14 RainerPrätorius(2005)presentstheexampleofsocialprogramsofAmericanchurches.HansGeorgZiebertz(2016)refertotherelationbetweenreligionandhumanrights.Comparealso Jedan 2013.
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came to an understanding by agreeing to make an attack upon the Europeans. As soon as General Duchesne was informed of what had been happening to the south-west of the capital, he sent a column … with orders to punish the insurgents and to pacify the district. … The resistance on the part of the natives was vigorous, and for a time well sustained. … Discipline and Lebel rifles, however, were more than a match for all their efforts, and after a loss of about 150 men they desisted. … One distressing feature in the insurrection was the revival of idolatry, which was thought to be extinct in Imerina, but which evidently has been scotched and not killed. Almost the first move on the part of the rebels had been to reinstate a local idol called Ravololona, and the performance of certain acts of worship in the presence of the idol was considered the mark of a good patriot. Naturally under these circumstances the teachers and the more prominent Christians in the various churches and chapels were objects of dislike and hatred, and in the disaffected district these men with their wives and families had to fly for their lives. It is useless to shut one's eyes to facts; a considerable number of those who were held in esteem by the missionaries failed to stand the test of persecution, and if not guilty of actually worshipping idols were actively in league with those who did so. … After the suppression of this first outbreak matters remained quiet in Imerina for some months. …
"The next serious event in the island was an outbreak of a different character. With the exception of the Hova, few if any of the tribes were thought to be opposed to French rule. … The Hova were as much hated as they were feared, and, from whatever quarter it might come, release from their rule would be welcome. The arrival of the French was the long-wished-for moment; but news spreads slow]y in Madagascar, and though the Hova power came to an end at the beginning of October, it was not realised on the coast until the new year [1896]. When, however, it was known that the French were masters of the country the explosion came. The two large tribes of the
Betsimisaraka and the Taimoro on the east rose against the Hova, and ruthlessly killed them wherever they could catch them. … The buildings used as churches and schools were also burnt, for, as the greater part of the teachers came from Imerina, religion and education were associated with the Hova. In one or two instances Europeans were murdered, but only when they were mixed up with the Hova."
F. A. Gregory,
The French in Madagascar (Nineteenth Century, January, 1897).
Formal possession of the island was now proclaimed, and, on the 18th of January, 1896, the submissive queen signed the following "Declaration": "Her Majesty the Queen of Madagascar, having been made acquainted with the Proclamation taking possession of the Island of Madagascar by the French Government, declares her acceptance of the following conditions:
"ARTICLE I.
The Government of the French Republic shall be represented at the Court of Her Majesty the Queen of Madagascar by a Resident-General.
"ARTICLE II.
The Government of the French Republic shall represent Madagascar in all relations with foreign Powers. The Resident-General shall be intrusted with the conduct of relations with the Agents of foreign Powers; and all questions affecting foreigners in Madagascar shall be dealt with through him. The French Diplomatic and Consular Agents abroad shall be charged with the protection of Malagasy subjects and interests.
"ARTICLE III.
The Government of the French Republic reserve to themselves
the right of maintaining in Madagascar the armed forces necessary for the exercise of their authority.
"ARTICLE.
IV.
The Resident-General shall control the internal administration of the island. Her Majesty the Queen of Madagascar undertakes to introduce such reforms as the French Government shall deem expedient for the economic development of the island, and for the advancement of civilization.
"ARTICLE.
V.
The Government of Her Majesty the Queen of Madagascar undertake to contract no loan without the authorization of the Government of the French Republic.
(Signed) RANAVALOMANJAKA, Mpanjakany Madagascar."
On the 11th of February the following "Notification" was officially communicated to all the Powers: "In consequence of difficulties which have arisen in Madagascar, the Government of the Republic, in the exercise of their Protectorate, have been obliged to intervene by force of arms in order to make their rights respected, and to obtain guarantees for the future. They have thus been obliged to occupy the island with their troops, and to take final possession thereof."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications (Papers by Command: Africa, No.8, 1897).
