. These two men had from the beginning
shown most remarkable pluck in adverse circum-
stances. Sapao, the Military Governor of Hei-lung-
chiang, is a man of singular audacity. His
colleague at Kirin is more calm, but is equally
determined. The Russian had never really made
any headway with either of them, and although the
Kirin Commissair alleges that the Grand- Ducal
timber and mining concession was extorted by him,
the Governor denies it. The work, therefore, of
the great Department of War, and of the renowned
Alexeieff, may be therefore summed up as merely
the extorting in the early days of some so-called
concessions, a seizure of all the telegraph stations,
but nothing else. Whenever words were not
sufficient, the Commissairs marched their men
into Yamen courtyards, and threatened armed force
with rough voices.
Each Commissair has his own private guard of
Cossacks, and is in supreme control of the pro-
vincial telegraph offices offices at which Chinese
operators and uniformed Russian telegraphists
share the work together. Riding forth on his
horse, sitting at his office, bullying a wretched
Manchu, reading an intercepted telegraphic
xix CHINESE ADMINISTRATION 293
message, the Commissair was but the embodiment
of that thing of brute force, the Russian army ;
was but a master-link in a long chain of armed men
stretched along the railway ; futile, ill-conceived, in
a word, impossible where the Chinaman is.
Independent of the Commissairs, and working in
their own little circle, is to be found that extra-
ordinary politico-financial undertaking, the Russo-
Chinese Bank. Previous to the Boxer business,
branches of this important Bank had been
established at the provincial capitals of Manchuria
nominally in order to facilitate the work of railway
construction. The Kirin branch of the Bank even
borrowed the use of the Kirin provincial mint from
the Military Governor so as to have a sufficient
supply of silver dollars to pay railway workmen.
After the great invasion, the Bank, like everything
else Russian, decided on a forward policy, and began
to open out in many new directions. Treating the
Kuantung territory as part of Manchuria, we find
that to-day there are branches at Port Arthur,
Dalny, Newchwang, Moukden, Tiehling, K'uan-
ch'eng-tzu, Kirin, Harbin, Tsitsihar, and Khailar
an imposing list at first sight, and one calculated to
make the beginner believe that Manchuria's
finances had already passed into Russian hands.
This is, however, only another myth ; let us
explode it.
First, the Newchwang branch is at an open port
where there are other banks, and where people are
interested in more or less legitimate trade. Then
294 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
the Port Arthur and Dalny branches are of course
on territory properly leased to the Russian, and are
therefore perfectly permissible. The Harbin office
is in a great railway centre, which is nearly purely
Russian, and which must have general banking
facilities. Moukden, under the American and Japa-
nese Treaties, is to be an open port, and other
banks will soon be found there, war or no war.
Remains, therefore, only the sadly diminished
number of Tiehling, K'uan-ch'eng-tzu, Kirin,
Tsitsihar, and Khailar. Khailar has about as much
general trade and as big a population as a second-
class South Sea island, and is quite beyond the pale
that is, outside the Hsing-an mountains, and
therefore cut off from real Manchuria. Of the four
other offices, two are in provincial capitals, and have
some political significance, and two, Tiehling and
K'uan-ch'eng-tzu, are attempting to attract trade to
the railway by granting exceptional facilities to
Chinese merchants. It is worthy of note that
another branch which was opened for the same trade
purposes at Liaoyang, has had to be closed on
account of the absolute lack of business. What is
there left of the remarkable tale that this institution
is collecting and banking Manchuria's taxes and
duties ? Nothing at all except at the open port of
Newchwang, where British sloth has allowed the
Russian Bank to usurp Chinese authority and
impound the Chinese customs receipts. New-
chwang is, however, being treated separately, so it is
unnecessary to expand at present on this interesting
xix CHINESE ADMINISTRATION 295
subject. At all other places in Manchuria the Bank
is vainly trying to cut into business it can never suc-
ceed in annexing. Its one great desire is to become
the intermediary between Chinese traders at the sea-
ports and the great Chinese hongs in the interior,
engaged in handling the produce of the country. If
one is to believe the evidence of one's eyes, and
what the Chinese all agree in saying, no success
whatsoever has attended this venture, for the Bank's
commercial affairs have a curious fatality in always
ending badly, and need not be feared until methods
are vastly changed.
Mr. Alexander Ular, who is treated with quite
undeserved confidence by European publicists,
states that in every branch of the Russo-Chinese
Bank in Manchuria there is a department which
undertakes the collection of Government moneys
(Chinese, of course, he means), pays out salaries to
Government officials, that is, to Chinese officials, and
that complete success has attended this daring
usurpation of Chinese authority. Mr. Ular may be
an admirable scientist and sociologist, but it would
be incorrect to classify his acquaintance with real
Manchuria as anything but elementary. I have
been forced elsewhere to challenge directly nearly
all his statements and show their absolute base-
lessness. In the case of the Russian Bank his writ-
ing is sheer invention.
The Russo-Chinese Bank is rightly or wrongly
considered by the Petersburg Government as one of
their most powerful weapons of offence in Man-
296 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
churia. But it seems to me that even the most
rabid Russophil cannot pretend that any important
results have been gained by it during the past three
years. Indeed, a close examination has led me to
the conclusion that, on the contrary, the Manchurian
managers are terribly disappointed with the present
state of affairs, and that if it were not for the fact
that the Russian Government allows abnormal
profits to be made in certain directions, there can be
but little doubt that grave deficits would be shown
in every account, leading to a most severe crisis.
For it is quite certain that of the ten Manchurian
and Kuantung branches there are only three that
are earning any money at all. These are the New-
chwang office, because of the customs and likin
moneys handled ; the Port Arthur branch, where
the immense victualling trade and the high interest
and discount rates ruling mean temporary profits of
a non-regular character ; and at Harbin, where the
railway receipts and other moneys are all loaned out
at usurious rates on mortgages.
But business profits and the impounding of
customs revenues at one seaport hardly constitute
the capture of Manchurian revenue in toto, about
which we have been so often told. The native
finances of the three eastern provinces are in any
case extremely complicated and cannot even be
understood except after years of careful study. The
methods of collecting Government moneys and the
general machinery necessitate the employment of
armies of minor officials, whose receipts are more
xix CHINESE ADMINISTRATION 297
often reckoned in cash than in any other larger
denomination. How impossible all this is for
Europeans to attempt without enormous preparatory
work anyone who has lived in the Far East can
readily understand. The four great sources of
revenue in Manchuria are : first, the land tax, from
which all Bannermen are exempt ; second, the salt
gabelle ; third, the foreign customs and native likin
levies ; and fourth, minor taxes and licences of
every description, such as taxes collected on the
sales of cattle, land, houses, gold, metals, &c., &c.,
and licences for carts, opium dealers, distilleries, and
native boats. It. is true that the Newchwang
customs and likin revenues are banked at the
Russo-Chinese Bank pending the final solution of
the Manchurian difficulty, but it is necessary to
point out that the collection is in the hands of the
former employees and that it is only the weakness
of the British Government, and not of the Chinese,
which has permitted such unblushing robbery to
take place. The land taxes could never be
successfully collected by any but Chinese, and no
one is foolish enough to pretend, even among the
Russians in Manchuria, that the seven Banks in
inland places, manned at most by two dozen men,
have been able to tamper with this greatest source
of provincial revenue. In every town I visited in
Manchuria, the bankers and officials assured me that
from the February of 1902 China's New Year
their tax-books have been the same as before.
Again, salt, although a Government monopoly, is
298 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
farmed out on a most intricate system, and the
levies are entirely collected through the inter-
mediary of the great native guilds, which have
always successfully resisted the Russians. As for
the minor taxes and licences, these are levied so
mysteriously that there is no one European living
to-day who could give a succinct account of the
methods adopted or can understand the why and the
wherefore of any part of the procedure.
Then again Manchurian domestic taxation has
never been sufficient to meet the very heavy military
expenditure yearly incurred by the provincial
Governments ; and so six provinces of China send
in quarterly contributions to meet the heavy burden.
And, leaving the Chinese side of the question, it is
to be noticed that there are no branches of the
Russo-Chinese Bank except in Chinese towns.
How then can anyone believe in the existence of
populous Russian settlements, new towns with
growing populations, without banking facilities
available ? I ask this question merely because it
has become such a habit with some people to
believe in Russia's invincibility in Asia, that in spite
of the categorical account of the railway and the
railway towns which I have given elsewhere many
will still believe that Manchuria is largely Russian.
It is noteworthy that with the single exception of
Harbin every branch of the Russo-Chinese Bank is
leaning on the Chinese in Chinese towns and
getting mighty little support. Commercial com-
munities cannot exist without banks, and even the
xix CHINESE ADMINISTRATION 299
Russian cannot do all his banking by moving his
rouble notes into and out of his own pockets.
Finally, the third department of the Petersburg
bureaucracy represented in the provincial capitals
is the Asiatic division of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. Consuls-General have been appointed at
Moukden, Kirin, and Tsitsihar, and are doing what
they can. These Consular officials have been
trained at Peking, and having absorbed a certain
amount of the Chinese idea, alone of all the Russian
officials in Manchuria show any sense or special
acquaintance with the country. The result has been
considerable friction between the military, the
diplomatic, and the financial agents, perhaps more
interested in departmental victories than in anything
else. In fact, since things outside have become so
threatening, the rivals have likewise become more
and more savage, until it has been necessary for the
" Viceroy of the Far East " to interfere. In a stern
memorandum he counsels the representatives of
the various departments to remember that they are
working in a common cause and that petty jealousies
will not be tolerated. Outside the walls of the
provincial capitals the Russian authorities have
almost ceased to interfere except spasmodically.
The post commanders at Liaoyang, Hai-ch'eng, and
other places in Fengtien have again and again
attempted to enter into intimate relations with the
Chinese civil authorities. But prompt offers of
substantial presents in silver have soon induced the
military to desist, and if it were not for the uncer-
300 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CH. xix
tainty and annoyance that large bodies of armed
aliens always produce,, things would be exactly where
they were before the Boxer year.
The impartial critic who has read all that has
been written, cannot help admitting that the entire
Russian expansion system must have the gravest
defects if one of its greatest efforts has so completely
miscarried. In spite of the fifty thousand armed
men on the railway, in spite of Commissair bully-
ings, in spite of threats, outrages, and many other
things, the Chinese administrative machinery has
remained undamaged. It is a bit clogged with rust,
but that is all. One effort, sweep the Russians back
and the Manchurian years 1900 to 1903 will remain
only an evil dream, like all the other epoch-making
and thrilling events of 1900, which the world thought
the end of all things in the Far East.
CHAPTER XX
FROM PETUNA TO NINGUTA BY RIVER AND RAIL
MY launch captain was glad to see me again,
although he objected to the disrespectful terms I
applied to his tub. However, so long as you have
what both we and the Chinese call " a good heart,"
you will succeed with them, for they dearly love you
when you are "human," as the Americans say. But
do not let your humanity extend so far that you
become sarcastic. Sarcasm is taboo in China ; it is
the last expression of disrespect the culminating
insult without redress. Swear and curse, if you like,
beginning duly with your victim's female slave, and
continuing in a rising gamut of indignation until
the eighteenth generation of ancestors is reached
and surpassed, and descending again until you have
likened him unto the spawn or egg of a tortoise ;
but do nothing else. Play the game as it is played
in China, and do not introduce unauthorised versions
which show your illiteracy and mental clumsiness.
Also do not be familiar even though you
become intimate. Familiarity breeds something
worse than contempt in China.
302 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Jabbering pidgin at the wheel-house, for the
southern Chinaman's attempts at the northern
dialect are hideous to listen to, we descended the
Sungari in great style and still greater speed, for
this time the launch was dragging no clumsy junk
after her, but hastening as fast as she could down to
Harbin, where a hard task awaited her. Three junks
must be hauled slowly up to Kirin city before the
ice-fiend gripped the river, and then the little
launch's labours would be over until May, and the
captain might hibernate on half-pay just as he
pleased. This is what he told me after we had
cleared the crowd of junks and were tooting merrily
along. The fat coolie had disappeared as men
change or disappear mysteriously all over China,
and in his place was the queerest-looking creature I
have ever seen, engaged on the eternal task of
splitting wood for the engine-room. He was not
five feet high, and was mainly clothed in long
Russian boots and a short sheepskin coat ; on his
head was a skull-cap of thick brown felt, across which
were traced weird designs in faded imitation gold braid.
His head, instead of being shaved and pig-tailed like
those of his shipmates, was covered with a curious
mixture of rusty-red and jet-black hair. Mystified
by his appearance, I asked him from where he
sprang ; but he did not greet my efforts as they
should have been greeted. He remained silent,
which is serious among Chinamen. I turned in mute
appeal to the captain, for I could not be thus out-
bluffed by a subordinate and retain possession of
xx PETUNA TO NINGUTA BY RIVER AND RAIL 303
that important thing, my face. The captain was
sympathetic but not encouraging, and laconically in-
formed me that his mother was a Mongol and that
his father was "little different"! It eventually
transpired that this brave little specimen was the
result of a temporary alliance between a booted
Russian trading along Amur, near the mouth of
Sungari, and a Fish-skin Tartar maid, and that
the offspring was a little shy on the subject of his
ancestry. At least that is what I gathered. Time
in its course certainly gives birth to some strange
things, but up here in the Far North you soon get
used to all kinds of strange hybrids.
Turning from humanity to nature, I observed, that
as we approached Shih-shui-yingtzu, which lies on
the banks of the Sungari near the junction of this
river with my muddy and sandy friend the Nonni,
vast marshy lands surrounded us, covered with reeds
and coarse grass growing many feet high. Above
these ideal feeding grounds, enormous flights of
half-a-dozen different kinds of wild-fowl rose as we
passed and filled the air with hoarse croakings and
cries. The great wild goose of the north predomi-
nated, although already he had doubtless migrated
in vast droves, as is his yearly custom, to the more
temperate climes of central and southern China.
At Shih-shui-yingtzu, there were big native ferry
boats crossing to and fro, filled with native pas-
sengers, and draft animals still harnessed to their
loads. The mules, donkeys, ponies, and oxen, mixed
impartially, and utterly impassive, gazed at the launch
3 04 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP
and its dirty energy with a stolidness outrivalling
that of the carters themselves, and seemed to tell
me with their eyes that progress and the twentieth
century had but little yet to do with Manchuria,
which would go on with its methodical development
regardless of the foolish West and the still more
foolish Russian who would outrage time.
On we went as hard as we could down the river,
and the by-product of Fish-skin Tartarism found time
to justify one-half of his ancestry by throwing some
lines overboard armed with heavy hooks, which he
assured me would catch something sooner or later.
All northern Manchuria rivers swarm with a kind
of salmon called the tamara, and sturgeon are also
caught in great quantities. Sure enough we caught
some fish during the ,day, but I regret to say that
we also caught something very disagreeable. One
of the lines seemed very taut, so I went aft to haul
it in. As I pulled away I was surprised to find that
I was nearly jerked overboard, and I called to the
skipper to help me. Imagine our disgust when a
dead man came to the surface. I suggested cutting
the line at once, but the Chinaman is not so easily
nauseated, and is withal a very curious animal. I
was laughed at, and asked if I had never seen a
dead man before. They jerked a rope round the
dead man's shoulders, and, hauling him half out of
the water, gazed closely into his face. It was not a
pleasant face, but the dead man was new, in the
elegant language of one of the crew, and conse-
quently interesting as far as corpses go. They
DOWN A 1
AN HISTORIC PICTURE. THE GREAT REVIEW OF DEFIANCE HELD AT PORT
A MAM i
THUK BY VICEROY AI.EXEIEFF AFTER EVACUATION DAY, OCTOBER STH, 1903.
AN FARM.
XX PETUNA TO NINGUTA BY RIVER AND RAIL 305
finally satisfied themselves that no one knew him
on board, and so let him drop back into the river.
A hole in the back of his head showed that he had
met with a violent death, and that was the only clue
found. This was absolutely nothing for northern
Manchuria, for life is very cheap here, and, as in
all newly-settled countries that are badly policed,
violence is an argument very often employed.
In spite of gruesome corpses we continued our
journey as rapidly as the launch could be driven.
Hour after hour we passed monotonous mud-banks,
twisted round sudden corners, and shot ever on-
wards towards the north-west. Sometimes the long
regular drills of kaoliang stalks, looking like a
three days' beard on the face of some enormous
yellow giant, ran down nearly to the water's edge,
showing the presence of Chinese farms and Chinese
settlers. Sometimes there was nothing to be seen
but huge stretches of swamp and virgin soil the
Manchuria of olden days that has yet to be con-
quered by the mattock and spade of the Shantung
emigrant. Notwithstanding the bright sunshine,
however, a gloom had fallen over the crew. Grim
stories of violence and robbery were told and retold,
and each man pushed closer to his neighbour. The
corpse, even though it had been greeted with rough
jests and rude comments, had evidently revived
many half-forgotten memories, for Manchuria has
had its bellyful of experiences during the past ten
years, and every man has his tale to tell. Battle,
murder, and sudden death have often been its lot,
x
306 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
but never so much as during the past decade ; and if
its soil is one of the most fertile in the Far East, it
also breeds a race of men that are no poltroons, and
who draw the knife and pistol as quickly as any
Texan cowboy.
One man of our crew particularly drew my
attention. He was tall and gaunt, and tanned
to a colour as dark as that of any Sikh. On
his right hand he had but three stumps of ringers,
and these he looked at thoughtfully as he listened to
the low-toned talk. Catching my eye at last he spoke,
and nothing could exceed the dramatic force of his
simple language. " These," he said, pointing to his
hand, " went in the Japanese war. You foreigners
laugh at us Chinese and say that we are afraid to
die. Bah! have you ever seen a Chinaman who was
afraid to die when he knew he was losing his head
of his own free will ? This matter of my hand
occurred in the first moon of the second year of the
Japanese war. I was a carter at the time in the dis-
trict of Hai-ch'eng, and I owned my own cart and my
own mules. Then the Japanese crossed the Korean
river. First they fought at Hsin Yen in the east ;
then they came on to Hai-ch'eng, and there was a big
battle. Our men were, of course, beaten back, and
they all fled west towards Newchwang. All was
confusion for some time, but at last orders came from
Peking that the town of Hai-ch'engmustbe recaptured
at all costs. I, who had run away with the others,
was impressed as a soldier by a military mandarin,
and was made to fight too, although I did not know
xx PETUNA TO NINGUTA BY RIVER AND RAIL 307
why. Nearly all of us were country people who could
shoot, but our guns were no use and we had only
ten cartridges for each man. On the first moon of
the New Year the first attack was made, and we
were beaten back. Nevertheless, that moon we
were ordered to make another attack, although we
had then no food and no ammunition. This time it
was night when we arrived outside the city, and we
waited lying on the ground for daylight to come.
At four o'clock we moved forward, and by six we were
beaten back again by the big guns, losing many
men. I, because I was strong and big, was in the
centre with the banners. As we were retreating,
the Ko-Lo-Pao (machine guns) were run out against
us, and the bullets rained on us from all sides.
After about five minutes, something kicked me on
the shoulder. I looked down and saw blood coming
out. I was hit, and bleeding badly. Then our men
started running very fast, and I was left behind. All
were throwing down their guns, and so I stopped
and picked up a pistol that I knew I could sell. As
I picked it up it seemed to burn my hand away. I
looked down and saw that some of my fingers were
broken and some missing. The pain was very great,
although my hands were so cold from the snow that
I could scarcely move them. Then I sat down and
cried, for I thought I would die. Presently the
ground felt no longer cold, although thick ice and
snow were everywhere, and I slept like from opium.
When I woke it was night and all was dark. A
long way off, a very long way it was, I saw some
X 2
3 o8 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
lights moving. I could not walk fast, because I was
so stiff, but I crawled until that got better and then I
walked. After much walking I came up to the
lights. They were carried by Japanese soldiers who
were looking for dead and wounded. I showed
them my hand and my shoulder, but they said there
were too many of us and that they had no room.
But they gave me some hot water and some cold
rice, and told me that I must walk to Newchwang,
which was a hundred li away. So in three days I
walked there, and the foreign doctor cut off my
fingers, although he said a foreigner would have had
tolose his whole arm. Soon I was better, and in spring
I was quite well. Now will you say I am afraid,
although I was beaten ? "
This is a typical story of Manchuria, and plainly
shows why the Chinese so often make a pitiable
exhibition. In battle they are led like sheep to the
slaughtering-ground, and left there to die and rot
away. Can you wonder, then, that they have no con-
fidence either in themselves or their leaders, and that
things always turn out unfortunately for them ? Give,
however, Manchurian levies the stiff-lipped officers
of a Wei-Hai-Wei regiment, and you will see
them stand firm in the face of anything that mortal
man can stand. The North Chinaman will yet
make one of the finest, and certainly one of
the most hardy, soldiers in the world. And this
little story is illustrative of other things, for it shows
how, in Manchuria, a man may be a carter or work-
man one day, a soldier the next, a freebooter a week
xx PETUNA TO NINGUTA BY RIVER AND RAIL 309
later, because he has been left with nothing to eat,
and so on, changing his vocation from month to
month.
After this confidence the crew got expansive and
threw Chinese caution to the winds. They went
down into smelly quarters and brought out their
weapons with exultant pride. Three Mauser
automatic revolvers, one Colt pistol, and half a
dozen rifles was the sum total of the secret
armament of that launch, and the men pleaded
guilty to occasionally doing a little holding-up on
their own account whenever the opportunity was
favourable. So this is what occurs on the river
Sungari, a few miles from Harbin, which is the
very centre of that curious thing which Mr. Ular
has dubbed the Russo-Chinese Empire.
Meanwhile the hours had sped by rapidly, and
the river was broadening out into the mighty
Sungari, that sweeps so majestically into the
Amur. At four o'clock we passed the mouth
of the Lanling Ho, a swampy tributary that
meanders through mere marshlands and is useless
for anything but small sampans. We had done
upwards of one hundred miles in nine hours, which
is not bad going for a crazy launch in the very
centre of Manchuria, though we were much helped
by the current. Here the Sungari for a few miles
suddenly becomes a mild edition of the lower
Yangtse ; ahead of us was one big island and a
number of smaller ones, with muddy waters
stretching for thousands of yards on either side.
310 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Clouds of geese flapped over our heads as we
steamed by, and screamed indignantly as some
of us fired at them with Mausers and match-
locks in the vain hope of bringing something
down.
By six o'clock we were only twenty-five miles
from Harbin, but the sun had already set and it was
very dark and most bitter cold. In spite of all
talk of bribes, the captain was getting doubtful about
the wisdom of driving at eleven knots an hour
down the river, and wished at least to slow down.
I insisted, however, and so we did not stop. I was
showing them what could be done, for my travelling
was at an unexampled rate, seeing that we were
only taking hours where others required at least
two days. By eight o'clock the look-out man
sighted junk and steamer lights ahead, and we were
forced to slow down at last, and creep along in
fear and trembling. Before nine we had reached
the southern limit of the Sungari shipping, which
only hugs the right bank of the Harbin side and
leaves the left bank entirely free. Once more the
captain wished to stop, fearful of what might happen
to him for thus cruising about in the night, but
again I forced him most unwillingly on. I wished
to land at a spot in the centre of Rational Harbin,
where I knew my way about and would stand in no
danger of getting into trouble. No one had the
slightest idea as to what had happened during the
last few days, and I was at last getting cautious.
Finally, after a few anxious moments, the great
xx PETUNA TO NINGUTA BY RIVER AND RAIL 311
railway bridge stood up in front of us against the
dark horizon, and puff, puff, rumbled a late train
over the iron way, with its enormous head-light
blazing like the eye of some irate monster.
" Now," I said to the captain, " this will do ; land
me quickly." We pushed into the bank cautiously
against the long line of sternwheelers and cargo
boats, amidst hoarse challenges and cries, and at
last we bumped. I had reached my destination.
The captain duly received his cumshaw, the crew
their promised dollars, and I stumbled up the great
railway embankment that shuts in the river like
some Dutch dyke. Behind me one of the crew
staggered with my traps, moaning and grumbling
continuously as he barked his shins against wire
hawsers and the awful miscellaneous litter which
marks every Russian landing-place. At last we
managed to climb through to the first road, lighted
by one solitary oil lamp, whose feeble rays only
served to intensify the gloom. A carriage passed,
furiously driven my first sight of the foreigner and
his works for a number of days. Then we started
vainly wailing for an isvostchick after the mournful
Russian manner, but not a sound was to be heard
nor a soul to be seen. Presently came a steady
tramp, tramp, in the distance, and we moved back
into the shadows. . . . Something was clearly amiss
in Harbin, and perhaps war had really come. A
group of black shadows pushed out of the darkness
and marched steadily away not a dozen yards off.
As they passed under the street lamp the light for a
3 i2 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
minute played on shining bayonets. An armed
patrol marching the streets of Harbin at night !
So -things were evidently stoking up in Russian
Manchuria, and the necessity became more urgent
that I should at once sink myself speedily in the
common herd. So we slid down the street as
fast as possible, and finally found a conveyance.
The isvostchick looked mightily suspicious, for
strangers who start out in the night with their
slender baggage trooping after them, and are clad
in semi-Chinese attire, are not exactly popular in
Harbin. Bluff, however, was my game, and,
muttering something about the parahod from
Harbarovsk being late (is there such a thing as a
passenger steamer from the Amur nowadays, I
wonder ?), I told him to drive to the inn I had
previously patronised. By way of encouragement
I likewise shifted an excellent revolver, that was
really far more danger to myself than to my
enemies, from one pocket to another. You have no
idea how rough things can be at night in Harbin,
and it is the man who draws first blood who is the
most respected. All of which made me somehow
believe that there was something very wrong in the
town since I had left. I managed to find time
during the short drive to perform an acrobatic feat
which will commend itself to all who have driven in
the great railway city. I changed my sheepskin
coat for one of more civilised aspect, only falling
once on the floor of the drosky, and certainly
without broken bones. The Harbin streets will not
xx PETUNA TO NINGUTA BY RIVER AND RAIL 313
require much trenching if war comes, for the wheel
traffic has already done that most successfully.
At the hotel I was greeted curiously and offered
my old room, which I promptly refused. The
memories of that awful mattress were too recent,
and I prefer iron neat instead of under the dis-
guised form which obtains in Harbin. In the
restaurant I was at once struck with the number of
officers present, and their changed manner. All
were in full war-paint, with revolvers strapped on,
ammunition pouches ready, and their inseparable
swords at their sides. I was muttered at as I passed,
for I was an Englishman and therefore a suspect.
Two Frenchmen sitting at an adjoining table, who,
under the benevolent protection of the much-
renowned Dual Alliance, could apparently hunt
with the wolves to their hearts' content, soon
enlightened me with their loud conversation.
Briefly put, Harbin had got a bad attack of the
nerves, which was merely the prelude to the attack
of bad men desirous of disturbing the peace of the
Russo-Chinese Empire. The vague rumours which
had been floating round for days had at last crystal-
lised into one appalling report. War with Japan
was imminent and had already come in fact, and the
ball was to be opened in this part of the country by
a grand attack of hunghutzu, officered by picked
men from crack Japanese regiments who had sworn
to take Harbin or die. Already it appeared that
Kirin city was almost surrounded by Chinese des-
peradoes that they were getting more and more
314 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
desperate (in what form was not stated), and that
anything might shortly be expected. Patrols
patrolled Harbin by night and by day ; a number of
arrests had been made of Japanese spies who had
detailed plans of Harbin's fortifications (I did not
know that Harbin was fortified). Twenty thousand
Russian troops from the trans- Baikal had entered
Manchuria from the west and were even now
detraining at the station. Business was at a stand-
still ; and, worst of all, a new cafe-chantant troupe,
that everybody said was the best thing east of the
Urals, had been sternly countermanded. This was
the crowning blow of all apparently, for what was
there to do in Harbin if the cafes-chantants were
going to shut down ! All this I gathered in a very
few minutes, and the never-ending entry and depar-
ture of numberless officers Cossacks, Siberian
infantry men, artillerymen, in fact, every corps even
down to the despised railway guards gave colour
to these stirring stories and made one dream of
charging squadrons and the dull thud and roar of
the big guns. So I felt that my arrival had been
most opportune, and I called loudly for more drinks
and waited for developments.
Presently there was a general adjournment to the
adjoining preserve of wine, women, and song. I
seized the excellent opportunity afforded to present
myself to the talkative Frenchmen and inquired
what had really happened in Harbin during the
past week. By way of introduction I said I had
just arrived from Irkutsk, and knew nothing.
xx PETUNA TO NINGUTA BY RIVER AND RAIL 315
But I merely heard the same story over again,
although the number of reinforcing troops rose
unaccountably to at least thirty thousand and the
hunghutzu were allowed without a protest to cover
an even greater area of poor disturbed Manchuria.
The Frenchmen were delightful fellows, but they
knew no more about Manchuria's inner working
after a residence of a couple of years in Harbin than
children do of the Higher Criticism. And it is
the same with every Russian in Manchuria, almost
without exception. They know Port Arthur and
Dalny, which by the way are not Manchuria at
all but the Kuantung leased territory, and they
may have gone to Harbin or passed it en route,
but that is all. I heard one ridiculous state-
ment after another made unchallenged and only
the very slightest encouragement was needed
for them to continue spinning absurdities by the
hour.
Presently we were joined by a Russian officer,
who looked immensely busy and frowned horribly
with the weight of his responsibilities. He spoke
fair French, which is an exceedingly rare thing in
the Manchurian army of occupation, and also knew
all about Kirin province, or at least so he assured
us. He likewise spoke Chinese of that variety
perfectly intelligible to the Chinaman who has a
firm grip of pidgin Russian. Generally speaking,
the Russian who can say " chih fan," and make
grotesque signs with his hands, is accounted a past
master in the language and worthy of all respect.
316 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Anyone who speaks real Chinese at any of the
stations is immediately surrounded by a delighted
crowd of Manchurians and nondescripts, who gaze
upon his features with awe. The usual comment
heard from Russian mouths is that the speaker
must be a German, for the Siberian apparently
looks upon members of the happy Fatherland as
the only people who penetrate into the secrets of
the mysterious east. The German is the Russian's
schoolmaster.
Thus we passed the night in pleasant if some-
what idiotic talk and had supper at regular intervals
of two hours after the fashionable manner of the
place. Harbin prices, it is true, are almost as
disastrous as those of Klondyke, but after Chinese
inns one is entitled to some relaxation.
By morning I had pieced together everything
sufficiently accurately to know that all Harbin's talk
was mere wind, arising from what the American pic-
turesquely calls " cold feet," and that the inhabitants
knew no more about what was really going on than
the empty tins and bottles that so largely decorated
the town. I consequently decided to go on to
Ninguta, cost what it might, and not cut short my
journey, in spite of all the wars and rumours of
war. So, in the course of time, I duly found myself
in a railway carriage, and in the fulness of my joy
once more gave the same magnificent pourboire to
the same magnificent porter, duly securing for my-
self an entire compartment which could be held
against all comers. The Harbin porters are the
XX PETUNA TO NINGUTA BY RIVER AND RAIL 317
only nice civilian Russians in the whole of
Manchuria, but they are very expensive.
Meanwhile, the train stood stock-still, and appa-
rently had no intention of moving. You soon get
used to this in Manchuria, but after we had waited
for an hour or so, even Russian passengers became
both alarmed and indignant. Around us the scene
was full of animation. Dense crowds of howling
Chinese filled the station, trying to board trains that
were leavingfor the south. The great winter exodus
had already begun, and the war scare was helping
it along with extraordinary vigour. Extra trains
had been despatched for days, they told me, and
still the crowds did not diminish in numbers. Some
Chinese, in answer to my questions, told me that
they had been at the station for several days, and
that they had paid bribes right and left without
being able to get off. All had from fifty to two
hundred roubles savings, the result of seven months'
work under the Russian regime of absurd prices,
and all were highly anxious to get home for the
winter and feast it in distant Shantung. If the
German ever makes any success with Kaio-chou
and the adjoining hinterland, it will be largely due
to the travelling rouble, for the Shantung coolie in
his tens of thousands is bringing back yearly what
are immense sums for poverty-stricken people, and
these are going a long way towards making the
poorest province in China to some extent affluent,
and, therefore, able to travel on German railways
and buy German goods.
3 i8 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
In Manchuria itself, every clay fresh signs may be
seen by the intelligent observer of how the Russian
is being bled to death by the Chinaman, and will be
ruined in the long run if he is not more careful
war or no war for the Bear is no match for the
Dragon in times of peace. We are told by someone
that the Scotchman can live where the Jew starves.
Well, be assured that the Chinaman can grow rich
where the Scotchman's daily task would merely be
the tightening of his belt and calling on the gods of
his fathers to help him in his dire extremity. Roughly,
I should say, one Jew equals ten Russians ; one
Scotchman equals two Jews ; and, finally, one China-
man equals three Scotchmen. Therefore, one
Chinaman is equal to sixty Russians ! And observe
that the Chinaman I am using as a basis for my
calculation is the Chinaman of the north, whose
business capacity is insignificant compared to that
of the Chehkiang and Canton merchant. When
these latter make their way up north in increasing
numbers, as they are already beginning to do, the
position of the Russian will be even more parlous
than it is at present. So until the Muscovite be-
comes vastly different he can have no permanent
success in the far East.
Amidst these statistical reflections, the train moved
off unexpectedly. It is roughly 200 miles to Nin-
guta ; twelve into 200 goes, say, sixteen times, so it
would take sixteen hours more or less to cover the
distance, allowing always that we were not the
regular bi-weekly express. Had we been an express
xx PETUNA TO NINGUTA BY RIVER AND RAIL 319
there is some probability that we would have covered
fifteen miles an hour.
The first part of the country on the road to Nin-
guta is dull at least it is flat and without distinguish-
ing features. The only thing that you can console
yourself with is the thought that the soil is just
as wonderfully rich as in other parts of the country,
but that is all, and even a rich soil ceases to be
attractive after some hours. There were always the
same fields of closely cropped stubble, succeeded by
patches of waste, and cut here and there by muddy
creeks and a few solitary willows. Hour after hour
you travel through dozens of miles of country with the
same landscape, but imperceptibly you are approach-
ing a series of hills and high table-lands that run down
to the sea to Vladivostock. This has necessitated
tunnelling, and so hills have been duly tunnelled.
I have already said how the Russian engineer
appears to hate the very word tunnel and longs only
for open-cuts. Well, the small tunnels between
Harbin and the Ussuri districts were contracted to
German and Austrian engineers, and very well has
their work been done. It is only in this extreme
east of Manchuria and in the Hsing-an Mountains in
the west that the Chinese Eastern Railway en-
countered any engineering difficulties at all. The
rest has been mere child's play, for bridge building
over shallow rivers cannot be classed as a difficult
feat.
Meanwhile, day passed into night, and night
again into day, and finally, very tired and disgrace-
320 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CH. xx
fully dirty, I tumbled off the train at the station
from where the road leads to Ninguta. Once more
I had arrived at a temporary terminus after forty-
eight hours of varied experiences, and with Slav
and Chinaman so mixed up in my sleepy mind, that
I could hardly realise what it was all about.
CHAPTER XXI
THE IIUNGHUTZU, OR THE RED-BEARD BRIGAND OF
THE NORTH
THE hunghutzu has become such a familiar
figure of speech in the Press and is so constantly
referred to as one of the excuses for Russia's
continued occupation of Manchuria, that he merits
some attention and explanation. Translated literally
"hunghutzu " may mean red-beard, or it may mean
something else ; for it depends entirely on the
Chinese characters what the correct translation
really is. There are some, and they are well-
informed, who argue that it is merely the phonetic
transliteration of Chinese characters which has
given rise to the present expression of red-beard,
and that originally " hung " did not stand for red,
nor " hutzu " for beard. However, these are
sinologue subtleties which do not interest the
ordinary person. Suffice it to say that, right or
wrong, the expression "red-beard" has passed into
daily use and that the vernacular Press endorses this
by using the " hung-red " and " hutzu-beard "
Y
322 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
characters without qualification, explanation, or
apology.
The brigand of the north is therefore a " red-
beard " duly accepted as such. As a matter of fact
the beard is not commonly met with in real life.
However, even the brigand Chinaman loves his
own history exceedingly, and so has dug back into
the past and borrowed from the earlier dynasties a
familiar form of disguise which he may assume if
the spirit moves him in order to strike terror into all
hearts. In China, masks, false beards, moustaches,
bushy eyebrows, and colour-stains of all sorts have
always figured largely in the mythical and actual
make-up of wrongdoers ; and valiant men sallying
forth on evil bent are generally pictured by native
artists clothed in some grotesque disguise and
hideous with awful beards.
The hunghutzu of the north is the direct out-
come of four things to wit, the enormous extent of
the unsettled districts in Manchuria, the laxity of
Chinese control in provinces which are still
nominally military-administered, the severe climatic
conditions and hardships of life during the long
winter, and finally the large numbers of political and
other convicts banished to the outer confines of the
Empire, who, supposed to be labouring on the post-
road under the supervision of officials, are able to
purchase their " absence" and indulge in evil deeds.
With these four great factors working in its favour,
it has not been a hard thing for the immense north
to conceive and bear this interesting personage.
xxi THE HUNGHUTZU 323
But before discussing the real hunghutzu further,
let us first take a glance at what Mr. Alexander
Ular, whose fairy tales receive such credence in
both England and France, has to say about him
then, having finished up the mythical, we will attack
the prosaic. Mr. Ular in twenty-three pages of a
small volume successfully annexes Manchuria to
Russia- Manchuria, with a population of twenty
millions and roughly twenty-five hundred millions of
acres, and gives voice on the " Khongkhouses," as
he calls them, in a manner which has created
undisguised merriment in Manchuria. It serves a
useful purpose to quote this writer, for he admirably
represents the misconceptions which most writers
have on Manchurian sidelights, misconceptions
which have done much to give rise to the present
state of affairs. He writes :
" These Khongkhouses were the former workmen of cer-
tain gold mines the Chinese Government was engaged in
in exploiting Manchuria. Complications in the administra-
tion of these mines gave birth to these ' hunghutzu,' whose
entire history and subsequent development are indeed the
little-suspected and dangerous consequence of these
Government mining operations. The nature of the country
in which the auriferous deposits of Manchuria are found
necessitated a special organisation being made for the
mines and this was carried out by the Chinese Government
with great skill. Indeed, so excellent were the measures
adopted to secure the food and living of the miners that
they were subsequently copied by the Russians when they
themselves commenced mining operations in Siberia.
Storehouses for provisions and clothing were established
by the Chinese ; roads were cut ; barrack-like buildings
erected ; a general working plan adopted and finally miners
Y 2
.324 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
were obtained. The wages paid these men were rela-
tively high for China, the allowance being four sous a day
(query, twenty cents ?) And besides food and clothing the
State supplied all tools necessary. All this however was
not enough to make men forget the climate and the
country in which they lived, which resemble those of the
Farthest North. In winter the cold is so severe that it
dries up all the dampness in the air and produces a mist
full of needle points of ice which oppress the breathing and
cause terrible hemorrhages of the lungs. Crows and other
birds fall senseless to the ground smitten by the cold. For
days and even for weeks on end everyone is forced to re-
main indoors, a torture to the Chinaman who loves cleanli-
ness (sic). In summer neither clouds nor rain give one a
moment's respite from the heat of a pitiless sun. Swarms
of mosquitoes prevent one from lifting even for a second
the covering which must protect the face. And in addition
to all these things there were the difficulties of work ; the
isolation ; the absence of news. Under these circumstances
recruiting for labour became more and more difficult, until
all the authorities had to be content with the very dregs of
the people. From this it was not a very far step to
deporting to the mines convicts and thus working them
partly with forced labour
" As is the case with all men insufficiently paid, the
miners, consisting of indifferent workmen, deported without
compensation, badly treated, badly paid, or not paid at all,
readily persuaded themselves that the managers and the
engineers, for the most part young men, served no useful
purpose. But instead of striking and refusing to work,
these merely deserted. The mountainous country surround-
ing the mines was uninhabited and covered with impene-
trable forest. By going there it was possible to evade the
terrible Chinese gold laws. Tens of thousands of workmen
and deported convicts escaped, and began extracting gold
on their own account, and in time a secret traffic in this
gold sprang up between them and Russian and Chinese
traders.
" Although the Government was powerless to act against
xxi THE HUNGHUTZU
these deserters the authorities continued to send more
vagabonds and convicts to the mines, who in time followed
the example of their predecessors and so gradually the
adjacent deserts became peopled with an outlawed popu-
lation. These gold washers were liable to severe punish-
ment for deserting ; and for indulging in the forbidden
industry of gold mining, to the extreme penalty of Chinese
law, summary decapitation."
Here Mr. Ular breaks off the narrative and
indulges in a long-winded discourse on Chinese
socialism. En passant, he dubs these convicts
" Khongkhouses "' ; he mentions how they organised
themselves into miniature republics ; how finally all
the gold-bearing valleys of Manchuria became
occupied by these people ; and then, when the gold
began to give out, how self-preservation forced
these tens of thousands of men to band together
and form one vast confederation.
