PART III

CHINA

I

E have witnessed one of the most brazen ex

WE

amples of international brigandage in the history of the world. In less than four-score years we have seen China, a country as large as Europe, with a civilization extending back into the mists of antiquity, rifled of territory and resources by a handful of predatory nations with as little compunction as a gang of lawless boys would raid a farmer's orchard. We have seen this vast, rich, peaceable, defenceless country bullied, intimidated, reduced to a state of virtual vassalage, and parceled out in spheres of influence, leases obtained under duress, and enforced concessions by methods which, in their effrontery and callousness, are reminiscent of the freebooters of the Spanish Main. The story of the pillage of China is saturated with intrigue and corruption, deceit and trickery, selfishness and greed. It forms one of the most shameful and depressing chapters in the history of our times and makes a mockery of Europe's sanctimonious championship of justice and fair-dealing.

The bewilderment and discouragement which usually reward those foreigners who attempt to acquire a clear-cut understanding of the Chinese situation are primarily due, in my opinion, to their failure to comprehend the peculiar geographic divisions of the country and the ethnologic distinctions of its inhabitants. Opening the atlas to the map of Asia, they see an enormous wedge-shaped territory, nearly one third larger than the United States, driven so deeply into the continent that its point impinges on the Afghan border. Because this wedge is tinted yellow and labeled "China," they naturally assume that it is a compact nation, like Italy or France, and that its three hundred million inhabitants are one homogeneous race, like the Italians or the French. Strictly speaking, however, the term "China" is applicable only to a single section of this vast territory, and the term "Chinese" only to the natives of that section.

The territory which comprised the Chinese Empire, and which was inherited, at least in theory, by the Chinese Republic, consists of five1 great raciopolitical divisions: Manchuria in the northeast, Mongolia in the north, Sinkiang2 in the west, Tibet in the southwest, and China proper in the southeast. Though the design adopted by the republic for its

The Chinese assert that the republic consists of only four political divisions, China, Mongolia, Sinkiang, and Tibet, claiming that Manchuria should be considered a part of China proper.

2

Sinkiang, or the New Dominion, consists of Kulja, Kashgaria, and Chinese Turkestan.

new flag, on which the old yellow dragon has been replaced by five latitudinal stripes-crimson, yellow, blue, white, and black-to denote the five racesMongol, Chinese, Manchu, Turki,' and Tibetanwhich comprise the Chinese people, might be interpreted as symbolic of national solidarity, the very reverse is the truth, for these five divisions, as a matter of fact, are bound together by the loosest and weakest of ties. This lack of homogeneity is due to the fact that the various elements of the population have little in common, being wholly distinct in origin, history, characteristics, traditions, and language. For example, the speech of a Tibetan is as unintelligible to a Mongol, a Manchu, or a Chinese as Gaelic is to an Englishman.

Now it should be clearly understood that of these five great divisions three-Mongolia, Sinkiang, and Tibet-are little more than outlying dependencies over which the central government exercises the vaguest and most shadowy control. Tibet, for instance, is nominally a territory of the Chinese Republic, yet the Peking government may not appoint or dismiss a single Tibetan official without the sanction of the government of British India. In fact, Tibet may be said to be far more under the rule of Calcutta than of Peking. The vast and ill-defined tract of country known as Mongolia, a region five times the size of Texas, is likewise considered a part 1 The Turkis are the Mohammedan inhabitants of Sinkiang.

of the republic, yet the central government has seen fit to raise a tariff wall between this border territory and the homeland by imposing a duty of ten per cent. ad valorem on goods imported from Mongolia into China, or vice versa, whereas Mongolian products are permitted to enter Russian territory duty free.

Though the three outlying dependencies have a combined area of nearly two and one half million square miles, or about two thirds of the total area of the republic, they are very sparsely settled, their inhabitants comprising not more than seven per cent. of the total population. They are, moreover, remotely situated and are entirely destitute of modern means of communication, being accessible only by the ancient caravan routes. Hence, notwithstanding their enormous extent and their immense wealth in undeveloped resources, Mongolia, Sinkiang, and Tibet play no greater part in Chinese politics than Alaska, Porto Rico, and the Philippines play in American politics, if as much. But, politically and economically unimportant though they are at present, I would stake my life that these remote and littleknown regions will be great countries some day.

Manchuria, owing to its greater population (about twenty millions), its extensive railway system, and its strategic position athwart the routes from Siberia and Korea to China proper, has a status quite different from that of the dependencies just mentioned. Though most foreign authorities regard Manchuria