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About this time, "M. Laroche, the first Resident-General, arrived at the capital and began to organise the government of the country. A new Prime Minister was appointed, in whose name laws might be issued, for it had been settled that the administration should be indirect, that is to say conducted through the medium of the natives. A considerable number of
regulations were promulgated, affecting the development of the industries of the country, the granting of concessions, and the education of the natives. Most of these were much too elaborate to be useful, and up to the present time nearly all of them have remained a dead letter. Some may be useful when the insurrection has been quelled, when the country is such as to invite capitalists, and when schools have been re-established. In March there were again signs of trouble, though at first these were faint and perhaps too far off to attract the serious attention of the authorities. …
"A petty disturbance in the beginning, fomented for private purposes and fostered by an appeal to patriotic feeling, has developed into a formidable insurrection. I say formidable, but I do not mean to give the idea that the insurrection is formidable from a military point of view. … But from industrial, educational, and religious points of view, the rebellion has been a complete success, and however soon it may be suppressed, the progress of the country in some parts has been thrown back for years, a large tract reduced to desolation, and the inhabitants to little better than savages. This destruction has been effected in five months, for, beginning in May, it has spread over the whole of Avaradrano, Vonizongo, part of Imarovatana, and Vakin Ankaratoa, four out of the six divisions of Imerina. … To mark the, anti-European character of the rising, the churches were burnt without distinction, and in some places leper hospitals were destroyed, and their unhappy inmates rendered houseless. The English and Norwegian missions have suffered the most severely. It is impossible to estimate correctly the number of churches and chapels that have been burnt, but at the lowest computation it must amount to 600. … As in the West, idol-worship was practised, the idol in this case being Ramahavaly, the war-god or goddess; the pillaging of houses and property became almost universal, and soon it came to pass that no one was safe unless he either joined the insurgents or paid them to leave him unmolested. …
"The greatest move in the organisation of the country is the abolition of slavery throughout the island. This was proclaimed in the official gazette issued on the 27th of September [1896] by decree of the Resident-General. It was wholly unexpected at the time, though there had been rumours two or three months previously to the effect that the step was contemplated, but would be effected gradually. Naturally, it fell upon the Hova like a clap of thunder, and, as the law was published on a Sunday, some worthy folk found themselves, on their return from service, without a slave to cook the dinner.
… It would have been better to have proceeded more slowly to the desired end; to have made an children born after a fixed day free; and to have made the redemption of the rest, either by themselves or by others, cheap and easy. However, it has been decided otherwise, and certainly the state of the country is such as to justify any measure, for, when everything is in a state of upheaval the exact amount of pressure is of small importance. In addition to this it must be remembered that in consequence of the outbreak Madagascar has been declared a French colony, and that this carries with it the abolition of the status of slavery. While, then, the greater number of Europeans who know Madagascar would have preferred that slavery should have been abolished by degrees, few would be prepared to say that it was altogether a mistake."
F. A. Gregory,
The French in Madagascar (Nineteenth Century, January, 1897).
An Act for the annexation of Madagascar was passed by the French Chamber and Senate in the early summer of 1896, with a declaration for the immediate abolition of slavery. In the following year Queen Ranavalomanjaka was banished to the French Island of Reunion, and in 1899 she was removed to a more distant and more cruel exile in Algiers.
MAFEKING, Siege of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER); and 1900 (MARCH-MAY).
MAFIA, Exposure in Italy of the.
See (in this volume)
ITALY: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY).
MAHAN, Captain Alfred T.: American Commissioner to the Peace Conference at The Hague.
See (in this volume) PEACE CONFERENCE.
MAHDI, The death of the.
See (in this volume)
EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896.
MAINE, The battle-ship: Destruction in Havana harbor.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARYMARCH).
MAJESFONTEIN, Battle of.
See (in this volume)
SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR): A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
MALAGASY, The.
See (in this volume) MADAGASCAR.
MALAKAND, Attack by Swat tribes on.