He then goes on to say that the most celebrated
group of men founded the republic of Sholtoga in
the seventies (where the Mono mines of to-day
are situated). He describes the organisation of this
republic with a wealth of detail which speaks well
for his imagination ; gives some interesting popula-
tion and sexual statistics, and then suddenly switches
off to a general discussion of " Khongkhouses,"
letting fall casually that the republic of Sholtoga
" perished a victim to the measures undertaken by
the Chinese Government." Finally, after the
Chino- Japanese war and a few pages of reading, we
find the last survivors of the " Khongkhouses "
" shut in among the gloomy valleys of Keichan
326 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
where, tortured by hunger and cold, they awaited
their final agony." A gloomy picture indeed and a
warning to all republics !
But here we must again let Mr. Ular have the
stage, for it is only meet and proper that he be given
full credit.
" This tragedy was fated to become a comedy. The
Russian Empire on the point of swallowing Manchuria,
required an enemy which would make Europe believe in
the existence of a war. It was then that the Khongkhouses
were thought of. This insignificant enemy, always to be
bought off for a few roubles, was to prove the salvation of
Russia's questionable policy.
"Numbering about two hundred men, the 'Khongkhouses'
crossed the Amur the frontier of China beneath the
mouths of silent and accomplice Russian cannon and
plundered a few peasant huts on Russian territory. It is
this act of small importance which has been pompously
named the Chinese attack on Russia. This event took
place on the 1st July, Russian style, near Blagoveschensk.
It was the long-looked-for excuse to officially mobilise the
Siberian army which had really been on a war-footing since
the month of March. An official despatch, destined above
all things to show Europe the manly energy of the Czar in
the face of these terrible waves of yellow men, was osten-
tatiously sent from Petersburg to the Commandant of
Blagoveschensk, Gribski. This despatch simply said,
' Throw the Chinese across the Amur.'
" What was merely a diplomatic fanfaronade, was, how-
ever, taken literally by Gribski and his Cossacks, dreaming
of murder and pillage. So Gribski gave the order to drive
away, not the Khongkhouses who, as a matter of fact, had
disappeared as soon as their raid was accomplished, but the
peaceful inhabitants of the town. . . .
"While the Peking events stopped all interest being
taken by Europe in the Russian operations, Grodokof
peacefully rode clean across Manchuria. The few remain-
xxi THE HUNGHUTZU 32?
ing bands of ' Khongkhouses,' the last survivors of all the
former brigand glory, furnished the excuse for innumerable
despatches containing accounts of brilliant victories. The
majority of ' Khongkhouses ' retired towards the south and
on their way they seized the opportunity to destroy a part
of the Trans-Manchurian railway and the various stores of
railway materials. The ' Khongkhouses ' were finally driven
away without much trouble by the Russians from all
inhabited districts and flung back on the Mongolian deserts.
It was deemed imprudent to annihilate them immediately,
since their existence might serve in case of necessity as an
excuse in the eyes of Europe for undertaking fresh military
expeditions which would justify the presence of Russian
troops in this quasi-Chinese territory."
I have paid Mr. Ular the tribute of quoting him
at this great length, only, I regret, to hold him up to
ridicule. Seldom have such picturesque half-truths
and non-truths been so cunningly woven together ;
seldom have political students had the opportunity
of reading such pleasant romance in the form of
serious history.
In the first place, what Mr. Ular says about
Chinese mining operations in northern Manchuria is
approximately true, although he greatly exaggerates
the terrors of the country. These officially-super-
intended mining camps have existed for a great
number of years and the deserting of miners has
always been a serious difficulty. But here the
accuracy of Mr. Ular's statements ceases, for the
deserters have not generally or of necessity become
hunghutzu, as he alleges. On the contrary, they
have usually very quietly and very peacefully
indulged in private gold washing on their own
328 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
account and feared the real hunghutzu much more
than anyone else ; for, when winter came and it
became necessary for them to make their way in
small parties to the towns of southern Manchuria or
northern Chihli to dispose of their gold dust, more
often than not the real hunghutzu were waiting to
hold them up.
As for the so-called republic of Sholtoga, this
confederation of " bad men " engaged in illicit
mining was destroyed not once but several times ;
and as a matter of fact the leaders were always
outlawed Russians and renegade Europeans. I
have the pleasure of knowing a man who was a
member of this little-known republic for a few
months, and I have given much curious information
concerning the whole question elsewhere.
What Mr. Ular says about the last of the
hunghutzu " who, shut in among the gloomy valleys
of Kiechan, tortured by hunger and cold, awaited
the final agony," is indeed heartrending, but the
tragedy is indeed fated to become a comedy, to use
Mr. Ular's own words, for a few years after the
final agony should have disposed of these outlaws
we find them in 1900, according to Mr. Ular,
resuscitated by the travelling rouble and gaily
crossing the Amur " under the mouths of silent and
accomplice Russian cannon," and indulging in a
delightful little looting expedition which must arouse
envy in the hearts of the Jameson raiders. It was
this, Mr. Ular alleges, which gave the excuse for
committing the Blagoveschensk outrage which still
XXI THE HUNGHUTZU 329
makes men shudder. As a matter of fact, although
I am one of the most rigid opponents of the Russian
advance south, I cannot let such a deliberate con-
coction pass. For it is a well-known fact that the
Aigun Forts, which are under the command of a
Chinese military Deputy- Lieutenant-Governor and
lie a few miles below Blagoveschensk, on the
Chinese bank of the Amur, fired on Russian ships
and practically stopped all navigation for a number
of days in obedience to the Chinese Imperial Decree
which declared war against Russia ; and it was
simply the fear which all Russians have always
entertained towards the Chinese which prompted the
noyade.
So far from being mobilised, everything tends to
show that the staff arrangements of the Siberian
army were upside down in 1900 and that only
months of work succeeded in getting troops where
they should have been after a few days. No
hunghutzu or brigands had anything to do with the
Aigun affair, and although, later on, mounted hung-
hutzu bands in temporary pay of terror-stricken
Chinese officials did actually attack Russian columns
on the line of march, it was not they but Boxers
pure and simple who tore up the railway. Mr. Ular
is so careful to go out of his way to say that there
were no Boxers in Manchuria in 1900, and it is so
important that the real facts in contradistinction to
the mythical should be known, that I transcribe
again in full the paragraph in which these deliberate
misstatements occur.
330 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
" The Boxer revolt, which was turning the province of
Chihli topsy-turvy, did not spread about this there is no
shadow of doubt, as far as Manchuria, It was therefore
necessary, no matter at what cost, to create a state of affairs
which would make people believe that similar disturbances
had to be faced in Manchuria. For there were never any
militant Boxers there and since the Chino-Japanese war,
regular Chinese troops have been distinguished by their
absence. Fortunately for Russia it was nevertheless possible
to find an enemy who would attack the Muscovite power
and could easily be made to pass in Europe for Chinese or
Boxers. This curious enemy was the ' Khongkhouses '."
As I have already dealt with the destruction
wrought by the Boxers in Manchuria, and as such
incidents as the Boxer attack on the Newchwang
settlement, the Moukden massacres of Christians,
the Harbin and Ninguta outbreaks, are well known
to every newspaper reader, it is unnecessary for
me to say more than that Mr. Ular is pleased to con-
coct story after story for no purpose apparently
except that of arriving at and justifying his extra-
ordinary conclusions. But his statement concerning
Chinese garrisons in Manchuria since the Japanese
war is even more wild than his other inventions.
Mr. Hosie, who was British Consul at Newchwang
until April, 1900^ states in black and white in his
book of that year written previous to the Boxer
business :
" The army of Manchuria is composed of foreign-drilled
Chinese troops and a Banner force said to number 25,000
and 40,000 men respectively. It is usual to considerably
discount Chinese figures ; but within the last two or three
years active recruiting has been carried on and I am inclined
xxi THE HUNGHUTZU 331
to think that these figures should be added to and not
discounted. Indeed, the quantity of Mausers recently
imported into Manchuria through the port of Newchwang
alone for use in the Fengtien province would suffice to
equip an army of about forty thousand men, and it must
be remembered that the foreign-drilled troops of the province,
amounting to eight thousand men, are already provided
with serviceable weapons. There is, besides, an arsenal at
Moukden where rifles of all sorts are manufactured and
quite recently the conversion of muzzle into breech-loading
guns has been made a speciality of the establishment."
This is sufficiently conclusive independent
evidence and will probably show more than any-
thing I have written myself the worthlessness of
Mr. Ular's statements. And yet he has taken upon
himself the task of fully analysing and describing
the recent Russian movement and his mythical
accounts have partly helped to spread the idea that
Russia has really absorbed Manchuria. Having
now disposed of a part of the myths which have
been so industriously and foolishly circulated in
Europe, it is time to get at a few hard facts.
I have already said that four factors were respon-
sible for the latest edition of the Manchurian brigand.
For not only is the brigand a familiar figure in
Manchuria through all time but he is indeed one of
the best known and most important personages in
the history of the country.
Who, after all, were the Manchus but old-world
brigands and cattle-raiders in the first instance ?
They have risen, it is true, to the dignity and estate
of a dynasty, but in the obscure days of the growing
up to the full and mature manhood of Nurhachu the
332 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
founder of their fortunes their constant raids on
the peaceful Chinese-settled and administered
areas, known at the time as the Liao-chou-wei,
are exactly the same as the later robber-forays
of hunghutzu bands which are always disturbing
Manchuria.
But coming down to modern times we find that
when Newchwang was opened to foreign trade by
the Tientsin Treaty of 1858 and the foreign settle-
ment was established in 1861, the local brigands
were so bold and daring that it was necessary for the
Customs to have an armed guard of sixty men to
protect the Custom House against attack. Although
as years went on the guards have been called on less
and less to take down their rifles, it is a noteworthy
fact that this small force continued to exist until the
Boxer year of 1900.
As another sample of modern Manchuria, it is
recorded that in the sixties a band of five hundred
bandits under the command of a Shantung Mahom-
medan, seized the city of Hsingking, seventy miles
east of Moukden, killed all the local officials, and
retired unmolested with all the booty they could
carry away. Now Hsingking is in the valley of
Hootooala the cradle of the Manchu dynasty
and being the first capital of the young Manchu
power, it was looked upon as sacred ground. It
will be realised how cool is the Manchurian bandit
and how little he cares for the conventionalities of
life, for in the ceremonious Far East the pillage of
a sacred city is as deliberate and bare-faced an out-
xxi THE HUNGHUTZU 333
rage as could be planned and shows singular
audacity.
But during the sixties brigandage in Manchuria
probably reached its height. The dynasty was
engaged in a death-struggle with the Taipings in
Central China and had no time to pay any attention
to Manchuria. The loose hold of the Central
Government on the three Eastern Provinces was
still further weakened by the drafting away of large
bodies of Banner troops to the Yangstze provinces,
till the authorities were so weak that they dared not
venture outside their Yamens. Murders were of
daily occurrence ; no man went out of the house
unarmed. Field labourers had their matchlocks and
spears strapped across their backs while working.
Gangs of robbers seized and held to ransom high
officials and even big towns. The port of New-
chwang was so constantly threatened that the British
Consul had to put the place in a state of defence.
In the seventies a change, however, began to take
place. Ch'ung Ch'i, a vigorous Governor-General
of Fengtien, executed hundreds of robbers and
even decapitated gamblers. In 1875 tne forcible
establishment of order on the northern and eastern
frontiers was accomplished by wholesale capital
punishment. Sholtoga was wiped out for the first
time in that year. A complete reorganisation of the
Manchurian forces then took place. The moneyed
contributions from the provinces of China proper
were largely increased and mobile forces were
equipped who engaged in unremitting brigand-
334 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
hunting. By the eighties things were much better,
but it is interesting to note that in 1885, when James
made his famous voyage across the country, he met
brigands in Kirin province who calmly watched his
party for a time and on deciding that the nut was
too hard to crack, quietly disappeared. Again in
the same year James says field labourers, north of
the Sungari, were constantly to be seen at work
with matchlocks lying alongside them in the fields.
Finally, before the iron-horse began the " conquest
of Manchuria," we find that Hosie in his voyage
from Newchwang to Kirin by cart in 1896 was an
eye-witness of a brigand fight and hold-up a few
miles distant from the provincial capital. He
describes it as merely a tremendous fusillade ending
in the robbery of a few fur coats. In that year a
thousand brigand heads were supposed to be falling
annually, and chain-gangs on their way to provincial
capitals to suffer the extreme penalty of the law were
to be constantly met with.
But there seems little doubt that the years imme-
diately following after the Japanese war witnessed
an abnormal amount of brigandage. In China
defeated armies mean that the land is filled for years
with desperadoes who have to live as best they can,
for the Government pay-rolls are no longer thought
of once the soldiers have fought and lost. These
disbanded men are only slowly killed off or driven
to peaceful pursuits, and in the interim they create
a very disturbed state of affairs. By 1899 every-
thing points to the fact that the brigand pest in
xxi THE HUNGHUTZU 335
Manchuria was much alleviated, and that if it had
not been for the Boxer outbreak it would have
slowly disappeared as more and more settlers came
and filled up the vacant land. I have already
described the entire disorganisation of the Chinese
civil and military administration of Manchuria, which
took place as soon as the Russians began pouring
into the country ; this sent thousands of soldiers,
carters, and other people who could not earn a living
into the beloved Manchurian trade.
It is the ex-soldier who has always been the most
formidable of all the hunghutzus, for he generally
disappears with his rifle, and, if he happens to be a
cavalry-man, his pony goes too. Dispersed Chinese
troops have a habit of simply turning their coats
inside out, throwing away all distinctive badges and
starting the gay life of the road. Ex-soldiers are,
therefore, more than any others, truly designated as
the real hunghutzu or red-beard of Manchuria, for,
being presumably recognisable, they generally, when
they work in bands, put on false beards or mous-
taches. They thus very often escape recognition,
and avoid the frightful fate which awaits all who
have eaten Government salt and forsworn it. The
Kuan Ti, or God of War, is always pictured as a
demon-like fat man of huge strength with fierce red
whiskers, and it is his appearance the ex-soldiers
possibly seek to imitate. The mere cry of ''hunghutzu !"
in a Manchurian village is enough to set all the
population running, for the brigands have purposely
set in circulation stories of their horrible appearance.
MAXCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
their likeness to veritable men-ogres, so as to strike
terror into the hearts of the pigeons they wish to
pluck, and violence is therefore very seldom neces-
sary. It is the same principle as that which prompts
the painting of huge cannon mouths in the walls and
gates of a Chinese city, supposed to dismay the
attacking force into immediate flight.
o o
The hunghutzu may, therefore, be divided into a
number of varieties of different strength, like strong
drink. As a matter of fact, the average Manchurian
hunghutzu is merely a more picturesque and gaudy
edition of the typical bully, gambler, and " bad man "
to be met with all over China. He sticks up a junk
up on a creek, or a cart on the road, in company with
his friends, as a matter of business when funds are
low ; the rest of the time he gambles and fights with
his associates quite openly in settled towns. For
instance, since the Russians have taken possession
of Newchwang, well-known characters who were
badly wanted under the Chinese regime saunter up
and down the bund quite unconcernedly and safe
from capture, owing to the extraordinary Russian
ignorance of the real conditions of the country they
wish to conquer. These men are generally, and
from preference, armed with the latest type of
Mauser automatic revolver, which delights them on
account of the excellence and simplicity of the
mechanism. A large secret trade has been done
in these pistols for years, and Newchwang merchants
estimate that the number of men armed with these
weapons CTust run into thousands.
xxi THE HUNGHUTZU 337
But it is the ma-tsei,or the horse-brigand, who is the
veritable highwayman the most picturesque hung-
hutzu. He begins single-handed, but as his evil
deeds pile up he becomes more and more daring,
and his renown spreads far and wide. Recruits flock
to the standard of a successful desperado of this
type, and as the number of his followers increases
he gets more and more reckless, until he finally
becomes such a pest by officially " fan " or revolting,
that the Government either runs him to ground by
instituting a grand battue of troops, or else buys him
out of the business with hard cash. If he is really
very strong, and living in some distant village sur-
rounded by his followers and difficult of access, the
latter course is generally resorted to.
Tseng Ch'i, the Governor-General of Fengtien
province, has quite recently recruited two battalions
of infantry entirely from so-called hunghutzu by
entering into private arrangements with their chiefs,
and fifteen months ago I myself witnessed the
interesting spectacle of the swearing-in of these
formidable and healthy-looking ruffians at Moukden.
It is probably this curious recruiting of the Chinese
Government which has given rise to the stories that
the Russians have themselves enlisted Manchurian
bandits. For rifle inspection is sometimes insisted
on by Russian post-commandants ; and the un-
initiated, seeing the Czar's officers in the midst of
Chinese troops, have concluded that these hunghutzu
recruits are directly under their orders. Such is,
however, never the case.
z
338 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CH. xxi.
Because Manchuria is little known in Europe, and
because travellers gazing at a huge expanse of country
through the window-panes of a railway carriage are
proverbially gullible and eager to believe, the
curious stories of the terrorism in which the
hunghutzu held the Manchurian people until the
Russians came are swallowed without a moment's
hesitation. The hunghutzu is generally a very matter-
of-fact person, as I have shown, and prefers to live
in peace to being chased from countryside to
countryside. In Petuna the district hunghutzu are
now the insurance agents of the great Western
caravan roads. At Ninguta people laugh at the idea
that the hunghutzu can hurt anybody, and say it is
all a question of being willing to pay a little money. If
there are really hard times and no money to be made
by honest work, the Chinaman will undoubtedly
prey upon the caravans but otherwise not. Never
have such a peaceful and law-abiding people ex-
isted as the Chinese of the North. Nowhere else
could you find such quiet as you do in Manchuria
to-day, without any policing whatever going on.
But perhaps it is, in a way, only the quiet before
the storm. If the storm comes, then beware,
Russian soldiers ! This time there will be some odd
guerrilla fighting on the plains and hills of Man-
churia, and in the front ranks will be found our old
friend the hunghutzu hunghutzu no more, but
patriot eager to help in the casting off of Muscovite
toils that seek to enmesh all officials, traders,
people, and brigands alike.
CHAPTER XXII
NINGUTA AND THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY
NINGUTA, like every other town of importance in
Manchuria, and in conformity with the terms of the
Chinese Eastern Railway Agreement, lies some
distance from the railway. One of the curious
stipulations of rail way concessionnairing in Manchuria
lays down that all towns of importance are to be
avoided on the one hand, so as not to interfere
with Chinese prejudice, and on the other, to allow
the Russian to build up his own Far East indepen-
dent of existing settlements. How many miles
away Ninguta is from the nearest railway station,
I cannot accurately write, because I forgot to ask,
but it will suffice to say twenty or thirty li. In any
case, it is a good two hours drive by Chinese cart,
and the roads are somewhat terrible. In the old-
time Manchurian scheme of things, Ninguta was
the residence of a Military Deputy-Lieutenant-
Governor, one of half-a-dozen Manchu military
Commanders in this province of Kirin, who
nominally, very nominally, had under his orders
a couple of thousand foreign-drilled troops. Of
course, of these there is now no trace, for the
z 2
340 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Chinese soldier under native auspices is apt to be
very much of a fleeting and ephemeral thing, and
the native military have never recovered from the
shock of 1900.
The military Yamen in Ninguta, which is enclosed
by a high stone wall, wears a deserted and forlorn
look, somewhat symbolical of China's military im-
potence in the three Eastern provinces since the
Boxer business. Ninguta lies on the left bank of
the river Hurka, called by the Chinese the Mu-Tan-
chiang, a clear, swift-flowing stream joining the
Sungari 160 miles to the north, at the ancient
Chinese garrison town of Sansing. The Hurka
is very shallow here among the Manchurian high-
lands, and although it is easily navigable, it is
apparently but little used as a highway. Road
transport is so cheap and so abundant in this
land of ponies and mules, that even water cannot
compete with it truly a remarkable state of affairs.
Perhaps, however, it is on account of the fact that
the Hurka is a clean stream, with little or no mud
in it, that it is so little used by Chinese commerce.
For it is noteworthy that native trade always hugs
the banks of muddy rivers, and thrives exceedingly
where there are many treacherous bars and sand-
banks, and where the smells are strong and well-
defined.
Ninguta is a very flourishing place, and seems to
have been but little harmed by the great Boxer
war, and the awful retribution which overtook many
other Manchurian towns passed it by. It is hardly
xxn NINGUTA AND THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY 341
much more than 100 miles as the crow flies from
the true frontier of Russian Prinorsk, and had it not
been for the rapidity of the Russian advance up the
Sungari from the Amur in 1900, it would have been
through Ninguta that invading armies would have
come to accomplish the capture of central Man-
churia. The town commands the highways to
Kirin city, and also to the important frontier post
of Hun-ch'un, about which much will be heard if
war comes again to this unhappy country. Hun-
ch'un was abandoned by the Chinese after some
desultory fighting three years ago. From there
the Chinese Imperial forces (not the Boxers or
Redbeards, mind you) fell back in disorder in the
first days of September, 1900, on Ninguta. They
had, it appears, attempted, in the usual half-hearted
Chinese fashion, to carry out the insane orders
transmitted them from far-away Peking during the
Prince Tuan summer regime an attempt which
cost them several hundred men, and effectively
stopped all Chinese official aggression in this part
of the world. The Hun-ch'un fugitives arrived
in Ninguta with the most horrible tales, and showed
their torn and bloody clothing to wondering people,
who had not yet begun to understand what all this
trouble was really about. Indeed, so alarming were
the reports spread about the brutality and carnal
lust of the Russian soldiery, that all Ninguta started
running towards Kirin city, headed by the Military
Deputy- Lieutenant-Governor. However, in spite
of this blind terror, nothing much happened to
342 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Ninguta, for the town is, comparatively speaking,
unimportant, and this north-eastern part of Man-
churia is the Scotland of the country, and is,
therefore, not much coveted by anybody, except
from a strategical point of view. What the Russians
desired was to reach and conquer the rich cities of
the plains say the 500 miles from their leased
territory of Kuantung to Harbin, and then east
and west on either side for 100 miles or so. This
is a land flowing with milk and honey, coveted by
all ; the rest is mainly unregenerate Manchuria, full
of mountains, bad beasts, and a worse climate.
Ninguta is said by the local people to have a
population of from thirty to forty thousand inhabi-
tants, but it seems to the eye of a traveller, from a
look at its mean streets, that this is an exaggeration.
It is likewise accounted by the Russian a hung-
hutzu city that is, a centre from which predatory
bands sally forth and raid neighbouring villages and
peoples. But, like everything in China, this is one
of the misconceptions which have arisen owing to
the vagueness with which the Chinese invariably
speak of everything demanding an exact knowledge
of time and place.
Everybody knows that if you ask a Chinaman
where he comes from, he may stolidly answer Han-
kow or Tientsin, when he is a native of neither of
these places. What he means to say, or should say,
is that the town he names is the principal city of his
country-side or prefecture the point at which he
takes ship or junk and this is the place from which
XXII NINGUTA AND THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY 343
he would have you think he comes, on the principle
that the greater is the better than the less. Simi-
larly, in Manchuria, although both Petuna and
Ninguta are spoken of vaguely as disaffected centres,
at which numbers of desperate characters reside,
you will have a hard time at unearthing any men
who differ one jot from the average peaceful Chinese
in either pursuits or appearance. In the mountains
which you see on all sides from Ninguta, it may be
that there are men outrivalling both the Bashi
Bazouks and the Moros in infernal brutalities and
untamed natures ; but in spite of this they are
mainly conspicuous by their absence, no matter where
you may look for them. The experiences of mis-
sionaries and Englishmen who have travelled much
in Manchuria during the last thirty years is, that
these unfortunates are by no means as ferocious as
they are made out to be, and, indeed, generally
leave all Europeans strictly alone.
Ninguta nominally should be garrisoned, I had
learnt, by some sotnias of Cossack cavalry, accord-
ing to the latest distribution of " Russian troops in
temporary occupation." Inquiries and journeyings
about the town, however, soon showed me that
what has occurred in other parts of Manchuria has
likewise been seen here. Every available man has
been hurried down to Southern Manchuria, and
mere skeleton corps left at the less vulnerable or
less important places. When I say vulnerable, I
mean, of course, less vulnerable at the outbreak of
a war with Japan. Ninguta may, therefore, be said
344 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
to have no Russian garrison at all. There are a
few telegraphists, but that is all. You see, every-
body in Manchuria knows about as much concern-
ing the probability of Japanese descents as the
Russian headquarters staff, in spite of its vast learn-
ing. The main Japanese attack, argue the strate-
gists, would have to come either via Korea over
the Yalu, or by surprise landings somewhere on the
Liaotung peninsula. In Northern Manchuria, that
is, either south or possibly north of Vladivostock, it
is not likely the Japanese would do more than try
and make a diversion. All this part of the country
is far more wild far more difficult to negotiate than
Southern Manchuria, and withal only provided with
bad roads, so narrow in places that carts must
follow one another in single file, and columns of
four are entirely out of the question.
The point immediately interesting when one is in
Ninguta is, of course, Possiet Bay. Attacking forces
landing there would find themselves only a few miles
from the Chinese frontier post of Hun-ch'un, and
once arrived there, three or four days' march would
see them in Ninguta. It is less than two days'
steam from Japan's northern island, Hokhaido, to
Possiet Bay and as the main part of the Russian
fleet would undoubtedly be round the other side of
the Korean boot, the Japanese would have no diffi-
culty in getting a foothold on the mainland here,
provided always that they can defeat the Russian
on the beach. How much Russians must regret
this vast Korean boot of land that juts out so
THE I'KKI.V; CART THE CAB OF THE NORTH.
CHINESE TROOPS.
xxn NINGUTA AND THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY 345
alarmingly, and makes the Primorsk over a thou-
sand miles by sea from Port Arthur and the leased
territory, instead of only five hundred, as it would
have been if nature had only first consulted St.
Petersburg ! The Russian, however, much as the
little brown men may desire to land at Possiet, has
no intention of being kicked off the beach if he can
possibly help it. So he has been very busy of late
fortifying Possiet, fortifying the hills around Possiet,
and also fortifying Chinese Hun-ch'un. In the
process, he has moved all the troops he has so far
been able to spare from Southern Manchuria, from
Ninguta down to the hills facing the sea of Japan.
Plainly, Ninguta is not interesting at the present
stage of proceedings. If the Japanese were to
climb through the country as far as this, the Russian
position in North-eastern Manchuria would be a
very parlous one. For a considerable portion of
the Eastern half of the Trans-Manchurian Railway
can be very conveniently cut from Ninguta and
rendered perfectly useless ; Vladivostock can be
threatened from the rear ; Harbin placed in awful
danger ; and forced marching might even find
Japanese forces joining hands somewhere in the
neighbourhood of Kirin city without the Russian
knowing exactly how they had got there. And
daring detachments of Japanese soldiery might
even float down the Hurka, seize Sansing, and
close the Sungari to Russian navigation.
When you are in Ninguta, therefore, you incline
to the opinion that after all the Russian may be
346 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
willing to evacuate, but that he is truly afraid to do
so until Japan is definitely settled with. Continuing
this line of thought, the movement of troops going
on unceasingly along the railway assumes a purely
defensive aspect, and seems in no way aggressive.
You may even begin to think that you have been
mentally maligning the poor Slav after all ; that
there is something to be said for his point of view.
But when you are giving way to your feelings in
this way, it is proper and reasonable to remember
that you have already received half-a-dozen conflict-
ing impressions in different parts of Manchuria.
For instance, in Harbin you almost thought Russia
and Manchuria were synonymous terms, as the
Russian pretends he does ; in the country away
from the railway you have thought the whole thing
a myth ; when you hear Russians talk you know
they are aggressive ; when you read his newspaper,
published for foreign consumption, you are con-
vinced it is the Japanese who wish to carve the Slav
up, and that the Slav is, on the other hand, merely
acting in the interests of Europe and civilisation,
with no thoughts of personal gain or advantage. So
with all these impressions fighting one against the
other, it is best to be extremely wary in Manchuria,
and merely to observe carefully and make up your
mind long afterwards.
Ninguta lies in the very centre of a country
which has great interest for the archaeologist and
the lover of old-time things. Here, in these
latitudes, ancient and now forgotten kingdoms have
XXII NINGUTA AND THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY 347
risen, swayed the country for a while, and then
passed away. Two thousand years ago, or even
a thousand, this country was peopled by men of a
curious mixed race, Tungusian in stock, who built
cities and monuments, lived and loved as other men,
and are now utterly forgotten. Their descendants
are probably the degraded tribes who still are to be
found in the extreme North-east part of Kirin
province ; men who live by the chase alone, and
who are a curious survival of those times when
European civilisation was undreamed of.
In the Ninguta inn, an old man told me that some
twenty miles to the south of the town there were
still some curious ruins to be seen, which tradition
said had been there many hundreds of years before
the Chinese came. These are called locally the old
Korean graves, but why or wherefore no one man
knows. A hundred years ago or so, the Chinese
themselves were only pushing up these valleys of
the Hurka, and frightening back the old-world
inhabitants. Even fifty years back that curious
people, the yu p'i ta tzu, or Fish-skin Tartars, were to
be seen all round Sansing, and sometimes higher up
the Hurka. Fifteen years ago, when James visited
Manchuria and wrote his interesting book, " The
Long White Mountain," the Fish-skins had retreated
a hundred miles farther north, and only visited
Sansing at rare intervals. A native fur dealer
assured me at my Ninguta inn that there were now
hardly any left south of the Amur. Crushed in
between the advancing tides of Russian and
348 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Chinese civilisations, the aboriginal inhabitants of
these dreary jungle-covered mountain lands are
slowly dying out and will soon cease to exist. The
American Indian is not the only picturesque figure
which has to be bemoaned by the lover of the
romantic. These old-world Tartars, the Fish-skins,
clothe themselves almost entirely in the skins of the
tamara a species of salmon and hence their name.
The tamara literally swarms in the Hurka, and
everywhere in Ninguta these fish were for sale.
The tamara, being bred in the icy waters of the
Amur, the Sungari, and the Hurka, has the most
wonderful heat-giving properties, if one is to believe
the testimony of Father de la Bruniere, the valiant
missionary apostolic, who in the forties undertook a
perilous voyage to the banks of the Amur to convert
various long-haired people, or Chang Mao tzu, as the
Chinese call them. In those days the Goldi, the
Giliaks, and other uncouth tribes filled the country,
and life was not as secure as it is now. The reverend
father says that a little millet and plenty of dried
tamara alone supported him through winters of a
continual cold of eighty-three degrees Fahrenheit,
or say fifty-one degrees. Sometimes the thermo-
meter even went as low as sixty-five, or nearly one
hundred degrees of frost, and yet this poor traveller
says he suffered less from the cold than in Southern
Liaotung, where the tamara was unobtainable. I
myself have eaten a good deal of tamara, but
although it was very palatable, I cannot say I
suffered from heat apoplexy, even when the thermo-
xxn NINGUTA AND THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY 349
meter was sixty degrees in the shade. The
sturgeon, whose delightful roe duly becomes caviar,
was likewise to be found for sale at Ninguta. I was
offered one monstrous fish, even at this early season
of the year, said by the Chinese to weigh six
hundred catties, or nearly eight hundred pounds.
Talking to hunters and others who wander this
country in winter, and who were preparing to go out
for the season, the extraordinary glamour of the
half-known began to exercise its influence on me,
and I almost decided to hire a squat-sterned boat
and try a voyage down the Hurka to its junction
with the Sungari. An enthusiastic native fur-dealer,
who was on his way overland to Sansing to buy
furs, said he would join me if I would give him a
free passage. But my courage sank when I went
outside the inn and found a bitter north wind blow-
ing and a freezing leaden sky. Winter was rushing
down from the north as fast as it could, and for
the next six months the sole aim of one's existence
here would be to try and keep warm. So I remem-
bered, before I had definitely compromised myself,
that I had a mission. I told the innkeeper to pre-
pare my bill, excused myself as best I could, and
made all preparations for an early start the next day.
After a very short experience you learn not to linger
about Northern Manchuria when the winter is threat-
ening you. It is far better to get home and thank the
Lord that you are not condemned to hibernate in
mountain lands, where the vile north winds saw one
into more pieces than any Chinese ling-chih.
CHAPTER XXIII
RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL, alias THE
CHINESE EASTERN RAILWAY
THEChinese Eastern Railway Company (unlimited)
is a joint-stock company, whose share capital the
Russian Government has, in the press of business,
forgotten to issue to the public fortunately for the
public. But stay, I am wrong. For two Grand
Dukes, one Prince, and at least half-a-dozen mysteri-
ous others have holdings in this brilliant concern,
the extent of which no mere outsider may gauge.
These holdings exert a mysterious influence in more
ways than one, to which I shall have occasion to
refer later on. What the nominal capital of the
company is, or to put it more frankly, and after all
more accurately, what sum of money the Russian
Government has advanced to the Russo-Chinese
Bank, who are the so-called concessionnaires, to pay
for the construction work and for countless other
things no living man knows. He may think he
knows, and may even be a few millions within the
mark, but that is all. No one can possibly know-
accurately, seeing that many of the railway accounts
CH. xxin RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 351
were conveniently lost during the Boxer business, that
likewise many miles of road had to be partially rebuilt
owing to the same cause, that the construction of
expensive permanent steel bridges is even now going
on, that enormous administration buildings, costing
some seven million roubles, are not yet ready or
accounted for, that many accounts have not yet been
made up, and that, finally, when these accounts are
made up, no one exactly knows whether they are to be
classed under the heading of railway construction or
simply " Empire Building General Account."
So he who reads may see that the matter is no
simple one, and a chartered accountant, under the
new Company Act, would probably prefer suicide
to giving a clean certificate. Japanese estimates,
however and be it noted that the Japanese are
such careful compilers of figures that they would
even satisfy an Investors' Wilson state that up to
the ist of July of this year the Manchurian railways
had cost Russia the gross total of 370 million roubles,
or, say, nearly forty millions sterling. But there is
some reason to believe that the Japanese have over-
looked, or not included, certain totals in their esti-
mates totals, indeed, not available for the ordinary
man. I am therefore of the opinion that with
Hsing-an tunnelling work, new steel bridge work,
new feeder lines, strengthening of the approaches
to rivers which have been damaged this summer,
uncompleted Dalny terminus works, and other
miscellaneous items too tedious to mention, the
grand total will reach a far higher figure. I have
352 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
discussed this question again and again with non-
Russian engineers concerned in the building of the
railway, whose names it would be indiscreet to men-
tion, and they, one and all, hover in the neighbour-
hood of five hundred million roubles. But this
total, admitting all the unblushing and unparalleled
robbery which has taken place, seems too gigantic
to be true, although it includes many things apart
from the building of the iron track. There are the
railway, sea-going and river-steamer services, the
railway barracks, the railway mines, and many
other offshoots belonging to the Chinese Eastern
Railway Company. I therefore think that it will
be best to adopt the total of forty-five millions
sterling, or four hundred and thirty million roubles,
as the nearest possible one can get to the correct
total. What I have to say later on is, therefore,
based on the assumption that these Russian rail-
ways and their necessary adjuncts will have cost the
above sum when they are properly completed.
But although I have in one of my preceding
papers dealt with the manner in which the Man-
churian railway concessions was obtained from
China i.e., payment in kind for help given to the
Peking Government in 1895 m forcing the Japanese
to evacuate the Liaotung to make this account
complete I must, even at the risk of wearying the
reader, include the various railway agreements under
which the world-worrying concessions were obtained.
Apart from the apocryphal Cassini convention,
which it is best to ignore, the first document deal-
TRAIN ON THE ROLLING PLAINS OF CENTRAL MANCHURIA.
A TYPICAL STATION ON THE MANCHL-RIAN RAILWAY.
xxin RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 353
ing with the Manchurian Railway is the Agreement
of September, 1896, entered into between the
Chinese Government and the then newly-con-
stituted Russo-Chinese Bank. The general terms
of the Agreement are : ist. Shareholders of the
proposed Company to be Russian and Chinese
only ; 2nd. Gauge to be the Russian gauge of five
feet ; 3rd. Work to be begun within twelve months
after the issue of the Chinese Imperial Edict; 4th.
Railway to be completed within six years ; 5th, and
most important of all, if most improbable, on ex-
piration of eighty years from the completion of the
line and the inauguration of the railway as a running
concern, the railway and all railway property passes
into the hands of the Chinese Government without
payment, the Chinese not being responsible for any
losses which the Company may have sustained
during that period ; and in addition to the above,
the Chinese Government has the right, on the
expiry of thirty-six years, to take over the rail-
way on due payment, such payment to include the
actual cost thereof, together with all debts and in-
terest thereon.
The main points in the above, viz., that the rail-
way can be repurchased in thirty-six years' time-
that is, in 1939, and in any case passes into the
hands of the Chinese Government without payment
after eighty years, are worth remembering, because
in practically all the now numerous railway conces-
sion agreements China has been forced to make,
through the good offices of the Russo-Chinese
A A
354 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Bank, these purchase and reversion clauses exist.
Regarded from the present position of politics in
China, these clauses practically say to the Peking
Government : "If you are not rich and strong
enough to buy us out in less than forty years, we
are going to gobble you up inside of eighty, because
if we do not, and commercial honour still obtains in
Europe, we will have to lose railways which we
have no intention of losing if we can possibly help
it." You may laugh at this, but it is no laughing
matter for China, and it is of the utmost importance
for people at home to finally understand that Man-
churia is but an object-lesson of what is going to
happen in every other part of China. Downing
Street appears to consider these things if it ever
thinks things in China worth serious consideration
remote possibilities, whereas they are very dan-
gerous features in the present situation.
For a period of eighteen months, that is, up to
March, 1898, Russia only possessed the right to
build what has been called the Trans- Manchurian
Railway that is, the section which runs from a
point on the South-Eastern frontier of the Trans-
Baikal province to the Western Ussuri frontier of
Russian Primorsk, or the Pacific province. I have
discussed elsewhere the absolute necessity of this
railway running through Chinese territory, and I
need here only say that for the Trans-Siberian to
run from Stretensk along the northern bank of the
Amur, meeting the northern Ussuri railway at
Habaravosk, was, if not a physical impossibility,
xxiii RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 355
at least, without doubt, a financial one. An
American who has been for twelve years on or
around the Amur assured me that there are at
least two hundred rivers and marshy stretches
which would have to be bridged or built over
between Stretensk and Habaravosk, and that no
American company would undertake the work
under the terrible climatic conditions which prevail
for so many months of the year. Although, there-
fore, most Englishmen are fierce Russophobes they
must be prepared to admit that, up to 1898, Russia
was quite reasonable in her demands, and was only
rendered unreasonable after that date by England's
unparalleled weakness, and for no other cause. Even
at the risk of wandering away from the point, it is
necessary to refer to these things, for they have a
great bearing on the whole question.
With the departure of the British men-of-war
from Port Arthur in the winter of '97 '98, the now
famous leasing agreement was drawn up in Peking
by Monsieur Pavlow, and duly signed in March,
1898 (third moon of the twenty-fourth year of
Kwang-Hsu). The only article which concerns the
question of Manchurian railways is Article VIII. in
which China agrees that the procedure sanctioned
in 1896, regarding the construction of railways by
the Chinese Eastern Railway Co. across Man-
churia, be extended, so as to include the con-
struction of a branch line connecting the Trans-
Manchurian system with Dalny, Port Arthur, and
Newchwang.
A A 2
356 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
From March, 1898, therefore, Russia had the
right to invade the whole country with a system of
railways designed with one object that of
ultimately robbing China of some of the most
magnificent grain-growing districts in the world ;
and that right was only obtained because the
Chinese Government was convinced that England
was a negligible quantity in North China and
beyond, and that to offer resistance to the Russian
was worse than useless.
The Central Manchurian railway has therefore
been built, and is nothing more or less than a
monument to British diplomatic ineptitude and
sloth in China. Permanent officials and others in
Downing Street have been so purblind as to
imagine that the warm waters of the Yellow Sea
are a sufficient recompense for exclusion from the
Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf. Let them
wait and see. There is one more important point
to be considered in the Russo-Chinese agreements,
and then one can turn to something more interest-
ing. By an additional clause, Russia obtained the
right to police a strip of territory extending for
fifteen versts on either side of the railway line
wherever it might go, and also the sole right to
exploit any mineral deposits she might find within
this strategic area. Previous to 1900 the number
of railway guards employed to carry out this
nominal policing work was quite reasonable, but the
Boxers, somewhat feeble creatures after all in their
unorganised state, showed of what little value these
xxin RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 357
men were by incontinently chasing them away
in every direction as soon as the first shot had
been fired.
Apart from indulging in man-hunting, the Boxers
tore up a good deal of the iron road. It is
impossible to say how much destruction was
actually done, but it is only fair to acknowledge
that considerable portions of the completed track in
Fengtien, or the southern province, were badly
damaged, and that in the neighbourhood of Harbin,
and also of Ninguta, a good deal of wrecking took
place. However, if you have enough money, and
enough men, you can rebuild railways as fast as
they can be torn up. In Manchuria this tearing
up has at least had one salutary effect : all the new
material used was much better, and much more
calculated to withstand the extreme climatic con-
ditions met with, than that which was first used.
The cost of the railway I have already given in the
most approximate fashion possible. It is interesting
to see whether the line could ever be made to pay
the interest on bonds bearing four and a half per
cent, interest the rate of the Siberian railway
bonds. The service of a loan of forty-five millions
sterling at the above rate of interest would amount
to ,2,025,000 nett per annum, after deducting all
running expenses and costs of administration.
