Philip Joseph - Foreign Diplomacy in China, 1894-1900

Volume 6

PHILIP JOSEPH

First published in 1928 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd

This edition first published in 2019

by Routledge

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1928 George Allen & Unwin Ltd

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ISBN: 978-1-138-48273-9 (Set)

ISBN: 978-0-429-45536-0 (Set) (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-49503-6 (Volume 6) (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-46394-5 (Volume 6) (ebk)

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BY

PHILIP JOSEPH, LL.B. (McGill), P H .D.(London)

Barrister-at-Law of the Middle Temple; Law Exhibitioner
(McGill), 1924; Quebec Government Scholar, 192427;
Laura Spelman Rockefeller Fellow, 192729

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

SIR A. FREDERICK WHYTE
K.C.S.I., LL.D.

LONDON

GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD

MUSEUM STREET

All rights reserved

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
UNWIN BROTHERS, LTD., WOKING

FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1928

TO

MY MOTHER

O NE of the most interesting developments of the last decade has been the recognition that Governments are responsible for the livelihood of their citizens. The employment or unemployment of large numbers of men and women is now regarded as a national question of primary concern, and any governmental policy which may adversely affect the community in its living is therefore being subjected to close scrutiny and criticism. Foreign policies especially have become the subject of public inquiry as the realization has spread of the intimate connection between employment at home and the existence of peaceful conditions abroad upon which are dependent the regular supply of raw materials for industry and access to foreign markets for the manufactured products. This personal interest in the foreign policies of Governments has attracted attention to the affairs of foreign lands, and has created the desire to understand the policies adopted towards these countries so as to be able to compel ones Government to pursue sane policies and to restrain it from doing anything which may be injurious to the livelihood of the community.

The following pages have been written in the hope that they may be of some assistance to a public anxious to appreciate the real issues in the Far Eastern political sphere and to understand what are the national interests there. The existing literature is hardly adequate for the purpose. Most of it is of a narrow propagandist nature. The rest is generally of an atomic character. It is written by people who have only dealt with some of the factors governing the situation; or it is the product of writers who are apparently insufficiently acquainted with the origins of the question to be able to comprehend the real issues or the significance of the events which they describe.

It was originally intended to write a book that would deal with the Chinese question from the beginning of the century until the recent disturbances. But a survey of the material for those years soon showed the advisability of postponing this for consideration in a later volume which will appear as a sequel to this one. It was evident that the events which occurred after the year 1900 could properly be gauged only after an appreciation of the conditions which gave rise to them. The present volume is an examination of those conditions.

The abundance of source material and the great number of memoirs of the diplomats of the period have considerably simplified the task of writing the contemporary history of China. And it would seem that the opportunities for a reasonable judgment of the events of those years are greater than is usually the case with contemporary matters. But the defect of any book upon Far Eastern politics must be the lack of Chinese or Japanese source material from which the foreign policies of these Governments may be authoritatively established. Unlike the Western Governments which have published freely from their archives, the Chinese and Japanese Governments have been singularly reluctant about opening their archives to the contemporary historian. The present volume, however, does not suffer very greatly from this defect. Chinese policy can be judged fairly accurately though indirectly from the documents of the Western Governments, and Japanese policy is evidently only secondary.

The method of this book differs in several important respects from that usually adopted. It was felt that China should not be regarded as isolated from world politics, but that the Chinese Question should be considered in its true relationship to the international situation of the time. The attempt has been made to analyse the policies of all the Powers active in China between the years 18941900, for in the opinion of the present writer each policy was affected by the others. The general practice of regarding the diplomatic incidents as the all-important factors has been avoided; instead the real factors underlying these policiesinternational law, finance, political geography, trade and trade routes, ambition, prestige, balance of powerhave as far as possible been indicated. The criticism may arise that no comparisons have been made between the events dealt with in this book and those connected with very recent developments in the Far East. Similarities undoubtedly exist. But it has been thought better to reserve the whole discussion of recent Chinese history for a later volume.

There remains only the very pleasant task of expressing the writers deep appreciation to all those who have assisted him with the present volume. The principal obligation is to Philip Noel Baker, M.A., Cassel Professor of International Relations at the University of London, for his friendship, his encouragement, his advice, his constant assistance, as well as for the many valuable suggestions and criticisms offered for the improvement of this work. To Mr. L. G. Robinson, M.A., of the London School of Economics, the writer is especially indebted for the care with which he read the manuscript and for his suggestions for its improvement. Owing to his criticisms the book is much less imperfect than it would otherwise have been. Acknowledgements are also gratefully made to Baron Meyendorff for information connected with Russias policy and for his kindness in securing access to Russian material otherwise unobtainable; to Baron Wolff for permission to use the manuscript of the memoirs of his father, formerly Vice-Director of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; to Mr. Stephen Gaselee, C.B.E., Librarian of the British Foreign Office, for his assistance and many courtesies; to Mr. J. W. Headlam-Morley, C.B.E., Mr. G. P. Gooch, D.Litt., Mr. H. Temperley, O.B.E., Litt. D., and Miss Lillian Benson, for permission to use the proofs of the