See (in this volume) INDIA: A. D. 1897-1898.
MALARIA, Discovery of the secret of.
See (in this volume) SCIENCE, RECENT: MEDICAL AND SURGICAL.
MALAYAN RACE.
See (in this volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: THE NATIVE INHABITANTS.
MALOLOS: The seat of Aguinaldo's government in the Philippines.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL.
See (in this volume)
CANAL, MANCHESTER SHIP.
MANCHURIA: A. D. 1895-1900.
Trans-Siberian Railway.
Russo-Chinese Treaty.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1895; and RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1891-1900.
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MANCHURIA: A. D. 1900-1901.
Chinese Boxer attack on the Russians and savage Russian retaliation.
Russian occupation of Niu-chwang.
Russo-Chinese negotiations concerning the province. Distrust of Russian designs.
The Boxer outbreak in and around Peking, in the early summer (see, in this volume, CHINA: A. D. 1900-MAY-JUNE, and after), was followed, in July, by an attack on the Russians in Manchuria, along the line of the Manchurian branch of their Trans-Siberian Railway (see, in this volume, RUSSIA IN ASIA), and on the Amur. The retaliation of the Russians appears to have been simply ferocious. Professor G. Frederick Wright, who was travelling in Manchuria at the time, gives a sickening account of what he saw on the Amur, above Blagovestchensk, in a letter written, August 6, from Stretensk, Siberia, to "The Nation," of New York. The Chinese fort at Aygun, on the Manchurian side of the Amur, began, without warning, on the 14th of July, he writes, "to fire upon passing steamboats, and, on the 15th, fire was opened upon Blagovestchensk, and some Russian villages were burned opposite the fort. The actual injury inflicted by the Chinese was slight; but the
terror caused by it was indescribable, and it drove the Cossacks into a frenzy of rage. The peaceable Chinese, to the number of 3,000 or 4,000, in the city were expelled in great haste, and, being forced upon rafts entirely inadequate, were most of them drowned in attempting to cross the river. The stream was fairly black with their bodies. Three days after, we counted hundreds of them in the water. In our ride through the country to reach the city on Thursday, the 19th, we saw as many as thirty villages and hamlets of the Chinese in flames. One of them was a city of 8,000 or 10,000 inhabitants. We estimated that we saw the dwellings of 20,000 peaceable Chinese in flames that awful day, while parties of Cossacks were scouring the fields to find Chinese, and shooting them down at sight. What became of the women and children no one knew; but there was apparently no way for them to escape to a place of safety. On our way up the river for 500 miles above the city, every Chinese hamlet was a charred mass of ruins. The large village of Motcha was still smoking, and we were told that 4,000 Chinese had been killed. We do not mention these facts to excite prejudice against the Russian authorities or against the Cossacks. This work of devastation has not been ordered by those high in authority. It is rather the result of mob violence such as instigates the promoters of lynch law in the Southern States, or, more nearly, such as has from time immemorial animated the pioneers in America against the Indians. The wholesale destruction, both of property and of life, was thought to be a military necessity. The wives and children of the Cossacks were in terror."
Russian troops were poured into Manchuria in vast numbers, and however much or little there may have been of the Boxer movement, it was crushed with merciless rigor. A letter from the Manchurian treaty port of Niu-chwang, on the Liao-tung Gulf, written August 13, to the "London Times," describes the Russian occupation of that town and region, in the previous week. After some 1,500 or 2,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians, in flight from the town, had been intercepted and
killed, "the Russian general," says the writer, "was about to order a general assault on the town when the foreign residents interceded, as there were no longer any soldiers or 'Boxers' left. He declared his intention was to kill all, as it was impossible to distinguish between soldiers, 'Boxers' and civilians. Some foreigners then went down into the city and brought up the principal merchants, who were given until 10 a. m. to deliver up all the guns in the town. This, of course, they could not and did not do, so some foreign residents offered to enter the city with the Russian soldiers, and guaranteed peaceful occupation. This offer was accepted, and the town was spared enormous loss of life, though there was a certain amount of looting, and a few people were bayoneted in the outlying houses. Outside the walls men, women, and children were killed, and from all sides came reliable reports of violation of women. There is no possible doubt about the truth of these reports. The Russians are carrying out a policy of destruction of property and extermination of the people. Kai-chau, the district city, 24 miles south of this port, and nearly all the villages have been burnt and the inhabitants killed. The soldiers, both infantry and Cossacks, have been allowed to do what they like for some days."