Allowing that these costs and administrative
expenses were to come to fifty per cent, of the
gross receipts, it will be then necessary for this
railway of 2,300 versts to earn yearly upwards of
358 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
four million sterling to prove, not remunerative but
merely solvent. And be it noted that nothing is
being allowed in my estimate for a sinking fund to
repurchase bonds that must lapse in the eighty
years' time-limit. The question, therefore, arises at
the very outset as to whether the line can possibly
earn a sum equal to forty million roubles a year.
At first sight it seems wholly impossible, but a little
examination shows a very different state of affairs,
always allowing that a man will ultimately be found
by the Russian Government who is really com-
petent to undertake such serious work. The most
cheeseparing Directorate, however willing to cut
down running expenses to practically nothing and
subordinate everything to economy, could not hope,
for some years to come, to earn bond fide profits.
The interest of two million pounds a year on the
bonds would have therefore to be found by the
Russian Government itself for at least five years.
But before going any further in my speculations,
I would wish to introduce a new point, and it is
this. I have given the rough estimate of 2,300
versts as the total length of the lines when
completed. The includes the extension, under
construction, to Kirin city, the proposed line to
Ninguta, and some other small feeders. I cannot,
however, regard the Chinese Eastern Railway as a
possible commercial success until certain things are
done. A double track must be built between
Harbin and Port Arthur ; Dalny must be
abandoned ; and the great bean-growing districts
xxiii RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 359
properly supplied with facilities. Although the
Trans-Manchurian section from east to west can
never do more than pay running expenses, the
Central Manchurian section, provided there is a
double track all the way from Harbin to Port
Arthur, and a treble track between certain points
such as Tiehling, Moukden, and Newchwang, could
be made to pay so enormously that it would more
than make up for the deficit on the other section.
Allowing, therefore, for the sake of argument,
that a double track is built from Harbin to Port
Arthur, and certain other extensions made, the
Chinese Eastern Railway, by that time, would have
an approximate length of rail of 3,500 versts.
Fifteen thousand roubles gross receipts per verst
would bring in a gross income of nearly fifty million
roubles a year, and I am emphatically of the
opinion that this sum, equivalent to ,2,000 per
mile per year, is by no means an impossible figure
to hope for if commonsense methods were adopted.
The railway steamers of both the sea-going and
river services should at least be able to run without
loss.
But such a wonderful change is not to be hoped
for so long as the present spirit prevails. The
railway is at the present moment a frightful failure,
and to convert it into a brilliant financial success
would necessitate the employment of Englishmen
the only men who have been able so far to handle
the Chinese with real success in trade and industry.
I have been at some pains to discover what the
36o MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
monthly receipts of the railway are at present,
but my efforts have met with no success whatso-
ever. Bland astonishment and open wonder have
greeted my inquiries, and I have been assured
with fervour that the line is merely a strategic
one, and that the receipts are simply speculative
profits generally gobbled up by some department
before their totals are publicly or even privately
known. With these things duly considered, you
may well ask what is the use of discussing the
matter any further. In truth, there is not much
use, but still to give people some idea of how
things are done in contradistinction to what should
be done, I propose to adhere to my plan. To show
how commerce is encouraged, the freight rate from
Harbin to Port Arthur or Dalny is roughly half
a rouble a pood (thirty-six English pounds). A
slightly more favourable rate is quoted for Dalny,
in the vain hope of inducing trade to go to that
doomed place. A half a rouble a pood works out
to about three pounds sterling per ton for a five
hundred mile haul ! Seeing that most of the great
winter caravan traffic in Manchuria, employing at
the lowest estimate 100,000 long carts, each of a
two-ton capacity, is in articles that cannot stand
heavy freightage, the reader may judge for him-
self how much the railway is availed of by Chinese
merchants. At the present day it is much cheaper
to send by cart over nearly every caravan route
in Manchuria than it is by the Chinese Eastern
Railway, and, what is more, it is a good deal safer.
xxin RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 361
But the railway authorities in Harbin are very
astute people, and to show their market knowledge
they have raised all rates considerably from the
first of July last. Their excuse is that they were
ordered by the Petersburg Board of Directors to
make more money, and this is the method they
have adopted.
The present great articles of export from Man-
churia are beans and bean products, such as bean-
oil, bean-cake, &c., &c. This is collected all
through winter at points on the frozen river Liao
by carts whilst the roads are hard and easily nego-
tiable. As soon as the river opens in spring, huge
fleets of junks convey this produce down to
Newchwang the only foreign trade centre of the
country where it is prepared for shipment. This
entire movement is roughly from north to south,
and probably exceeds a million tons in four months.
It is to be doubted whether the railway can ever
quote low enough to capture this great trade, or
whether it would spell anything but loss to it if
it did. There is no doubt, however, that an
English company would try and secure the carry-
ing of a great portion of these articles even if it
lost money, because such a policy would be bound
to attract great quantities ol other cargo, and thus
allow losses made in one direction to be recouped
in another. Trade in China must be coaxed in a
very tender fashion, and must never be frightened.
One half a million tons of beans and products of
beans are yearly exported from Newchwang, and
362 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
this total does not include a vast amount of move-
ment not found in export statistics. A thousand
thirty-ton freight cars, worked to their full capacity,
and quoted a sensible American produce rate per
mile, would undoubtedly take all this trade away
from the caravan and river ; but the Russian has
no brains for such things, and would probably get
his line hopelessly blocked or lose half the cargo
if he ever managed to secure the carrying of it.
Again, in spite of certain provisional arrange-
ments entered into between the Inspector-General
of Chinese Customs and a more or less self-
appointed Russian representative, dealing with the
opening of a Custom House at Dalny, so far no
import duties are collected on imports arriving at
either this place or Port Arthur and passing into
Manchuria proper ; neither are Chinese Customs
export duties assessed on native produce leaving
the country via the Kuantung territory. You would
therefore think that Chinese dealers, probably the
most astute in the world at taking advantage of
loopholes, would rush their cargo either out of or into
Manchuria, as the case might be, via Port Arthur
or Dalny and save the duties. Not so, however.
They know the railway too well, and have probably
witnessed the unlading of such seemingly unbreak-
able things as steel guns, and seen them smashed
too often to put much trust in uncivilised hands.
Therefore, in spite of every Russian attempt to
kill Newchwang to the advantage of Dalny, the
Russians have at last been forced to admit that
xxin RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 363
they have failed absolutely, and see no hope of
success even in the dim future. This is one more
proof that you cannot drive the Chinaman in trade,
and that bad business methods are inevitably ruin-
ous. Then again, take Manchurian exports of the
second rank such as furs, silks, tobacco, and
ginseng. All these things can bear a very heavy
freight. Has the Russian succeeded in securing
any of the carrying of this cargo ? Not a bit, for
the more valuable the cargo the less it likes to
trust itself to the tender care of the Chinese Eastern
Railway. From Harbin to Port Arthur you can
hang about any of the station freight-rooms by the
hour and never see a bale of goods ; and if you
question the Chinese they laugh and think you
mad. Calculated in days, I have probably spent
nearly a month in waiting at Manchurian railway
stations during the past three years, and I have no
delusions on this point.
Turning to imports, you find the one great article
is cottons cloths of coarse fabric which make
serviceable clothing for most of Manchuria's lower
millions. Now bales of sheetings and shirtings,
cased in the toughest hempen covers and gripped
together with iron hoops, are not easily hurt. The
roughest baggage-smasher in the world would give
up any wrecking attempts in disgust, and therefore
here is the very article for your Russian railways
something unbreakable and unhurtable. And, think
of it, you can get it into the country without import
duties if you land at Port Arthur or Dalny. Do
364 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
you think the Chinese Eastern Railway carries any
of this trade ? Hardly a bale, and what is more,
never will carry much more than now under the
present regime.
But the Russian has weird and wonderful ideas.
He says it is too soon to talk of general business
now, and that he wants to develop his own freight
traffic before he takes other people's. In order to
encourage the shipment of Hankow teas, via the
overland route, a special minimum rate has been
quoted from Dalny, which cuts the Hankow-Odessa
steamer rate and is designed to kill the Tientsin-
Peking-Kiachta-Urga camel-caravan trade in China
brick teas. When in Dalny I took a great deal of
trouble to ascertain the manner in which these
countless chests of Yangstze teas were being
treated, and I was truly thunderstruck. Cargoes
that had been unladed weeks before were still
choking the godowns, and seeing that winter had
already come in Siberia, their rate of progress
across the Steppes when they were finally shipped
can be imagined ; for there is no man in the world
who hates to work so much in the cold as your
typical Russian. Now, tea is proverbially a quick
cargo, just as certain other things are slow cargoes.
In the old unregenerate sailing-ship days, the
fastest clippers used to proceed to Canton, wait for
the first season's crop, load up, and then dash home
with every stitch of canvas spread, and with the
whole ship praying for more wind. Even to-day,
when Anglo-Saxons have largely abandoned the
XXIII RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 365
fragrant China leaf in favour of its strong-tasting
Ceylon and Indian rivals, twin-screw mail-steamers
are content to make a speciality of picking up
cargoes of teas at out-of-the-way places in China.
In other words, tea is a valuable cargo, a beautiful
and easy one to handle in its square chests, and one
which pays mightily. It is, however, casting pearls
before swine to give any Russian railway company
the handling of it, for they are the most terrible
incompetents I have ever seen. Already at Dalny
this incipient trade is being rapidly killed by care-
less methods, and Russian tea merchants from
Hankow have assured me that this is the first and
last time they dispatch consignments by the great
overland route.
Again, Dalny is the second place of importance
in the Kuantung leased territory, and therefore the
Petersburg Government decreed at first that
Russian men, Russian stevedores, and Russian
shift-bosses should have charge wherever they
could, so that the Russian flag and Russians might
be supported and represented by white men and
no others. Immediate results general chaos and
anarchy. To-day Cantonese tally-men, the universal
tally-men of China, Cantonese shroffs and compra-
dores, officiate everywhere ; symbolical of the
irresistible superiority of the Chinaman in trade and
its management. Shantung coolies are invading all
the lower railway grades. Sikh watchmen, likewise
the universal watchmen of China, guard the go-
downs, offices, and storehouses of the Dalny
366 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
terminus, and have displaced scores of young
Russians and Siberians, who came to the golden
East in the expectation of finding the riches of
Golconda lying at their feet. The Russian Govern-
ment is, however, benevolent to its people, and,
still desirous of keeping up the fiction that it can
ultimately Russianise Manchuria, it retains these
disappointed ones in its service, who meanwhile sit
around in crowds looking wistfully at an animation
and a scheme of things utterly beyond their com-
prehension. It is really more pathetic than
anything else.
What I have written disposes of the all-overland
trade to Russia. Now let us see what comes from
Russia itself to Manchuria on the much vaunted
railway. Briefly put, and disregarding smaller
articles, such as sugar and clothing, the traffic may
be summed up in one word vodka. Yes, Exeter
Halls and blue ribbon societies of the world, the
paying freight from Siberia and Russia has hitherto
been vodka, not vodka in mere car loads, but vodka
in train loads, in dozens of train loads, mountains ot
cases, oceans of liquor. All this has been rushed
out of Russia in order to escape the new excise
duties imposed by M. de Witte, and now lies in
huge stacks at the three or four places in Manchuria
and the Kuantung territory that have really some
Russian people. All have been doing their best
during the past year or so to reduce these enormous
stores, and it is wonderful what one hundred
thousand civilians and soldiers can do when they
xxni RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 367
really try to lower drinking records. Along the
railway any employee who receives a tip from a
traveller promptly jumps into the nearest buffet,
gets a pint bottle of vodka, slips it into his trousers,
and before the shades of night have fallen is
gloriously drunk for the sum of eightpence half-
penny ! With this going on and everybody honestly
helping, the consumption has been enormous. For
instance, at the Port Arthur station, the great
mountain of vodka cases was for months one of the
show sights of the town. To-day, instead of being
the Himalaya of drinks, these stacks have become
mere insignificant table-lands at which Harbin
people look with disgust, with the remark that they
can do far better in their own little town.
The railway, however, has benefited by this ardent
worship of Bacchus, and money, much money, has
been made by this blood-firing freight. But it would
seem to the ordinary man hardly sound business in
a new country, and the average investor cannot see
dividends in mere vodka, even after he has consumed
a good deal of it for himself. Some sugar also comes
from Russia ; likewise candles and butter that is all.
So under the present regime the carrying line is
doomed and its failure merely further ostracises
everything Russian from the commercial life of the
country St. Petersburg wishes to conquer. But if
you have been to Port Arthur or Dalny you will
say that everybody there complains that the railway
is overworked, has in fact no room for anybody's
goods and does not want them yet. Exactly, and how
368 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
is it overworked ? By loading up endless cars with
building bricks, timber, and coal for its own use and
letting them take root wherever they happen to be.
If a Port Arthur or Dalny firm wishes to send a
train-load of tinned provisions up to Harbin for the
troops and civilians (this is the Russian idea of trade
in a great agricultural country), the station master
must be approached hat in hand and begged for a
couple of dozen cars. No, impossible, he will inevit-
ably answer. Well, will query the merchant, how
much ? Perhaps he will be asked five hundred
roubles, perhaps even a thousand who knows ? So
the merchant takes out his pencil and works it out.
There is a profit in it still, even with the extra
squeeze piled on, for the European importer in
Manchuria does not do business under twenty per
cent, margin. So the stuff is finally shipped. If you
are an extraordinarily lucky dealer you will happen to
be in Harbin when that train-load is dumped and the
sardine boxes are chasing one another round the
station. For then comes what the Yankee terms a
soft snap in freights. You see the Harbin station
master has got to send back those cars at once empty
or full, because if he does not and the Port Arthur
man happens to be " inspected " it would be con-
clusively proved that two dozen cars were missing,
and that which is missing is stolen. Logic flourishes
exceedingly in Russian Manchuria. So the lucky
man at Harbin can hire two dozen unfortunates that
have travelled so unwillingly for a mere song and
make money. In this way are the sharp rewarded.
xxm RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 369
Again, the average person, even if he does not
happen to be in trade, will agree that this is hardly
business ; but it is largely things of this nature which
constitute the freight traffic in Manchuria. The
Chinaman is an especially keen business man, as all
the world knows, so he absolutely refuses to embark
in such ventures. However, there are always daring
small speculators in every part of China, and Man-
churia is no exception to the rule. These have hit
upon an ingenious method by which it is said that
all are making money. Each man hires his own
freight-car for a month, a quarter, or a half-year,
and gets a permit allowing this goods-waggon to be
coupled on to any heavy train he likes between
certain points. Provided therefore with a thirty-ton
capacity, this model broker proceeds to beat up
cargo from native merchants wherever he can get
it. He simply undertakes to load at such and
such a station and discharge at the destination
without taking any risks. I do not know whether
it is merely my market ignorance, but it seems to
me that this smacks largely of the irregular, and that
an outsider is taking good profits which should
rightly belong to the railway company. One native
dealer with whom I had a long talk said to me what
may be freely translated as follows : " I don't care
whether I tell you or not, because I am now
on velvet. I have been doing this business for
eighteen months and have cleared several thousand
taels profit, and I am now getting out of it as fast
as I can. The Russians are huai (Anglice, bad,
B B
370 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
corrupt), and I have had enough of them, for they are
worse than our own officials in squeeze." He has hit
the nail right on the head, this astute Chinaman. The
system is rotten to the core and will never have any
success until there is a root and branch reform. This
is the beginning and end of the Chinese Eastern
Railway as a freight-carrying line.
Turning to passengers, the results obtained so far
are much better. Everybody knows about the bi-
weekly expresses, which start from, and arrive at,
Dalny the doomed. Some people declare that the
accommodation is bad and that they do not like
these trains. Personally, I cannot have any sym-
pathy with such people, for these expresses are
much better found than anything in England. The
fittings of all the cars are excellent ; the panelling
most choice, and 'the sofa-seats excellently up-
holstered and provided with springs of delicious soft-
ness if anything, too soft for English tastes. The
service and the lighting are unexcelled anywhere in
Europe, and if you happen to be a first-class pas-
senger you are a king whose every want is antici-
pated. The restaurant-cars (wagons-restaurateur)
please everyone, and I personally can vouch for the
fact that the cafe"-au-lait served in the morning is alone
almost as good as a trip to Paris. Nothing brings
so home to you that you are on your way to far-off
Europe as that coffee. Then each European ex-
press has a delightful chef-de-train a real master-
of-the-train, whose word is law. He is always a
beautiful man in a still more beautiful uniform and a
xxiii RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 371
perfect dream to talk to. My first collision with a
chef-de-train led me to suppose that I was honoured
with a conversation with one of Alexeieff's most
trusted generals, although my man had no thick red
stripe down his trousers after the manner of Russian
generals. He was discussing a bottle of ruby-red
wine from the Crimea No. 16, I think when I
walked into the dining-car. In three minutes I was
engaged in an amiable conversation, carried on in
perfect French so far as he was concerned. It took
me half-an-hour to realise that I was merely dealing
with a humble chef-de-train a sort of superior con-
ductor raised to the twentieth power but even this
disillusionment did not spoil him. Among other
things he told me he was a Pole, from Warsaw,
where I have not been, and he sketched life with the
airy Phil May strokes of the boulevardier rather than
from the point of view of the small Government
official. Warsaw, from his accounts, is merely a
lively town full of beautiful women longing for hand-
some men to adore them, a place where even English-
men would be welcomed.
After finishing his bottle of wine and solving the
Manchurian question by awarding the Island of
Saghalien to Japan (the suggestion was his), as a
quid pro quo for the seizure of Manchuria and Korea
by Russia, he insisted on my coming to his compart-
ments apartments I had almost said. I found that
he had two rooms provided by the generous state to
which he belonged ; one labelled private, the other
official. As if to accentuate the official character of
B B 2
372 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
his office, the latest Paris boulevard publications lay
carelessly on a charming table, on which were also
some flowers. Oh ! conductors, and master-conductors
of England, if there are such things, think of it,
naughty books, worse papers, and pretty flowers on
the official table of the official compartment of one of
your dear confreres, who, steaming across Manchuria
in state on the European express, proclaims Russia's
solidarity in the Extreme East to the traveller, in
spite of wars and rumours of wars !
The express passenger trains of the Chinese
Eastern Railway are, therefore, as nearly perfect as
you can get anything in this world, and I will throw
no stone. The only thing I would say is that I
would dearly love to scratch my insignificant name
on car number four hundred thousand and some-
thing they have got terrifically high in their
numbering on the Russian State system and see
how that car had borne a year's handling by
Russian trainmen. I think I am not wrong or
unjust in supposing that dust, dirt, and carelessness
will have won the fight by then, and reduced splen-
did magnificence to that awful and saddening thing
gentility in reduced circumstances.
The European express trains, however, are only one
class. Apart from them there are the daily passen-
ger trains of moderate speed and appearance, which
start every afternoon from Port Arthur, Harbin,
and the eastern and western frontiers of Manchuria,
and which are more worthy of consideration and
examination than the through expresses ; for they
xxni RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 373
represent the local life and conditions of Manchuria,
in contradistinction to the through service, partly
instituted to bluff the unsophisticated traveller into
believing in Russia's dominion. These daily trains
are usually made up of the first-class carriages, two
or three second-class, and at least four third-class
carriages. The first-class carriages are good, dis-
tinctly good. The second-class would be good if
anybody but Russians travelled in them constantly ;
the third-class are fairly horrid. As might be
expected, officers and their wives generally travel
second-class, foreigners, merchants, engineers the
railway engineer in Manchuria is a sort of un-
crowned king, for he has annexed the majority of
the paper roubles floating about first-class, and the
bourgeoisie third-class. Here you may study the
conditions of the Russian Far East to your heart's
content. The first thing you note is that an
English manager would either have to reform the
passengers' habits or else be prepared to set aside
yearly a vast sum for depreciation. For instance,
I got into a first-class carriage at Dalny, which had
manifestly just left the builder's hands, but in spite
of this, it was thick with dust and dirt. Everything
that science and modern comfort demand has been
attended to with scrupulous care in the building of
that car, and the ounce of practice forgotten at the
last moment in the haste to conform to the pound
of theory. This is seen in every department of life
among Russians, as far as I, have been able to
gather. Not that there is any deficiency in train or
374 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
station hands on the railway, for these literally
swarm wherever you go. Every first and second-
class carriage has its own special car-man, who sits
in a little box of a compartment opposite the lava-
tory all day long, brewing himself endless brews of tea
when he can get no vodka. This gentleman is too
lazy and dirty for this world, and should be promptly
shot into the next, if he got his deserts. If you
suggest that his existence should be partly justified
by his taking a hand at sweeping out your compart-
ment, he becomes righteously indignant and sulks
for hours. Sometimes you even hear him telling
his friends afterwards that there is a crazy foreigner
inside who will probably want to wash, or do some-
thing extraordinary next, unless he is obstructed
from the very beginning. To be clean is to trans-
gress the unwritten law of the Russo-Chinese
Empire.
The ordinary trains are, therefore, inexpressibly
dirty, and, generally speaking, the people who
travel in them are rather more so. They have
truly filthy habits. Apart from this, the sanitary
conditions are often reduced to such a state that
mere mention is impossible. In winter everything
is tight shut in every carriage, and double windows
screwed down, so that there is no possibility of any
fresh air getting in, and the result is more easily
imagined than described. The atmosphere becomes
so foul, so chokingly bad, that life is not only
unbearable, but almost impossible for any one who
has a white man's lungs. I have been in native
xxin RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 375
inns in Manchuria where the smoke from the ovens
and the kangs was so thick, and the heat so great,
even in winter, that Chinese travellers sat stripped
to the waist. Well, I am not lying when I say that
it was far preferable in those inns to what you are
forced to put up with in the average railway
carriage in Manchuria, when winter has set its hand
upon the land. On one occasion, I had to sit half
the night on the outside platform and be nearly
frozen to death, in order to escape the disgusting
human stench within. These daily passenger
trains are well patronised between Port Arthur and
Harbin, but the trains coming from the eastern and
western frontiers have hardly any passengers at all.
Last and worst of all there are the omnibus trains
mainly made up of third and fourth class carriages
filled with the lowest class of Chinese workmen.
These are nearly always full, for the Chinese fourth
class fares are most reasonable and induce a great
deal of traffic. Twice I travelled short stretches in
these trains very short I made them and I have
an important suggestion to offer the Harbin railway
board. I propose that the Chinese Eastern
Railway inaugurates at once international slow
races on the principle of those bicycle races in
which the prize goes to the man who can travel the
slowest without stopping. The Czar might
promote general peace and goodwill by putting up
a handsome challenge cup, to be retained after
three consecutive wins without break-downs. You
perhaps think that you have travelled on slow trains
376 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
in Europe, but you are sadly deluded. Manchuria
is the home of slow trains and the daily omnibus
beats creation. If, for instance, you are doing such
an indiscreet thing as swallowing a hard-boiled egg,
or a prehistoric sardine at one of the wayside
stations, and the omnibus starts without warning,
do not get flurried and lightly abandon your edibles,
for you have ample time to finish all, drink one
last vodka, pay your bill, and then catch up the
anti-express by walking backwards. You will catch
it, never fear, before your digestion is made, and
there is really no cause for alarm.
Once, however, I lingered behind with a
charming young Russian (an ex-university student
from St. Petersburg, sent to Manchuria in disgrace),
and we were engaged in so lustily denouncing the
Chinese Eastern Railway and all its works, that the
company revenged itself by letting the omnibus
almost completely disappear from sight. When we
went out on the platform the only thing to be seen
was a little square box of green colour rapidly, I
mean, slowly, retreating down the line miles away.
It was obviously an unfair handicap, as the next
station was only ten miles away, so we hired a
trolley for five roubles from the station master
(every station has a trolley or two to let the
employees escape from their nightmare, the
hunghutzu), and we started sprinting. After
exactly twenty-five minutes' easy work, we bumped
the omnibus two miles from home, and had to slow
down and work the pedals with half a foot for iear
xxin RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 377
that we would make the train exceed its regulation
four miles an hour. Arrived at the next station we
promptly opened negotiations for a race weight
for inches as per scale ; the train to get a start of
half-way towards the next station, and we to be let
go on the drop of the danger flag. Everybody got
excited, for the Russian is a first-class sportsman,
if he only knew how to begin ; the crowd cheered
and the engine-driver spat on his hands and said he
did not mind if he did. Even the station master,
when it was explained that there was no squeeze in
it, smiled indulgently, and there was every chance
of an epoch-making sprint race. Then an official
train arrived unexpectedly from somewhere, impor-
tant officers threw chilling glances on unimportant
civilians, my Russian friends froze visibly, and the
combat was completely off.
This is, however, the lighter side of the Chinese
Eastern Railway, and however amusing it may be,
it does not lessen the gloom which envelops the
line as a business undertaking. In the earlier part
of this, I have referred pointedly to the few
privileged shareholders of the Manchurian railway
two Grand Dukes, one Prince, and half-a-dozen
others, I think I said. Whilst in Manchuria I was
always trying to discover the trail of the serpent
trying to see what special privileges these share-
holders reaped by being shareholders and getting
no dividends. A lot of investigation unearthed two
valuable finds, two really great privileges, although
some people might be slow in discovering where the
378 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
privileges came in at all. These two privileges are
first, timber-felling concessions, and secondly, the
right to present pass-keys to one's friends and
relatives. Let us take the lesser first and explain.
Every compartment of a Russian railway carriage
is locked by a square-holed key, a carre", they call it
in France. The ordinary traveller, when he boards
a train, has to call a man, who, in consideration of a
rouble note if he is modest, unlocks the gate and
lets you in. Up till that moment you have only
bought a ticket and are merely a prospective travel-
ler. But see the potent privilege you possess if you
are armed with that open sesame, a carre". You can
then afford to sneer at guards, conductors, and even
chefs-de-train, for you move in a plane above them.
At Harbin, at Kongchulin, and elsewhere, I noticed
highly-civilised Russians that is, men with clean
faces, clean clothes, and beautiful whiskers letting
themselves into compartments to which I had in
vain sought admittance. I wondered exceedingly.
Conductors and guards passed through the car-corri-
dors, looked and marvelled at the unlocked doors,
asked a question, and then retired in confusion, hat
in hand. It was the wonderful carrd, nothing more
or less, casting its spell over railway doors and rail-
way guards alike, and I determined to solve the
mystery, or die gallantly in the attempt.
At first all my inquiries were in vain ; but finally,
after weeks, I met an amiable man who drew the
mystic key from his pocket and told me all. Appar-
ently, unless he was lying, which is not improbable,
XXin RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHUR1AN GENERAL 379
the thing happens this way : If you are truly
favoured, and are about to leave for the Golden
East, your high-born shareholder in Petersburg
gives you the farewell kiss of friendship, draws you
once more to his manly bosom, and then thrusts the
carrt into your hand a final expression of his
intense regard for you. It is the climax ol railway
and other friendships, and the man who has this
pass-key is henceforth marked above his fellows ;
the shareholder who has conferred this token of
honour on him is likewise as happy as if he had
received a fifty per cent, interim dividend ; and
finally the Chinese Eastern Railway is satisfied that
it is repaying the investment of capital. Now, for
the second privilege the timber-felling and mining
concessions.
People have heard of the little Russian venture on
the. Yalu, in search of timber, of course, which has
caused such a flutter in diplomatic dovecots. Well,
the search for lumber has not been confined to the
Yalu, but is going on all over those districts in
Kirin, or the central Manchurian province, which do
not lie too far from the railway. Manchuria has
practically inexhaustible stocks of splendid timber in
the eastern or mountainous parts of the country.
Kirin city is called by the Chinese " Ch'uan Chang,"
or the dockyard, to accentuate the fact that it lies in
the centre of a country with admirable junk-building
woods, and therefore builds most of the craft which
navigate Manchuria's inland waters. The timber is
floated down the River Sungari almost for nothing to
380 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP
Kirin city, and is a splendid source of income.
The Russian always looks with envious eyes on
timber, because, if there is one thing he can do it is
to fell trees. Your peasant Russian is strong and
burly, and axe-swinging does not unduly strain his
brain. So, everywhere, privileged Russians, work-
ing through the agency of the Chinese Eastern
Railway and the Russo-Chinese Bank, have been
trying to force the Chinese provincial authorities to
give them the right to fell timber. Some people say
that many permits have been actually obtained, lack-
ing the Chinese Imperial Seal, it is true, but still
permits of a sort. Others again say that no permits
at all have been obtained, and that it is all part of
the great game of Russian bluff proceeding so calmly
in Manchuria, even in the face of the rising storm.
However, permits or no permits, the privileged ones
have commenced a little private timber-felling in
certain places, such as Ninguta, and trees are falling
by the thousand.
The part that concerns the Chinese Eastern Rail-
way is that the two privileged Grand Dukes are the
proud possessors of what has been derisively nick-
named the Grand Dukes' concession, about which
I have spoken elsewhere. This concession, said to
cover several tens of thousands of square miles of
magnificent wooded country, reputed also full of
rich minerals, stretches over half the Eastern section
of Kirin province. The grand ducal shareholders
have the right to mine and fell timber wherever
they like within this enormous area, at least they
xxin RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 381
say they have and their agents have therefore
began slogging down trees and getting them carried
on the railway for nothing. The principle which
these agents work on and their line of reasoning
are these. Trees are more tangible and more
negotiable than gold-mines ; therefore we begin
with trees. Our masters are shareholders of the
Chinese Eastern Railway, so we pay no freight.
First we cut down the trees ; then we dig up the
roots ; and, finally, at our feet will be disclosed the
riches of the country the beautiful red Chinese
gold of the golden East sticking on to the roots
and only needing to be picked off by hand !
The average common-sense man will refuse to
believe these things, but, although of course treated
with poetic licence, this is approximately the sort of
reasoning and the style of argument you will hear
any day of the week in Manchuria. Never in the
world's history have there been such well-educated
fools living in such a fools' paradise. So the privi-
leged shareholders, although they will probably
never see any dividends or get any interest on their
money, at least obtain what they are generous
enough to regard as the equivalent of loot bonds.
Some timber therefore, not imported from the State
of Oregon, is actually moving to and fro uneasily on
the Chinese Eastern Railway, and that timber repre-
sents the ambulating dividends of the privileged few.
I have spoken of Harbin flour elsewhere, and you
will ask why it is not also moving. Well, for a
variety of reasons, but chiefly because it is as cheap,
382 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
and possibly cheaper, to import American flour from
the middle west of the United States flour, by the
bye, that has to travel a good deal on American
railways, cross five thousand miles of ocean, and be
subjected to various squeezes before it finally reaches
the consumers' hands in Manchuria. Harbin flour
cannot be moved away from its factories simply
because of the prohibitive railway rates ruling.
And then, you see, Harbin millers, or the men
who have put up the money to start the mills, are
mainly respectable Hebrews ; and Hebrews are born
into the Russian world merely to be bled and be
imposed on, and can expect no most-favoured treat-
ment for their wares.
It will be seen, therefore, that from every point
of view the railway is not only a commercial failure
at the present moment, but that it will continue to
be one in the future unless something very extra-
ordinary happens. Instead of attempting from the
very beginning to identify itself with the country
through which it runs, it has haughtily acted on the
principle that the Russian is sufficient unto himself,
and that the Chinaman can be successfully snubbed.
The hundred years' experience of Englishmen in
China, who, in spite of their Government, have
succeeded far more than any other nationality,
proves conclusively that not only must the Chinese
be considered in all commercial and economical
matters, but their wishes and inclinations in the end
carry all before them and win the day. It is useless
for Russian apologists to say that the railway has
xxni RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 383
only been ready a few months, and that it is too
soon to speak. Complete sections have been quite
ready for at least one year, and in some cases, for
nearly two years. The Belgian Hankow-Peking
trunk railway, still only half-built, has been carrying
great quantities of native produce for many months
past. What the Belgian can do, the Russian can
also do, although neither nationality really under-
stands the handling of the Chinaman. Again the
idea that the railway is going to build up a new
Manchuria, peopled with white Russians and carry-
ing on a white man's trade entirely separate from
the twenty million Chinese in the country, is the
idea of a maniac who has no conception of what the
Far East really is.
For a brief period, say during the year 1901,
whilst the terrors of Cossack swords and Siberian
noyades were so recent that the Chinese hid them-
selves as much as possible, the Russian trader, the
Russian merchant, and the Russian petty dealer
had some slight measure of success along the rail-
way and in the few railway towns. But even in
1902 the position of these people was becoming
weekly more precarious ; for Chinese dealers were
beginning to return and start that fierce competition
and underselling which is the nightmare of white
Australia, and these Chinese dealers were fired with
the patriotic idea of winning back in peace all they
had lost in war. A Government, no matter how
benevolent it may be to its own people, cannot in-
definitely do some things for instance, buy from its
384 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP
own people for one hundred roubles what it can get
from a Chinaman for sixty dollars. All through
1902 the position of the commercial Russian was
precarious, very precarious ; in 1903 it is worse than
precarious, it is hopeless quite hopeless ; and by
1904, war or no war, the joyous emigrants (why
common-place traders are called emigrants I do not
know) who rushed into the country two short years
ago with frenzied cries of delight at the prize they
thought the Little Father had captured for them,
will every one of them be packing their traps and
trooping out of the country sadder and poorer men.
Therefore not only has the railway failed to
attract Manchurian produce and goods that is
purely local trade but it has ignominiously failed in
its self-appointed task of promoting a purely Russian
trade running through the country and bringing in
its train thousands and tens of thousands of young
Russians who would settle everywhere and com-
pletely Russianise the three eastern provinces in
time. I have already treated the question of traffic
so fully in a somewhat flippant spirit, it is true, but
the spectacle is certainly mirth-provoking that I
cannot return to it again. I have merely to say that
in a wonderful agricultural region like Manchuria the
great source of income of a railway can only be
agricultural produce, and unless that trade is
captured the railway might as well be torn up
again.
The only slightly favourable feature is the pas-
senger traffic, but even that, on analysis, can give but
xxin RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 385
little satisfaction to sound business men. The pas-
senger traffic, both European and native, is the indirect
outcome of an abnormal Government expenditure
which simply cannot continue and is even now
gradually ceasing. The European expresses I leave
out of the question, for they have really nothing to
do with Manchuria. But, turning to the hundreds of
Europeans who daily travel between Port Arthur
and Harbin and other points on the line who are
they all ? Officers, officers' wives and families,
officers' sweethearts, officers' servants; "emigrants,"
expending their last roubles in a last attempt to find
something to do ; ladies of moderate virtue ; ladies
of no virtue at all ; a few bond fide dealers, merchants,
and their clerks ; great numbers of Government ser-
vants, and, finally, many nondescripts. Who are
the majority of the Chinese third and fourth class
passengers ? Carpenters, bricklayers, blacksmiths,
platelayers, artisans, and coolies, either going to
seek employment from the Russian Government, or
returning home, their terms of engagement com-
pleted. If not actually in the employ of the Russian
Government, these men are engaged on works or
buildings which are the direct result of Government
expenditure. The reader may marvel, but even
to-day scarcely any decent private Chinese will use
the Russian railv/ay, and certainly never when they
have their womankind with them.
Officials prefer to take three days on the road
in Peking cart from Moukden to Newchwang, to
passing twelve hours in a railway carrriage, where
c c
386 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
they may be subjected, if not to brutalities, at least
to insults. Chinese merchants and their clerks like-
wise follow their goods on the road and jibe at the
iron track. Not that they do not like railway
travelling, for that they do can be seen any day of
the week in other parts of China : it is simply that
well-to-do natives hate and despise the Russians
and will have nothing to do with them. Even from
Kirin city, which is over three hundred miles from
Newchwang, you will hear the same story, and see
rich men on the roads in Chinese carts. At the
stations the language the Chinese apply to men who
call themselves their captors is simply appalling
and beggars description. There is hardly any
Russian in Manchuria who knows any Chinese at
all, so the native can proceed to liken every one
of them unto the spawn of tortoises, the chance
product of defiled mothers, and many other horrible
things. What a state of affairs for people with an
Oriental destiny !
It is now my task to destroy the fiction of the
booming and thriving newly-created railway towns
of which Europe has lately been told so much.
The Chinese Eastern Railway in its original scheme
of conquest, laid down previous to 1900, included
the building of ninety-three stations in Manchuria
ninety-three stations which were to blossom into
ninety-three towns, peopled only by white Russians
and with no Chinese near them. To-day there are
over one hundred stations, for new ones not ori-
ginally contemplated have been built, and of this
xxin RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 387
number exactly six have to a very slight extent
justified the great expectations of empire-builders
who do not know how to build.
Taking them from south to north, I will proceed
to discuss them in detail. Crossing the frontier of
the Kuantung leased territory at Pulantien, there is
nothing to be seen for nearly one hundred miles
that is, until Ta-shih-ch'iao is reached. Ta-shih-
ch'iao is the junction from whence the branch line to
Newchwang runs, and it is a point of great strategic
importance, for Newchwang is only eighteen miles
away. At Newchwang there is the river Liao, and
up that river can come thousands of Japanese, who
in a single night's march could slip across the country
to the junction, and steal the key of the railway to
the leased territory. Consequently big barracks
have been built at Ta-shih-ch'iao, huge engine-sheds
have been erected, repair shops, machine shops,
depots of stores of all sorts have sprung up, and
many other things have been attended to of a mili-
tary and strategic value. All this necessitates
numbers of Russian civilians, apart from the for-
midable garrison of soldiers men such as spare
engine-drivers, machine-shop men, mechanics of
every kind, people to feed these, &c., &c. The
Russian civilian very rightly likes his own women,
so he has brought his wives to Ta-shih-ch'iao ; the
wives their children, friends, and relatives ; and this
multiplication process has gone on indefinitely, until
Ta-shih-ch'iao may actually be called a Russian
town. It is, however, one of those anomalous
c c 2
3 88 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
creations which in peaceful times has really no
reason for existing, and so, as the present crisis is
going to be solved by either real peace or real war,
Ta-shih-ch'iao will very shortly be remembered only
as a passing and ephemeral expression of Russia's
Eastern destiny.
Turning to the railway again, the conscientious
man will have a hard tussle in deciding whether
there is really any Russian settlement until you
reach Harbin, several hundred miles to the north.
At Liaoyang there are some Russians who are not
wearing a uniform, but they are so ostensibly army-
sutlers engaged in feeding the several thousand
troops Russia has massed there in preparation for
the Japanese attack, that you cannot call them a
town without a considerable effort. We will there-
fore pass Liaoyang by. Going on, we come to
Moukden. Well, I can give the exact tally of
Russians in Moukden. Apart from the officials and
their accompanying Cossacks, there are two store-
keepers, one innkeeper, and a dozen nondescripts.
Seeing that these are living in the midst of a couple
of hundred thousand Chinese and Manchus, it is a
matter of opinion whether they can be called a
satisfactory Russian settlement or not. Personally,
I should say they were not even a hamlet. Then
we pass Tiehling, K'ai-yiian, K'uan-ch'eng-tzu, all of
them big and important Chinese towns, but few
Russians about. You see the railway passes all
these places from one mile to five miles away, and
the idea was that round the station beautiful places
xxni RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 389
would grow up entirely separate from ancient
Chinese cities, full of white men and women buying
and selling. What has happened, however, is that
no one except the Government has had any spare
money to build houses with, or that no one believes
sufficiently in Russia's stability in Manchuria to be
willing to sink money permanently in this way, and
so the nondescripts are very glad to be able to go
into the Chinese towns and live on their neighbours
the natives.
Crossing the Sungari the first time it sweeps
from west to east eighty miles south of Harbin on
its way to Kirin city you will see a heterogeneous
mass of brick and wooden shanties on the left bank
of the river, which represent a Russian town. Rafts
of timber, sent floating down the river Sungari by
the ducal and other agents I have spoken of before,
are broken up here and put on the railway, so some
poverty-stricken Russian buildings can really be seen.
This is manifestly a town, so let us make it so.
Finally we come to Harbin.
Harbin is certainly a place with an unparalleled
mushroom growth, and although I do not love it,
this does not interfere with it having a big
population, as populations go in the Far East, and
therefore it has to some extent justified expect-
ations. Briefly put, I would say that in the whole
of Manchuria proper excluding, of course, the
leased territory Harbin is the only place that
has any importance or real significance from the
Russian point of view ; and I predict a financial
390 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
panic in Harbin within a very short time, for every-
thing has been done with borrowed money, and
there is no ready cash in the place.
The most important part of the railway that is,
the central Manchurian section has now been
dealt with, and so far we have only discovered one
really Russian town, Harbin ; one junction town,
Ta-shih-ch'iao ; and the unnamed lumber village on
the left bank of the upper Sungari. Whether these
represent a complete russification of an area of
some one hundred thousand square miles, con-
taining, say, three-fourths of Manchuria's twenty
million inhabitants, I leave for the gentle reader to
decide. Personally, I cannot see, even in the dim
future, those countless pigtails shorn off, or the
amiable home life of the Russian Far East adopted
as a higher civilisation by the somewhat stubborn
native of these parts. But the examination of the
complete line is not yet finished, so we will
proceed.
Going west from Harbin on the road to Holy
Russia, there are no definite symptoms of russifi-
cation until the Nonni. Across the Nonni, and to
the west of the provincial capital Tsitsihar, there
is a place which the Russian has called Fu-li-ahde
or Fuljardi. He means Fu-liao-tien or the " fodder
markets " ; at least, that is what the Chinese call
the group of native villages near which the model
Russian town has been founded. Fu-liao-tien has
been referred to again and again in the Far Eastern
Press as the " mysterious city," about which no one
xxin RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 391
may learn the exact details. A little investigation,
however, has a shattering effect on the mystery.
Fu-liao-tien or Fu-li-ahde, call it whichever you
like, is simply a collection of badly-built Russian
and Siberiak houses, erected chiefly to accom-
modate railway guards in the course of training,
and sick men, of whom there are always terrible
quantities in the Russian army, and is surrounded
by some earthworks of no importance, originally
intended to guard the poor Russian against his
dread enemy, the hunghutzu. Apart from the
soldiers, there are some "emigrants," of course, but
these would perish were it not for the troops, on
whom they perpetually sponge. Some people say
that there are several thousand railway guards in
training at this place, but, if so, there can be no
doubt that the Russian packs far more neatly than
the sardine of Nantes.
A few dozen miles further to the west of
Fu-liao-tien are the Hsing-an mountains, too frigid
even for Siberian settlers. Beyond these mountains
there is a two-hundred-mile stretch of country
which, although lying actually within the boundaries
of Hei-lung-chiang province, is much more Mongolian
than Manchurian in appearance. In these dreary
wastes there have never been many Chinese settlers,
and the few that of recent years found their way
so far away from Chinese civilisation were either
wiped out by the brutalities of 1900, or disappeared
in the mysterious way the Chinaman always dis-
appears when there is trouble in the air. At the
392 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
best of times it is a wild land, and, compared to
real Manchuria, has but little value. Mr. Wirt
Gerrare, who is an authority on Russian expansion,
says that Russian squatters are settling here in
great numbers. This is very surprising to me, but
Mr. Wirt Gerrare writes of 1901. In 1903, I can
only say that if he can produce one thousand
Russians, not connected with the railway, between
the Hsing-an mountains and the Argun, he is a
magician who should be cultivated by the Russian
Government.
Going on still farther afield we come to Khailar.
Khailar used to be a Chinese frontier or semi-
frontier town of some little importance in pre-
Boxendays. Now it is occupied by a few Russians,
who do not appear very happy, but that is all.
Khailar, however, lies 100 miles from the frontier
of Trans- Baikal province, but even right up to the
true Russian boundary line there are scant evidences
of the wonderful emigration about which everyone
is told. Even if there were huge Russian towns
here, it would not affect the great question of
Manchuria proper. These waste lands 'twixt the
Trans-Baikal and the Hei-lung-chiang province
cover an immense area, into which you could bundle
a dozen Switzerlands and lose them without noticing
it. For hundreds of years past, in fact probably
for all time, the only inhabitants have been wander-
ing Mongols and their herds, and so it does not
very much matter who the settlers of the twentieth
century are. Indeed, west of the Hsing-an might
xxin RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 393
be openly ceded to the Russian with small loss to
China.
Coming back to Harbin again, and going east to
the Ussuri frontier, what do we find ? Two trifling
settlements : Imempo, half-way between Harbin
and Ninguta, and Modashi, the nearest station to
Ninguta. Modashi has some excuse for living ;
Imempo none. Modashi under an English regime
could become great as a lumber centre. Under the
control of the Russian, it has every appearance of
even now dying a natural death. Mr. Wirt Gerrare
in his book says he met a Russian brewer on his
way to Imempo, where he was going to start a
brewery. Start a brewery ! Heavens ! the people
cannot yet feed themselves except by means of
Government subsidies, much less brew drinkable
beer!
I have, therefore, finished my catalogue, and
present it with much diffidence for the inspection of
the Chinese Eastern Railway and the Petersburg
empire-builders.
Ta-shih-ch'iao, the unnamed Sungari lumber
station, Harbin, Fu-li-ahde, Imempo, and Modashi,
there you have the six important places which are
held to have justified the expenditure of five
hundred millions of roubles in the great and august
work of russification. For these trifling results,
and because she is ashamed to acknowledge herself
economically defeated, Russia is imperilling the
peace of the Far East, and daring Japan to attack
her! So is history made. However, before the
394 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
death-blow is given, I should like an indulgent
public to ponder over the permanent staff of the
railway in Manchuria.
In every station on the line there are to be found
the following Russian officials : one station-master,
two or three telegraphists, one or two ticket-office
men, one freight clerk, several signalmen, a number
of extra hands to provide for emergencies, and any-
where from one dozen to a couple of hundred of
green and black railway guards. Including railway
guards, it may be said that the minimum number of
Russians found in any Manchurian railway station
is twenty able-bodied men, and that the maximum
is several hundreds. When it is remembered that
there are nearly one hundred stations, it can be
seen what an enormous expenditure is entered into
without a thought of whether it can ever be justified
by the railway receipts. On the Imperial Chinese
railways that is, the Peking-Tientsin-Shanghaikwan-
Newchwang line, a line financed and practically
controlled by British subjects a few dozen English-
men effectively work five hundred miles of track.
But the Russian does not remain content with
merely having such formidable numbers of his own
people in his employ on Chinese soil. He realises
that they must be seen, and seen a good deal, if his
game is to be successfully played. So, when a
European express arrives at any station, a bell
clangs loudly, everybody runs out, animation
succeeds the usual dull round of railway life :
Officials march up and down the platform, their
xxni RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 395
hands full of papers of imaginary importance ; men
rush in through one door and spring out of another ;
the station-master looks vastly and most distressingly
occupied ; employees fling their hands up to heaven
as if invoking the help of the deities to assist them
in their work ; railway guards parade with violent
insistence up and down the gravelled walks, and
expose their medalled breasts souvenirs of the
brilliant campaign of 1900 to the admiring eyes
of the traveller. Chinese pedlars, standing at the
outer rails, start singing their wares in pidgin
Russian " ' Vinograda,' grapes, grapes for sale,"
is the most commonly heard. Beggars piteously
shout in a strange medley of Russo-Chinese,
" Shangkao-kopitan-kouss-kouss-niet " (" Be gene-
rous, almighty captain, I have no food "). All
contribute to the general mise-en-scene , and all
are truly happy. It is their daily work, and only
he who has suffered the ennui of being stranded
at a wayside station can appreciate what joy this
well-rehearsed comedy brings to every one of the
Chinese Eastern Railway's many employees. To
me it is a perpetual treat to arrive with the
European express. No Drury Lane pantomime
ever conceived could parade its supers with such
effect as the Manchurian Railway. No Irving
could manage his stage effects so cunningly.
It is all immense, and you have only to keep
your ears open to hear the immediate success.
On all sides travellers are properly impressed.
The Englishman mutters, " Pretty Russian, this
396 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
place ; even the Chinese speak the lingo," and looks
gloomily about him. The Frenchman enthusiasti-
cally exclaims, " Oh, c'est bien la Russie a, allez,"
and thinks gratefully of his financial alliance. As
for the German, he sighs heavily and says impres-
sively, " Dass sollen wir eigentlich bei uns in Kiao-
chow und Shantung machen," and then curses all
the Herr Bebels and socialists ever born, who by
refusing to understand world-policies hinder im-
perialistic expenditures.
And in this fashion the traveller unwittingly
lends his aid in the prosecution of that impossible
work, the cementing of the Trans-Amur and its
myriads of hard-headed yellow-brown men on to
the new Siberia filled with Siberiaks, and young
Russians dreaming of rich red gold, rapid fortune-
making, and Utopia, and bereft of all market
knowledge.
Russia in Manchuria is therefore represented all
along the railway by these little blobs of station
life that have done such splendid work little blobs
separated from each other by twenty versts of tilled
fields, and populous villages which have no more in
common with the Slav than had the Cossack settle-
ments on the Ussuri River with their Chinese
neighbours on the other bank, in the old days
before the great invasion of Chinese territory took
place.
Station officials and railway guards must be
housed well to show their proper importance, and
so the amount of brick, stone, and mortar that has
xxili RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 397
gone up is terrific. Some stations in addition have
big barracks ; where there are big barracks, officers
must have big houses ; and when officers have big
houses they must bring big wives to fill them
properly. And so all the larger stations actually
have the appearance of towns filled with officials,
connected every one of them directly or indirectly
with the railway. It is generally assumed in Man-
churia that the Corps of Railway Guards numbers
about twenty thousand officers and men twenty
thousand officers and men all drawing double pay,
and all paraded almost daily to relieve the tedium
of the kind traveller patronising the works of the
empire-builder. Has ever the world seen such a
spectacle ! How many railway servants proper there
are in Manchuria, no one knows. Some say three
are four thousand Russian employees, some five
thousand, to run fifteen hundred miles of railway
in an Eastern country. Any Englishman would
undertake to make a financial success of the whole
vast system with a hundred of his own nationality
and a few thousand cheap Chinese.
Turning now to the construction of the railway.
Much has been written and more said about the
robbery and corruption of the engineering staff, and
from this the average man would conclude that the
track is uniformly bad. It is not, however, and the
main fault is that the finishing off is bad. The first
great mistake, of course, was made with the weight
of the rails. These are only 64 Ibs. per yard, and
should be, I believe, 92 Ibs., to be capable of resisting
398 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
the huge train-weights of the five-foot gauge.
The sleepers, originally of indifferent Japanese
timber, have been largely changed and are now
fairly satisfactory, but slipshod Russian methods are
to be observed in the spacing and spiking work.
The ballasting is good in some places, indifferent in
others, and vile in the far north ; all of which shows
laxity of control from headquarters. The new
bridge work is excellent and could pass almost any
standard. Especially noticeable are the solid piers
of masonry on which the steel spans rest. An
Austrian engineer who examined a number of
bridges said that these piers were well-nigh perfect
in construction and design. The new rolling stock
is likewise well-built, and the immense Russian loco-
motives (weight one hundred tons, I believe) have
a finished and solid appearance, which testifies to
the good workmanship of the Baltic provinces. The
original compound Baldwin locomotives built in
Philadelphia, which held the field for several years,
pending the completion of the line connecting with
Siberia and the introduction of Russian engines, are
pronounced complete failures by the Russian autho-
rities. Some of them after two years' service are
quite unable and literally live in the repair shops.
The chief complaint is that they are built too light,
and that the finish is very lamentable. Whether
this is merely another way of saying that the Slav
is very heavy-handed and cannot touch delicate
machinery I do not know, but it is only right to say
that the Japanese have found the same thing with
xxni RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 399
their American engines. English locomotive-
builders should note this.
The sidings and the shunting arrangements at all
the Manchurian stations are very noticeable. In
most stations there is ample room for at least a
dozen trains to pull up without interfering in the
least with the through traffic. The entraining and
detraining for any movement of troops can therefore
be carried out as expeditiously as possible, and large
bodies of men can be housed in railway vans for
hundreds of yards along the line at each station,
without incommoding a station master's traffic ar-
rangements in the slightest. For instance, at Liao-
yang, Hai-ch'eng, and other places commanding the
highways from Korea, thousands of troops are
billeted on the line in semi-permanent camps of
covered vans. These may stay there all through
the winter, I am told, and stoves are being fitted to
each van. A year ago nearly all the second and
third class carriages in Manchuria were ostensibly
built for military use. All were covered with steel
sheets of sufficient thickness to render them bullet-
proof. The windows could be closed by ingenious
arrangement with covers of the same material.
Three tiers of bunks were available in each car, and
sixty men could be comfortably accommodated with-
out crowding. Rifle racks and ammunition wells
were openly provided, fitted to each car. To-day
all these carriages, however, have disappeared from
Manchuria and are to be found in the Trans-Baikal,
waiting the solution of the crisis. If war comes
400 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
they will be the means of pouring troops into the
country, and will provide patrol trains which are to
pass half-hourly up and down the line on the
southern section of the Central Manchurian line.
The station buildings themselves are solid in
structure, bad in finish, but eminently fitted to with-
stand the rigorous winter. Huge Russian stoves
half fill every room and the winter atmosphere
may be said without malice aforethought to be able
to kill an ox. The woodwork of all these Russian
buildings is deplorable, the painting worse, and the
fittings unmentionable. Each fourth or fifth station
along the lines has a buffet where edibles and drink-
ables may be obtained at almost any hour of the day
or night. The food is varied, very varied, and it is
wisest to stick to such single-minded things as the
excellent thick soups, the good clean bread, and the
very hard hard-boiled eggs. Your Russian is a
funny eater at times. For instance, at one station I
saw a man spreading raspberry jam on hard-boiled
eggs ; at another a woman putting sardines in her
soup.
The actual amount of rolling-stock on the Man-
churian railways cannot be ascertained, but there is
no doubt about one thing the very large number
of locomotives available. Roughly calculating from
personal observations, I should say there were from
three to four hundred engines in Manchuria. At
Dalny, Ta-shih-ch'iao, K'uan-ch'eng-tzu/and Harbin
there are literally scores of reserve engines in the
sheds, and the number of trains arriving and leaving
THE OTHKR MANCHURIAN RAILWAY TERMINUS OF THE TIENTSIN-NEWCHWANG,
ON THE LEFT BANK OF THE LIAO.
OUTSIDE A KIRIN LUMBER-YARD.
xxill RUSSIA'S GREAT MANCHURIAN GENERAL 401
Harbin sometimes amounts to thirty per diem. A
rapid movement of troops should therefore be
possible, and the South Africa deficiency in hauling
power not seen in Manchuria. Watch-towers of
solid stone with narrow loop-holes have been begun
in some places and very little alteration would turn
most of the station buildings into admirable block-
houses.
I have completed my remarks on Russia's best
general in this disputed Far East, and he who reads
may judge whether the official copper-plated scheme
of conquest has been attended with any measure of
success or not, and whether the railway is a
Kitchener organisation. The picture I have drawn
is an absolutely truthful one, for Manchuria is more
familiar to me than the Strand of London. Travellers
who have no knowledge of the real Far East are
responsible for the absurd tales which I every day
read in the home Press the tales which tell of
Russianised Manchuria of the close friendship
between Slav and Chinaman of the identification of
Russian with Yellow interests. It is all a myth, I
say once more a bubble Japan may after
all burst the bubble.
D D
CHAPTER XXIV
ADVENTURES ON THE ROAD TO KIRIN
THE journey from Ninguta to Modashi, the name
of the nearest railway station, was soon accomplished,
and once more I was engaged in the weary work of
waiting for a train. So far in all my travels during
the great crisis I had only met with curiosity from
the railway people, sometimes tinctured with a little
thinly-veiled insolence at the hands of over-zealous
Russian officials, but that was all. A year ago one
was treated with no such courtesy. On every occa-
sion one's passport was demanded and difficulties
made whenever possible. But now every Russian
is secretly wondering whether his Government has
not after all gone too far, and is meditating on the
possibilities of war. Even at this hour, however,
when evacuation should have allowed the country to
resume its normal condition if solemn pledges had
not been broken, it was noticeable that as I pro-
gressed farther towards the eastern and western
frontiers that is, nearer to where the Russian really
belongs a more aggressive attitude was assumed,
showing plainly that although the proximity of the
CH.XXIV ADVENTURES ON THE ROAD TO KIRIN 403
sea in the southern province tends to cool the
Russian's self-reliance, once he is on his way back
to what he terms " his inaccessible interior," he is
inclined to cast politeness and discretion to the
winds.
Modashi is comparatively close to the Primorsk
frontier, as distances go in Manchuria, and is poorly
garrisoned by some wretched Buriat cavalry Cos-
sacks they call themselves, although they have no
right to the name. Perhaps these things account
for the fact that the inhabitants of that thriving rail-
way settlement, mainly engaged in the profitable
task of removing the Chinaman's lumber without
authorisation, are less civil than the Russians one
occasionally meets farther south.
As I entered the station I had a feeling that I was
not going to receive an honoured guest's welcome,
and events shortly proved that I was right. The
trouble began at the buffet. I asked the Chinese
boy, who officiated there in company with two very
dirty Russian women, for something to eat. This
amiable servant, who looked curiously oppressed by
an inordinate collection of dirt on his person,
promptly answered me with the utmost insolence, so
I told him in the vernacular that if he would come
outside I would do myself the pleasure of throttling
him. This is the usual gentle way of replying in
Manchuria. As he continued to talk back and
refused my invitation to adjourn to the open air I
informed him that I proposed to open fire on him
with my revolver. This was somewhat of a
D D 2
404 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
stomacher ; for everyone in Manchuria has seen so
much unprovoked shooting during the past three
years that it has got to be looked upon as a quick
solution for momentary difficulties. My long and
dirty sheep-skin coat and big fur cap also tended to
make me look in every way an undesirable individual,
and so my Chinaman did a considerable amount of
thinking before he got hold of the right answer.
When it finally came I was already engaged in eat-
ing, so I paid no more attention, at least, I said he
would have to wait. But the boyka's ire was raised,
for he had been utterly spoiled by two years'
familiarity with lower-class Russians, and had far
too keen a sense of his own importance.
Not being able to draw me, and oppressed with a
terrible feeling of lost face, the youthful fire-eater
went out and complained officially to the station
master that an Englishman inside, who was a spy,
had threatened to shoot him. If you speak Chinese
in Manchuria you are immediately recognised as an
Englishman ; and, similarly, if you are rude you are
set down as a spy ! Of course, my denouncement
created a commotion, and a mixed crowd of long-
booted men and women with kerchiefed heads came
and stared at me whilst I was engaged in the inter-
esting task of eating the endless line of hard-boiled
eggs I had previously annexed. Then the station
master arrived in company with a Cossack officer
and demanded my passport. I merely ignored him
and refused to answer. Bluff must be met by bluff
in Manchuria, and the rudest man always wins. I
xxiv ADVENTURES ON THE ROAD TO KIRIN 405
was again spoken to and again refused to answer
with a shake of my head. Things were evidently
taking an unlooked-for development, for Russian
politeness was soon succeeded by manifest Russian
rage and a considerable stamping of top-booted feet.
I determined to remain undisturbed and utterly im-
passive, and so, having finished all the eggs in sight,
to the crowd's delight, I playfully started on a box
of sardines belonging to someone else. Seeing that
rage and stamping did no good, my assiduous friends
retired to a corner of the room and engaged in a
whispered conversation which appeared to me
extremely and unnecessarily prolonged.
Meanwhile, I was perfectly happy ; my train was
not due to start for another two or three hours ; it
was comfortably warm where I was, and I had eaten
to my utter satisfaction. Russian squabbles in Man-
churia after all are minor affairs in life, for I knew
from private information I had received weeks
before, that no one would really dare to obstruct me
so long as I kept cool and did not offensively molest
other people. Finally the consultation in the corner
was over, and, this time, the Cossack advanced on
me with a resolute air. As I still refused to answer
his questions in Russian he gave me a tug at the
sleeve, and said in very broken French, "Monsieur,
answer me quickly," Here was my chance ; so,
promptly jumping up, I asked him in less mutilated
Gallic, what the deuce he meant ? Not allowing
him to answer I pulled out and presented to him a
very dirty card, and told him that as he had grossly
406 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
insulted me by disturbing the sit of my clothes with
sleeve tugs I must have satisfaction given to me at
once.
These rapid developments so astonished the inter-
fering Cossack that he was utterly floored and
turned in perplexity to the station master with arms
uplifted in protest. Plainly I was going to have the
better of it, so I determined to take the offensive
and carry the war into the enemy's camp. The only
difficulty was the language question. I only spoke
four words of Russian and he not more than ten of
French. An interpreter had to be found so I called
out to my Chinaman. I explained to him that
although we had a difficulty to settle between our-
selves, he would oblige me by forgetting it for a
quarter of an hour and doing a little interpreting for
which I was prepared to pay him the sum of two
roubles. Need I say that my offer was accepted.
This is the true beauty of the Chinaman ; he is
always open to business and perfectly understands
that money is the best salve for lost face. So
I had it out with the station master and the Cossack
officer.
First I asked by what right they demanded my
passport I was on Chinese territory, and the final
evacuation of Manchuria had taken place on the 8th
of October. From that date no Russian, in either
Kirin or Hei-lung-chiang, had any more right than I
myself, so would they kindly answer at once as
I wished to carefully take down all they said.
After a long parley they were kind enough to
xxiv ADVENTURES ON THE ROAD TO KIRIN 407
acknowledge that it was Chinese territory on which
we stood, but that they had never heard anything
about evacuation.
" Oh," I replied, " then either you or the Russian
Government are lying, because everyone knows
that you have officially withdrawn. Give me a
paper signed with your names, saying that you
threatened me with arrest unless I showed my pass-
port and I will do so at once. But," I added, " I
warn you that, when I get back to Port Arthur, I
will personally hand that paper to Alexeieff, who, you
may have heard, is your Viceroy."
This was a bombshell in the camp, and they
promptly retreated and took up new ground.
No, they protested, they really did not want to
see my passport, but they merely wanted to know
by what right I had threatened to shoot a China-
man in the employ of the railway. Because he was
cheeky, I answered, and he deserved it. Now, in
no other country could you find such an absurd
situation as the one I had created. The wretched
man all the trouble was about was my interpreter,
and he presented such a comical appearance, trying
to interpret, and also not to let his indignation get the
better of him, that it was impossible to be serious.
So things got more and more hopeless. Unable to
see the joke of the whole thing, and only desirous
of getting out of it, for even the long-booted
audience was laughing and slapping itself on the
legs, these two officers of the Czar were beautiful to
watch. It was then that I discovered one of the
408 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
few things the Russian and the Chinaman have in
common with one another. They appeal to the
crowd when they cannot carry a point, and appar-
ently, to play the game as it is played in the Far
East, one should capitulate when the crowd is
against one. This is, of course, exactly what always
happens in China, among Chinamen, and is the way
in which every street dispute is settled. However,
brutally disregarding the correct thing, I determined
to play no game but my own, and so after a lot
of endless talk I was finally abandoned as hopeless.
Amidst impolite curses, and with a vast shuffling of
feet, everybody withdrew and left me to my own
devices.
Meanwhile, the boy was a study. He had been
surly when he began his interpreting ; then, as
things had warmed up he had become interested
for every Chinaman ever born loves an argument,
and notes with admiration each point which scores,
even if it is against himself. So, in spite of himself,
when the enemy had withdrawn, my interpreter had
no bile worth speaking of left, and was willing
to serve me in any way I wished. So when I
reproved him for being insulting in the first instance,
he apologised and said he had forgotten his manners
amongst the Russians ! In this ingenious fashion
he converted his two roubles into a larger sum, and
left me satisfied. Thus easily can the Chinaman be
won over from the man who calls himself his captor.
At every station there are a number of these Rus-
sian-speaking Chinese servants. Generally speak-
xxiv ADVENTURES ON THE ROAD TO KIRIN 409
ing, they have been recruited from the very lowest
classes of Chinese, and most of them are not natives
of Manchuria I do not mean Manchus, but Chinese,
born and bred there but have come over from Shan-
tung by junk in search of work. Of course, they
have been all absolutely spoilt, for the Russian does
not know how to treat servants, excepting as family
friends. Apart from this, very few, if any, Russians
in Manchuria have any idea of what is the correct
thing according to Chinese standards, and what is
not. For instance, the Russian has yet to learn
that a table servant can never appear in the pres-
ence of his superiors without his long coat ; and that
to have one's pigtail curled round one's head (p'an
ch'i lai) and then to speak even to an equal is a
direct insult. Even native carters in the north,
when they ask the way from one of their fellows,
must jump off the shafts and knock their pigtails down
or else they will not be answered. Of course, these
things do not strike anyone who does not know his
Far East ; but nevertheless a Highland laddie who
stepped into a London drawing-room minus his kilt
would hardly produce a worse impression than does
the conduct of Chinese menials to their Russian
masters in Manchuria in the eyes of respectable
Chinese.
At last I got my train and steamed off in the direc-
tion of Harbin. " There goes the mad Englishman,"
everybody said, and the railway employees glared.
Whilst daylight still lasted I watched carefully to
see whether there were many troops on the road,
410 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
but everywhere things seemed exactly where I had
left them. Station after station we passed, and
there were always the same eternal green and black
railway guards tramping the gravelled platforms,
saluting officers, and no other sign of animation.
At a few of the bigger places small groups of
Chinese stood at the rails and gaped at the eternal
mystery of steam hauling so many hundred tons of
weight with so small an effort. Sometimes a group
of native horsemen, mounted on sturdy little ponies
which were decorated with strings of bells that gaily
jingled, raced us for a few hundred yards as we
started off, and then, as the regulation ten miles an
hour was reached by our puffing engine, they fell
back and disappeared in the distance. The more I
thought about it the more I realised that the Rus-
sian does not for one instant anticipate war-like
operations so far north until he has been well ham-
mered down south. For many weeks, if not for
months, he thinks that it will be Fengtien province
that will see exciting times. Who knows whether
the cunning little Jap will not steal a march on the
heavy-footed Slav and slip into Manchuria through
the north-east corner in the way I have already
described !
In due time I reached Harbin for the last time,
I hoped, for many days. I tried to find out in the
short time at my disposal whether I could catch one
of the tiny railway steamers that navigate the upper
Sungari, at the lumber station where the railway
crosses the upper bend of the river. Of course,
xxiv ADVENTURES ON THE ROAD TO KIRIN 411
nobody knew anything. Nobody wanted to know
anything for that matter, and all looked at me in
astonishment. People are fond of upbraiding the
British Empire for the way it muddles along. In
Russia, and in places where the Russian is, they do
not even know how to muddle, and chaos is to be
found directly the unexpected occurs. So, desper-
ately making inquiries, it took me all my time to
find a man who had even heard of Kirin and steam-
ers. However, finally, I did meet someone who was
doubtless the local Baedeker. He knew all about
the steamers, he told me, and to begin with he
assured me that I was too late, and that navigation
was closing. " Where's the ice ? " I queried.
"Oh," he said, "in the morning there is ice ; it is
already dangerous ! " This was hardly a web-footed
mariner, but he was better than nothing, and I had
to be content with the very vague ideas he had.
Finally, after twenty minutes' exciting talk, he
decided that there were no steamers, and that I
ought to go back to Port Arthur. What did I want
to go to Kirin for, anyway ? I had just time to get
rid of him and jump into a carriage when the train
steamed off, I was but little wiser after two hours'
inquiries than I had been before. It is always like
this in Manchuria ; never try and get accurate infor-
mation from Russians about anything outside of
Port Arthur, Dalny, and Harbin, and do not try to
get too much about even them. Russians forget
that Manchuria is not altogether comprised within
the straggling limits of these towns.
412 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Just as it was getting dark we finished the eighty-
five miles' run to the Upper Sungari and crossed
over the bridge. It seemed rather a desperate
venture getting out at that wayside station in the
dark, but comforting myself with the aphorism that
nothing venture, nothing have, I determined to push
through and trust to luck. So my bags were duly
deposited on the rails and I whistled for develop-
ments. The train steamed off, a few passengers
leaned out of the windows and wondered vastly at
my lonely form, and that was all.
On the station platform all was quiet. Even the
guards had apparently had enough of it for that day
and had undressed until the next day's performance.
Presently a Chinaman loafed along and gazed at me
idly. Then he started feeling my coat, then my cap,
all with the utmost unconcern and the most irritating
indifference. " Oh," he said aloud, " it's only
sheepskin," and perpetuated the hoary Chinese joke
hingeing on a play of characters yang p'i on a yang
jen a sheep-skin coat on a sheep man, for the
phonetic, alas ! for sheep and foreigner is the same.
A kick aroused my man from his pleasant reverie
and he promptly fell into the usual amazement at
hearing himself addressed in his own tongue. Yes,
he would tell me everything he could. No accom-
modation to be had for the night, no steamers had
arrived for several days there was apparently no
anything in this lonely place according to him.
Things appeared more hopeless than ever. How-
ever, he added, if I would engage his services he
xxiv ADVENTURES ON THE ROAD TO KIRIN 413
might be able to find me something better than the
open for the night Of course he was promptly
engaged. Shouldering my traps he led me away
from the confused mass of scattered buildings lying
close to the banks of the Sungari. Around us, once
outside the station grounds, there were merely vast
expanses of undulating plain. Above, the stars
were beginning to twinkle in Manchuria's match-
lessly clear skies. A dog barked, the wind rose a
little and night had fallen. By no means a cheerful
arrival this.
We had progressed some time and I was begin-
ning to imagine that I was being decoyed to my
certain death, when I caught sight of a man
evidently not a Chinaman in spite of his long fur
coat who looked at me intently. Top boots peeped
out below the skirts of his ample coat, a tall cap
covered his head, but he seemed too small for a
Russian. He hesitated in front of me for a few
seconds, and then said in slow and broken English.
" I beg your pardon, sir, where are you going ? "
" I don't know," I answered ; " can you tell me ? "
" Oh, oh, I am right, you are Englishman."
" Yes," I said, " but who are you ? "
" I am Japanese," he answered laughing very
quietly and very cautiously. " I am artillery ; please,
sir, what regiment are you ? "
" I cannot tell," I answered, not being willing to
disclose my identity ; " but I am going to Kirin city,"
I added.
" So am I," he answered, " I am waiting for
414 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
steamer." Thus did my first meeting with the in-
telligence officers of the gallant Mikado, who to-day
swarm in the country, take place, and I was greatly
relieved. Henceforth, I need not bother, for if any-
one knows Manchuria's new ropes that is, the alien
Russo-Chinese variety it is the little Japanese.
In due time we found the native inn at which this
soldier of the vanguard was staying, and I ate and
slept. In the morning we sent out men to find out
exactly whether there would be any chance of
starting that day, and after a breakfast of maccaroni
and hot tea, we sat down to talk and compare notes.
I will not give all I learnt, but it is only fair to ac-
knowledge that the only man who has really the
most perfect data on the Russian Colossus in
Manchuria is the cunning Jap. Beginning on the
all important topic of troops, I asked him how he
arrived at his calculations of the constantly shifting
bodies of men. I did not get as complete an answer
as I would have wished, but I was given the
straightest tip possible in the circumstances. He
told me to find out the butchers' bills in every
centre, and to work only on fresh food returns and
nothing else. In Port Arthur, an intelligent English-
man had told me the same thing, and subsequently
I was able to reduce totals by this method to sane
figures.
This Japanese artillery officer had been in the
country for seven months, and his memorandum on
the movement of heavy guns in all seasons of the
year must be very interesting reading. " Winter
xxiv ADVENTURES ON THE ROAD TO KIRIN 415
good," he said laconically, "spring bad, summer very
bad, autumn best."
So, pleasantly talking, we spent the morning, and
about eleven o'clock a man from the inn came
tearing back with the news that a steamer was
actually in sight. We got down to the river as fast
as we could, and prepared to board by getting into
a small sampan. The steamer came slowly, very
slowly, on towards us, but in spite of our violent
waving of coats showed no signs of stopping. So
we pushed out into mid-stream and watched our
opportunity. The Chinaman is the most expert
river sailor in the world, and so it was child's play
for our boatman to dash in and catch a rope as the
stern wheeler stemmed the strong current. In two
minutes we were on board, but we were coldly
received. One or two people looked at us casually,
a Russian sailor muttered something, and, as the
Japanese expressed it, " It is very curious and difficult
to travel because the people they do not like you."
I said, " I think so," and the conversation had ended
correctly according to ruling of the Japanese Ollen-
dorff. However, although we got a steady "niet"
to everything we asked, food was finally forthcoming,
and I annexed a tiny cabin by removing somebody
else's things. Keep your pocket-book mainly in
your hand, and do not forget to have some roubles
inside, and you will get through somehow, where the
Russian is, even in a crisis. So we puffed up stream,
and blessed our stars that there were only a hundred
miles of river to our destination. In half-an-hour
416 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CH. xxiv
we were forgotten and did as we pleased. Chinese
passengers formed the ship's cargo so far as I could
see, and there were but two sad-looking Russian
travellers on board. The Japanese kept steadily at
the ship's side, and murmured under his breath the
name of every village we passed. Everything was
known to him. Nothing had escaped him. Thus,
it is only reasonable to suppose that the Japanese
will eventually succeed by being thoroughly pre-
pared, just as the Germans did in the seventies. So
the day passed into night, we tied up ; and towards
the noon of next day I landed in Kirin.
CHAPTER XXV
THE MANLY MISSIONARY OF MANCHURIA
THE climate has probably a great deal to do with
it, but there are other things which tend to make
the missionary of Manchuria a man standing in a
different plane to that in other parts of the Far
East. With six months of winter and practically no
summer, cant and humbug have not much time to
take root and thrive. For these things you need
warm weather, comfortable conditions which engen-
der the fatal sloth and love of make-believe not to
be found in the Far North.
The missionaries in Manchuria began well from
the very beginning. It was, of course, the valiant
Jesuits who led in the field. The Manchus were
hardly seated on the Dragon Throne before
(lacking native geographers) they sent some Jesuit
fathers to make reliable maps of their ancestral
homes and the surrounding country. Again, when
in 1689, Chinese Ambassadors left Peking to
conclude the famous Treaty of Nerchinsk, which set-
tled the question of the old Manchurian frontier with
the Russians for one hundred and thirty years, they
E E
4 i8 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
were accompanied by two Jesuits, Father Gerbillon
and Pereyra, in the capacity of interpreters, men
who had already won names for themselves in the
Manchu capital. In the long-winded negotiations
which ensued, before the instrument, which gave
the Chinese their victory, was finally signed, it was
the sagacity of these ghostly diplomats which alone
warded off rupture after rupture, and the extent of
their influence is shown by the fact that of the
three versions of the Treaty concluded, one was in
Latin, the official language of these monkish
advisers.
All through the eighteenth century, venturesome
fathers were travelling into the then little known
Three Eastern provinces, and by the nineteenth
century they were firmly established in the south.
Then it was decided that from Liaotung the faith
should be spread north and that men should go
forth to convert the long-haired people of the Lower
Sungari and the Amur. The gallant Father
de la Bruniere was the first selected, and starting in
1845, four years after the official birth of Hong Kong,
he performed a voyage which is counted memorable
even to this day. Leaving a Christian community
on the confines of Eastern Mongolia, Father de la
Bruniere " discovered " A-shih-ho, a then recently-
founded Chinese town in the rich valley of the
Sungari only some twenty miles distant from the
degenerate Harbin of to-day. Going on from
A-shih-ho he made for Sansing, on the junction of
the Hurka with the Sungari. " Eight leagues from
xxv THE MANLY MISSIONARY OF MANCHURIA 419
A-shih-ho, the country, hitherto inhabited, suddenly
changes to an immense desert, which ends at the
eastern sea," he exclaims sadly. On the road he
found only mere cabins, established for the use of
the Government couriers, who kept up a feeble
connection between provincial centres and the
outer confines of Chinese civilisation. He is loud
in his dismay at the terrible gadflies, the wasps,
giant mosquitoes, and other insects which troubled
him both by night and by day. " Those," he says,
" who know the country best never go out without
a mosquito cloth a thick double wrapper covering
the head and neck and having but two holes cut for
the eyes." His beasts of burden suffered such
agonies from the attacks of these pests that some
died on the way. This is confirmed by James in
the spirited account of his journey to the Long
White Mountain. In the moist marshlands and
mountains of Manchuria insects grow to a gigantic
size and blood flows from the wounds they make as
if one were struck with buckshot.
But it is only after he reached and left Sansing
behind him that Abb de la Bruniere's account be-
comes more absorbing than any work of fiction. He
found that to penetrate farther north than Sansing
in those days except by strategy and stealth was im-
possible, for the Manchu Government, pledged to a
policy of exclusion ever since the days of the Ner-
chinsk Treaty, forbade, under pain of death, the
navigation of the Lower Sungari, so as to avoid
Russian complications. But de la Bruniere was made
E E 2
420 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
of the toughest stuff and scorned earthly decrees.
He was ordered to reach the Yu P'l Ta-tzu, or the
long-haired Fish-skin Tartars, and reach them he
would, dead or alive. As it proved, he only accom-
plished his mission in death.
So we find him setting out again secretly on foot.
After severe sufferings he reached the first mys-
terious " Longhairs," and here is an account written
whilst he is reposing from his late fatigues in the
poor cabin of a Fish-skin. Listen carefully, for it
is a true man, such as are hard to find to-day,
speaking :
" My sudden appearance occasioned great alarm to these
people ; my unusual look ; the dress, which in that country
denoted somewhat of a high rank ; the breviary, and the
crucifix, formed the subject of a thousand conjectures.
Little presents made to the principal persons of the district
soon established a familiarity of intercourse which enabled
me to speak openly and with authority of the Gospel. My
hearers found the religion very fine, but the new doctrine
and the preacher who announced it stopped them short at
once. One day, it was, I believe, the fourth of my arrival
I was sitting with one of the natives, and just beside us
were two of his sons engaged in fishing. In despair of
catching anything they pulled in their long lines and
were going away, when I said, assuming a jocose tone,
' You do not understand : give me one of your lines.' I
threw it about ten paces further, not without much laughter
from the spectators. Providence willed that a big fish
should bite at the very instant : and I drew in my prey
more astonished myself than those who laughed. ' This
unknown,' said they among themselves, " has secrets which
other men have not, and nevertheless he is not a bad man.'
In the evening at supper, there was much talk about the
wonderful capture I had made. They wished to know my
xxv THE MANLY MISSIONARY OF MANCHURIA 421
secret. Instead of an answer I contented myself with
one single question :
" ' Do you believe in hell ? '
" ' Yes,' answered three or four of the best informed ; ' we
believe in hell like the bonzes of Sansing.'
" ' Have you any means of escaping it ? '
" ' We have never reflected on that point.'
" ' Well then,' I replied, ' I have an infallible secret, by
means of which you can become more powerful than all the
evil spirits and go straight to Heaven.'
" The first secret gained credence for the second. Thus
Divine Providence disposes of all things.
" The next day three Longbeards of the village made
their appearance in my chamber, armed with a jug of brandy
and four glasses.
"' Your secret,' said they, 'is of awful consequence. If
our importunity does not hurt your feelings, we would wish
to know in what it consists. Let us begin by drinking.'
" Notwithstanding the natural repugnance I have for
Chinese brandy, I thought it necessary to accept the invita-
tion, in order to avoid incurring the aversion of these
people, who could be made to know or understand nothing
but through its channel. I then commenced to develop my
secret, by explaining the dogma of original sin, of hell, of
the salvation wrought by Jesus Christ, and the application
by the sacraments of the merits of the Saviour. It was in
the simplest manner, and by familiar comparisons, that I
proceeded. But unluckily my interrogators, taking ten or
twelve bumpers to my one, became in five or six minutes
incapable of understanding anything. However, I gained
favour. They lodged me and my Christian in a very
spacious house, which had become vacant by the death of
the proprietor. One of the most intelligent men of the
village was appointed to teach me their Manchu language j
which is more pleasing to their ear than Chinese, although
they speak the one as well as the other. The Manchu has
become a dead language in Manchuria proper. The
natives glory in abandoning the language of their ances-
tors in favour of that of the new-comers, the Chinese. It
422 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
is not so with the Yu P'l Ta-tzu whose language is to the
Manchu much the same as the Provencal patois is to the
French or Italian." . . .
Is it not charming and natural, this but too brief
extract from the diary of the valiant de la Bruniere ?
Continuing in the face of every difficulty, this old-
world missionary apostolic finally did actually de-
scend the Ussuri and the Amur only to meet his death
at the hands of predatory Gilyaks. But his death
made the fire of missionary zeal burn all the more
brightly. Catholic missions were founded at A-shih-
ho ; later on at Payenshushu and Peitun-lintzu, dis-
tricts to the north of the Sungari where eighty and
ninety degrees of cold is registered in winter ; and
to-day Catholics are numbered by the thousand in
many parts of Manchuria, and are ever increasing.
The Protestants, of course, entered the field a
good deal later and it was only after the Treaty of
Tientsin and the opening of Newchwang in 1858
that we meet the pioneers. Naturally, the forty
years' veteran, Dr. Ross of Moukden, is the best
known, but there are many others. There are great
and important Protestant Missions at Moukden, at
K'uan-ch'eng-tzu, and at Kirin, which, acting as
centres, dot the country with outlying stations.
These missions are all Scotch or Irish, recruiting
strong men accustomed to bitter weather. No sham
Chinese clothes are awkwardly worn by them, but
they appeared dressed sensibly as in their own
country. Again, women missionaries, those rash
and ill-advised experiments of the South, do not
xxv THE MANLY MISSIONARY OF MANCHURIA 423
wander over the land and offend native suscepti-
bilities. In Manchuria the missionary is working
man to man and shows sense, moderation, toleration,
and a good humour, which are infinitely refreshing.
In Manchuria there are no best men, for they are
all that, and there are no moral cowards. Then
they fully understand that no white man, no matter
how well he may speak the language, can impress
and convince Chinese so well as their own country-
men ; so converts are but made to become the best
missionaries themselves by example and deed, and
are called upon to take up the work where the white
man leaves off. Hospitals also play an enormous
role in both Protestant and Catholic Missions in Man-
churia, and men cured easily, or with difficulty and
told a few manly words, are perhaps better fellows
than many a so-called convert anxious for his rice.