The same correspondent goes on to say: "The Russians hoisted their naval flag over the Custom-house at 7.30 p. m. on August 4. Neither in the attack and bombardment of the town nor in hoisting their flag did they consult any of the foreign Consuls or the commanders of the two Japanese gunboats in port. Admiral Alexeieff arrived on the 5th and issued a circular announcing the occupation of the treaty port by Russian military forces. … What the other Powers will say to the seizure of a treaty port and hoisting of only one flag remains to be seen." The "one flag" seems to have been still waving over Niu-chwang as late as the 15th of February, 1901, since a member in the British House of Commons, on that day, arraigning his government for want of vigor in China, said that "though British people traded with Niu-chwang to the
extent of three millions sterling a year, the port was now under the civil and military administration of Russia alone. He should like to know what undertaking his Majesty's Government had obtained that Russia would speedily evacuate Niu-chwang, and that the administration of the port would revert to the hands of the Chinese Government.
A few days later, the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Viscount Cranborne, said in reply to this statement: "We made proper inquiry from our representative, and he assured us that any agreement which exists between Russia and China in respect to Manchuria is in the nature of a 'modus vivendi,' consisting merely in the simultaneous presence of the Russian and Chinese forces in Manchuria, and in order to prevent disturbances on their frontier. He assured us that the occupation of the railway is of a purely temporary character, and that, although a guarantee is expected by the Russian Government that upon their withdrawal the disturbances shall not breakout again, yet that guarantee will not take the form of an acquisition of territory or of a virtual or actual protectorate in Manchuria. … In respect to Niu-chwang we have received assurances at least equal to those which have been given us in respect to the province of South Manchuria. We understand the Russians are prepared to restore Niu-chwang at the end of their occupation precisely to its former condition."
{300}
For the time being, however, the Russians seem to have established in practice a very real protectorate over the province of Fêng-tien, in Southern Manchuria, by an agreement between the Russian governor of the territory leased from China in the Liao-tung peninsula and the Chinese Tartar general of Fêng-tien, signed on the 11th of November, 1900. The general terms of this agreement were reported late in December, and excited much uneasiness as to Russian designs.
The full text was communicated to the "London Times," in the February following, by its Peking correspondent, with the information that the Tartar general who signed it, in transmitting a copy to Li Hung-chang, "states that grief pierces his very soul, but what alternative has he?" The agreement required the Tartar general to disband his troops and disarm them, on account of the rebellions which had occurred among them; to deliver up all munitions of war and dismantle all forts and defences, and to give full information of all important measures taken by him to a Russian resident who should be stationed at Mukden, with "general powers of control."
Late in February, 1901, it was ascertained that the Russian Minister at Peking, M. de Giers, was negotiating a more definite and binding convention relative to Manchuria with the Chinese imperial government, as represented by Li Hung-chang; and, on the 7th of March, the Peking correspondent of the "London Times" telegraphed to that journal what claimed to be a translation of the full text of the treaty, as follows:
"I. The Emperor of Russia, being desirous to manifest his friendly feelings, agrees to restore Manchuria completely to China without keeping in mind the fact of the recent warfare in that province. The Chinese administration shall be restored in all respects to the 'status quo ante.'
"II. China granted to the railway company, as stipulated in Article VI. of the Eastern China Railway Concession, the right of guarding the line with troops, but the country being still in disorder and the number of troops being insufficient, it has been found necessary to station a body of troops in the province, which will be withdrawn as soon as peace and order are restored and the provisions of the last four articles of the present convention are carried out.