It is delightful what a sense of proprietorship the
inhabitants of the towns without exception feel in
their veterans. " Have you seen our Dr. So-and-so?"
is always one of the first questions in Kirin or
Moukden ; and if you answer " No," even your
humble carter will tell you it is your duty to go and
do so. So you see these men have got very near to
the people, although they do not advertise. They
are just manly and convincing, and the simple
northerners believe in them.
Of course the Boxers played havoc with the mis-
sions in 1900. The missionaries hung on to the
very last, but they had to go, all except the Catho-
lics in the Far North, who, lying out of the beaten
424 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CH. XXV
track, were quite safe. Nearly everything was lost,
houses were burnt, converts were killed. In Mouk-
den alone over half the men and women who were
known to have connections with the missions were
brutally slaughtered. But things soon settled down
again. A Russian officer's wife, who came into
Manchuria by almost the first train in 1901, told me
three Englishmen were with her who were going to
rebuild and reconvert at a time when the musketry
had hardly ceased firing. " Tres hommes, ces mis-
sionaires anglais," she added. Exactly, it is the
whole thing in a single sentence ; the Manchurian
missionary has a reputation to keep up, and he
intends to do so.
At first the Russian military attempted to obstruct
the returning enthusiasts. Two were arrested and
locked up for a time. They had rough khaki coats
on, energetic faces, and looked every inch the
English soldiers the Russian took them to be. But
that soon stopped. Men who can slip through the
country where other men are helplessly jammed
are not easy to deal with and molest ; and then, you
see, they had been there before, knew the ropes, and
could raise much discontent if they were ill-treated.
So, in spite of what the ignorant write, Catholic
and Protestant missionaries have returned to Man-
churia, and are just as hard at work again as ever.
Their names are household names in Manchuria ;
their arms are full of strength, and, crowning blessing
of all, they have no southern cant. So, good luck to
you, missionaries of Manchuria.
CHAPTER XXVI
KIRIN THE INLAND DOCKYARD
KIRIN lies on the left bank of the Sungari. The
valley of the river is surrounded by a vast amphi-
theatre of hills. To the south they grow into
mountains, whose peaks can be but faintly traced by
the eye, and are clothed in perpetual snow. To the
north they undulate away in graceful, pine-clad
ripples, which the clear atmosphere of Manchuria
brings far nearer than they really are. Eighty or a
hundred miles to the south-east, on the road to
Korea, is the famous " Ch'ang Pai-Shan " or Long
White Mountain, the mythical home of the Manchu.
Nearer are the Small White Mountain and other
historical landmarks.
The city pushes so close to the river that it over-
hangs, and the houses facing the stream, fearing
lest this unseemly pressure topple them over the
banks into the water, are partly supported by and
partly built on huge wooden piles. The Sungari is
in a hurry here to escape from the hills and moun-
tains that threaten it on every side, and so, jerking
round the town in a sharp bend, it rushes rapidly
426 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
in a mighty stream, some three hundred yards
broad, towards the vast rolling plains of Central
Manchuria that so need its waters.
Kirin is well called by the natives " ch'uan ch'ang,"
or the " dockyard," for it lies in the very centre of
a splendid timbered country, and builds boats and
junks for all inland Manchuria. Lines of junks,
piles of junks, junks galore, crowd the river ; and on
the banks, skeletons of old junks, and the tender
outlines of embryo junks not yet born and as yet
unable to take to the water, pin one's attention and
insist on the name.
On the land side the city is nominally protected
very nominally by a crenellated grey wall some
fifteen feet high. Eight gates give access within.
On the river there is no wall, but wooden doors,
which should be closed and guarded at night, are
to be seen.
Kirin is the seat of the Tartar General of the pro-
vince, or the Military Governor as he is more gene-
rally called, and in the old days had a formidable
garrison of drilled Manchu troops. There are no
more to be drilled, alas ! for the Russian has come
and stayed, and until he is ejected by someone else
the Chinese soldiery had best keep discreetly in
the background. Kirin has also an up-to-date
arsenal filled with German and English machinery,
where rifles are tolerably turned out and are now
stamped with the sign of the Russian bondage.
Wood is so plentiful in Kirin that even when the
boats, the coffins, the furniture, and the countless
xxvi KIRIN THE INLAND DOCKYARD 427
other wooden things for which the city is famous
have had their demands satisfied, there is enough
left over to fence in every compound with huge
logs driven into the ground, with gigantic planks,
two or three inches thick, spread across them.
Our steamer tied up as soon as we arrived in
front of a great caravanserai, guarded by a huge
wooden fence, after the orthodox Kirin manner.
A somewhat miserable Russian tricolour, sus-
pended from a bamboo pole, proclaimed that the
place was Russian-occupied, and that it was the
steamer headquarters. Two other little steamers
were there also one so small that it hardly de-
served the name of a launch. A single tall Russian,
with a towering fur cap, stood on the banks and
looked at us with eager eyes. Around him were
crowds of Chinese, whom the rapidly coming winter
was outwardly converting into characteristic Man-
churians. Their feet were shod in leather wu-la, a
curious local shoe. Fur and felt caps of every
imaginable shape, relieved by crowns of brightly-
coloured cloth, were crushed down on their heads,
and rough fur-coats of dirty sheep or dog-skin
finished them off. A dominant note was struck in
their trouserings the claret colour so much admired
in the North being greatly affected.
We scrambled ashore, and the tall Russian spoke
to us. My Japanese officer smiled, and told me in
English not to speak to him, as it was none of his
business. So we pushed in amongst the Chinese
and called for an inn-runner. Immediate result :
428 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
chaos, fierce shouts, and frantic fighting, " Here
you are ! this is the Red Lantern Inn known to all,
where everybody goes." " Who does not know the
Dragon Pool ? Disregard all foolish talk and come
to me." Such were some of the cries that greeted
us, and luggage was torn from hand to hand with a
desperate energy which would have filled the home
tout with green envy. Finally the Dragon Pool
got us why or how, no one was quite certain. It
was a desperate struggle ; I was pushed by an
irresistible weight on to the shafts of a cart, my
luggage banged in after me, and the valiant hero
from the " Dragon Pool " looked round on the
crowd with the benign satisfaction of one whose
merits have at last been rewarded. He had won
fairly, for his lungs and arms were full of strength,
and so the crowd for the Chinese crowd never
cheers spoke their approval in piquant person-
alities of untranslatable broadness. Your China-
man of the lower classes does not mince matters,
and the broader the joke the louder the laughter.
So in time we were duly installed in our inn, and
the usual clean-up proceeded. My Japanese, after
we had eaten, told me significantly that he had
friends to see and that I would know him no more.
So I bade him a warm good-bye, hoping that the
next time he came to Kirin it would be in the guise
of a conqueror, and not as a humble tramp such
as I.
Presently, I went out and found the native bank
where I had previously arranged that my letters
xxvi KIRIN THE INLAND DOCKYARD 429
should be sent. I duly received my correspondence,
and with it the only reliable news I had for over
half a month, although I had been moving amongst
civilised men. It is quite useless to expect any
reliable carriage of mails under the Russian system
in Manchuria, and, with the exception of Harbin,
you might as well address a letter to the North
Pole as to any other place in Manchuria.
My news was not reassuring although it was
already old. War had not been declared, but two
fresh scares had been wafted up to Port Arthur,
and preparations were proceeding night and day.
Troops, everlasting troops, were moving, were
being drilled, were being reviewed ; more earth-
works were going up ; flour was pouring in ; and
many other exciting details were added, not
omitting the sensational arrest of Japanese spies
said to have detailed plans in their possession of all
the forts, Very warlike was my news, and I was
warned to lose no time and not to stray too far
from the railway. So I decided I could only give
myself one day in Kirin, and that, as I had to make
eighty miles by road before I came on the railway
again, I would have to hustle. I got back to my
inn and hired a " san-t'ao-ch'e," or three-muled cart,
to be ready the next day at four o'clock in the
morning, and I stipulated for opium mules. So-
called opium mules do not smoke or chew the
baneful drug, as one might suppose, but are merely
engaged in the transport of opium, which, being
precious, travels with exceptional quickness. Then
430 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
I went out, paid calls on certain officials to whom I
had letters of introduction, elicited a great deal of
information, and gave some in return.
Kirin is still outwardly very much in the hands
of the Russians, although evacuation should have
taken place. A constant shifting of troops has
been going on during the crisis, and there can be
no doubt that the composite Russian force in the
city has been most carefully made up with an eye
for eventualities. There were six companies of a
rifle battalion, three companies of artillery, and two
sotnias of Cossacks probably considerably over two
thousand men in all. The telegraph office is entirely
under Russian control although therearesome Chinese
operators attached ; the Commissair drives out in
the streets in a two-horsed barouche of fashionable
make ; the youthful Hebrews of the Russo-Chinese
Bank appear mounted on horseback, with Cossacks
before and after them ; on the streets the Russian
soldier is everywhere seen. In a word, the Russian
in Kirin, thinking himself unobserved by the mari-
time Powers, is manifestly parading the town for
the benefit of the inhabitants, hoping that the insist-
ence of his uniform will in time work a miracle and
make the Chinaman love him. There are even a
few Russian shops in the city where tinned things,
wines, and vodka are retailed by curious rough-
looking assistants in top boots, and loose tunics
fastened in at the belt by leather belts.
But near each Russian shop, sad to relate, there
is a Chinese store where you may have exactly the
xxvi KIRIN THE INLAND DOCKYARD 431
same things a good deal cheaper, a good deal
fresher, and a good deal better. So the Russian
ventures are becoming financially more pale and
more debilitated from day to day, and the time is not
far off" when they will collapse and be known no
more. How irresistible is the Chinaman on his
own ground unless confronted by methods superior
to his own !
The Kirin streets are gay, and the people are
perfectly undisturbed by all these frantic rumours of
war which so torture the rest of the Far East.
The centre of the city is given up to shops and
the main streets are bright with the beloved
northern colour, vermilion red. Vermilion posts
support gigantic sign-boards covered with great
square characters pressed so tight on top of one
another in their haste to complete the tale of all
their renowned wares that they are almost flat.
There are all sorts of good and quaint things to
buy in these Kirin shops. There is beautiful
carved wood, all manner of stamped leather, furs,
bearskins, tiger and leopard skins from the Eastern
forests, old curious coloured silks in fact every-
thing that a yellow man may desire.
The stamped leather and the furniture shops are
the most interesting. Here you see things quite
different from anything in China proper being made
under your very eyes. Gigantic card-cases a foot
long and six inches broad, built to contain the
impressive red cards of important magnates, are
carved out of deer-skin, stamped with fantastic
432 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
designs, and then coloured a beautiful barbaric red
and green. Solid leather boxes of every shape and
size are rapidly made up from rolls of tanned skin,
and more often than not the beloved red is roughly
smeared on. Oak cabinets, oak tables, and oak
curio-stands may be had in every variety. Every-
thing is interesting and novel, and emphasises the
fact that Kirin stands on the edge of giant forests
full of fine woods and fine beasts, and that of the
one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants crowd-
ing the city the major part are busily engaged in
converting the raw into the finished article. Kirin
is not in any sense a mere entrepot for trade like
most of the Manchurian towns places that have
grown rich from handling agricultural produce.
Kirin is a busy manufacturing and industrial centre,
with an old-world history dating back for centuries,
and should have great importance in the future.
It is characteristic, very characteristic, of Manchuria ;
and it has so much wood that it does a thing I
have never heard of before where the yellow man
is it paves some of its streets with wood. Fancy
the pigtailed man tending the streets ; it is surely
fantastic and unheard-of!
The Kirin market-places are a delight to visit.
It was too early to see them at their best, but still
there was a goodly display. It is, however, only
when everything is frozen hard and nothing can
spoil that the great slaughter is begun by native
huntsmen, and that you may have a choice of such
things as venison, wild boar, pheasant, partridge
xx KIRIN THE INLAND DOCKYARD 433
the renowned tamara, and delight of delights
sturgeon's roe au nature I, alias fresh caviar. Even
the Manchurian cook, to whom Brillat Savarin
represents nothing, can produce a native meal
which would be a veritable treat, had you but some
bread to finish it off. John Chinaman of the North
knows not puppy-dogs' tails and everlasting rice ;
he eats meat, plenty of meat in shreds, game, flour,
cakes, macaroni, and millet much more than
anything else.
The afternoon I wandered the streets it was
splendid weather. The sun shone hotly and fiercely,
as it always does here in the North, but the heat is
healthy and even in the dog-days no sunstroke need
be feared in Manchuria. Everybody in the town
was out, for no one so hates bad weather and so
enjoys the fine as your Chinaman. The gaiety of
crowds or ihejdnao (hot bustle) of the streets is not
more loved in Paris than here. Little gongs
clattered to attract the attention of saunterers to
piles of fruit and other edibles ; carters shouted as
they urged high-stepping mules harnessed to official
carts in which were seated the honoured spouses of
the official world, discreetly shaded by curtains so
that their virtue could not be openly assailed ; the
public story-teller, a man who is hardly seen in the
South, could be seen perched on a high stool
raucously recounting the apocryphal adventures of
some paladin of the good old days before the
advent of the pigtail, and ending up by telling his
listeners significantly that man lives by food alone
F F
434 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
and that he was very thirsty. Groups of Manchu
girls with ronge-smeared cheeks, and pink hand-
kerchiefs tied loosely round their necks, spoke the
four tones to perfection and admired shyly. Crowds
moving, crowds standing, crowds eating ; Kirin is
evidently indifferent to the threatened war, and
politics and spheres of influence be hanged !
I entered a tobacco shop and bought some
Manila cigars, for civilisation of a sort is spreading
even where Nurhachu strode. Things were not so
bad, the salesman told me. " Did you lose much in
the bad year ? " I asked. " Oh, yes ! " he replied.
" Everything went, but our people were as bad as
the Russians."
It is the same story everywhere. After the
Russians came a species of Commune during a
brief interregnum, with mobs and male pttroleurs
(for the women take no part in this sort of thing in
the Far East), and the destruction of wealthy streets
was soon completed. However, three years have
passed by since then, and railway roubles, easily
earned, have brought prosperity again.
Finally I returned to the bank to make my adieus.
The "Joint Industries Silver Hong," for that was
its full name, was sceptical about everything, scep-
tical of the Russian power, of the coming war.
" What can the Russians do ? " they said ; " they
have troops quartered in the Yamens, but our officials
do all the work and get all the money. And then
we are raising troops again. In Kirin we have got
four ying already, and these new men are better
xxvi KIRIN THE INLAND DOCKYARD 435
than the old ones. We shall win in the long run."
" Yes," I said, " but, supposing war really comes,
and Russia openly annexes Manchuria as a first
step, and Japan fails to beat her in the end, what
are you going to do ? "
" Oh," they answered, " there are still fatzu (ways
out of the difficulty), and it is not so bad as that
yet."
The Kirin bankers have evidently accumulated
too many dollars and become somewhat foolish.
But they have had some reason to become so, for
the fatal sloth and inaction of the East have invaded
the ranks of the Russians, and the armed men are
already looked on with contempt. The Chinaman's
superb pride makes him forget awkward and un-
palatable historical facts with wonderful rapidity,
and argues that diplomacy and silent working always
win in the long run. His history at least proves it.
So Kirin is quite quiet and reasonably contented.
A powerful and determined Manchu Governor is
working ceaselessly in the interests of the Chinese,
and already he has regained much that he had lost.
Troops are being drilled and trade has been re-
sumed. Guns are being turned out of the arsenal,
officials are collecting taxes ; all is much the same
as before. The Russian remains, it is true, but
daily the vis inertia of the enormous mass of native
population, their superior diplomacy and business
methods, their curious adaptability, which, while it
tolerates the new, does not cede an inch of the old,
are all working towards one end.
F F 2
436 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CH. xxvi
The Russian still strategically dominates Kirin,
but he has got hold of the shadow and the Chinaman
has the substance. The railway is going to come to
Kirin from K'uan-ch'eng-tzu, the great market-town
eighty miles off, and then the Russian thinks that
he will be stronger. He is strengthening himself
with chains which, instead of supporting him, merely
tie him down the more. Already the existing iron
track is an intolerable and unprofitable burden.
Every extra verst means more roubles to the China-
man, more exhausting of Russian treasure, and not
a step nearer the ultimate Russian goal. Until the
Slav changes it is all no use and an idle dream.
CHAPTER XXVII
FROM KIRIN TO MOUKDEN VIA
IT was five in the morning when we started.
The carter blew on his hands, lighted the eternal
Manchurian pipe which decorates the mouth of every
Northerner, and chirruped to his mules. "Trrr-ta-
takh," he cried in the curious mule-driver's language
of the North. Up went the long ears, the leaders
hauled their hempen traces taut and sprang forward.
Over the central gatestone which blocks every
northern courtyard entrance cleverly stepped the
shaft-mule, and we banged through into the streets.
" Yi-lu-p'ing an " (peace to you on your journey)
chorused the inn drawers, bowing their knees after
the Manchu style ; we were off.
It did not take long to get outside the city, for the
keen morning air made the mules frisky, and they
required no urging. On the pools of mud and
water which decorate every Chinese city thin ice
could be seen, which meant that in a few more days
and with a few more blows from the north, winter
would be on the country. On top of the city gate
through which we passed waved a tricolour, and at
438 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
the battered guard-house below were a few Russian
and Chinese soldiers. Joint guarding is evidently
fordre du jour at Kirin, and appearances are being
kept up on both sides.
By seven the sun was gaily shining and fur coats
could be discarded. The road west to K'uan-ch'eng-
tzu winds in and out among the hills and the
scenery is charming. Up and up the road zigzagged
and twisted, and Kirin was soon far behind us,
hidden in the river valley. After a few miles the
summit of this rising hill-land is reached at the Lao-
o
yeh-ling or the Lao-Yeh pass. Here were two
lovely temples to the Gods of War nestled among
oaks, willows, and the graceful Manchurian elms.
Round about us the hills rolled away in gentle
curves, and in the distance hamlets were to be seen
in whose vicinity faint blue smoke rose slowly to the
skies. " Charcoal burning," said my carter, in an
explanatory grunt ; " all do it here, sir. There are
no crops." It was a peaceful and delightful land-
scape out of which should emerge not prosaic
twentieth century travellers, but the gallant men in
quilted armour who swept the provinces into
Nurhachu's lap. Around Kirin is typical Manchu
country, and it requires no effort of imagination
to re-people the glades with men of heroic appear-
ance.
The road we were on was the great high road
which majestically connects Kirin and Moukden,
and then sweeps on to Peking. In winter the
scene is full of animation, and vast caravans of
xxvn FROM KIRIN TO MOUKDEN 439
carts crowd the road, piled high with every manner
of merchandise on their way to the southern marts.
It was too early, of course, to see much now, but
the very width of the road a hundred feet in some
places and the manner in which it was scored with
countless wheel-tracks, bore evidence to a mighty
traffic during the propitious season. At Sanchan we
branched off due west, and whipped up rapidly as
we left the great ruts of the main road behind us
and got the flat of the smaller way. We did not
meet many people on this road, and the few that
were to be seen were in small hooded carts like
myself, travellers bent on business, and hastening as
fast as they could.
At noon we unyoked for two hours ; " Seventy-
five li in seven hours," quoth the carter. Before
two we were off again, and by dark we had done
more than half the way. Early to rise was the
last order I gave, and the carter assured me I would
not oversleep myself.
The stars were still shining when a hoarse voice
called me : " Foreign teacher, arise ; all is ready."
Outside the mules were stamping in the courtyard,
and finishing off the grain that had fallen to the
ground ; from the outhouses men called to one
another ; pigs and dogs were making uncouth
noises. Everything was moving uneasily with that
clearness of sound which is the privilege of the
small hours. Ugh, they rise early in Manchuria !
Scalding tea was hastily drunk. I choked myself
with some hard-boiled eggs of prehistoric appear-
440 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
ance, and once more I was seated on the shafts
of the cart.
It was hardly light when we left, but always the
same undulating hill ground could be seen dimly
surrounding us. A splendid land for guerrilla war-
fare this. Cultivation had, however, succeeded the
scrub-oak and coarse grass of the day before, and
farmhouses were now dotted here and there in
sheltered spots in increasing numbers. At nine
we stopped and breakfasted, the carter and myself
together eating bowls of coarse macaroni until we
could eat no more. "Ah," said the carter, "this
travelling is good. Who would not travel with a
full belly ? " finishing up with the odd Chinese
interrogative of approbation.
The mules were whipped on, and we cantered
along with a renewed rocking and shaking that is
the acme of misery. Oh, the bumping of the
springless Peking cart, your dirges have already
been sung many times, but the bumps still remain
and the roads are ever worse. The carter was,
however, festive and reflective, and mused aloud
on the power of money with surprising candour.
"You pay me well," he said, "and we do it in
two days ; it is a three days' journey at a good
price. Another pays me poorly, and I will not
hurry, and it is four days." Mules and their
travelling power did not interest me, however, so I
abruptly put to him the question :
" Do you like the Russians ? " I said, " and what
do the people here think ? " " The Russians," he
xxvn FROM KIRIN TO MOUKDEN 441
answered evasively, " are a difficult people. There
are good ones and bad ones. I have met both.
All men belong to one family." It is the usual
Chinese answer. They hedge first to watch and
then jump the right way.
" But," continued the carter, " I would like to
know one thing which all are asking. Who is
paying for these soldiers ? They spend much
money, but no one knows where they get it from,
for it is our officials who still collect the taxes.
For three years this has continued, and yet it ends
not."
I tried to explain high politics to him, but he
refused to see the good sense of it. " We have
seen much fighting before, but never such things. If
they are going away why do they not go quickly ?
If they are going to stop, let them say so, otherwise
there will be trouble."
As if to drive the point of his arguments home, a
horseman mounted on a sorrowful white pony came
ambling down the road towards us. A string of
bells slung on a piece of thick red rope swung to
and fro with a violent jingle, and as he came nearer
and nearer he waved to us violently with his short
Manchurian riding stick.
" They are coming," he shouted, as soon as he
had met us. "Who?" asked the carter in the
clipped vernacular of the road. " Sao-to-ssu-soldiers,"
he answered ; "cavalry and guns. I have seen and
go to warn my people."
So we went on with fresh zest. K'uan-ch'eng-tzu
442 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
was now only a few miles away, and troops had been
reported in the mysterious Chinese way to be coming
in great numbers by rail from the north during the
last few days. Any hour might bring war, for never
has a situation been so dangerous. We turned a
corner, and then a mile or so away we saw the road
covered with black and white dots bobbing along
irregularly. It was the soldiers. The carter swore
quietly and drove morosely for a few minutes. Then
as the dots got bigger and bigger and finally broadened
into men and horses, he turned on me and asked me
roughly whether there was anything to be feared.
" Sometimes there is trouble, and I would not lose
my cart and mules. Let us drive into the fields and
wait."
I insinuated gently that if he left the road I would
hurt him snap your leg in two, is the emphatic
Chinese expression. " At least, then, get inside the
cart," he argued, "so that they may not know who
you are. If it is known there will certainly be
trouble." But I remained on the shafts and refused
to budge. So in a quarter of an hour we had met
the oncoming troops and stopped to let them pass.
First came a couple of squadrons of cavalry not
Cossacks, but Russian Dragoons these, big men on
big horses. Then the guns clanked past, two bat-
teries of big guns and a battery of light artillery.
The rear was brought up by long lines of green army
waggons, guarded by files of white-coated infantry-
men, belonging to Siberian regiments, their shoulder-
straps said. There could not have been far short of
xxvn FROM KIRIN TO MOUKDEN 443
a thousand men ; so Kirin was being reinforced, and
the Russians were evidently beginning to be nervous
about the north-east frontier and the Possiet Bay
possibility. Battery and squadron commanders threw
curious glances at me as they passed, but although
one or two made as if they were going to stop, not
a word was spoken nor a question asked. Perhaps
I was mistaken for the ubiquitous missionary ; per-
haps I was taken at my true valuation ; but in any
case, no matter what was thought, the Russian is
becoming so discreet and timid what with the con-
stant outcry raised in the Press and the trouble
which the molesting of other Europeans always raises,
that they prefer to let all alone. It is after all not
the coming and going of single men which is going
to interfere with Russian plans, but the marshalling
of big battalions and their heavy onslaught. Amid
these reflections K'uan-ch'eng-tzu finally hove in
sight, and in due course we passed through a broken
gateway and entered the city. We had done 252 li,
or eighty-four miles, in less than two days. The
Manchurian mule is splendid and deserves all
praise.
K'uan-ch'eng-tzu is a mighty place as places go in
Manchuria ; and just as Harbin on the Sungari
shows the immense possibilities of the country from
the European point of view, if the question were
only attacked in the right way, so does this Chinese
town give an idea of the fabulous wealth which has
already been developed. The main street running
north and south is ten li long, and majestically sweeps
444 MANCHU AMD MUSCOVITE CHAP.
from one end of the town to the other. On either side
are serried ranks of shops and warehouses. Many
of them being unable to find a sufficient frontage
down the main street have pushed far down the side
streets, and made them too gay with sign-posts,
sign-boards, and obelisks. Pedestrians, carts, horses,
mules, and caravans block the roads, and all look
frantically busy.
Every manner of merchandise can be found in
K'uan-ch'eng-tzu, for it is the clearing-house of
inland Manchuria, and is not so much concerned in
producing as it is in receiving from all points and
then forwarding to others. From the north and
east come all kinds of agricultural produce ; from
the west Mongolia sends its ponies, its skins, its
hides, and its flocks ; from the south Newchwang
forwards bales of cottons, stacks of iron, and a thou-
sand other things to be distributed over the country
in payment for what has been bought for export.
But it is perhaps in the side streets clustering close
to the gates that the solid importance of the place
is revealed more than anywhere else. Here are
vast caravanserais adjoining pawnshops to which
country produce is brought, unloaded, and stored in
mighty stacks, money being advanced as soon as
delivery has been made to the pawnbrokers. With
the freezing of the roads seven and eight mule carts,
with a four thousand pound dead weight capacity,
begin the groaning work of carrying down to the
ice-bound Liao these countless thousands of tons.
The opening of the river sees fleets of junks ascend
xxvii FROM KIRIN TO MOUKDEN 445
from Newchwang and convey to the seaport for
shipment that which has already for months slowly
travelled from point to point. This is the great
trade of Central Manchuria in a few sentences.
In this fashion K'uan-ch'eng-tzu has risen yearly
in importance until there can be no doubt that
numerically it is the biggest city in Manchuria.
Hosie estimated the population at 120,000 in 1896,
but this is far too moderate an estimate for to-day.
Indeed the railway has brought so many thousands
of sturdy Shantung and Chihli labourers into Man-
churia who have been pleased with the country and
therefore remained, and such a demand has been
created for so many things, that there can be no
doubt that K'uan-ch'eng-tzu has prospered exceed-
ingly, and that the population has greatly increased.
Judging by the size of the town and the crowds in
the streets there is no reason why the Chinese esti-
mate of a quarter of a million of inhabitants should
be considered excessive.
A mud wall of dilapidated appearance surrounds
the town, and the gates are forlorn looking in their
decay. The Chinese, however, care nothing for the
beauty of their cities so long as there is money to be
made, and all K'uan-ch'eng-tzu's spare cash is in-
vested in trade. At the east gate there is to be found
the only architecture in the town worth a look a
temple with out-buildings artistically decorated with
elephants' heads and other fantastic designs. The
Chinese temple is surely something of a brief history
of the Chinese people early magnificence smacking
446 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
of a Golden Age, succeeded by centuries of absolute
materialism and disregard for appearances.
I saw hardly any Russians in the streets of
K'uan-ch'eng-tzu, although there is a branch of the
Russo-Chinese Bank there, a telegraph office with
white-uniformed clerks, and heavy detachments of
railway guards at the station. The station is, how-
ever, away to the west of the town and lives its own
life entirely apart from that of the Chinese city. It
is true that I saw a Cossack riding rapidly away
from the Bank with a portfolio under his arm one
of the military messengers so obligingly placed at
the disposition of that political institution all over
Manchuria but even he failed to impress me with
the complete russification of the town.
Evening came, and I passed out of the city to the
railway station. Having feasted moderately at the
buffet I prepared to make the time pass as quickly
as I could until the small hours and the Harbin mail
train arrived. At the station there are extensive
buildings all ready for a trade and bustle that will
not come. Immense stacks of firewood are also
stored all along the track, for the coal burning line
is to the south of K'uan-ch'eng-tzu. Railway guards
hang about in little knots, but apart from this there
is really nothing to be seen. Later in the evening a
Russian horse-dealer entered the buffet-room and
beguiled the time and his audience by talking
loudly of the wonderful prospects of this part of the
country.
" To the west is Mongolia, with flat plains. I
xxvn FROM KIRIN TO MOUKDEN 447
can buy and drive in ponies for thirty roubles a
head without any trouble. In Port Arthur and
Harbin I can sell for one hundred roubles. My
profits will therefore be, at least, fifty roubles.
Twenty voyages a year are easy to make, and if I
bring fifty ponies each time, it will mean a thousand
ponies sold, and fifty thousand roubles profit. In a
few years I will be rich."
Everybody was enchanted with his candour, and
applauded his enterprise ; and the eyes of the
youthful railway employees, who pass all their time
smoking eternal cigarettes, and drinking eternal
tea at the buffet, listening with eager ears to all
these traveller's tales, glistened. They were fairly
struck dumb. Is it not a cruel fate to be tied down
to a railway, with nothing much to do, and very
little chance of squeeze, what with the slackness of
trade, and the yellow man's generalship in finance,
when there are such prospects as these on all
sides ?
The horse-dealer's talk is a fair sample of the
foolish and fatuous way in which all Russians in
Manchuria confidentially tell you that they are
going to make millions. It is always something in
the future dimly seen, and never realised. But
has it ever been the experience of the European
that the Chinaman allows the white man to make
all the profits without attempting anything himself?
And yet in Harbin they tell you it will be a great
place commercially; "Flour, timber, and cattle,"
they vaguely say "these we will soon handle in
448 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
vast quantities and make our fortunes." Time
alone will show.
In due course my train arrived and left. Night
passed into day. K'ai-yiian and Tiehling were
left behind, with ever-increasing numbers of
uniforms at every station the farther we got south
beggars with almost familiar faces implored us to
remember that their kouskous was really niet. A
few Russians in the train, lately arrived from
St. Petersburg, marvelled in ever-ascending
choruses at the number of yellow faces, and
wondered what had become of Russia and her
emigrants. It was all the same thing over again,
and every time one thinks over the question, the
hollowness of Russia's pretensions grows more
astounding.
So the sun passed the meridian and slowly sank,
flooding the rich country with golden light. Down
here in Fengtien province it was no longer cold. The
great Ever- White Mountains, and their vast chains
of outlying hills, shield Moukden from the north-
east, and make winter a good deal longer coming
than is the case only two hundred miles to the north.
At a quarter to four the carriage wheels began to
screech more than usual a sign that the brakes
were being clumsily applied. " Aha, what is that ? "
everybody was asking, and the Petersburg travellers
gazed in ecstasy. You may well ask, all of you, for
it is a sight of the terra incognita to the Russian :
Moukden's sombre walls are standing out among
the trees two miles away, and round the station a,
xxvii FROM KIRIN TO MOUKDEN 449
vast concourse of brown-faced men with carts,
donkeys, mules, and ponies ; all are gazing, gazing
at you until even the most foolish must have
realised that real Manchuria is found off the rails,
and not on them, and that it is the Chinaman who
is master, by reason of his swamping numbers and
his superior intelligence.
G G
CHAPTER XXVIII
MANNERS, MORALS, AND MEN IN THE RUSSO-CHINESE
EMPIRE
You will perhaps have gathered from what I
have already written, that a somewhat extraordinary
state of affairs obtains in Russian Manchuria ; I
mean entirely apart from the crisis, the threatened
war, Russian aggression, Japanese stiff-backedness,
and such like. Coming from a moderately-civilised
place, and entering thoroughly into the local life of
such places of the Russo-Chinese Empire (founded
by Alexander Ular) as are really tangible that is,
places that exist, having Russian men, Russian
women (plenty of women, by the bye), Russian
children, and also Russian houses, places, in fact,
that are not merely the paper creation of imagina-
tive writers, your preconceived ideas on many
matters receive a rude shock. In certain things
you have been taught long ago by some excellent
person that this is good and proper, and that bad
and nasty. Of course, it is true that as you have
become older you will have lost many of your
CH. xxvin MANNERS, MORALS, AND MEN 451
respectable ideas, and have become mainly like the
other countless millions of men of your own age ;
sometimes a little better, possibly a little worse.
But in spite of this falling away you will always
cherish a huge respect, even though it be a trifle
vague, for those first ideals, and although your
respect only extends to the length of a worship very
much abstract, this attitude of mind will be at least
something gained, seeing that it provides an
unfailing mental corrective.
With the Russian, as you learn to know him in
Manchuria, it is quite different. He apparently
starts from the very beginning with no ideals at all ;
he has a religion which cannot be got at, so to
speak, outside of his church, and he is more of an
empty formalist, however good he may be, than any
cathedral priest in Roman St. Peter's, who chatters
and takes snuff during the elevation of the Host.
To the Russian, religion, ideals, and all the other
things that go hand in hand are contained in the
outward pomp and show of the Greek Church. All
is mere form and formula, to be learnt by heart,
and intoned with deep-voiced fervour, but with no
significance except from a dramatic, scenic, and
hysterical point of view.
In Manchuria you have only to see the soldiery
at prayer to understand the wholesale conversion of
the pagan Saxon, Frank, and Teuton bands of
many centuries ago. Squint your eyes up so small
that you can but dimly see the booted Slav in front
of you, push your memory half back to pictures of
G G 2
452 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Viking pirates and freebooters being converted en
masse, and you have a sensation something akin to
that of Kipling's youth in the finest story ever
written. You become dimly conscious of things as
they were long ago, for the average Russian not
the Russian Jew is an uncouth pre- Renaissance
man in the flesh with a thin veneer of nineteenth
and twentieth centurydom smeared prematurely
over him, with the other centuries left out.
Perhaps you who live in Russia will laugh at this,
but it is at least true in Manchuria. For in this
country many Russians have been living more or
less completely unrestrained for several years, and
the results have been distinctly atavistic. Without
the cold reserve of the Englishman, the common-
sense of the German, or the intellectuality of the
Frenchman, the Russian has nothing to fall back
upon, once he is thrown entirely on his own re-
sources, without any controlling hand to restrain
him. With the breaking-down and removal of
artificial barriers, you therefore have le Russe com-
pletely au naturel, and the lack of the usual sauce
which should accompany him to make him palatable
is very much felt.
For remember that Manchuria along the railway
has been kept in a nominal state of war for upwards
of three years now. By this I do not mean that
the stories of hunghutzu bands constantly coming
into conflict with the Russian strong arm are in
any way true, for they are not, and everyone in
Manchuria understands the farce and why it is
fc i A
xxvin MANNERS, MORALS, AND MEN 453
kept up. Sometimes a couple of dozen "bad
men " as they are called in the Wild West of
another country have held up and robbed a train
just to show their contempt for Russian policing
arrangements ; but such outbreaks are distinctly
sporadic, and not at all indicative of the true
state of affairs. It has, however, served Russia's
purpose to pretend that the country is very
unsettled and very dangerous, and so, applying
this idea to the government of her own people,
she has allowed them to follow their own sweet
wills, and to act like mere untamed Huns in
their daily lives.
The first result of all this is to be perceived in
the extraordinary license regarding women in
Manchuria. The Chinaman, although he doubtless
regards the whole question from a wrong stand-
point, is, on the whole, a virtuous and a clean
man in his sexual relations, and on no account
will he sell his womenkind for mere gold or paper.
Confronted with possibilities at which I shrink
from doing more than hint, the Chinaman has
done the best he could in the circumstances.
Briefly, Chinese women have been removed as far
as possible from the reach of the Russian, and,
therefore, along the railway from Port Arthur to
both the Eastern and Western frontiers of Man-
churia you will hardly ever see a native woman
walking about openly. Where they have all gone
to, I do not know ; but from conversations with
many local Chinese I have come to the opinion
454 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
that the women are merely hidden in their own
houses and courtyards, and that the whisper of
" sao-ta-ssu " (Chinese phonetic for the Russian
" soldat ") sends them scuttling like frightened
rabbits into secret hiding places, from which they
cannot be dragged forth alive. This is in itself a
pleasant state of affairs, but there is more yet to
come.
The Russian in bulk, therefore, deprived of the
women of the country, has encouraged a free and un-
restricted importation by rail and sea of the women
of Eastern Europe, and they have come literally in
their thousands. If the dictum be true that good
women uplift one, then it is equally so that bad
women drag one down with unexampled rapidity.
The presence of the sweepings of Poland, Roumania,
Servia, Austria, and Russia itself, has had such
appalling results on' the health of the troops and
civilians alike in Manchuria, that even the Russian
authorities have themselves from time to time be-
come alarmed and made ill-conceived and worse-
executed attempts to rid themselves of these pests.
For not only do these women come themselves, but
they bring in their train hundreds of debased sou-
teneurs, with whom every kind of vice is the virtue
of their existence, and these last, infesting every
place, spread the disease of their minds over the
lower classes, and accustom the prurient to still
worse excesses.
Whilst this debauchery proceeds apace amidst
the lower thousands, the upper hundreds are
xxvni MANNERS, MORALS, AND MEN 455
not remaining idle. Probably content to act at
first in the veiled fashion of Europe in their little
delinquencies and affairs, the insidious poison of
bad example unreproved has ended by producing a
cynicism and a disregard for the conventionalities
in Manchuria which even astonished a Petersburg
Imperial Guardsman and a merchant of Tomsk,
with whom I once travelled for two days and who
repeatedly said that they " n'en revenaient pas," and
were " epates jusqu'a la vertige," so extraordinary
were the spectacles they had constantly witnessed.
Plainly, the Russian has travelled very far in more
ways than one since he came to the Far East.
Officers of standing drive out with their loves in
broad daylight, salute their generals unblushingly ;
feast it in public restaurants, and act in every way as
if the marriage tie only existed on the other side of
the Amur.
CHAPTER XXIX
MOUKDEN THE OLD MANCHU CAPITAL
THE outward appearance of Moukden is easily
described. It is simply a miniature Peking a
Manchu capital before the glory of the ownership
of eighteen vast provinces and their outlying lands
had made it too cramped and insignificant for the
founders of the " Great Pure Dynasty."
Like Peking, it has high walls, but they are not
so high or so imposing as those of the great
Northern capital. It has also an imitation Temple
of Heaven, but this again is infinitely more humble
and unassuming than the noble and magnificent
altars of Peking. There are even such things as a
Drum Tower and a Bell Tower here, whose mourn-
ful voices awoke the inhabitants in the old days
when menaced by some cruel enemy, and bade
them hasten to the defence of the city. Beyond
the walls, in a secluded spot, is an imperial tomb
the Fu Ling, or Happy Tomb, where, hidden in
graceful groves, lie the earthly remains of Tai Tsung,
Nurhachu's son, who almost placed his feet upon
CH.xxix MOUKDEN THE OLD MANCHU CAPITAL 457
the Dragon Throne through his obedient following
of his father's dying words.
But I am going too fast, and must picture things
as they appear coming from the station, else the
new local colour and modern conditions be lost, and
my object defeated.
Formerly, the Chinese Eastern Railway avoided
the purlieus of Moukden as it would any holy of
holies. The line when it was first built swept
west by north in a vast half moon, leaving the
ancient Manchu capital away to the east. Even
in 1902 the rectified or straightened track made for
political reasons and only possible because China
had become as clay in the potter's hands, was un-
completed, and travellers were unceremoniously
dumped at a station whose name meant nothing,
and from whence they had to find their way as best
they could to the provincial capital over some of the
worst roads in the world.
In 1903 it is different, however, and in the clear,
dry atmosphere of the north, Moukden's "old walls
loom out very near. The re-occupation of Mouk-
den had not yet taken place when I was there, and
the little station looked very humble and insignifi-
cant. It was so odd to see this, the great Manchu-
rian general, in a penitent mood, that I hastened to
make researches and, wonder of wonders, I dis-
covered that there were only eighteen railway
guards in garrison. It was, indeed, bad to have
only eighteen military uniforms at the very gates of
a highly-desirable spot, but my Russian informant
458 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
pleaded extenuating circumstances very extenua-
ting circumstances, he insisted, giving a vague wave
of the hand behind him. I looked beyond the
station precincts and understood. A dozen low,
barrack-like buildings stood, half-completed, a
couple of hundred yards away, with yawning open
spaces disturbing their profiles, and lumbered with
scaffolding. Barracks had been begun on an
extensive scale, but the Shantung workmen had
evidently left for their homes on the approach of
winter ; and so there was no one left to com-
plete them, for the Russian is helpless in an
emergency.
A carter roused me from my reverie by seizing my
traps, and we cantered toward the city. It is only
a twenty minutes' drive to the gates, and we were
soon inside. Beyond Moukden's walls, as is the
case in every Chinese city, unauthorised houses and
hovels have encroached much on Government land,
which should be left vacant for the defence of the
city, according to the old regulations. Squalid
dwellings are most of these, inhabited by the poor-
est of the poor, and with lanes full of disgusting
sights. The hand of backsheesh is to be clearly
discerned in this, for even the beggar can pay
something. No one, however, really cares so long
as the encroachment does not harm their trade.
At Moukden's gates Chinese soldiers, armed with
indifferent rifles, and worse fixed-bayonets, mount
guard, and for once there is no Russian tricolour
carelessly slung from crooked bamboo, waving
xxix MOUKDEN THE OLD MANCHU CAPITAL 459
above. So the town, for the time being, could be
accounted moderately free from the usurping
Muscovite. Once inside the city, I told the carter
to drive to the Russian inn of which I had been
told, for I wished to test certain things, and see
with Russian eyes. We rattled along, and passed
street after street of newly-erected shops, gaudy
with fresh paint and gilt. Moukden suffered more
than any other Manchurian city when the swing of
the pendulum brought retribution and the Cossacks
in 1900. Whole districts were then most cleanly
and thoroughly looted, and, so that afterwards no
one should be able to trace the handiwork of the so-
called avenger, the flaming torch was applied, and
fire made to destroy all marks.
Suddenly, when I least expected it, my convey-
ance stopped, and the carter, sliding off the near
shaft, started dusting his legs a sure sign in the
north that the journey is completed. I looked
around in vain for signs of russification, but finding
none, I asked what was the idea of the halt.
" Idea ! " snorted the carter ; " can you not see the
door? There it is. It is your Russian inn."
I pleaded a deficient eyesight, and gazed in
wonder. The Russian hotel unmasked was the
most humble thing in Manchuria. It was simply a
very indifferent former Chinese business hong, with
a diminutive and dirty placard slung above inti-
mating that it was a gastins or inn. I got down
and pushed open the door, with the result that I
fell into what looked like a primitive dining-room.
460 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Yes, it was certainly a dining-room, for there was
vodka and one ancient dinner-cloth, and these are
unmistakable signs.
The carter remonstrated with me for my slow-
ness. " Here there is no ceremony ; you go in and
do as you please ; I will shout, else no one comes."
He did so, and a dirty-looking "boy" finally ap-
peared. " No room," he said, without waiting for
a question ; " we have only five rooms, and several
Russians are sleeping together." This was not
particularly inviting, but, where the Russian is,
always establish yourself first and argue afterwards.
So I came in, ordered a drink, and finally unearthed
the proprietor. The proprietor was mainly clothed
in the inevitable long boots, in which all the right-
eous sleep along the railway Empire ; but in spite
of his primitive attire he had ideas.
" There is only my room and the table," he said,
thinking aloud ; " my room will be three roubles
and the table two."
I selected his room, and then, to his disgust,
after a very cursory inspection, changed to the
table. Tables are hard, but there are worse things
on earth.
Presently the hotel guests began to assemble, for
it was the hour of food, and the native cook, aban-
doning ceremony, emerged from his kitchen and
hilariously inquired of the "boy" if "the pigs pro-
posed to eat." The Chinaman is evidently amusing
himself vastly, after his coarse fashion, with the
conqueror within the gates, and the amount of lost
xxix MOUKDEN THE OLD MANCHU CAPITAL 461
face he has already scored up against the Musco-
vite to his own satisfaction is beyond counting.
" Are all here ? " I inquired of the boy.
" Yes," he answered, sheltering himself in the
vernacular. " There are five guests, and we really
have but three rooms. It is ordered that five be
the number told to strangers, so that we may appear
larger." " The woman," he added, looking round,
" is not here. She only sleeps."
A delightful neighbourhood this, and you will
understand the class of people who overflow from
the railway. I was beginning to regret my Chinese
inn, for there at least an ancient civilisation exists,
and the habits are somehow more pleasant.
But presently the boy gave voice to his feelings
again, and spoke with the bitterness of outstanding
wages. From him I learnt that Moukden is going
to have an electric light, and that the posts are
already up. He explained that the modest com-
pany present at the inn were in Moukden owing
to this electrical scheme, and that before they had
come, there had been no one for months. " Men
come and look round, and then go away," he con-
cluded. " What do the Russians do here ? "
But the horror of the electric light forced me
away. Horror of horrors, indeed ! for what does
an ancient city, with mediaeval walls, drum towers,
and bell towers, require of electric lights, when
there are oil-paper lanterns painted in the colours of
the rainbow, and a hundred other things which
smack of the world when it was so unsophisticated ?
462 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Outside, the night was beautiful and calm, and
the curious unreality and unrest which invade one
when among the Russians in Manchuria, disappear
when one moves from their presence. To-morrow
was a chieh, or quarterly settling day, and so the
streets and shops were still full of people and clerks
busy calling out the tale of outstanding accounts in
high-pitched voices. At the door of the inn was
a soldier-watchman, of one of the newly-raised
Moukden battalions with "soldier guardian of the
streets " splashed across his tunic in great red
characters. Two thousand men had been so far
recruited in Moukden, but the soldier-watchman
confessed that they were absolutely valueless.
The soldier was a Shantung man perhaps the
sturdiest race in China and a veteran of the
Japanese and Boxer wars. And he looked as if
he was of the very stuff which makes armies, but
withal he was armed in the absurd Chinese fashion
so contemptible in this age of weapons of precision.
"If we fight here again," he said, " it will be the
same old story. We have old rifles, old clothes, and
only twenty cartridges each. Our officers are bad,
and we could not withstand the Russians for five
minutes it is always so."
Of course, it is the same old story, and it is the
super-ignorant Peking Government which is alone
responsible. Men there are in limitless numbers
and the willingness to fight also ; it is only the
weapons and the leaders that are lacking. The
drilled troops of Yuan Shihkai and Tientsin may
xxix MOUKDEN THE OLD MANCHU CAPITAL 463
count in the threatened war, but the poorly-armed
and badly-led post-Boxer levies of Manchuria are
beneath contempt.
The next day I was early afoot, for I had much
to see and do. Moukden within the walls is such a
baby Peking that it is child's play to cover even the
longest distances within the city limits. And then
Moukden has now quite an up-to-date Far Eastern
convenience the universal ricksha. Two sturdy
coolies trundle you up and down and in and out of
ruts with such vigour that after a few minutes you
decide that the Peking cart is, after all, the best
thing to use on Chinese roads au naturel. The
northern cart is built for the ruts, and fits exactly
into them, since ancestral carts made them, whereas
the ricksha is an intruder, and takes care to demon-
strate it to you every minute. It is to the Russian
that credit is due for the introduction of the ricksha
so far north ; and although the occupation regime
has at least outwardly disappeared in Moukden, the
ricksha still remains, and the coolies are still armed
with their former Russian licenses. I asked the
coolies wonderingly why they kept the licenses.
" Who knows when the Russians are coming back,"
answered the human draft animals. "And in any
case," they concluded, "these licenses can be sold
to country people who know nothing of Russian
passports, and therefore they are worth keeping."
Long live the Chinese commercial spirit !
I called at various places, and tried to discover
in what light the American Treaty which opens
464 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Moukden to the trade of the world was regarded
by native officials. They one and all professed
indifference, and treated the whole matter as a side
issue. They acknowledged that it had done some
good from the Chinese point of view, and had
somewhat strengthened their position ; but they
argued that the only point of importance to them
at the present moment was, after all, whether
Russia was going to withdraw without fighting
Japan. I was struck with one thing at all these
houses. Copies of the Shanghai vernacular news-
papers lay about in heaps, and one man said
he subscribed to three daily newspapers. This
cannot but have a great influence in determining
the attitudes and actions of people in Manchuria
in the event of war, for I am firmly convinced that
the educating influence of the native Press drawing
inspiration mainly from the English Far Eastern
publications is alienating the Chinaman more and
more from the Russian, and making him see the
proposed Russian annexation in its true light. As
in almost all cases, the officials and gentry in
China determine the attitude of a country side ; this
spreading of the Anglo-Saxon idea can but have
one result, and that result must be highly unfavour-
able to the Russian. Moukden and Kirin were
separated ten years ago by immense gulfs from the
rest of China in their mode of thought. To-day
they feel the new influences at work even more
acutely than other provincial capitals, and the old
and antiquated is giving place to the new.
A CHARMING MANCHU GIRI.
xxix MOUKDEN THE OLD MANCHU CAPITAL 465
After seeing these papers and thinking in this
strain, it was a shock to go to the telegraph office
and see white-tunicked Russian operators at work,
and the dirty soldiers of some Siberian regiment
hanging about idly outside. If ever men repre-
sented a backward civilisation it is these, and they
must be got rid of at all costs if China is to be
saved.
For although Moukden has been nominally
handed back, there are still about ninety uniforms
in the city. The Commissair has a Cossack guard,
the Consul-General likewise one the Russo-Chinese
Bank is protected by soldiery in similar fashion,
and finally, the telegraph office is still in Muscovite
hands. It is true that the old Imperial Palace and
the various Yamens have been cleared of soldiers,
but Slav boot-leather still oppresses the air. After
the 8th of April, a pretence was made of evacuating
strictly according to the terms of the Protocol, but
so long as the Russian is able to dominate the
country from the railway with tens of thousands
of men, and allows them to overflow into Chinese
cities whenever the fancy may seize him, the
present anomalous position, precluding any real
settlement, will cause unrest to increase instead of
decreasing.
I went round the various Boards and Ministries,
and entered some of the buildings. Official Mouk-
den is very much dilapidated, I regret to say, and
there is a settled air of despair about the Govern-
ment offices, which begins with the Governor-
H H
466 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
General's residence and ends with the smallest
police Ting'erh. In front of Viceroy Tseng Ch'i's
Yamen there is a dilapidated chevaux de frise, and
above the gate there is a tattered Dragon flag.
These two archaic adornments are evidently held
to be sufficient insignia for the lost dignity of a
Manchu governor, for if you enter the gates, a single
gate-keeper merely looks at you with lack-lustre
eyes, and no one asks you your business until you
are well on your way to the inner courtyards and
the women's quarters. Tseng Ch'i's spirit has been
broken, they say. Everybody is against Tseng
Ch'i even the Moukden Chinese but there is
something to be said after all for the poor man.
You must be of a tough nature to withstand three
years' bullyings and ravings unmoved. And if you
have been reared in the peaceful atmosphere of a
Chinese Secretariat you are ill-fitted to grapple
with problems for which an immediate solution is
demanded by a rough-voiced man who threatens
all sorts of dire things should you prove obdurate.
So they say that Tseng Ch'i has collapsed and
hauled down his colours to the Russian, and that he
is now secretly intriguing with them again after he
had publicly disavowed all his previous transactions.
True or not, it can have but very little bearing after
all on the main question, for in the year of Our Lord
1903 one man cannot betray twenty millions, and
even Manchu viceroys are not omnipotent.
It is a relief to pass from the Yamens to the
streets again, and be amongst the crowds that are
xxix MOUKDEN THE OLD MANCHU CAPITAL 467
not so easily cowed. For the Manchurian plebs
seem curiously indifferent to all these perplexing
problems, and a Sunday peace is over all. What it
is I do not pretend to know, but whereas Chinese
officials in Manchuria are nervous and anxious, the
people are not in the slightest disturbed. At Tsitsihar
and Kirin I had found the same symptoms, and at
Moukden they were even more apparent.
From Moukden's walls a splendid view is to be
had of the surrounding country, and certain it is
that the old capital lies in a pleasant land. Rolling
plains covered with magnificent tilled fields surround
the city, with hills in the middle distance, and
mountains vaguely seen far away. A few dozen
miles to the south-east are those precious roads to
the Yalu, which will be the scenes of the fiercest
combats if war is coming. In the Chino- Japanese
war of '94 political and other considerations pre-
vented the Mikado's soldiers from entering Moukden.
In a Russian war Moukden will send its most notable
men to beg delivery from the hands of bullying
Commissairs and brutal Cossacks, and the opening
of Moukden to Japanese soldiery will be the signal
for an outburst of relief throughout the length and
breadth of Manchuria.
There was nothing much more left to be seen, so
I prepared to leave. A Commissair, a Consul-
General, a Russo-Chinese bank, a Russified tele-
graph station, a so-called hotel, a few Cossacks,
and two miserable provision shops, represent the
Muscovite power and commercial interests in this,
H H 2
4 68 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CH. xxix
Manchuria's most important provincial capital. A
doleful body of Manchu and Chinese officials, and
two thousand worthless Chinese braves, with in-
different crowds of common people, is the native
picture. Things are merely marking time in
Moukden, and war is expected. There is, in truth,
not much of interest to be seen.
CHAPTER XXX
THE RUSSIAN ARMY IN MANCHURIA, AND ITS TASK.
THE Russian army in Manchuria is to most
people an unknown quantity. For months, rumours
that editors have crystallised into facts, have been
floating about concerning the enormous strength of
the Czar's army of occupation of the countless
numbers of fat battalions which everywhere abound
of the universal domination of the booted Slav
of the utter uselessness and madness to challenge
his right so to do seeing that he has command of
all the strategic points and so on ad infinitum,
until the shadow of the Colossus has become more
mighty than the substance itself, and the feet of
clay are quite forgotten in this vapour of words. . .
For that this Colossus has feet of clay is to a large
extent true, but it is not proper that these should be
first discussed to the exclusion of the body and head,
so let us proceed according to rule.
The Russian army invaded Manchuria in 1900
because Europe invaded Chihli, and because the
moment was therefore highly propitious for the
long-planned movement south. Europe, however,
470 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
had Tientsin and Peking to rescue ; the Russian
army had no one to save in Manchuria, for the
railway construction parties and the railway guards
had fled up or down the line whichever happened
to be most convenient as soon as the Boxers
appeared and the Chinese soldiery had got out of
hand. But although the army had no rescuing work
to perform and but little fighting to do, the
Manchurian invasion was at once elevated by
bureaucrats and soldiers alike to the dignity of a
campaign, because it served a purpose, and thus for
three long years the Manchurian army has kept its
campaigning boots on its feet, and has considered
itself an active force in the field.
For from the very beginning the Muscovite has
known that he has been building up with bluff and
myth ; but so dear have Manchuria's rich plains
become to him, and so great and incalculable has
been his expenditure, through his own carelessness
as an accountant, that he is willing to spill his blood
to the last drop sooner than give up what he
contemplates robbing from the rightful owners.
The great inrush of 1900, as I have already said
in other places, saw practically all towns of
importance in Manchuria with Russian soldiers
quartered in them. From Port Arthur to Harbin
more than twenty cities along the great central
valleys were occupied with larger or smaller detach-
ments, according to their importance in Russian
eyes. To the east, along or near the Korean
frontier, a dozen towns were similarly garrisoned.
XXX
To the south-west, from Shanhaikwan to Newchwang
and right up the Western Bank of the river Liao,
other important points were seized ; and finally in
northern Manchuria another dozen were occupied.
Thus some fifty cities and towns the most
important in the three Manchurian provinces were
under the Russian heel, and the Chinese were given
to understand that the occupation was destined to be
permanent. This was the first part of the play.
It was not until 1901 and the general settling-
down of the political and diplomatic turmoil in
China, together with the signature of sundry
protocols, evacuation agreements, and such-like, that
the Manchurian army of occupation found its
position considerably altered. Up till then post
commanders had really considered that they were to
remain at their garrisons for an indefinite time, until
the bureaucrats had succeeded in openly taking over
the country. And they thought they could assist in
the great work of winning over the local Chinese by
simply identifying themselves with the districts
under their command as much as possible, and
adopting an easy attitude of unconcern.
The strength of the Manchurian army of
occupation by which I include the garrisons of
the Kuantung leased territory and Port Arthur
never totalled one hundred thousand men, even in
the halcyon days of the great invasion, and in the
first instance the forces were mainly distributed
so as to dominate the inhabitants of the country
rather than on strategic grounds.
472 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
With the signature of the evacuation instrument
of April, 1902, a different attitude was immediately
observed. Reasons of economy and the difficulties of
efficiently carrying out the supply service for so many
men had even previous to that date been responsible
for a considerable reduction in the numbers of men
garrisoning distant points and the almost entire
concentration within the railway area was therefore
only another step in the same direction.
The Russian army did to all intents and purposes
carry out the first part of the evacuation that is the
rendition of the Shanhaikwan-Newchwang Railway
and of the country west of the Liao the Liao Hsi.
It was perfectly well understood at St. Petersburg
that tampering with the rights of the British bond-
holders of the Imperial Chinese Railway would force
even England to show determination, and as Japan
was the most formidable enemy, Western Manchuria
was abandoned as "of no strategic value." But on
the 8th April, 1903, when the second movement of
troops took place, there was manifest double dealing,
and it is this breach of contract which first aroused
the suspicion of the Japanese Government. Instead
of retiring on the railway en masse, or leaving the
country altogether, the Russian troops garrisoning
Fengtien province only evacuated, so to speak,
with a reservation. They moved, it is true, with
great ostentation, so as to attract attention from
the Far Eastern press ; but even if the troops
carried out the letter of the law, they took every
opportunity of violating the spirit. Thus on the
xxx THE RUSSIAN ARMY IN MANCHURIA 473
Newchwang plains there was a grand "evacua-
tion review " of seven thousand men ; loud-voiced
addresses were made to the rank and file by white-
headed generals to the effect that Chinese territory
was being handed back that the work of the troops
was finished and that the Czar thanked his children
for their devotion to duty. But in spite of all this
these troops were promptly redistributed with great
care along the southern section of the Central Man-
churian Railway, so that they were strategically more
formidable and more menacing than before. And
although the great bulk of the troops left New-
chwang, the so-called Russian Civil Administration
of the town did not come to an end, nor were the
Customs surrendered, nor did the armed Russian
patrol launches come off the River Liao.
Similarly, although Moukden was evacuated, the
telegraph office was retained under Russian control,
and the private guards of the various Russian officials
residing at the provincial capital were increased in-
stead of being done away with. And on the great
highway to Korea, Feng-huang-ch'eng, the most im-
portant town of the eastern regions, had its garrison
strengthened by the drawing in of the detached posts
surrounding it ; and as early as May preparations
were made to test thoroughly the transport facilities
of the Yalu neighbourhood. These things show
how insincere Russia has been, in spite of her
protestations.
As the Japanese attitude began to stand out more
clearly, and the Tokyo Government showed signs
474 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
of acting quite independently of the maritime
powers, the Russian military arrangements took
more definite shape, and it became clear that the
Port Arthur headquarters staff was ransacking its
archives, and studying with great care the military
lessons of the Chino-Japanese war. Having
thoroughly digested this interesting history, the
complete triangulation of South-eastern Manchuria,
from the River Liao to the banks of the Yalu, a
work which had been but indifferently attended to
previously, was undertaken without delay.
The more the Russian staff pondered on it, the
more they would appear to have been convinced
that the Japanese objective would be the cutting of
the railway somewhere between Kai-chou, in the
north of the Liaotung, and a point south of
Moukden. That the Russian staff early anticipated
severe struggles along the road leading from the
Yalu is proved by the fact that barracks crudely
adapted to Russian use were made of Chinese
houses at a number of points from the Hai-ch'eng
station to Antung on the Yalu estuary, although
they have not been as yet occupied ; and that a
low estimate states that thirty thousand men could
be warmly housed in these parts during the cold
winter months. Indeed, it would seem, from a
careful watching of troops, and from remarks let
drop by officers, momentarily betrayed into in-
discreet expressions of opinions, that the Russians
cannot believe that any great Japanese attack can
come in any way except over the Yalu, and there-
xxx THE RUSSIAN ARMY IN MANCHURIA 475
fore everything has been prepared for an over-
whelming concentration along the all-important
roads leading to the Korean frontier. This means
to say that, until quite recently, the Russian Naval
and Military staffs were of the opinion that surprise
landings on the Liaotung, after the manner of the
Japanese war of '94, were out of the question.
From the very first it was apparent, as the
autumn drew to a close, that the 8th October the
date for the final evacuation of the provinces of
Kirin and Hei-lung-chiang had lost its significance,
and that it was not even proposed to keep up
appearances by marching in troops from outlying
points to within the railway area. By an arrange-
ment with certain native friends, I was able to
ascertain that on the eventful day, the 8th, no
movement at all took place in either Kirin or
Hei-lung-chiang provinces. As a matter of fact,
apart from the provincial capitals, there were
practically no troops left in the two northern
provinces, excepting in the very smallest numbers.
Such as were stationed at outlying points had been
reposted as special observation corps, and were
only of sufficient strength to resist local banditti,
and were not there with any idea of overawing
Chinese or Manchu territorial officials.
The whole of the province of Hei-lung-chiang may,
therefore, be immediately dropped from considera-
tion, for apart from Fu-liao-tien where the training
of railway guards has been hitherto carried out on
an extensive scale the province has for months
476 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
been practically denuded of Russian troops. And
in Kirin province it is, to some extent, the same
story, with the exception of Harbin, Kirin city, and
the Ninguta Hun-ch'un Possiet Bay line.
It is thus evident that in the middle of 1903 the
Russian military headquarters had been informed
that there was serious danger in the air, and that
startling developments might be expected at any
moment, and that no time should be lost in a redis-
tribution of troops. For that Russia never intended
to relinquish the military hold on the Manchurian
provinces, there can be no doubt.
With a stroke of the pen, therefore, before the
evacuation of Manchuria had even been nominally
completed, the Russian army of occupation was
openly converted into an army of defence. In
other words the policy of domination that is, the
domination of the Manchurian population and officials
was changed into a policy of defence against a
threatened attack from a detested and dreaded foe
Japan.
I have already said that the grand idea of the
great Russian Southern concentration was the
defence of the Yalu roads. But as time went on,
and the defective condition of the Russian Far East-
ern squadrons demonstrated more and more, the fact
that Japanese surprise-landings were possible nay,
even more, probable all along the four hundred odd
miles of coast of the Liaotung peninsula, created
uneasiness ; and it became clear that steps must be
immediately taken to provide for this contingency.
xxx THE RUSSIAN ARMY IN MANCHURIA 477
Accordingly, a number of new towns were occupied
in the autumn as bases from which independent
operations could be conducted in the Liaotung
promontory. The principal of these towns are :
Hsiu-yen, sixty miles east of Feng-huang-ch'eng,
and about the same distance from the Eastern
Coast ; Fu Chou, twenty-five miles off the west
Liaotung coast, and facing the Gulf of Pechili ;
Kai-chou, nearly a hundred miles north of Fu Chou,
and only a few miles from the coast ; and finally
some villages in the Liao estuary.
The task of the Russian army of defence, as they
themselves love to call it, in southern Manchuria
alone, is an extremely complex one. There are first
the roads to the Yalu, then the long and dangerous
Liaotung coast-line, and finally Port Arthur and the
leased territory. But the Russian staff, rightly or
wrongly, argues that Port Arthur and the lower end
of the Kuantung leased territory are too hard for
the Japanese to crack until there have been Japa-
nese successes elsewhere. It is admitted that Port
Arthur may be blockaded ; but it is equally believed
that the vast system of field fortifications extending
from the naval stronghold to far beyond Talien Bay,
together with the extremely defensible nature of the
country, filled as it is with barren hills, will preclude
any serious attempt being made at the outset to
attack it from the land side.
The two areas of interest in the event of war
breaking out would, therefore, appear to be the
Yalu-Feng-huang-ch'eng regions and the coast-line
478 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
of upper Liaotung. Until these are successfully
invaded, the railway will not be in any danger.
But it appears, also, that the Russian staff has
foreseen that it might be forced to sacrifice the
southern section of the Central Manchurian Railway
in the early stages of a war, for it would be months
before the full strength of the Russian army avail-
able for service in the Far East could be concen-
trated in Manchuria. Provision has been made for
the loss of what I will call the Liaotung stretch of
track, say the section between the Kuantung forti-
fied lines and some point south of Moukden and
this loss will not greatly affect Russian plans.
The latest calculations of the Japanese head-
quarters staff estimate that the greatest number of
trained soldiers Russia can place in the field in the
Far East without dangerously reducing the home
garrisons and exposing the European frontiers to
immediate peril, is five hundred and twenty thousand
men. And the highest authorities agree that many
months must elapse before this force can be trans-
ported by rail to the Far East. But from this num-
ber must be deducted, first, the forces Russia,
according to the most painstaking estimate, had on
the ist November in Manchuria and Kuantung
89,000 men ; second, the troops of the Amur military
province, 48,000 men ; thirdly, the troops which
have been moving into Manchuria at the rate of
2,500 a week by rail quite recently ; and fourthly,
the expected reinforcements coming by sea, 8,000
men. The Far Eastern forces which Viceroy
xxx THE RUSSIAN ARMY IN MANCHURIA 479
Alexeieff should have under his command on the ist
January, 1904, should read as follows :
In Manchuria and Kuantung 89,000 men.
Amur Military province . . 48,000
Reinforcements by land . . 22,500 ,,
Local reservists .... 40,000 ,,
Coming by sea .... 8,000
Grand Total . . . 207,500 ,,
It will therefore be seen that almost exactly four
tenths of the available Russian troops will be at
hand at the very outset of hostilities, and that the
remaining 315,000 men must be transported to the
scene of warfare over a single line of railway five
thousand miles in length.
An interesting question at once arises as to
whether the rolling stock of the Siberian and
Manchurian railways is sufficient to transport such
a vast army of men without breaking down under
the strain, and further, whether the provisioning
for half a million of men so far away from home is
possible.
Although it seems presumptuous to make a
definite answer to these all-important questions,
certain arguments can be advanced which throw
considerable light. In the first place, until April
and May the ice on Lake Baikal is sufficiently
strong to bear all train weights, and therefore the
laying of rails across the lake would enable an
indefinite number of military trains to steam straight
from European Russia into Manchuria. That
480 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Russia commands an unlimited supply of rolling
stock suitable for military purposes on her European
lines is a fact well established, and if these can
travel without a break from one end of the Empire
to the other, a great difficulty will be removed, and
the risks of blocking the lines will be diminished.
The enormous length and the multitude of the sidings
along the Siberian and Manchurian railways is one of
the most noticeable features of these great strategic
works, for every twenty versts or so there is room for
at least a dozen trains to be halted, and the line
completely cleared. There seems, therefore, but
little doubt that the actual work of transporting
the additional three hundred thousand odd men is
a task which could be successfully accomplished.
And now we come to the second point the pro-
visioning of half a million of men.
It is useless to refer to text books and argue that
the single track is quite unable to perform that task ;
for the railway would never be called on to perform
such impossible work. Once the half million have
been successfully transported to the theatre of war,
Manchuria alone is equal to the task of providing
most of the foodstuffs. For flour, meat, green-
stuffs, and tea are available in enormous quantities,
and it is not unwise to say that these Manchurian
supplies are practically inexhaustible if properly
tapped. To-day the Harbin mills practically supply
eighty thousand Russian mouths, and half a million
Chinese, with their flour, and the exigencies of the
military situation could immediately demand this
xxx THE RUSSIAN ARMY IN MANCHURIA 481
entire output. Apart from this, the commandeering
of all the native flour mills in Manchuria would pro-
vide additional supplies of a lower-grade stuff.
But there are other points. Cattle are available,
sheep are available, eatable black pigs in vast
droves are to be found everywhere ; and from the
near-lying Eastern Mongolian plains, unlimited live
stock can be driven in to supplement Manchuria's
own supplies. Nor is this all. Many kinds of
coarse grains, such as kao-liang, or tall millet,
hsiao-mi, or small millet, and Indian corn, are to be
had in practically endless quantities. An outburst
of hostilities would see the vast winter caravan
trade of the interior stopped at once, and if the
Russians acted sagely, they would thus have an
unexcelled transport service available locally. I
have already referred to the extraordinary vigour of
Manchurian draft animals. Harnessed to clumsy
carts, and forced to travel over some of the worst
roads in the world, Manchurian ponies and mules do
not understand the word exhaustion, and day after
day, week after week, they can travel seemingly
unharmed by fatigue, whilst hauling immense bur-
dens. Bred in a cold, healthy climate, standing
summer and winter in rain or snow-storm, out in the
open there is no animal in the world which can
surpass them in toughness and courage ; and with
the hundreds of thousands of these animals that are
available the mobility of the Russian army in the
field should be very great.
It, therefore, would seem apparent that, provided
i i
482 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
nothing unforeseen happens, Russia should be both
able to transport to Manchuria and the Primorsk,
and feed without insuperable difficulties the half
million men she can place in the field in the Far
East. Clothing, medical stores, munitions of war,
and the thousand miscellaneous things an army
requires, should prove no great tax to transport by
rail. And, in addition to this, with the aid of local
transport, the armies in the field should possess
great mobility. If operations extend to Central
Manchuria, that great waterway, the Sungari, will
become a potent factor, providing independent
communication, as it does, between the Amur and
Harbin. That if hard pressed, a return will be
made to the Napoleonic policy by the Russians, and
war made to feed war, cannot be doubted when their
cynicism is considered ; and perhaps no better
country in the world could be chosen than Man-
churia.
But the Russians are fully alive to the dangers
which would immediately menace them, if by
coercive measures they further antagonise a popula-
tion already hostile. It is to be, therefore, doubted
whether the earlier stages of a war would witness
any wholesale commandeering or seizure of native
supplies. It would only be in the event of crushing
reverses that reason and discretion would be cast to
the winds, and such a harmful policy, which would
really be the beginning of the end, inaugurated.
Indeed, it would appear that should the war be
unduly prolonged the crux may be the attitude of
xxx THE RUSSIAN ARMY IN MANCHURIA 483
the native population, for on Manchuria's inhabi-
tants will largely depend the mighty question of
food supplies, transport, intelligence work, and
labour.
But the reader will ask how it can be stated, in
one breath, so to speak, that the population of Man-
churia is openly hostile to the Muscovite ; and that
yet, in spite of this, Russia's success largely depends
on Jier ability to induce cooperation from these
hostile Chinese ? I can and do state this, because,
although the bulk of the native population of
Manchuria detests the Muscovite and favours the
Japanese, there are many thousands and even tens
of thousands of Chinese who, so long as the Peking
Government remains neutral, will be eager to earn
the huge profits war always offers. Thus, supposing
Russian commanders were empowered to hire native
carts at double rates and pay so much down for
every carter killed or injured, tens of thousands of
desperate characters would come forward, and there
would be plenty of native contractors to find draft
animals and waggons. Similarly, by expending large
sums Chinese dealers can be found who would
accumulate foodstuffs by the ten thousand tons at
points beyond the actual area of active warfare, for
there are Chinese who would be willing to go to the
gates of hell and beyond, providing the game is
worth the candle and that spot cash is the reward.
And the men who will supply these traitors will be
the Mahommedans. There is a very big Chinese
Mahommedan population in Manchuria which has
i i 2
484 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
emigrated there at different times from the back
provinces of China principally from Kansuh and
Shansi. During the Japanese war the Mahomme-
dans helped the invaders, and so treacherous are
they generally that there is a Manchurian saying
that where there are ten Mahommedans there are
nine thieves. With such aids the Russians can
do much.
Glancing at what has been written, the reader may
be inclined to imagine that Russia in Manchuria will
be a terrible enemy for the Japanese to tackle, and
that the chances of permanent success are not very
great. But conclusions should not be too hastily
arrived at, for there is much yet to discuss.
I have already indicated the extent of Russian
preparations in Southern Manchuria, and have stated
that on the ist of January there should be in
Chinese provinces : first the Manchurian and Kuan-
tung active garrisons, 89,000 men ; second, 22,500
men in reinforcements arrived by land ; third, 8,000
men by sea ; and to this number should be added
the reservists in the Trans-Amur liable to be called
up for service in Manchuria say another 10,000
men. The number, therefore, Russia should have
on that date in Chinese territory, leased or coveted,
is roughly 130,000 men. But from this number
something should be deducted in order to be on the
safe side. We will therefore assume the total of
120,000 men as the effective striking force in
Manchuria. At first sight this would seem a formid-
able mass of men, but a close examination of its
xxx THE RUSSIAN ARMY IN MANCHURIA 485
distribution its varied duties and the great areas
which have to be covered tends to convince one of
the total inadequacy of this force, leaving entirely
apart for the time being the all- important question
of efficiency.
Taking first the fortified lines of the Kuantung
leased territory that is, the Port Arthur-Talienwan
area the force actually available in the event of
war suddenly breaking out would be under 45,000
men. Great stress has been laid by some writers
on the strength of Port Arthur and its absolute
impregnability now that the natural strength of the
place has been so materially added to by artificial
means. But these writers in their haste to prove
their point have forgotten many things, the most
important being that it is not alone the narrow
limits of Port Arthur that have to be protected,
but also the strategic area extending north even
of Talienwan, and that Russian sloth has left many
things undone which should have been done many
years ago. For instance, to take but a small case,
on the west coast of the heel of the Kuantung
territory and only four miles outside Port Arthur
is a bay called Pigeon Bay, with deep water right
up to the foreshore. The surrounding hills mask
the bay most effectually, and yet it was only in
September of 1903 that forts Nos. 13 and 14 com-
manding this vital point were begun, and although
night and day work has been proceeding ever since,
the forts were not completed in November nor
were the guns mounted.
486 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Small things like this forecast some of the terrible
shortcomings which this war must show up. The
best authorities agree that to be really impregnable
these Kuantung fortified lines require 80,000 men,
and there seems little doubt that should the railway
be cut in the earlier stages of a war such a number
will never be available.
The next area to be examined is a very large one,
but in view of the fact that, unless Japanese land
operations are unduly prolonged, the independent
bases I have already mentioned, established along
the upper Liaotung territory, can never be properly
completed nor sufficient forces massed at them, I
propose not to stop and consider them in detail, but
to deal immediately with the area of the Yalu
highways.
Using the Liaoyang-Hai-ch'eng districts as basis,
the forces which Russia should have available
along these roads cannot exceed 40,000 men for
many weeks. The distance from Liaoyang to the
Yalu, by road, is roughly, one hundred and fifty miles,
or a week's march ; and although, as I have already
said, everything has been prepared along the road
that possibly can be prepared, terrible confusion
must result when a general forward movement com-
mences, for the transport question will immediately
become a vital one. It is useless to give figures at
the present moment, but still it is safe to say that,
so far, there are only a few thousand men between
the Yalu and the railway. The main object of con-
centration on the Yalu is merely to gain time for
xxx THE RUSSIAN ARMY IN MANCHURIA 487
reinforcements to be poured into the country from
European Russia ; and every day gained means
many men added to Russia's striking power. The
Russian staff argues that the Japanese generals will
display the greatest caution in their first contact with
European armies, and that therefore comparatively
small forces may succeed in delaying overwhelming
Japanese armies for a very long time.
But there seems little reason to suppose that
Japan will act only across the Yalu. The Liaotung
surprise landings and the confusion into which they
would throw the Russian staff arrangements are too
tempting to be lightly abandoned, and once Japanese
armies land north of the Kuantung leased territory,
on either the east or west coasts of the Liaotung,
the Russian forces concentrated on the roads lead-
ing to the Yalu will be dangerously threatened on
their flank. Their raison d'etre will have ceased
to exist, and a gradual retreat on to Hai-ch'eng or
Liaoyang will be almost certain.
But the landing of the Japanese on the Liaotung
coasts will have another terror. It will inevitably
mean the eventual cutting of the railway, the isola-
tion of Kuantung, and the splitting up of Russian
armies.
Whether or not the Kuantung fortified lines are
in a position to sustain a prolonged investment is a
question which, with the imperfect data available, it
is somewhat foolish to discuss. But it is not clear
why Japan should sacrifice many thousands of
men in desperate assaults until the reduction of
4 88 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
the Russian fortress and the outlying field works
becomes a military or political necessity. So long as
Port Arthur and the surrounding territory are cut
off and completely isolated from the outside world,
the Japanese armies of the Liaotung could give
their undivided attention to the Russian forces,
which would then be spread in a vast line from
Hai-ch'eng to Newchwang. Here, it is therefore
not unwise to suppose, as was the case in the late
Chino- Japanese war, the greatest and fiercest
struggles will be fought, and here the fate of
southern Manchuria decided. That the Japanese
task will be no mean one is clear when one remem-
bers that Russian reinforcements can be poured in
from the north in the greatest numbers.
Japanese successes in southern Manchuria will
inevitably lead to fresh moves being undertaken
elsewhere. Apart from the outflanking of the
Russian forces concentrated in the Liaoyang-
Hai-ch'eng regions by the landing of independent
armies west of the Liao that is, west of Newchwang
there is an entirely new line of the country to be
considered. It is the Russian Pacific province, or
the Primorsk. A few miles south of Vladivostock
and directly opposite to Hakodate is Possiet Bay.
And a few miles from Possiet lie the north-eastern
frontier of Korea and the Tiumen River. A stone's
throw from here is Chinese territory, for the
eastern frontier of Kirin province ends practically
on the sea-coast. Chinese Hun-ch'un, the fortress
town which stood sentinel opposite the Cossack
XXX THE RUSSIAN ARMY IN MANCHURIA 489
outposts before the Boxer war, is now in Russian
hands and weakly guards a most important highway.
The strategic importance of these regions can
hardly be overestimated. Only forty-eight hours'
steam from Japan's northernmost strong place,
Hakodate, the Mikado's generals could effect a
surprise landing here at any moment after the
winter ice has broken up, and from Possiet Bay
mobile forces could be pushed via Ninguta into the
very heart of Kirin province and create the most
terrible confusion. For no more convenient place
could be chosen to effect a three-fold object to cut
off Vladivostock from communication with Manchu-
ria ; to menace Harbin on the flank ; and to strike
the Russian south Manchurian forces in the rear.
The forces Russia has at her disposal at the
present moment to meet such an attack are difficult
to estimate, for they are very widely distributed ; but
here again, as has been shown is the case in the
south, it may be said that they are totally inadequate
for the task which would await them. The extreme
vulnerability of Russia's entire position in the Far
East, from the Japanese point of view, becomes
more striking the more one examines the question of
attacks on the coasts of the Pacific province.
The estimated number of troops available in time
of war in the Amur military province is roughly
70,000 men, and on this force the defence of the
Primorsk devolves. But it is right to state that these
numbers must be heavily discounted if it is wished
only to include the really effective force available.
490 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Examination would tend to show that many units
are, after the Chinese manner, merely paper
estimates that do not really exist. For instance,
the so-called Cossack reserves of the military
colonies in the Ussuri districts are returned at far
too high a figure ; reservists who should be at hand
in other parts of the Amur military province have in
many cases notoriously " emigrated " elsewhere ; and
the districts comprised in this vague term, " the
Amur military province," stretch right from the
upper waters of the Amur to Vladivostock, and
therefore are of too enormous an area to allow
effective concentration to be undertaken at threat-
ened points until it is too late. With 20,000
men locked up in Vladivostock, and thousands
scattered along the banks of the Amur, it
is difficult to suppose that Russia would be in a
position for many months to take the field in great
force in either eastern Kirin or southern Primorsk,
and every blow dealt by Japan in southern
Manchuria would help to hasten the disorganisation
and confusion into which the Russian forces would
immediately fall on the outbreak of war.
I have in the above shown some of the possibili-
ties of a Manchurian war, and have attempted in a
general way to give the disposition of the Russian
army of defence. Each day sees fresh shifting of
troops, and battalions and squadrons changing
ground in the most surprising manner. But, in spite
of this, war will not disturb plans of campaign
already settled on, and therefore it may be presup-
xxx THE RUSSIAN ARMY IN MANCHURIA 491
posed the general idea will remain the same. It is
now time to speak of the composition of the army
in Manchuria, its quality and probable condition in
time of war ; and, having due regard for what 1900
clearly showed, some interesting deductions may be
made.
The first thing a general study of the Russian
army in Manchuria would seem to reveal is the great
inequality in the standard of efficiency among the
different corps. Some corps are good, others indif-
ferent, and the ordinary Siberian line regiments
distinctly bad.
To begin with, there would appear to be no doubt
that the artillery is the best arm, and that the
gunners have an entirely different morale to the
rest of the army. Even the Trans- Baikal and
eastern Siberian corps, which have supplied all the
artillery in Manchuria until now, and are rated
inferior to the European Russian batteries, have
numbers of picked men drawn from Europe. Then
the guns are excellent and well cared for ; many
batteries have the new quick-firers ; the officers are
recruited from a better class of society than those of
the cavalry and infantry regiments, and the gunners
themselves infinitely superior in intelligence to the
rank and file of the army. The number of Jews in
the Port Arthur garrison and field artillery is quite
noticeable, and inquiries elicited the fact that, as
these men show greater aptitude than the ordinary
Russian, in spite of religious and racial prejudice
they are eagerly drafted into what is a picked arm.
492 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Artillery practice is very constant ; good results
promptly noted and rewarded, and everything done
to promote efficiency. It is therefore reasonable
to suppose that the Siberian artillery should be well
served and should be able to give a good account
of itself.
The engineers are rather an unknown quantity,
and it is therefore hard to pass an opinion on them.
Given their own time and a free hand, they would
seem to be able to accomplish good results, but,
although they have great technical knowledge, it is to
be anticipated that emergencies will find them un-
equal to their tasks. The greatest Russian fault is
that theory constantly invades the field of practice,
and that whereas in the drawing-room there is nothing
the Russian engineer cannot accomplish, when it
comes to carrying out what he has planned, gross
mistakes are inevitably made by him.