"III. In case of emergency, the Russian troops stationed in
the province shall render all possible assistance to China to suppress any disturbances.
"IV. The recent attacks against Russia having been conducted principally by regular troops, China agrees not to organize any army before the completion of the railway and the opening thereof for traffic. When China subsequently organizes her military forces, the number of troops shall be fixed in consultation with Russia. The importation of arms and ammunition into Manchuria is prohibited.
"V. In order to safeguard the province, China shall immediately dismiss such Governors-General and high local officials as have committed improper acts in connexion with foreign relations against which Russia would protest. China can organize infantry and cavalry in Manchuria for police purposes, but the number shall be fixed in consultation with Russia. Artillery should be excluded, and arms given to no subjects of any other Power employed in connexion with the exercise of functions.
"VI. China, as previously agreed, shall not employ the subjects of any other Power for training her naval and military forces in the northern provinces.
"VII. In order to maintain peace and order, the local authorities, residing in the vicinity of the neutral zone provided for by the fifth article of the convention relating to the lease of the territory of Leao-tong, shall establish special regulations suitable to the circumstances, and shall relinquish the administrative autonomy of Kin-chau, which is reserved to China by Article IV. of the special convention.
"VIII. China shall not grant, without the consent of Russia, to any other Power or their subjects advantages relative to mines, railways, or other matters in the Russo-Chinese Frontier provinces namely, Manchuria, Mongolia, Kashgar,
Yarkand, Khotan, and Turkestan; neither shall she construct her own railways in those provinces without the consent of Russia. Leases of land outside Niu-chwang shall not be granted to the subjects of any other Power.
"IX. China being under obligations to pay the war expenses of Russia and the claims of the various other Powers, the amount of Russia's indemnity, and the terms of payment and the security for it, shall be adjusted conjointly with the other Powers.
"X. Indemnities shall be paid and compensation granted for the destruction of railway property and to the employés of the company. Losses accruing from delay in the work shall be adjusted between China and the railway company.
"XI. When the indemnities for the various damages shall have been agreed upon between China and the company the whole or part of the amount of such indemnities should be met by advantages other than pecuniary compensation that is, either by revision of the existing agreement relating to the railway or by the grant of new advantages.
"XII. China shall, as previously agreed, grant to Russia a concession for the construction of a railway from the main or branch line of the Manchuria Railway towards Peking and to the Great Wall."
Notwithstanding the very positive agreement contained in the first article of this treaty, that the Emperor of Russia will "restore Manchuria completely to China," the publication of its terms excited new and greater distrust of the designs and the action of the Muscovite Power. It was seen that Chinese authority, for the time being, would be pushed out of Manchuria so completely, and that of Russia would be established so firmly, that any future restoration of the former was improbable, to say the least. Moreover, the entire
exclusion of all people except Russians from any share in the development of Manchurian resources was exceedingly offensive to the money-making desires with which the whole western world is looking toward the great decaying empire of the East. That such an exclusion should extend beyond Manchuria, even to Mongolia, Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan and Turkestan, as set forth in the above report of the pending treaty, was an idea at which capitalistic circles in Europe and America stood aghast.
{301}
Very soon there was denial that the exclusiveness asked for by the modest Russian went farther than the bounds of Manchuria; but, even as thus limited, it roused strenuous protest from the Press of the western world, if not from the governments. What diplomatic action was taken by the Powers in general is not known at the time of this writing; but the United States remonstrated to China (see CHINA: A. D. 1901, MARCH-APRIL,), and, as stated by the British Foreign Minister, Lord Lansdowne, in Parliament, on the 28th of March, the British and German governments did the same. The Chinese government was nerved accordingly to resist the Russian demands, though Li Hung-chang appears to have urged submission to them. The contemplated treaty was not signed.