Coming next to the cavalry, there can be but
little doubt that the Siberian Cossack regiments are
very indifferent corps. The great admixture of
Buriat cavalrymen in those corps which come from
the extensive Baikal regions can have but un-
fortunate results. The Mongol Buriat is a cur, and
has too much of the Tartar in him to be of use in
this age. A single squadron of British dragoons
could ride through a division of these degenerates
and sweep them like dry leaves off the field. The
equipment of these Siberian cavalry corps is bad
they are armed with a clumsy sword and a short
carbine ; their discipline is very indifferent, and has
xxx THE RUSSIAN ARMY IN MANCHURIA 493
been much impaired by three years in Manchuria ;
and although they have proved useful in previous
Asiatic warfare, it cannot be doubted that they will
be of very little use against the Japanese, who are
simply diminutive Prussians in the field. Un-
less, therefore, strong reinforcements of European
cavalry arrive speedily, the Japanese deficiency in
mounted men will not be very severely felt. The
Cossack's great pride is that he can forage so
successfully that he feeds both himself and his
horse where others would speedily starve. This
may be very useful in small punitive expeditions in
Central Asia, but it is difficult to see how it will
help in a great war conducted on European prin-
ciples. The condition to which the real Cossack
cavalry from the Don and other regions were
reduced in the Turkish war is notorious, and in
Manchuria, unless great care is taken, the dis-
organisation will be even worse.
Coming at length to the infantry the arm which
must decide a Japanese war everyone agrees that
the Siberian infantry of the line is not famous,
no matter in what light you regard it. It is not
generally known that, with the exception of the
sharpshooter battalions, the Russian infantryman's
rifle and bayonet never part company ; in other
words, that fixed bayonets are invariable. This
custom has been explained to me, but I have for-
gotten its origin. It is hard in this age of straight
shooting to account for a clinging to an old idea,
for, although Russian officers strenuously insist that
494 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
their men shoot equally well with their bayonets
fixed, I am unwilling to believe that such can be
the case, and every marksman will be inclined to
agree with me. Then the Russian bayonet is
unusually long twenty inches, I believe and, apart
from everything else, this slovenly custom tends to
make men neglect the cleanliness of their rifle. On
half-a-dozen occasions I have been able to approach
close enough to battalions paraded for inspection in
Manchuria to see accurately, and the indifferent
condition of the rifles was very noticeable. Rust
and dust means nothing even in the piping time of
peace to the Russian, and damaged sights are quite
common. It is all a part of that fatal " nichevo "
which has overturned empires before now, and
which will bring Russia very near to Avernus
unless she speedily reforms.
As a weapon the Russian rifle is good, and the
man behind it is no coward. Indeed the Siberian
infantryman is a very sturdy fellow, and what he
lacks in intelligence, military education, and equip-
ment he certainly makes up for in fortitude and
physique. In no other country in the world is such
good material placed in the hands of the drill
sergeant as in Russia, if breadth of chest and long
clean limbs are considered. At a rough estimate, I
should say that the average chest-measurement of
the Russian soldier is nearer forty inches than any-
thing else, and the rough usage he can stand is
incredible. A plate of soup from the military
kitchen-waggon and a hunk of rye bread are his
xxx THE RUSSIAN ARMY IN MANCHURIA 495
daily lot, he sleeps wherever he can, and yet he
appears to thrive well on his regime and to need
nothing else. The loose tunic, the baggy trousers,
and the top-boots are good campaigning kit ; and the
Russian soldier, like the dog, has merely to shake
himself when he gets up, to be ready for the day's
work.
As for the railway guards, or frontier guards
call them whichever you like it is as well to
say that, although they are a separate organisation
numbering 22,500 men, war will see them grouped
in battalions shoulder to shoulder with their com-
rades of the line regiments, losing their distinctive
character. I have therefore treated them as part of
the general army.
But, although there is this excellent material,
there can be no doubt that the Russian line officer's
education is sadly neglected and that he is not a
fit leader for his sheep-like men. And it is even
more to be feared that the Russian staff will not
use these stout soldiers to their best advantage. In
the Russian army a staff officer begins and ends on
the staff and is specially trained from the very
earliest days of his career for no other work. The
staff, being thus specially recruited, is composed of
a caste of men who look with contempt on the
ordinary officer, and there would appear to be
altogether too much theory and too little practice
in their methods. There is also liable to be a lack
of uniformity and cohesion in their plans, and a
constant exhibition of extraordinary jealousy and
496 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
rivalry. In 1900 some of the generals quarrelled
so constantly and bitterly that cooperation was
out of the question, and if they had been really
called upon to face a resolute enemy some
strange things would have been witnessed. And
in 1900 the one great feat of Russian battalions
was simply their marching capacity. The per-
formance of the Stretensk battalion, which marched
600 versts through barren country to Tsitsihar
accompanied only by its own transport was certainly
very remarkable.
Then again the Russian staff, although it outwardly
professes to worship the Moltke spirit, is really
incapable of that ice-cold action, leaving nothing to
chance and working things down to their very last
detail, which it pretends to admire so in theory.
The Russian would seem to be too imaginative
to make an ideal leader of men. He is too subject
to moods ; to great exaltation and enthusiasm, or
to gloomy despair. If things go right he longs
to shout that his manifest destiny is fulfilling itself
that he is already on the equator that no one can
resist him. But, on the other hand, once his plans
are upset, he gives way to the blackest pessimism.
These things duly considered, it would seem that
a war with Japan should be productive of great
surprises. For the Japanese have a Prussian-like
precision in their military organisation, which is the
very reverse of the actual condition of the Russian
forces. The happy-go-lucky cavalry charge of the
young Kellerman which won the battle of Marengo
xxx THE RUSSIAN ARMY IN MANCHURIA 497
for Napoleon appeals to the Muscovite much more
than the machine-like strategy of Moltke on the
days preceding Koniggratz and Sedan. And al-
though the Russians profess to admire Kitchener,
and have studied his South African tactics with care,
they will only imitate such things on the Chinese
Eastern Railway as a last resource.
The army of Manchuria realises that it has a
great task in front of it, but the more serious men
in its ranks are not over-confident of early victories.
Indeed, officers freely state that if the present forces
succeed in blocking the Japanese for a few months
they will be quite content ; for by that time armies
from Russia will have concentrated in central Man-
churia and will be able to take up a fierce offensive.
The Russian military laugh at the idea that they
would remain content with victories in Manchuria.
The ultimate invasion and conquest of Korea are
already talked of. ...
Should this idea of a strict defensive until the
arrival of the great European reinforcements be
carried out, it is likely that the spade will play a
very great part for many weeks in Manchuria, and
that Plevna and Osman Pasha will have their Far
Eastern counterparts. And if it comes to heavy
spade work, there is no man as capable as the
Russian. He digs up half a field with a single
stroke, for digging is one of the four things every
man of the lower orders excels in especially those
from Siberia. Horse-management, chorus-singing,
and timber-felling are the other three.
K K
498 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
Many people suppose that Port Arthur will fall
and the war then end. I cannot hold this opinion,
nor does any one who has mixed with the Russians
in Manchuria. Indeed, it would seem that the
destruction of the Russian fleet and the seizure of
the Kuantung territory will simply be the pre-
liminary hammer-strokes of the God Mars, and that
the great war will only then commence in earnest.
For there is no reason why Russia should call pax
at such a moment, granting for the sake of argu-
ment that things go against her at the beginning,
unless the internal condition of her own vast terri-
tories makes such a course a political necessity.
But is it likely that internal upheavals will occur
whilst a great war is proceeding ? I think not, for
God and the Czar are still very powerful cries, even
in these socialist days, and they should arouse more
enthusiasm under adversity than in ordinary times.
The war, therefore, should be of absorbing
interest, and without parallel in modern times. It
should be a long war rather than a short war,
and the results eminently epoch-making. That the
Japanese will fight to the bitter end seems quite
certain, but it is not unlikely that the end will be
financial exhaustion with vast armies entrenched
opposite one another.
The Russian army is a picturesque thing in spite
of all its faults, and notwithstanding the fact that it
serves a cruel and despotic Government ; and, being
one of the few picturesque things remaining in this
age of steel, all who know it are sentimentally
xxx THE RUSSIAN ARMY IN MANCHURIA 499
attached to it. Its parade uniforms are magnificent,
and its deep-voiced shouts of greeting to its
generals when they approach are dramatic, blood-
stirring, and pin the imagination. Then there are
no men who look so barbarically handsome on
parade as the Russians ; and there is nothing which
brings one somehow so close as they to Napoleon
and his grand armies his gallant hussars riding
across Europe his battlefields with their suns of
happy augury, and all those things without which
the history of the nineteenth century would be dull.
You have only to enter a prosaic post train in
Manchuria at night for mystery in uniform to spring
up, and for you to be shot back a whole century.
Your door will inevitably open, and an officer of
the railway guards probably appear. His corps is
not distinguished, and it has a name that savours
of the puffing engine, but still his appearance is
entrancing. He has a high astrakhan cap with a
blue top, across which are worked arabesque
designs in gold braid ; a green, gold, and black
uniform, with magnificent sword-belt and enormous
pistols ; and his moustaches are inevitably very big.
You do not know, or want to know, who he is, for
it is enough to suppose him Brigadier Gerard in the
flesh or Michael Strogoff, courier of 'the Czar, en-
gaged on some obscure mission. ... He looks so
picturesque and romantic that you are satisfied with
what your imagination tells you. Then the eternal
feminine is so constant when he is about that the
mystery very soon deepens. He may sit an hour,
K K 2
500 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
possibly two hours, alone, but that is all. Then
another door must open, and out of that door must
come a youthful lady with a lace shawl over her head,
or the heavens will fall in. She will inquire some-
thing equally mysterious in whispered Russian
and instantly you will see the whole thing in a flash,
for your imagination would never abandon you at
such a crucial moment. The picturesque one has
certainly killed and eaten the fair lady's husband,
and is now fleeing with her to carve out an eastern
empire for her under burning skies, where they will
be far away from the Manchurian crisis! . . . You
can invent story after story ; pile romance on top of
romance without an effort for the truest word
about the Russian officer is that woman is his idol,
and to ruin himself for her sake his natural fate.
Thus the Muscovite has been up till now neces-
sary for the back of the canvas. We are all crying
out against him, but still we would not like to see
him wholly disappear. He has violated sacred
pledges, outraged time and natural development
in Manchuria, usurped, caroused, raped, looted,
massacred, and is held up all the world over as
anti-progress incarnate. But in spite of all this, at
the back of one's traditional hatred and all that,
there is a little something which fastens the
imagination. For is there not in every one's
imagination burning Moscow and Napoleon
gloomily retreating over the bridge the vast snow-
covered plains, the hungry Cossacks snapping
behind ? And later on, Shipka Pass, and Skobeleff
xxx THE RUSSIAN ARMY IN MANCHURIA 501
tearing off -his decorations with insane oaths after
frantic assaults on Plevna. All these things come to
one at the very last moment, and make one hesitate
before wishing his extermination in one frantic
roll of words as I now should do, to be consistent.
So with the Japanese war before one, we can
only discreetly and soberly hope for the status quo
ante, and allow the prodigal to work out his own
destiny as it has already been doubtless decreed by
the high gods above.
CH APTE R XXXI
OUTRAGED NEWCHWANG
I HAVE left Newchwang to the last, because it is
the greatest outrage of all because here more than
anywhere else England and Englishmen have been
treated by the usurping Power as negligible quan-
tities, and because if war comes and the need arises
for us to fulfil our obligations to our ally, it is
the spot above all others whither Anglo-Indian
contingents should be directed.
Newchwang was opened to the trade of the world
by the Tientsin Treaty of 1858, ratified two years
later in Peking after the chastisement of the
northern capital for the first time. In May, 1861,
the British settlement was established, and the new
regime began.
Up till the advent of the British Consul, the
British merchant, and the foreign customs the
outward and visible signs in China of the open
door oversea Manchurian trade had been very
trifling, and, in fact, may be said to have been
non-existent. Communication was principally main-
tained by land with the northern provinces and with
CH. xxxi OUTRAGED NEWCHWANG 503
Peking, and the junks engaged in Chinese inter-
port trading were numbered merely in dozens. The
proper name for the treaty port is not Newchwang,
although I shall continue to call it so, but Ying-tzu,
or Ying-k'ou, meaning the military station or mili-
tary port, and when the pioneer Englishmen arrived
the town and population were represented by a few
mud forts after the Taku type, with some decadent
soldiery garrisoning them. Newchwang is really
an inland town, thirty miles from the open port. Of
trade there was but little sign in the pioneer days,
although the Canton guilds interested in a number
of Manchuria's products had some years previously
opened native hongs.
In forty years the scene has changed vastly.
Where formerly was nothing but muddy desolation,
to-day a whole town has grown up surrounded by
dense forests, not of growing trees, but of countless
junk masts. The British settlement straggles along
the left bank of the river Liao, and behind and
below is the native town. Dreary flat plains sur-
round Newchwang on every side, where salt-making
is the only industry, but within the town and along
the river banks all is frantic bustle. The Liao is a
muddy, pea-soupy river, with treacherous bars at its
mouth, but it is the sort of river which spells riches
in China, for Chinese trade loves muddy waters
more than anything else. Down the river, there-
fore, comes all Manchuria's wealth for export abroad,
and the handling of it all belongs to Newchwang.
Prosaic beans constitute that wealth ; not beans in
504 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
hundreds of tons or thousands of tons, but beans
by the hundred thousand ton, so that in the eight
short months during which the port is free from ice
the total which arrives there does not fall far short
of a million tons.
The native city is thick with bean-cake mills,
which press out the precious bean-oil from the beans
and convert the refuse into massive cakes weighing
from forty to seventy pounds each. From New-
chwang the oil and the bean-cakes find their way
over the whole of the Far East the former being
an essential in the Chinese kitchen, and the latter
the richest fertiliser known for sugar-cane fields.
Since the war of '94-'95 Japan has become an ever-
increasing purchaser of these products, and now
bids fair with her gold prices to drive all other
buyers away.
All this great export trade did not spring up at
once, and long years of patient endeavour were
necessary to find both the buying and selling
markets. When the first beginnings were made in
the sixties, the Taipings were devastating Central
China, and the provinces being unable to make good
their customary contributions for the Manchurian
military, the local Governors became too weak to
even maintain a semblance of order. Robber bands
raided far and wide the Newchwang Custom House
had to arm and equip a guard of sixty men ; the
British Consul ordered the barricading of the little
settlement, and life, if exciting, was rather miserable.
Not much trade with such conditions.
xxxi OUTRAGED NEWCHWANG 505
Slowly things got better, however, and the
Chinese, recognising the advantages accruing to
trade from the extension of the open-port system to
Newchwang, began to collect at the solitary Man-
churian port in ever-growing numbers. Steam com-
munication brought sister-ports in China that hadbeen
hopelessly far away in the old junk-days, within a
few dozen hours of the Liao, and Manchuria was ran-
sacked far and wide for cargo which could be now so
promptly converted into solid sycee. A growing ex-
port trade meant a growing import business. Where
once rough native cloths were universally used, now
English and American piece-goods have come into
increasing use. Each new article figuring in the
export list demanded another in return from the
trading foreigner, and so rapid and wonderful has
been the increase that in the thirty-eight years from
the opening of the port to 1899 the year of excel-
lence of China trade the commerce of the port has
risen from practically nothing to nearly ten millions
sterling per annum, a truly colossal result all things
considered.
1899 brings us conveniently to 190x5, which was
a year of much dismal meaning for Newchwang.
The Boxer storm broke locally in the early days
of July. The community, consisting of a couple
of dozen merchants and their clerks, the dozen
pilots who bring the steamers across the muddy
bars, the Customs and the Consular staffs, mustered
about sixty-five able-bodied men, mainly English-
men. June had been a terrible month, with vague
506 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
unconfirmed rumours pouring in. The Boxers were
tearing up rails in Chihli the Taku forts captured
-Tientsin beleaguered Seymour cut off Peking,
Heaven alone knew in what state everything
topsy-turvy. So the men in Newchwang sullenly
took down their rifles, cleaned them, and built
barricades. Although quiet reigned for the time
being, it was after all merely luck, and anything
might happen at any moment. The Indian Mutiny
was thought of and the women shipped off, but
although retreat down the river was still possible,
not a single man stirred.
It finally came in July. The Boxers had been
fast collecting and recruiting locally, and when they
deemed themselves strong enough they advanced
to the attack. The volunteers' rifles cracked off,
the invulnerable Boxers were pierced by the dozen,
and the first attack degenerated into precipitate
flight. A handsome young chief in gaudy blood-
red regalia was captured, tied to a wall, and
summarily shot to discourage the others. Skir-
mishing parties, three and four strong, climbed over
the barricades and killed every armed Chinaman
they met. It does not read pleasantly, but it was
eminently satisfactory. In this way the community
defended itself, and for its conduct was betrayed
by the British authorities.
Shortly after these events a Russian gunboat
steamed into Newchwang, and the commander
asked permission of the British Consul to land his
men to protect a settlement that knew how to
XXXI OUTRAGED NEWCHWANG 507
protect itself. The Consul promptly assented
some say through weakness, some because of red-
tape instructions. In any case, no matter what the
reason be, Russian sailors were landed, and from
that day Newchwang lost its liberty.
It appears that the Allied Commanders at
Tientsin had really agreed that Russia should have
charge of the restoration of order in Manchuria,
and that Newchwang was included in that term ;
for they did not know that where Englishmen are
they can take care of themselves, and that New-
chwang had already repulsed the enemy. Had
there been a British Consul of backbone, the
Russian sailors would never have landed in the
British settlement, nor would the tricolour have
been hoisted. It is pleasant to learn that at the
present moment the British Government is still
fighting the British community on the subject of
whether they are entitled to the China war medal
of 1900 or not for their spirited defence of life and
property, and that Downing Street is apparently
more interested in depriving its own nationals of a
just reward than in ejecting the Russian.
No sooner had the sailors landed in 1900 than
Cossacks and white-coated infantrymen began to
arrive. After a brief rest, the infantry marched
into the Chinese city and the cavalry swept out on
to the arid plains beyond, waiting for the inevitable
to happen. Within half an hour the Chinese popu-
lation, frantic with terror, rushed into the open to
escape the infantrymen's bayonets. The Boxers
5o8 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
had discreetly left days before, and so there were
only old men, women, and children to butcher
people who offered no resistance, but sank to
the ground with shrill shrieks of horror when they
realised their fate.
The cavalry waited until the thousands of fugi-
tives were bunched up in huge crowds on the plains
and then swooped down on them. With long
swords drawn they rode through and through and
hacked them to pieces by the hour, and when even-
ing came there was a brutal sight such as has been
seldom witnessed. I will not torture the tender-
hearted with aching details, but I finish by saying
that it was this heartless massacre which has been
called the battle of Newchwang, and is advanced
by the Russians as the right they have to be in
Newchwang the right of conquest. There was no
resistance, no real fighting, in 1900; but, in spite
of this, the British Government accepted the Rus-
sians' explanation, and allowed the establishment
of the so-called Russian Civil Administration. Had
Admiral Seymour been empowered to detach a
small torpedo-boat to steam rapidly from Taku to
Newchwang a distance of two hundred miles the
Newchwang question would never have arisen ; for
two dozen brawny blue-jackets shoulder to shoulder
with the sixty-five residents would have held the
foreign settlement against all comers and forestalled
subsequent Russian moves.
No sooner was the submission of the native
population effected than it became clear that Russia
xxxi OUTRAGED NEWCHWANG 509
had come to stay. A guard was placed over
the Newchwang Custom House, the northern tri-
colour was hoisted everywhere, and the officials were
given to understand that the local revenues were
to be impounded.
The English Commissioner of Customs cabled
for instructions to his chief when Peking had been
relieved ; described the completeness of the Russian
usurpation ; hinted at the Russian reign of terror,
and ended by saying that the situation was impos-
sible. As a result of this, towards the end of
August, the Deputy Inspector-General of Customs
arranged with Admiral Alexeieff a temporary
mod2ts Vivendi at Tientsin, which may be sum-
marised in a single sentence : the Russian Admini-
stration to impound and hold in trust the Newch-
wang revenues until such time as a Peace Protocol
had been signed, and a general evacuation of the
invading European armies agreed on.
With document to this effect in his pocket, the Rus-
sian Civil Administrator of Newchwang, an official
who had usurped the functions of the local Chinese
territorial authorities, proceeded gaily to work, and
each day saw him consolidate the Russian power
on foundations of English making. The British
Consul looked on hopelessly, explained to his
nationals that he could do nothing, and let the
plot thicken. The Customs were provided
with a hybrid flag, which they were peremptorily
ordered to fly on all their boarding gigs and
launches, the half Russian and Chinese flag, which
510 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
is the Standard Royal of conquest of the Russo-
Chinese Bank and Chinese Eastern Railway, and a
veritable torture to the eye. Perhaps the tragic-
groteseque of the blend of Manchu and Muscovite
in the three eastern provinces is more aptly por-
trayed by this strange flag than anything else.
With the spring of 1901 came big launches built
in Shanghai, which were promptly armed with light
machine guns, and told off to patrol the river Liao
and impress the natives with the permanence of the
Russian regime. The native Likin station locally
called the West Customs which had been aban-
doned by the Chinese in 1900 and never reoccupied,
was now taken over by the Civil Administrator, and
the Newchwang Commissioner of Customs was
asked to detach men to undertake the collection.
Not content with this, the Administrator painted
characters over the gateway to the effect that this
was the Imperial Russian Customs, established by
Imperial orders, and the wording adopted by him
was such as to give native traders the idea that the
Imperial authority referred to was the Czar's and
not that of the Dragon Throne.
The vast junk trade of the Liao, employing some
25,000 junks of twenty ton burthen, was about to
commence with the melting of the ice in the spring
of the second year of usurpation, and the Russians
did not intend to lose an income the Likin income
amounting to half a million taels yearly, nor did
they wish the junk-men to suppose that any authority
but their own was worth listening to. Yet the
xxxi OUTRAGED NEWCHWANG 511
Russian Government had to beg men of Sir
Robert Hart's service to collect for them what
they had not the competence to manage themselves.
It is at Newchwang that the Russians have had
their only success in the whole of Manchuria at
revenue collecting, and that success has only been
possible because they have been able to borrow
machinery of British make.
The trade and revenues of Newchwang being
indirectly controlled through enforced co-operation,
attention was given to the native town. The
Taotai and his staff had never dared to return after
the flight of 1900, so his Yamen was openly con-
verted into a Russian Bureau, the town dotted with
Russian policemen, and sentries put on the mud
walls. Near the Taotai's Yamen rough galvanised
iron buildings were erected and a battalion of infan-
try crammed into them. And, as a concession to
the outraged feelings of the residents, the band
belonging to this corps was permitted to discourse
soft music on the local bund three times a week, and
fair ones lately arrived from Europe enlivened the
scene with their ribbons. . . .
Three miles higher up the river the settlement of
the Chinese Eastern railway rose in importance.
Russia Town, as it is locally called, was not a beau-
tiful or impressive place before 1900, and apart from
the railway sheds there were no glaring evidences of
civilisation. Since 1900 barracks have gone up
capable of holding a few thousand soldiery ; coal has
poured in from Japan to be stored in mighty stacks
512 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
all ready for emergencies, and this appears to be all
that has been done in three years.
On the right bank of the river, a couple of miles
below the town of Newchwang, is the terminus of
the Tientsin-Shanhaikwan-Newchwang railway, the
line belonging to the Imperial Chinese railways, and
built with the money of British bondholders. The
story of the Russian action with regard to the rail-
way is well known, but still it is worth repetition.
When the Russians were forced to restore the line
on the 8th of October, 1902, in conformity with the
terms of the Evacuation Agreement, they did so in
a manner which is without parallel in recent times.
Everything of value was openly removed, and
things that could not be removed were simply
wrecked ; every tool that could be found was looted,
and even doors and windows taken out. So insane
with rage had the local commanders become at hav-
ing to retire from vantage points they thought
should be theirs by right of conquest, that the blow-
ing up of the Newchwang terminus even was seri-
ously mooted. At this very moment there is a vast
amount of this railway loot to be had for a nominal
price at Port Arthur. All the foreign firms in Port
Arthur have lists of these things and I have one
too but none of them will buy.
When I arrived in Newchwang for the last time
I did not expect to find things so vastly changed in
a year, but changes there were to be noted, and
some which bode ill for Englishmen and English
trade. At the Russian Town station the coal moun-
A STREET IN MOCKDEX.
SOLDIERS OK THE CZAR VICEROY ALEXEIEKF COMING DOWN THE
SAIA'TINC; LINE.
xxxi OUTRAGED NEWCHWANG 513
tains were bigger, and there were more armed men
about the station, Niu-Chia-tun, to give it the
Chinese name, looked more hungry and more
wolvish with the approaching winter looked as if
it was going to bite or expected to be bitten, for all
men know that militarism is impossible in China for
prolonged periods. A thousand mounted infantry
and artillery garrisoned the station with their
precious coal-heaps, and whips appeared to be more
savagely used than usual on the Chinese crowds
that tumbled out of the train. With the thickening
of the plot, the Russian is casting discretion to the
winds.
A launch with a Chinese launch captain, who was
in Port Arthur during the Japanese capture and
expects war at any moment, spins you down the
river to the Newchwang bund. Russia on the launch
is represented in the usual way a few soldiers who
look on whilst the Chinaman does the work and
collects the money. Arrived in Newchwang itself
you see a new sight. The Civil Administrator has
built himself a modest palace which would not dis-
grace the Champs Elysees. It has a beautiful
cupola, much white stone facing, and an air of dis-
tinction not to be found in the rest of the settlement.
During the last few months all the open spaces
belonging to Chinese guilds have been grabbed,
staked with Russian stakes, and are to be built over
with pleasant buildings of the Administrator type.
The entire fleet of the Newchwang Tug and Lighter
Company an English venture has been acquired
L L
$14 MAXCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
by a Russian Government-supported concern and
now flies the Russian flag. The shareholders were
offered a price, and given to understand that, unless
they accepted, a system of diplomatic obstruction
on the river would soon ruin them. So, of course,
they had to accept, for the British Consul is power-
less. Russian launches now puff up and down the
river, and although they have none of the trade of
the place they represent Russia as the dominant
power in Chinese eyes, which is all that is wished.
Russian river police, a Russo-Chinese force, control
the boat traffic, obstruct Chinese trade, and levy
bribes with the utmost unconcern. It is now openly
stated that the Russian Civil Administration of New-
chwang is paid for out of the Chinese revenues which
are nominally held in trust. By the end of 1903
Russia will have impounded upwards of four million
taels or half a million sterling of these moneys since
1900 a sum which she has no intention of returning.
The employes of the Russo-Chinese Bank, where
the money is lodged, cynically remark that the
money is Russia's by right of conquest, and that it
will never be disgorged ; at least so long as there
remains a soldier to protect it.
For the time being, the terminus of the Chinese
system on the right bank of the river is still free
and is guarded by foreign-drilled troops of Yuan
Shih Kai's force. The extension to Hsin-ming-t'ing,
a market-town on the west bank of the Liao, and only
forty miles from Moukden, is almost completed, and
a growing traffic in passengers and freights is daily
xxxi OUTRAGED NEWCHWANG 515
recorded. What a contrast there is between the
two stations on the rival banks of the river, and
what an object lesson for the man who sees and
thinks ! Whereas the Russian station is littered
with heaps of every imaginable thing, and is without
animation except that of armed soldiery, the purely
Chinese railway is modest, neat, business-like, and
full of ordered bustle. A single Englishman in
knickerbockers oversees with the greatest care a
hundred miles of road, and does his work far better
than the fifty Russians on the other bank who have
but fifteen miles under their charge. Two other
Englishmen are building the extension, and it is
done so quietly and naturally that half the residents
in Newchwang know very little about it. What a
success England could have in the Far East would
but the Government learn sense !
Winter will soon be on Newchwang, and so mud-
docks are being built for the British and American
gunboats which remain to protect nominally the
Anglo-Saxons' rights. Winter brawls are the only
results however ; for the blue-jackets get savage
with Russian policemen, and open hostilities against
overwhelming odds, in spite of the fact that their
Government will not support them. A Russian
Commissioner of Customs has taken the place of the
Englishman who used to be there. He is a member
of Sir Robert Hart's service, it is true, but he is
likewise an officer in the St. Petersburg Imperial
Guard reserves, and his duty to his country must
come before his duty to his employer. Sir Robert
L L 2
5i6 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CH. xxxi
Hart had no alternative but to accept facts and bow
to the Russian, seeing that the British Government
could not induce the Chinese Government to act
with backbone. There is a nasty feeling in the air
at Newchwang the residents look savage, the
Chinese curse the Muscovite with growing vehem-
ence, the Russians have to be careful at night.
They have had enough of the new regime in
Newchwang enough of unparalleled usurpation.
When is the war coming, is the daily question.
May it be soon, for although little Japan will do
the fighting, the great Far Eastern war will be the
vindication of the Anglo-Saxon idea and nothing
else a vindication which the Anglo-Saxon Govern-
ments are themselves afraid to undertake.
CHAPTER XXXII
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
THE picture I have drawn of Manchuria as a whole,
under the nominal domination of the booted Slav, is
one to which those who have been taught to believe
that the Three Eastern Provinces have become mere
Russian provinces, will perhaps point the finger of
scorn and exclaim that it cannot be so. Neverthe-
less it is so, and as I have paid the greatest attention
to the colour-scheme so that light and shade may be
reproduced as they really are without exaggeration,
hasty rushing over unsavoury details, or any other
faults due to a desire foreign to my purpose, the
exact position of Manchuria when the guns begin to
play should be patent to all. It has become so much
the custom to entrust the task of supplying informa-
tion regarding China to men who do not begin to
understand the first principles which should guide
in the collecting of that information, that, broadly
speaking, it may be said the conception the average
man in Europe has of the actual conditions which
to-day exist is entirely false, that his perspective is
bad and, owing to the new forces at work, each day
5i8 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
makes these shortcomings more and more pro-
nounced. It is, of course, a fact that China is to
some extent a Country of Disgust, a place where
the inevitable should have happened long ago, and
partitions, breakups, and such-like take place, had
the prophecies of casual travellers been realised.
Instead of this, China has been growing stronger,
has been learning more and more, and is shortly to
become so formidable that her voice will be the
voice of the master who has many old scores to
settle up. The commonest market-knowledge
should therefore command us, a nation of shop-
keepers and shareholders, to see that our balance-
sheets are in order, and that we do not suffer the
fate of those who wittingly or unwittingly render
false accounts and do not know the figures at which
their credit balances stand. The Chinese Govern-
ment is turning more and more to others and less to
us, simply because we have no policy and no back-
bone in the Far East because the British Govern-
ment onlyacts at theverylast moment and then mainly
acts foolishly. The contemplation of the ignominious
failure which Russia has made in Manchuria her
Egypt, she calls it should be even more of a warn-
ing. For what a picture it is for any man who has
eyes really to see !
The Chinese Eastern Railway, which has given
rise to that grandiloquent phrase " conquest by rail-
way," an expression supremely absurd wherever
the Chinese are found at home is a complete failure
from every point of view. The rouble, part of the
xxxn CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 519
Russian official plan of conquest, is defeated and paid
for. The Russo-Chinese Bank, with its numerous
branches, is merely an excrescence due to a tem-
porary disorder of the blood, and has absolutely no
reason-of-being in Manchuria. These three great
weapons which were to accomplish so much for
Russia have become blunted and useless because
they have been confronted by what cannot be de-
feated the vis inertia of masses of hostile Chinese.
The Russian military Commissairs at the three pro-
vincial capitals of Moukden, Kirin, and Tsitsihar
have been working in a circle, and have not pro-
gressed one inch in their self-appointed task of tying
up Chinese local government in such a fashion that
Russia has the commanding voice. The Russian
military telegraphists in charge of every telegraph
station in Manchuria cannot fight the cunning of the
Chinese, and are amazed to find that Chinese official
messages, which should not travel at all, travel as
fast as those of the great Alexeieff himself, and are
unable to discover how it is managed. The officers
of the army of occupation, high and low alike, re-
ceiving insufficient salaries from their Government,
and possessing tastes to which they are accustomed
to pander, rob right and left, and inefficiency and un-
preparedness are the results. Russian commerce
in Manchuria, confined as I have already shown to
the supplying of purely Russian wants, is not
a commerce at all but merely sutlers' work
on a vast scale. The existence of Russian settle-
ments and towns, and the presence of huge numbers
520 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
of Siberian immigrants are, with the solitary ex-
ception of Harbin, absolute inventions. The very
numbers of soldiery and civilians at Port Arthur,
Harbin, and Dalny, given out by the Russian
authorities as the actual figures collected by a census,
are known by the Japanese Headquarters Staff to
be terribly exaggerated. Russia's Oriental destiny,
so far from allowing her to understand and greet
as long-lost brothers the sturdy-bodied men of
Manchuria, makes her at a loss to understand them
at all ; and we are confronted by the undeniable
fact that the Slav is to-day more hated than any
other white man in the world by the Chinese. In
a word, Russia has moved both too late and too
foolishly in Manchuria for anything but failure to be
possible. Already the Chinese of Manchuria have
the blessed stream of Anglo-Saxon ideas and ideals
rapidly flowing into every hole and corner of the
country and saturating them with a moisture which
is as the dew from heaven. Manchuria, from the
very fact that the possibility of Slav misrule has
been brought so close, has been far more receptive of
the new idea than almost any other part of China.
It is useless further discussing the question from
the present point of view, and so I turn to the
future when war will have come and gone.
Manchuria, sparsely peopled as it is, and possessing
vast stretches of the richest virgin soil, must be at
once properly colonised from the northern pro-
vinces of China, and the policy of the Emperor
Tao-Kwang in putting up the public lands to sale
xxxii CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 521
once more had recourse to. The barriers which
China must interpose between herself and her
northern neighour, so that at no future date a state
of affairs similar to that which has been witnessed
to-day can arise, are those most lasting barriers the
world knows barriers of men which are renewed
and increased in size and strength as each year
grows into the next. It is the false policy of
seclusion and exclusion adhered to by the Chinese
Government in Manchuria which is in some
measure responsible for the Russian movement to
the south. Had thick hordes of yellow men been met
with directly the feeble frontiers of flowing rivers
had been crossed in 1900, even the Russians would
have realised the impossibility of making that year
anything but a year of retribution, as did allied
Europe in Northern China. But finding many
deserts, vast lonely steppes, and great rivers like
the Sungari, with but a tithe of the population
which should crowd their banks, Muravief, Count of
the Amur, and what he had done but forty years
before, were too soon remembered, and the chastise-
ment became a would-be permanent occupation.
Manchuria must therefore be colonised, especially
the two northern provinces of Kirin and Hei-lung-
chiang ; and the first step brings us to the second.
The so-called Manchu Military Administration
must end in Kirin and Hei-lung-chiang, and a
purely civil administration of the type found in
Fengtien province reproduced. The hardy but
eminently peaceful people of the north do not
522 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
love military rule though at the sound of the
drum, and for a cause that gave them their belly-
ful of rice, they too could become a myriad of
warriors and therefore a de facto civil rule must
be everywhere seen in Manchuria at all cost.
Manchuria's inland waters, the Liao, the Sungari,
the Nonni, and the Hurka must be thrown open
to the flags of all nations, under restrictions less
severe than those found necessary in China proper,
where vested interests, which do not exist to a tithe
of the extent in Manchuria, have demanded caution,
conservative progress, and not radical reform, which
is only feasible in new countries. The Amur must
be likewise open to foreign bottoms other than
Russian ; if it is impossible to secure the right to
the Lower Amur, which already is purely Russian,
at least from the Ussuri to the head-waters of the
Argun must be free to all. The recent American
and Japanese treaties, which opened Moukden and
Tetungkou and Antung to foreign trade, did good
work, but they did not go far enough. Kirin, K'uan-
ch'eng-tzu, Tsitsihar, and all the important trade-
centres must be opened, since the time is ripe for a
grand experiment in Manchuria that of throwing
open the whole country to the foreigner under a
passport system. The people are in a receptive
condition for such an experiment, because for nearly
four years they have seen the white man at his
worst, and therefore will not be unwilling to have
him at his best in the guise of a peaceful trader
desiring to make profits and nothing else. Man-
xxxn CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 523
churia is a new country even to the Chinese, and in
new countries experiments are easily made.
These four initials are absolutely necessary steps
colonisation of the waste lands ; substitution of a
purely civil administration for the archaic Manchu
form in the two northern provinces ; opening of the
inland waters to the flags of all nations, and the
extension of the Treaty Port system so as to include
all the great Manchurian marts and they will pave
the way to other things. For instance, unless
Russia is prepared to reciprocate fully in the matter
of free trade across the Amur frontier, as laid down
in the Ignatieff Treaty of 1860, Sir Robert Hart's
men and custom houses must go to the eastern,
western, and northern frontiers of Manchuria just
as they are on the Franco-Chinese frontier in
South China and the Russian land trade become
liable to the ordinary Chinese tariff. A great exten-
sion of the Imperial postal system a sister service
of the foreign customs and also under the control of
Sir Robert Hart should also be made, and it would
be a wise experiment if a special clause were intro-
duced in the treaty-making which must follow the
war, forbidding the establishment of Consular Post
Offices in Manchurian Treaty Ports. It is time that
China should enter the Postal Union, and the first
step will be accomplished when the all-overland Euro-
pean mails are despatched from Dalny by the Chinese
Post Office and by no other. The leading idea in the
reconstruction which must take place in Manchuria
should be the strengthening of Chinese hands where
524 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
such strengthening tends to help China along the
road of progress.
Although in 1876 the title of Governor-General
or Viceroy was conferred on the Military Governor
at Moukden, this did not make him the absolute
superior of the Manchu Military Governors of the two
northern provinces. The Military Governors, styled
Tartar Generals, are the highest Manchu military
officials in the land, and even in the eighteen
provinces of China the Tartar Generals rank with
Chinese Viceroys, representing, as they do, the
direct authority of the Manchu conquest. The
Governor-General at Moukden, in order to make him
the actual supreme administrative head in the three
eastern provinces, and to arrange things so that
Manchuria can be considered as a whole, must have
under him at Kirin and Tsitsihar civil governors,
just as each province in China is directly ruled by a
civil governor. In the eighteen provinces
Governor-Generals rule over two linked provinces,
or in some few instances a single province ; but in
the case of the Liang-Chiang-Tsung-Tu, or the
Nanking Viceroy, control is exercised over three
provinces those of Anhui, Kiangsu, and Kiandsi.
A precedent therefore exists for placing the three
provinces of Manchuria under a single Governor-
General with civil provincial governors at each
provincial capital ; and this levelling up will
automatically destroy many evils which to-day exist
owing to the survival of the Manchu system and
the incompleteness of the military mandarinate.
.* fA
\i-.\v RESIDENCE OF THE USI-RPINC. RISSIAN Civn. ADMINISTRATOR OK
NE\VCH\\ ANG.
HARBIN.
xxxn CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 525
The matter of Manchurian garrisons and what they
are to be in the future is a most difficult one, for
although efficiency is absolutely necessary in order
to suppress for once and for all the brigand pest, and
also to have frontier points properly protected, the
question brings us face to face with that archaic
Manchu military organisation the Banner forces
which are far more easy to defeat on the field of
battle than on paper. It is assumed that there are
about a million and a half of this Banner population
in Manchuria, the descendants of the men who
made the conquest of China, who, living a lotus life,
and having no need to work, do but little to justify
their existence. Of this number all the able-bodied
men draw monthly pensions and allowances, although
but little drill has taken place for years. Forty
thousand Banner men are enrolled in the active
forces, as I have already said, but their activity is
confined to bow and arrow practice once a week,
and a prompt retreat when any untoward circum-
stances arise. But in spite of their absolute useless-
ness, the Throne dares not tamper with their
ancient privileges, and so in Manchuria as in Peking,
these effete persons hinder real reform. That an
efficient force of the type of Yuan-Shih-Kai's
foreign- drilled Tientsin army must be despatched to
Manchuria when things have settled down, is
absolutely certain ; but a permanent solution of this
difficulty will only be found by turning to the
Japanese. After the war is over, for I assume that
war must come and that Japanese efficiency is in
526 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
the end bound to defeat Slav corruption, Japanese
drill-sergeants and Japanese advisers will most
probably be largely used in Manchuria ; for
the Japanese are nothing if not thorough, and
they will absolutely insist, and quite rightly so,
that China should set her Manchurian house
in order so that a permanent settlement may
be certain.
And this brings us face to face with the Russian
Empire in Manchuria the empire of the iron track.
What is to become of it ? who is to deal with it ?
what is it worth ? these are some of the questions
which immediately occur, and which are hard to
answer. Personally, I am of the opinion that Russia
has forfeited all right to the concession. If Japan
goes to the enormous expense and risk of invoking
war's rude arbitrament and the God Mars decides in
her favour, the railway should be hers by right of
conquest. How much will remain of it when the
war is finished, it would be foolish to say, but that
the Japanese will abstain from destroying it except
as a very last resource is quite certain. Any
destruction, total or partial, will come from the
Russian side, for the Muscovites are the Vandals of
the twentieth century. One has only to remember
the savage and barbarous manner in which they
retreated from the Shanhaikwan Newchwang
railway in time of peace to realise what they will do
during a war ; and should things go absolutely
against them before they recross the Amur, Russian
commanders will expend their last dynamite cart-
xxxn CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 527
ridges in completing the destruction of what has
been a monumental work.
The sorry salvage the Chinese Eastern Railway
may then be, will not find buyers tumbling over one
another in their haste to bid ; but still I believe that
with judicious handling the railway could be floated
as a limited liability company for a very large figure
running into many millions. When the Seoul-Wiju
line is an accomplished fact when an extension is
made from the Yalu frontier line to Newchwang and
when Hsin-min-t'un (the present terminus of the
Imperial Chinese Railways in Manchuria) is joined
with Moukden, only forty miles distant Manchuria
will have unexcelled railway facilities which should
see the rich country developed at a phenomenal rate.
The future in Manchuria is a magnificent one, for
Manchuria is destined to become the greatest wheat-
producer in the East, the greatest lumber-field, and
the greatest gold mining centre. At the present
moment, beans constitute the agricultural wealth of
the country, but this will not remain so for long.
Manchuria is a wheat country, and flour will, in a few
years, have taken the place of beans in the export
list. When it is remembered that there are tens of
millions of acres only awaiting the plough to become
wonderfully productive, and that at the present
moment only the great central valley from the
Liaotung to Harbin is really properly developed, it
will be realised how much there is to be done and
how little has as yet been attended to. The success
of the Harbin flour mills has filled the Chinese with
528 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
envy, and when things have settled down again
modern flour mills will dot the country. At many
places in Manchuria I was eagerly questioned by
Chinese dealers about milling machinery, its cost,
working, and many other details, about which, alas, I
was but too ignorant ; and I was further astonished
by one man asking me to send him details about
steam ploughs, steam harvesters, etc., etc. In Man-
churia many farms are of huge extent and American
labour-saving machinery must sooner or later come
into use. Even at Moukden, which is in the centre
ef the kao-liang, or tall millet country, a syndicate of
native millers are about to put up a big steam flour
mill. Here wheat is but the secondary crop, whereas
in the Sungari regions wheat is the primary crop and
kao-liang but the secondary. Lumber is to be had
in vast quantities in the great eastern forests ; coal is
very abundant, and, best of all, Manchuria is covered
with auriferous and argentiferous deposits of great
richness.
With such prospects the Chinese Eastern Railway
formed into a private company would be a gilt-edged
security, and shareholders would have no cause to
repent an investment. Chinese railways are some
day going to astonish the share-markets of the world;
for in a country where the operation of a hundred
miles of track costs but a quarter of what it does in
Europe, where every man is a born trader and
traveller, and where money-saving appliances are
fairly worshipped, it cannot be otherwise.
The British Government, for reasons best known
f
THE NEVVCHWANG LIKIN-STATION UNDER RUSSIAN OCCTPATION.
H.M.S. " KINAI.UO" WINTERING AT NK\Y< n\\ \N<;
xxxii CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 529
to itself, and quite unintelligible to one who merely
knows the country of China from childhood, has
been pleased to sign the ridiculous St. Petersburg
self-denying ordinance, wherein the Russian Govern-
ment was most faithfully promised that railway con-
cessions would not be sought for by British subjects
beyond the Great Wall of China that is, in Man-
churia if Russia on her part abstained from obtain-
ing concessions within the Great Wall. England has
kept strictly to her contract, whereas the Russo-
Chinese Bank, the acknowledged agent of St.
Petersburg Government, has openly secured con-
cessions in Honan, Shansi, and elsewhere, which set
the whole agreement at nought. It is such weak-
knee'd acts which have made Englishmen in the Far
East welcome the approaching war ; for they know
that unless Japan comes to the rescue, the doom of
the Anglo-Saxon in the Far East is at hand. But
Russia has gone even farther than this. It is a
matter of common knowledge that the Belgian
Peking-Hankow line has some secret agreement
with Russia and that the recent acquiring of a
controlling interest in the American Hankow-Canton
road by the same Belgian syndicate was directly
prompted from St. Petersburg. On paper, Russia has
her way prepared down to the Pearl River already ;
possibly Hong Kong is even now marked as a
suitable naval base !
And now that I have mentioned the Russo-Chinese
Bank, it is time to deal with it. What should China's
attitude, prompted by Japan, be towards this insti-
M M
530 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CHAP.
tution ? I would say, one of uncompromising hostility,
extending to the length of interdicting its presence
on Chinese soil. The Russo-Chinese Bank has been
the chief agent in compassing the absorption of
Manchuria, and as it is to all intents and purposes
a subsidised off-shoot of the St. Petersburg Ministry
of Finance, the commonest caution demands that it
be excluded from operating anywhere in the Empire
of China, so long as its organisation remains what it
is at present. The colony of Hong Kong will not
allow it on its soil ; if Hong Kong can prohibit it,
why cannot China ? The Bank is the Jesuit of
politico-finance, and although the world now looks
with indifference on the creation of a Loyola, the Far
East has been so shaken by the work of an Uktomski
that to practise a policy of expulsion is not so
mediaeval as it might seem at first sight.
Japan, having as she will the casting vote in the
Manchurian settlement, should remember that she
has in Tokyo hundreds of Chinese students, many of
whom were dispatched thither to complete their
studies by various Chinese provincial Governments.
The majority of these young men, having completed
their Chinese classical studies before they went
abroad, -are eminently fit persons to receive Govern-
ment appointments in Manchuria ; and no time
should be lost in filling up junior grades in the three
eastern provinces with such suitable candidates. It
is the Anglo-Saxon idea filtrated through Japanese
brains which is the corner-stone of these men's new
education, and that this idea should come in this
xxxn CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 531
way is good for England ; for the pouring of new
wine into old bottles is at the best of times a danger-
ous experiment and should proceed slowly. In
China the new should take its place side by side
with the old, and by superiority alone if that
superiority really exists gradually consign the
archaic to the limbo of the past.
And now that I bid good-bye to Manchuria, I
pray a prayer that the Lord of Hosts will be kind
to Japan will help her in her hour of need and
that this vindication about to be enacted will be
properly understood in England. Until the British
Government decides that England's only policy is
to insist that her interests extend right up to the
actual frontier-stones of the Russian Empire, and
promptly retaliates, should a Cossack be moved past
those frontier-stones, we will continue to present the
ridiculous and unmanly figure we do to-day in the
Far East. Japan is fighting England's battle almost
as much as she is fighting her own, and Russia
defeated by Japan will mean Russia crippled for a
number of years without tale. It is useless speaking
of the recuperative power of countries like France
and Russia, that are, so to speak, self-contained ;
that they do recuperate and shake off the ill-effects
of defeats with marvellous rapidity is a fact. But
defeat is a thing which leaves its mark more on the
spirit of a nation than in earthly things. The flesh
may become strong again, but the flesh only endures
a few years, and until new generations grow up, the
spirit is sore, and never quite the same.
M M 2
532 MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE CH xxxn
The chastisement, therefore, accomplished, China
should progress still more than she is doing at
present. For the time being, the signs are not very
clear of that progress, and there are even some who
are still sceptical of there really being any progress
at all ; but clear or not, progress is actually being
made, and the dawn is at hand. The irresistible
pressure of new ideas beating eagerly everywhere in
China can have but one result, and that result will
be a victory to progress and enlightenment. Russia
has believed that she had an Oriental destiny, and
it may be that once she was not wrong. But to-day
that manifest destiny has lost itself, or been crushed
out of existence by her own foolishness and back-
wardness.
Just as Japan must come over the seas to perform
her duty and accomplish her task, so have the new
ideas already sped to Manchuria and made the
Russian position an impossible one. Some writers
look at the Russo-Chinese frontiers and exclaim
that it is useless struggling against the inevitable
absorption which must come if the doctrine of
might or eminent domain be a true one. Wait
until the war is over, I say, and see what the Gods
decree. Even Napoleon fell, and to-day, there are
no Napoleons except a dandy cavalry officer in
the Czar's Imperial Guard.
\
APPENDIX
A GENERAL AND STATISTICAL NOTE ON
MANCHURIA
i. Boundaries.
Adjoining Russian territory : The Argun River in the
west, the Amur River in the north to the Ussuri River, and
in the east the Ussuri River to Lake Hinka and from thence
a line to the mouth of the Tiumen River. Adjoining Korean
territory : The Tiumen River from its mouth to its course
and thence the Yalu from its headwaters to the sea. The
southern boundary of Manchuria is the sea. The western
frontier begins at a point outside the Great Wall at
Shanhaikwan and runs north by east to Petuna on the
Sungari ; from near Petuna the boundary is formed by the
River Nonni to its junction with the River Cholo and from
thence it follows an imaginary line drawn from the mouth
of the Cholo to the southernmost extremity of Lake Dalai
Nor, out of which the River Argun empties itself.
2. Notes on the Boundary Lines.
The Manchurian-Russian frontiers are well-defined, since
they are almost entirely formed by rivers, and encroachment
is therefore easily noticed. But it is significant that south
of the Ussuri where there is merely an imaginary frontier
line, the Russians have encroached since 1900 and have
bitten a few dozen miles into Kirin province. The Man-
churian-Korean frontiers being also formed by rivers are
quite clear except in the regions of latitude 41-42. Here
there is some doubt, since the sources of the Tiumen and
534 APPENDIX
the Yalu are some distance apart. Korean hunters con-
tinually encroach on this boundary of Kirin province and
the Kirin military governor has constantly to dispatch
troops to settle frontier disputes between Chinese and
Koreans. This is at a point south-east of the Ever White
Mountains. Since 1898, owing to the leasing of the
Kuantung territory to Russia, the Liaotung southern
frontier instead of being entirely formed by the sea is
formed by a line drawn from Pu-lan-tien on the western
Liaotung coast to P'i-tzu-wo on the eastern coast. The
western Manchurian-Mongolian land frontier is somewhat
vague. In Fengtien province there is not much doubt,
since Chinese territorial officials on the Mongolian frontier
have fairly accurate maps in their possession showing the
exact extent of their jurisdiction, but in Kirin and
Hei-lung-chiang provinces it is different. There the Chinese
agriculturist is slowly but surely pushing back the Mongol
and claiming waste lands as his own, although they lie far
across the true frontier. Thus K'uan-ch'eng-tzu, which is
on purely Mongol territory, is to-day entirely administered
by Chinese or Manchu officials. Huai-tai-hesien, which lies
fifty miles farther to the west and is therefore still more on
purely Mongol territory, is likewise administered by Chinese
officials. Petuna is purely Chinese and from Petuna Chinese
settlers have already pushed nearly one hundred miles
further west although Petuna is the frontier town. Taking
the Nonni line of country, there are no evidences of Chinese
cultivation except close to the Sungari junction point.
Indeed, between here and Tsitsihar both banks of the Nonni
are practically deserted and the left bank, or the Manchurian
side, is overrun for many miles inland by Du-la-ha Mongols
engaged in pony breeding. From the Cholo to Lake
Dalai Nor the country is very desolate, the Mongol popula-
tion insignificant, and the Chinese conspicuous by their
absence. These western Manchurian-Mongolian frontiers
are only really valued and accepted by the Chinese where
emigrants have broken soil and are cultivating, and it may
therefore be said that Chinese cultivation forms the real
Manchurian-Mongolian frontier.
APPENDIX
3. Area and Physical Features.
Hosie estimates that the area included in the boundaries
given above is about 360,000 square miles, and there is no
reason why his figures should be questioned. Of the three
provinces Hei-lung-chiang, or the northern province, is by
far the most extensive, having an area of from 190,000 to
200,000 square miles. Kirin, the central province, has an
area of 1 10,000 square miles and Fengtien but 60,000 square
miles. The great physical feature of Manchuria is the vast
central valley which runs from Newchwang to a point one
hundred miles north of Harbin. In this rich valley over-
flowing with agricultural wealth are placed all Manchuria's
rich cities and the bulk of Manchuria's population. The
soil, which is of exceptional depth, is magnificent and every
kind of crop is successfully cultivated. In western Fengtien
there are vast plains, but as you progress further north
rising ground becomes more frequent. This has an im-
portant bearing from the trade point of view, for the regions
adjoining the Liao become very swampy during the July-
August rainy season and the roads are often impassable. The
eastern parts of Fengtien province and Kirin are hilly and
mountainous, but except for the regions immediately adjoin-
ing the Ever White Mountains rich valleys susceptible of
cultivation cut the country into which settlers are gradually
pushing. A noticeable instance is the Hai-lung-ch'eng
district on the Fengtien-Kirin boundary line. Hosie notes
that the Chino-Japanese war caused great numbers of
Liaotung inhabitants to emigrate there, and what was ten
years ago a very wild country is to-day quite settled.
North-eastern Kirin is still very wild and practically un-
touched by settlers and contains desolate stretches of forests
and swamps. In Hei-lung-chiang province is to be found
that formidable range of mountains the Hsing-an, which,
although of no great altitude, stretch across the centre of the
province roughly north by east, and cut the country in two.
South-east of these mountains there are high-lying plains.
North and east the country is desolate and very bleak at
all times of the year, except during the short eight weeks
536 APPENDIX
of summer. The three provinces are on the whole well-
watered. The most important river in the south is the
Liao, which empties itself into the Liaotung Gulf at New-
chwang. The Liao is navigable up to Tiehling by junks
a distance of one hundred and eighty miles ; by very small
craft still higher. The Liao becomes the Sira Muren in
Mongolia, from whence it springs, but here it is an insignifi-
cant and swampy stream. The greatest river in Manchuria
is the Sungari, which, rising in the Ever White Mountains
near the Fengtien frontier, sweeps in a vast bend towards
the Amur, into which it finally empties itself opposite
Habarovsk. Its total length is over one thousand miles, and
it is navigable to a point some distance above Kirin city.
Russian steamers go to-day from Habarovsk to Kirin with-
out difficulty. The third river of importance is the Nonni,
which is an affluent of the Sungari and navigable up to
Tsitsihar by shallow-draft steamers. The Hurka is another
tributary of the Sungari, but it is little used as a waterway
and is therefore without importance. The Liao, the Sungari,
and the Nonni have many small tributaries, but these are
only practicable for diminutive native craft and do not
deserve special mention.
4. Population.
The population of Manchuria was estimated by Hosie at
seventeen millions in 1900, but this is far too low an estimate
for to-day. The Japanese place the population at twenty
millions and base their figures on recent researches. In
view of the great influx into the country since the building of
the railway these figures are probably the nearest to the
actual population. The vast bulk of this population is simply
northern Chinese who have emigrated to Manchuria at
vastly different periods. In Liaotung there is a very old
Chinese population, but as you go further north the date at
which the inhabitants entered the country becomes ever
more recent. At Hulan, which lies across the Sungari half
an hour from Harbin, there are many thousands of pure
Shantung people who have come very recently. In Liao-
hsi, that is, the country west of the Liao in Fengtien
APPENDIX 537
province, there are great numbers of Shansi people who
emigrated there during the great famine of a few decades
ago. Of the twenty millions, which we will assume as the
correct figure, at least seventeen millions are pure Chinese.
The Manchu, or Banner population, is estimated at one and
a-half millions by Hosie, but the Chinese claim that this
estimate is too low. In Hei-lung-chiang there are still a
certain number of Solons, Mongols, and other indigenous
tribes scattered in small communities over the vast country,
but it would be unwise to state how many there actually
are to-day. From conversations with an official attached
to the Superintendent of Nomads yamen it would appear
that it is only a question of a few years for these remain-
ing tribesmen to become sunk in the mass of the Chinese
population. In Kirin province there are still a few Fish-
skin Tartars left near the mouth of the Sungari, but their
numbers are insignificant. I may remark that the European
Press has discovered a new tribe in Manchuria the Chun-
chuses who are concerned with railway raiding. It is not
unwise to identify this new tribe with the hunghutzu, or
mounted brigands, who are recruited from very common-
place Chinese. From a population point of view Manchuria
may be said to resemble almost exactly the metropolitan
province of Chihli.
5. Language.
The dialect of Manchuria is simply Pekingese, or so-
called northern mandarin, in a clearer or more muffled form
as the case may be. In the provincial capitals of Man-
churia and the older cities admirable Pekingese is spoken>
for the uncouth Manchus of three centuries ago are to-day
the most polished and polite of Chinese, although the most
lazy. At Moukden, Kirin, and Tsitsihar, the clearness of
speech of the people one and all is very remarkable and
most pleasing to the ear. Especially noticeable is this in
case of the women who ring out the four tones with the
clearness of bells. As you go farther afield the differences
of speech are very interesting to the sinologue, for the suc-
cessive waves of immigration into the country have left
538 APPENDIX
their mark on the dialects of the inhabitants. In northern
Kirin, where there is a large Mahommedan population from
the back provinces of China, a distinct dialect is spoken
which recalls the guttural tones of Tung Fu Hsiang's
Kansu braves. In south-eastern Hei-lung-chiang the
Shantung immigrants outnumber the other inhabitants and
the ill-sounding dialect of that province is consequently
most heard. In western Fengtien the Shansi dialect is
common. All these dialects of northern Chinese are, how-
ever, but little different from polite Pekingese, and a muffled
pronunciation is the principal ground of divergence. Of
Manchu there is to-day no trace in Manchuria. Hosie
states in his authoritative book that proclamations in
Manchu are still to be found in remote corners of Man-
churia, but I have been unable to confirm this. Indeed, in
Moukden and the other provincial capitals it was absolutely
denied that there are any districts where Manchu is
exclusively used, and except among the ever diminishing
numbers of Yu-Pi Ta-tzu or Fish-skin Tartars in northern
Kirin, the Solon Manchus in northern Hei-lung-chiang and
one or two Manchu communities near the Ever White
Mountains, I am unable to see where such can be the case.
The Solons all speak Chinese and so do the Fish-skins.
Manchu is indeed far more of a dead language in Manchuria
than is Latin in Europe, for in the Manchu schools at Kirin
and Moukden, kept up under special orders from Peking,
the teachers themselves have a very imperfect knowledge
of the language of their forefathers and men have to be
constantly sent from Peking to help them in their work.
Most of the males of the Banner population of Manchuria
know a few of the old Manchu words of command, but that
is all. A Manchu colonel in Kirin confessed to me that he
knew only fifteen words in all. The solitary instance in
which Manchu is de rigueur is in the great State cere-
monies in Peking, when the Emperor must have addresses
translated into Manchu. In this case it is, however, noto-
rious that the senior Manchu prince present, on whom the
duty devolves of performing this nominal viva voce trans-
lation, mumbles a regular formula on his bended knees
APPENDIX
539
which he has learnt by heart and which has but little of the
sense of the Chinese spoken. Considering that the Manchu
alphabet was non-existent until the beginning of the
seventeenth century and that it was merely invented by
crudely changing the Mongol style of writing, that the
Manchus were the very rudest people until they became
civilised through contact with the Chinese, and that the
five hundred books in the Manchu language are merely
imperfect translations of Chinese originals, it will be readily
understood how soon the Manchus lost all knowledge of
their own language.
6. Agriculture.
Manchuria is primarily an agricultural country and the
wealth lies rather in the rural districts than in the towns.
The great central valley is the centre of this agricultural
development, but settlers are rapidly opening up other
regions. Kaoliang, or the tall millet of the north, and
beans are at the present moment the most extensively
cultivated, but there is no lack of other cereals. In the
regions surrounding Harbin, wheat is rapidly becoming the
primary crop and displacing kaoliang on account of its
greater value. Barley, dry rice, and Indian corn are also
largely grown. In the lower Liaotung, Indian corn is very
extensively cultivated and forms in some districts the staple
food of the people. Tobacco, ginseng, and opium poppy
also form important categories and the cultivation and pre-
paration of the native drug is rapidly narrowing down the
market for Indian opium in Manchuria. No reliable
estimates can be furnished of the agricultural wealth, or
of the actual or approximate acreage under crops since,
excepting the figures of the Chinese Imperial Customs,
there is no trustworthy data to work on in China. There is,
however, every reason to suppose that the amount of beans,
kaoliang, and wheat raised even to-day would support twice
the present population of Manchuria and that even sixty
or seventy millions of people would not overtax the re-
sources of the three eastern provinces. Fruits, vegetables,
dye, and oil-yielding plants are also largely grown and
540 APPENDIX
every year sees these quantities increase. It is merely a
question of time for Manchuria to become China's Canada.
7. Animal and Mineral Products.
Silk is now largely cultivated in Fengtien province,
and here again the figures yearly expand. Furs and skins
are very important items, and the sable, the fox, the bear,
the lamb, the goat, the raccoon, the squirrel, the tiger, and
the sheep all help to swell the export list. The Newchwang
Custom House figures, however, do not give one any idea
of this great fur and skin trade, for much goes by caravan
to Tientsin the great China port for hides and skins and
its Manchurian identity is lost. Dog-skins and dog-rugs
are great Manchurian products, for dog- farms exist in many
parts of northern Manchuria, where the great Mongolian dog
is bred in large quantities and slaughtered before the end of
winter. In the mining field gold, copper, lead, iron, and
coal are mined ; but far the most important in this category
is the output of the precious yellow metal, which is said to
total fifteen million taels a year, or two millions sterling. It is
impossible to give a satisfactory account of the Manchurian
gold-mining industry, for the big mines are all under
Chinese Government control, and the officials jealously
guard the secrets of their outputs. As the methods adopted
are very primitive, and modern mining machinery quite
unknown, attention is only given to alluvial deposits. Mr.
E. Lenox Simpson, the English mining engineer in charge
of the Kuantung gold-mines, is of opinion that it would
repay to work over again the dumps from the Chinese
mines. The rock formation is likewise pronounced by
him to be practically the same in the mining districts as
that of California. Refractory ores are seldom met with, and
eastern and northern Manchuria are rich with auriferous
deposits. Serious attention is invited to the vast possi-
bilities of Manchuria as a gold-mining country.
8. Industries.
The manufacture of bean cake and bean oil at Newchwang
and elsewhere is probably the most important industry in
APPENDIX
54i
Manchuria, but there are others of great value. Salt-
making is largely carried on in the Liao estuary ; samshu,
the Chinese brandy, is everywhere manufactured ; there is
a great leather industry centred at Kirin and Moukden ;
pork-making is largely carried on in all the towns, and the
salted Manchurian hog is eaten all over China. Besides
these there are, of course, the countless other smaller in-
dustries found wherever the Chinaman is, but special
mention is unnecessary.
9. Climate.
The climate of Manchuria may be called extreme, for in
winter the cold experienced is most severe, and in summer
the sun shines in the skies like a burning copper disc, and
the thermometer rises to nearly one hundred degrees
Fahrenheit in the shade. Hei-lung-chiang is the coldest of
the three provinces, and Ravenstein fifty years ago recorded
the fact that observations showed the cold experienced
along the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk to be hardly more
severe than that in the mountainous parts of the Amur
regions. Forty-nine below zero, or eighty-one degrees of
frost, is the lowest actually recorded in Manchuria, but it is
believed that the Roman Catholic mission stations in the
extreme north of Kirin have noted ten or fifteen degrees
lower. This is, however, in Kirin province, and it is said by
the Chinese that the Hsing-an Mountains are far colder.
It is perhaps no exaggeration of speech to say that north-
western Manchuria is one of the coldest parts of the world.
As you go south the climate improves, but still it is very
severe in winter. Even Newchwang has seen fifty degrees
of frost, but this is exceptional, and, generally speaking, the
average winter minimum is not much below zero Fahrenheit.
In Dalny and Port Arthur, although the cold is bitter, the
sea does not freeze to any great extent, and ships can
leave both ports at all times of the year. It is, however, to
be noted that the building of breakwaters at Dalny is
defeating the purpose for which that port was designed, for
the ice is becoming more and more dangerous as the stone
piers extend out to sea, and if the system were ever completed
54- APPENDIX
it would undoubtedly have the result of making Dalny an
ice-bound harbour instead of an ice-free one. The north
wind is the terror of Manchuria. When it blows no
covering of furs is sufficient to keep out the piercing cold,
and life is almost unbearable in the open. However, these
blows rarely last three days, and when they have ceased,
the sun shines so brightly that the dry cold is not felt. In
southern Manchuria snow does not fall to any great
extent. In the north, unless heavy falls occur at the very
beginning of winter, it becomes too cold for snow. In
summer the great July-August rains flood the country and
make communication very difficult. Much of the low-
lying country is below water and the roads are impassable.
The great height of the railway embankments of the
Chinese Eastern Railway is necessary to guard against
this summer inconvenience. From the point of view of
campaigning it may be said that the conditions are best
from October to April ; for as soon as the great melting
begins in April-May the whole country is extremely boggy
and difficult to negotiate, and two months later (in July)
Jupiter Pluvius is to be feared.
IO. The Great Towns and Strategic Points.
The majority of the big towns in Manchuria are found in
Fengtien province, but the great mass of the population
even in this province lives in the rural countries. Next to
Moukden, the provincial capital, which has a population
somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000, comes the im-
portant town of Liaoyang. Liaoyang is probably the oldest
town in Manchuria and has a history which goes back to
many centuries before the time the Manchus were known.
Its population is estimated at 100,000 inhabitants, and
it lies practically astride of the railway commanding the
central valley. The regions surrounding Liaoyang have
always been the centre of fierce struggles in ages gone by
and will continue to be so in the future. But thirty-five miles
south of Liaoyang is Hai-ch'eng, a city of some sixty
thousand inhabitants. Hai-ch'eng also lies but a mile or
two from the railway, and surrounded as it is by low-lying
APPENDIX
543
hills, it is even more important than Liaoyang. The Yalu
roads all run from the neighbourhood of these two towns,
and Hai-ch'eng was one of the first Japanese objectives in
the Chino- Japanese war. History will repeat itself. About
one hundred and twenty miles south-east of Liaoyang, and
but fifty or sixty miles from the Yalu estuary, is the im-
portant town of Feng-huang-ch'eng. Feng-huang-ch'eng
is the chief town on the road to Korea, and has a popu-
lation of fifty thousand inhabitants. It was the first Japanese
objective in 1894. On the Liaotung peninsula, Hsiu-yen
near the east coast, and Fu-chou and Kai-chou near the
west coast, are towns of importance, having from forty to
fifty thousand inhabitants. All these towns command the
great highways and have grown up with the increase in
the road traffic. North of Moukden and along the line of
the railway is Tiehling. Tiehling is the centre of the
Manchurian iron ore industry, and is also a great trade
entrepot. As it lies on the left bank of the Upper Liao,
during winter immense quantities of farm produce are
collected here to be shipped south with the melting of the
ice on the Liao. Tiehling has a population of nearly one
hundred thousand inhabitants and cannot fail to be a place
of great importance when the wave of war bursts on
Manchuria. Thirty miles north of Tiehling is K'ai-yiian,
another large city only a few miles from the railway. In
the Liao-hsi, the country on the right bank of the Liao,
there are other important towns, witness Hsin-min-t'un,
the terminal point of the Shanhaikwan Chinese Railway
system ; but these lie far away from the Chinese Eastern
Railway, and have therefore but little interest at the present
moment. In the province of Kirin, the most important
towns are Kirin, the provincial capital, with a population
somewhere near a quarter of a million inhabitants ; K'uan-
ch'eng-tzu, with over a quarter of a million people and the
largest city in Manchuria ; Ninguta near the Eastern
frontier ; Petuna near the Mongolian frontier ; Sansing,
which commands the lower Sungari and Harbin. Ninguta,
Petuna, and Sansing have populations which it is impossible
to ascertain accurately, but probably they one and all hover
544 APPENDIX
in the neighbourhood of fifty thousand inhabitants.
Hei-lung-chiang has but one big town, Tsitsihar, the pro-
vincial capital, with a population of one hundred thousand
at least. Apart from the places enumerated above
numbers of small market towns dot the country, but they
are without importance, and are merely collecting points
for country produce.
n. The Russians in Manchuria.
Details have already been' given elsewhere concerning
the lease of the Kuantung territory to Russia, in which
territory stand Port Arthur and Dalny. The frontier of
this leased territory is formed by a line drawn from
Pu-lan-tien on the west coast to P'i-tzu-wo on the
east coast. It is interesting to note that the Austria
gold-mine, to which I have referred elsewhere, is at
Pu-lan-tien, and that the owners have Russian title-deeds ;
and that it was at P'i-tzu-wo that the Japanese effected
the landing in 1894 which led to the capture of Port
Arthur. North of the leased territory there is a so-called
neutral zone, the limits of which are formed by a line
drawn from Kai-chou on the west coast to Taku-shan on
the east coast. China may not station troops within this
zone, which is very mountainous and easy to defend. The
Russian civil population in Port Arthur and Dalny is most
certainly under twenty thousand all told, and of this
number the vast majority is composed of people drawing
their sustenance directly or indirectly from the Russian
Government. The bond fide mercantile population is very
small. In Port Arthur there are three hundred Europeans
other than Russian, of whom twenty-one are Englishmen.
In Dalny there are seven Englishmen. Indian watchmen
are to be found in considerable numbers in both ports, but
there is considerable difficulty in obtaining the actual
numbers, as they do not register themselves anywhere.
The number is probably in the neighbourhood of one
hundred. Taking Manchuria proper, Harbin is said by the
Russians to have a population, duly accounted for by a census,
of thirty thousand Russians, but the Japanese state that
APPENDIX 545
these figures must be heavily discounted. Probably the
number is eighteen thousand or even less. Minor railway
stations and railway settlements have a few hundred more,
and I therefore estimate the total number of Russian
civilian population in Manchuria proper at 20,000, and in
the Kuantung leased territory at 22,000. Hardly any
Russians are seen off the railway, and the "civil
population" has been steadily decreasing as Russian
Government enterprises have been completed.
The number of troops in Manchuria on evacuation day,
the 8th October, by which I include the so-called railway
or frontier guards, was under sixty thousand ; in the
Kuantung leased territory about twenty-nine thousand.
The entire Russian civil population in both Manchuria and
the Kuantung leased territory was living on the " activity "
of the Russian Government an activity which expressed
itself in railway building, railway repair-shops, naval yards,
provisioning of troops, etc., etc. Except for purchasing
fresh food supplies and building materials from the Chinese
this Russian population along the railway had absolutely
no connection with real Manchuria and Manchuria is as
unknown to the Russian in 1904 as it was in 1900. There
are over six thousand unattached women along the railway
Empire. It is therefore quite plain that had the Russian
Government ordered evacuation to take place and with-
drawn all troops excepting the railway guards (22,000), and
the Port Arthur normal garrison (8,000), the figures of the
Russian civil population would have shrunk to nothing.
Abnormal Government expenditure, and the presence
of ninety thousand armed men gave the civilians their
daily food.
The Chinese Eastern Railway has a length of track
approximating 1,600 miles in all. There are one hundred
and two stations, divided on a cast-iron system into
classes. Thus a first-class station has a restaurant ; a
second-class only a buffet, and a third-class one nothing at
all. The distribution of railway guards is based partly on
the class system and partly on strategic grounds. There
is much nonsense written about this Manchurian line
N N
5 4 A APPENDIX
which it is as well to correct Recent maps show an
extension which reaches towards Peking, leaving the main
track of the Manchurian system somewhere in the neigh-
bourhood of Khailar and darting vaguely through Mongolia-
There is no such line. Other maps show the proposed
line connecting the provincial capital of Kirin with the
Central Manchurian section as an accomplished fact This
line has not been commenced, nor has Russia received
Chinese Imperial permission to build it, although the
Manchu Military Governor of Kirin has recommended its
construction on commercial grounds. There is no ex-
tension to Ninguta, as shown on some maps, and none has
ever been planned. There is no lack of rolling stock
suitable for military purposes. I estimate the number of
locomotives in Manchuria on the ist January, 1904, at 380 ;
the number of ist, 2nd, and 3rd class carriages at 2,500 ;
4th class carriages 1,500 ; opened and closed goods trucks.
at 2,000. These estimates are partly based on personal
observations, and partly on the returns furnished me by
an Engineer in Russian employ. It is to be noted that
cars can be constructed at Dalny and Harbin the iron
parts being sent from Europe, and the wood-work, etc.,
supplied locally. A point of interest is that in spite of the
fact that the Chinese Eastern Railway is classed a foreign
line, according to the Russian returns all the rolling stock
bears the numbering of the Russian State system. At
Harbin I spent four hours noting the numbers on carriages
and goods wagons of every description. Their numbers
varied from No. 86,000 to No, 380,000, showing that the
rolling stock " interchanges" between Russia and Manchuria
without distinction. Measuring the sidings by pacing and
dividing them up into train lengths it is clear that stations
of the first-class in Manchuria can side-track from eight to
fifteen trains. Contrary to so-called expert military judg-
ment in Europe, I am of the opinion, based on accurate
calculations in train-speeds, siding-capacities, rolling-stock,
locomotive hauling-power, fuel supplies, repair-shops, local
food supplies, state of permanent way, etc, etc., that as far
as the Manchurian system is concerned Russia can trans-
APPENDIX 547
port to Manchuria and there feed at least half a million
men without insuperable difficulties. Basing my ideas on
these calculations it will take but six months from the date
of declaration of war to perform this task. By the 1st of
August Russia should be as strong as she can ever be in
Manchuria.
12. The Japanese in Manchuria.
The numbers of Japanese in Manchuria at the end of
1903 were as follows :
Harbin 1000, Port Arthur 800, Dalny 400, Newchwang,
Moukden, Kirin, Petuna, about forty or fifty in each. The
total number of Japanese in Manchuria and the Kuantung
territory therefore amounts to at least 2,500. Of this
number probably more than half is composed of women
who follow the troops. The men are mainly hewers of
wood and drawers of water to the Russians, and are gener-
ally speaking of a very inferior class, with the exception of
the Japanese firms at Newchwang. A great number of
desperate characters are to be found amongst the Mikado's
subjects. They are, however, extremely useful to Japan as
nearly all are connected with the Japanese Intelligence
Department and supply very accurate information on
movement of troops, food supplies, etc., etc. In October
there were a number of Staff officers in Manchuria sent
specially from Tokyo and disguised as tradespeople and
Chinese. All Japanese in Manchuria speak Russian
fluently ; but their knowledge of Chinese is very superficial.
Japan's commercial interests in Manchuria are growing
yearly, for the export of beans and beancake, which formerly
was confined almost entirely to Hong Kong and other
China ports, is now being largely diverted to Japan, where
higher prices are obtainable. It is quite certain that when
wheat-flour enters more generally into the Japanese dietary,
as is daily becoming more the case, a free export of cereals
from Manchuria will be indispensable to Japan. Fifty per
cent, of the shipping entering Manchurian ports is Japanese,
and these figures yearly tend to expand.
548 APPENDIX
13. Trade.
The trade of Manchuria is estimated by Hosie to reach
twenty millions sterling per annum a very remarkable
figure, seeing that this means at least one pound sterling
per head of population, whereas in China proper, the yearly
average of trade does not exceed three shillings and six-
pence per head. Of this Manchurian trade about ten
millions sterling is dealt with at Newchwang, and the im-
portance of that Treaty Port from the Russian point of view
is therefore easily understood. The balance of the trade is
either the junk-trade along the Manchurian sea-board or the
trans-frontier trade with the Russian province of the Amur.
The Yalu lumber trade dealt with mainly at Antung and
Ta-tung-k'ou is alone valued at one million sterling per
annum. The Sungari trade in wheat with Habarovsk and
other Siberian towns is very considerable and the cattle
trade with Blagoveschenk and other Upper Amur Russian
towns and settlements is yearly growing. Russia is yearly
becoming more dependent on the three eastern provinces
to supply her Amur and Pacific settlements with food stuffs.
Analysing the only reliable returns of trade those of the
Newchwang Custom House it is seen that beans and their
products form the principal items in the export list and that
cotton clothes form the most considerable item in the
import list.
14. Concluding Remarks.
It is not intended to make this appendix an exhaustive
and complete account and therefore details concerning
revenue and other statistics must be sought for elsewhere.
Suffice to say that Mr. Hosie's book covers all the necessary
ground and deals with trade, revenue, administration,
industries, and all other purely reference- book information
most exhaustively.
ADDENDUM
IN view of the fact that the appointment of Admiral
Alexeiefif to the " Imperial Lieutenancy of the Far East "
on the 1 3th August, 1903, was only a move on the
diplomatic chess-board and merely increased and solidified
the powers the Russian Commander-in-Chief in the Far
East had possessed since the time of the Boxers, I have
purposely omitted any specific mention of that high officer ;
but in order to bring out certain special points and to show
how the idea of a railway empire consisting of a five-foot
track with a thirty-verst-broad policing strip along its entire
length was intended ultimately to spell absorption of the
three eastern provinces, I must reluctantly add this note.
In the Kuantung Leasing Agreement of the 27th March,
1898, signed by Russia and China in Peking, it was
specifically stated in Article 4 that " the control of all
military forces in the territory leased by Russia and of all
naval forces in the adjacent seas, as well as the civil
officials in it, shall be vested in one high Russian official,
who shall, however, be designated by some title other than
Governor-General (Tsung-tu) or Governor (Hsiin-fu). . . ."
It was therefore necessary for Russia to act with circum-
spection, for the Russo-Chinese Agreement plainly showed
that the Peking authorities were even then timorous about
the ultimate fate of Manchuria owing to the questionable
private arrangements Li Hung Chang had entered into with
the Czar's Ministers in St. Petersburg and Moscow at the
time of the Imperial Coronation ceremonies of the young
Czar in 1896.
550 ADDENDUM
It was not until the Boxer uprising that Russia became
more self-reliant. In that year Alexeieff was appointed
Commander-in-Chief of Russia's land and sea forces and
began his forward policy modelled after that which had
earned for Muravief the title of " Count of the Amur "
forty years before. Admiral AlexeiefFs appointment was
deemed necessary in order to unite under one head the
scattered forces which had been poured into Manchuria
during the great invasion. Gordekof, the Governor-
General of the Amur province, could not get on with the
great sea-captain ; neither could the generals from the
Baikal province make up their minds to be subservient to
a man who was, according to their ideas, a parvenu. But
Alexeieff had powerful friends at court and in 1900 suc-
ceeded in getting all his rivals placed in the Imperial black
books, and his own authority greatly increased. In spite
of his largely increased powers, those who have been behind
the scenes in Manchuria agree that Alexeieff's orders were
often ignored by the military in the post-Boxer years and
that the de Witte Lamsdorff party encouraged revolt
against the decrees of a protege of their political rivals.
The agitation aroused by Russia's continued occupation
of Manchuria led to the signature of that self-denying
ordinance the Evacuation Protocol of April, 1902, and it
then seemed for a time as if Admiral Alexeieff's star was on
the wane. But in the spring of 1903 both he and his able
lieutenants had so convinced the protecting Grand Dukes of
the absolute necessity of consolidating Russian power in Man-
churia instead of unconditionally retreating, that the baro-
meter of Alexeieffs fortunes began to rise again ; finally the
summer of 1903 saw the Moderates of Russian politics
defeated, and, with the virtual retirement of de Witte, there
was no one of sufficient importance left to oppose Alexeieffs
ambitions. Accordingly, in August, his appointment to
the Viceroyalty of the Far East was announced, and
the entire Russian Far East made subordinate to him.
The special point of interest for Manchuria was the
peculiar wording of the Ukase which conferred such
ADDENDUM 551
great and unexpected powers on a single man, who
owed his rise to clever card playing. In the Ukase of
the 1 3th August, Admiral Alexeieff is made the Viceroy
of the Far East, and " is granted supreme power for the
maintenance of order and security in the zone of the
Eastern Railway of China, as well as providing for the
needs of the Russian population in the frontier possessions
beyond the Imperial Lieutenancy." . . . The importance
of these words can hardly be overestimated, for the pre-
amble of the Imperial Decree having stated that "the
territories of the Amur and Kuantung should henceforth
form a special lieutenancy," it becomes clear that the
three provinces of Manchuria sandwiched in between the
Russian province of the Amur and the Kuantung leased
territory, crossed by a railway along whose " frontiers "
Russia possessed policing rights, and placed under the
sole control of an ambitious man henceforth responsible
only to a committee of persons nominated by the Emperor
and presided over by his Imperial Majesty, were already
marked as won, and coloured Siberian green on the maps-
Viceroy Alexeieff having secured the defeat of his political
opponents in Russia, could act as he pleased, and since he was
unwilling to retreat from the position he had created entirely
by his own efforts, war has been the result. But a peculiar
point to which I would direct special attention is the use
of the words " frontier possessions beyond the Imperial
Lieutenancy." The railway guards of the Chinese Eastern
Railway are called " frontier guards " ; the population of
Harbin is a "frontier population," although the Russian
frontier of the Amur is several hundred miles away ; the
Russian Viceroy is specially charged with looking after
this population, although it lives on a soil to which Russia
renounced all claims in the Evacuation of April, 1902 ; in a
word, Russia in this audacious Decree cut a strip of Empire
through the heart of Manchuria, the frontiers of which are
protected by frontier guards to the number of 22,000, and
thus on paper united the trans-Baikal to Russian Primorsk
by means of the railway strip, and likewise the Russian
552 ADDENDUM
province of the Amur with the leased province or territory
of Kuantung. Had Japan, therefore, not intervened, Man-
churia in a few short years would have been calmly robbed
from China without anything but paper protests from the
rest of the world. Finally, it is well to note that a large
number of high Russian officers in the Far East detest
Admiral Alexeieff and oppose him at every step.
THE END.
RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LTD., BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND BUNGAV, SUFFOLK.
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