Before and after this determination the Russian government maintained that it had no ulterior designs in the arrangement it sought with China. Lord Lansdowne, in the speech to Parliament referred to above, spoke as follows of the assurances he had received from Count Lamsdorff, the Russian Foreign Minister: "He told us that it was the object of the Russian Government 'to arrange with the local civil authorities the terms of a "modus vivendi" between them for the duration of the simultaneous presence of Russian and Chinese authorities in Southern Manchuria, the object being to prevent the recurrence of disturbances in the vicinity of the Russian frontier and to protect the railway from the Russian frontier to Port Arthur.' And he told us that his government had 'no intention of seeking this guarantee in any acquisition
of territory or of an actual or virtual protectorate over Manchuria.'"
Similar assurances are reported to have been given to the American government, on the 4th of April; and, for the time being at least, the Manchurian question has ceased to be disturbing to the "Concert of the Powers."
MANCHURIA AND MONGOLIA.
The following information concerning Manchuria and Mongolia is taken from notes made in 1897 by Colonel Browne, Military Attache to the British Legation at Peking: "The area of Manchuria is computed to contain no less than 362,310 square miles, or just three times as large as that of Great Britain and Ireland. It is divided into three provinces, of which the most southerly, Feng-tien or Shên-king, with its capital at Mukden, has for several hundred years formed an integral part of the Chinese Empire, and is consequently more opened up and more densely inhabited than the two northern provinces, which were regarded until the beginning of this century as waste lands, outside the pale of civilization, fit only for the transportation of criminals. Though the old palisades have long disappeared, their trace still marks the boundary between Manchuria and Mongolia, and the gateways on the main roads are still used as posts for the collection of transit dues. These places may be recognized by the termination 'mên' (a gate), such as Fa-k'u-mên, Fa-ta-ha-mên. The province of Kirin and its capital bear the same name, while the huge northern province of Hei-lung-chiang has its seat of government at Tsi-tsi-har. It is generally said that the Governor of Fêng-tien (Mukden) occupies somewhat the position, as regards the two northern provinces, as a viceroy in China holds towards the provinces comprised in his Viceroyalty, but this does not appear to be so, except in his capacity as High Commissioner for the defence of the three Manchurian provinces. The Governors of the three provinces are styled in
the official Gazette by the same title of Military Governor of the Provincial Capital and Tartar General of the Province, but the Governor of Fêng-tien holds the more honourable post, because Mukden is an Imperial city, within its walls is an Imperial Palace, without its walls the tombs of the founders of the Manchu dynasty. It has also, in miniature, Boards similar to those at the capital for regulating ceremonies, punishments, and civil appointments; in short, all the theoretical paraphernalia to carry on the government of the country, should the Emperor visit this quarter of his dominions. … The great grain and bean producing area in the three provinces is contained in a strip of country, extending from the Treaty Port of Newchwang to 30 miles north of Pei-tuan-lin-tzu. To the west of this belt of arable are the Mongolian steppes, all in grass, but fading away into sand as they merge in the great desert of Gobi; to the east is a hilly or mountainous region, in which the only large cultivated area is that watered by the River Hwei-fa, an affluent of the Upper Sungari; elsewhere the cultivated areas are small, such as those at Mergen, Tsi-tsi-har, the Valley of the Yen, and at Sansing, Ninguta, Hun-chun, and Omoso. Exclusive of patches of cultivation in remote districts and valleys, the great cultivated area may be estimated to amount to 16,000 square miles, or about one twenty-fourth of the total area of the country. To what extent under improved communications, drainage, and more favourable conditions generally, the cultivated area is capable of expansion, it is difficult to say. … The population of Manchuria has been variously estimated from a few millions by the Chinese to as much as 25,000,000 by Europeans. A Russian engineer, who has travelled all over the country, estimates it as between 10,000,000 and 15,000,000. … Before I received these figures I had arrived at a somewhat similar result by taking the cultivated area at 700 per square mile which gives a population of 11,250,000, and assuming 2,500,000 scattered throughout the more remote districts, or a population in all of about 14,000,000. What proportion of these are Manchus is also a vexed question to
which no definite answer can be given. Certainly the Manchus are in the minority, for though there are several towns almost wholly Chinese, I know of no town in which it is not acknowledged that the Chinese form more than half the population. The Manchus are nearly all concentrated in towns; there are Manchu villages, but they are small, possibly their numbers amount to between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000, or about 20 per cent. of the population. The chief appointments in Manchuria are, without exception, held by Manchus, the descendants of the conquerors of China. In four centuries of ease and sloth they have lost the wild courage, the spirit of adventure that inspired them to overrun China, and the hardihood and skill at arms that brought success to their venture. But if they have lost the warlike instincts of their savage ancestors, they have retained all their pride, their ignorance, their cruelty, and their superstition. All these qualities a Manchu possesses far in excess of the liberal share that nature has bestowed on the Chinese. {302}
It is true that skill at arms still nominally opens the door to military preferment, but such arms and such skill! Shooting arrows from a moderately strung bow when cantering on a pony is a test which displays neither skill, strength, nor endurance. Even according to Chinese ideas they are ignorant.
… As regards their privileges, the Manchus pay no land tax; but in so far as I have been able to ascertain, the opinion generally held, that they are all pensioned by Government, is erroneous. … But though the mass of the Manchus receive no pension, nearly all are in pay as hangers-on at Yamêns, body-guard to officials, soldiers, care-takers at the Palace or Imperial tombs, and similar posts. The emoluments are small, just sufficient to enable the man to support his family without working, or making his way in the world as an ordinary Chinese must do. Formerly the Manchus did not intermarry with Chinese women, but at the present time this custom is frequently broken through, though of course no Chinese would be permitted to marry a Manchu woman. The Manchus, especially
the dependents, hangers-on, and soldiers, are great opium smokers, and a very worthless class; probably intermarriage with the Chinese will prevent the extinction of the race, which, were the present dynasty to fall, would be speedily absorbed, for, without being propped up with State assistance, it could not on its merits hold the position it does at present. As regards the Chinese, few of the rich merchants make Manchuria their home. They come to the country for a definite number of years, and the same applies to their agents, managers, and staff generally, who leave their families in China. The settlers, on the contrary, have made the country their home. They are a fine, healthy, and vigorous race. Driven from China by poverty or famine, they regard Manchuria as a land flowing with milk and honey. … Whether it be the rigour of the climate which softens their manners, or the absence of the Chinese Mandarin, or living under the sway of an alien race which humbles their pride, or a combination of all these elements, it is difficult to say, but the people are far less hostile to the foreigner than those in China proper. …
"Mongolia extends for 1,500 miles along the northern frontier of China, and as its eastern border is coterminous with Manchuria, a few words regarding the Mongols may not be out of place in these notes. The race is said to come with the Manchus from a common Tartar stock, but, except in colour and features, there is little resemblance between the two races. The Mongol is essentially a nomad, hating towns and houses. He prefers to wander about the steppes, pitching his 'yourt,' or felt tent, wherever water and pasture are for the time most plentiful. As the nature of the country they inhabit prohibits agriculture, the art is unknown among his people, who are entirely engaged in tending their flocks and herds, ponies, and camels. They are mere children in the hands of the Chinese, who can outwit them as easily as a member of the 'confidence trick' fraternity outwits a rustic from the shires. … A small portion of their territory is rented by the
Chinese on the west of the Provinces of Kirin and Fêng-tien, of which it has now become an integral part. Kuan-cheng-tzu was originally in Mongolia, and so are all the towns and villages to the west of the palisade, of which the principal are Mai-mai-kai (Fenghua), Ch'ang-tu, and Cheng-chia-tun. Mongolia is the great breeding land for horses and cattle. At first sight when travelling through the country one is astonished at the enormous size of the troops of ponies; but when one considers that this territory supplies Siberia, China, and Manchuria with animals, it is easy to see that the supply is not greater than the demand. … The Mongols are governed by their hereditary Princes, Chinese authority being maintained by Imperial Residents at Ching-hai, in Western Mongolia (Ko-ko-nor), and at Urga, in the north."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications (Papers by Command, China, Number 1, 1899, pages 34-37).
