Chapter XXII: Introduction (20)

Finally on Monday, April 15th, a peace convention was actually signed at Shimonoseki by the plenipotentiaries of China and Japan. The independence of Corea was recognized. It was conceded that Japan should retain temporarily the important places that she had conquered. Port Arthur, Wei-hai-wei, and Niuchwang, including all the territory east of the Liao River. The island of Formosa was ceded permanently to Japan. An indemnity was provided for to be paid by China to Japan of 200,000,000 taels in silver, which is equivalent to about $150,000,000 in American gold. China agreed to no longer impose upon foreigners the odious tax known as Likin, levied upon all goods and sales, and a uniform standard tael was required to be adopted by China for her currency. All foreigners were to be permitted to introduce into China factories and machinery, and to lease warehouses in the interior. The important commercial concessions given to Japan were thus extended to all other treaty nations. The occupation of Port Arthur and Wei-hai-wei and of the conquered Manchoorian territory were to be temporary, lasting only long enough to guarantee the payment of the war indemnity by China. The terms of this payment provided that it should be made in silver in six annual installments. Japan retained extra-territorial jurisdiction in China, that is the right to try her own subjects arrested in China on charges of crime, and on the other hand China gave up the right to extra-territoriality in Japan.

The Chinese customs were not placed under Japanese control by the terms of the treaty as had been alleged, and the stipulations provided that on the payment of the first two installments of the indemnity to be paid by China, Wei-hai-wei might be evacuated, provided China pledge her customs revenue in order to insure the payment of the balance due. This it was officially announced was optional, and might never take effect, while at the present time there was no intention of touching the customs revenue of China. It was understood that China conceded practically everything required by Japan, except making Peking an open port, and this was strenuously resisted. At the solicitation of the Chinese envoy too, the indemnity demanded was reduced from three hundred million to two hundred million taels.

So frequently were reports circulated, that Japan and China had concluded an offensive and defensive alliance, and that the commercial advantages secured by Japan were to be exclusive, that the government felt it desirable to deny those statements and issued the following announcement regarding the matter:

“Misapprehensions are reported to be current in Europe in regard to the terms of the Japan-China treaty. It has been represented that Japan has secured a two per cent ad valorem duty on imports instead of specific duty and has also formed an offensive and defensive alliance with China. The commercial concessions obtained by Japan beyond those already secured by the treaty powers under the favored nation clause comprise the right to navigate the Yang-tse-Kiang to Chung King, and also the Woon Sung River and the canals leading to Soo Chow and Hank Chow and the right to import machinery and certain goods duty free and to establish factories. These concessions are not exclusive to Japan. They naturally extended to European powers, in virtue of the favored nation clause. In securing these privileges for all Japan expects the approval of all the powers. The reported offensive and defensive alliance does not exist.”

Li Hung Chang and his suite started home to China escorted to their vessels by a guard of honor, and Count Ito and Viscount Matsu, the officers who negotiated the treaty of peace were received in audience by the emperor on their return to Hiroshima. He expressed himself as entirely satisfied with the principal points of the treaty which added much to the glory of the empire, and highly pleased at the signal service rendered by them. On the afternoon of April 22 the following proclamation was issued by the Japanese mikado:

“Through peace, national prosperity is best promoted. Unfortunately, the rupture of relations with China forced upon us a war which, after a lapse of ten months, is not yet ended. During this period our ministers, in concert with the army, navy and diet, have done all in their power to further our aims in obedience to our instructions. Our ardent desire, with the assistance of our subjects, in loyalty and sincerity, is to restore peace and thereby attain our object—the promotion of national prosperity. Now that peace is negotiated and armistice proclaimed, a permanent cessation of hostilities is near at hand. The terms of peace fixed by our minister of state give us complete satisfaction. The peace and glory thus secured renders the present a fitting time to enlighten you as to the course of our future policy.

“We are rejoiced at the recent victories which have enhanced the glory of our empire. At the same time we are aware that the end of the road which must be traversed by the empire in the march of civilization is still far distant and remains yet to be attained. We therefore hope, in common with our loyal subjects, that we shall always guard against self-contentedness, but in a spirit of modesty and humility strive to perfect out military defense without falling into extremes. In short, it is our wish that the government and the people alike shall work to a common end and that our subjects of all classes strive each in his sphere for the purpose of laying the foundation of permanent prosperity.

“It is hereby definitely made known that no countenance will be given by us to such as, through conceit at the recent victories, may offer insult to another state or injure our relations with friendly powers, especially as regards China. After the exchange of the ratifications of the treaty of peace, friendship should be restored and endeavors made to increase more than ever before the relations of good neighborhood. It is our pleasure that our subjects pay due respect to these expressed wishes.”

Let us now take a hasty glance in conclusion at the condition in which the three countries with which we have dealt are left at the close of the war, and the prospects for their future. The Japanese government is in the hands of a progressive and able emperor, supported by a cabinet composed of the foremost statesmen of the east, and reigning under constitutional forms. Naturally elated by the wonderful success of their arms, it is to be fairly expected that they will continue in the progressiveness which has marked the island empire’s history since Perry opened the door for western light to shine in. In the east they should become by virtue of the abilities the dominant power, unless by chance the Chinese have learned a lesson which they will put into effect. With the constant impression of western civilization upon them, it is to be hoped that the Japanese will acquire a firm moral and intellectual basis for the manners of life that their intelligence and activity have adopted, and become in the best sense a civilized nation. What they lack now to reach this point, are the things that can only come by a succession of generations of civilization. Wonderful record as the last forty years have made for the empire, they have not given to that realm yet a complete and rounded civilization. The best friends of Japan hope and believe that she will not permit her splendid successes of the war to make her over lordly and conceited.

China is the enigma of the east. It is certain that the influences of their defeat will open the Chinese empire very rapidly to modern civilization and investment. But whether or not China retain her conservatism and refuse to adopt the things that are interspersed among her people can scarcely be predicted. The established system has received a severe shock from the Japanese victory, and surely a new or civilized and more vigorous one will take its place. It is an actual fact that so far as can be said by those most familiar with the country, the knowledge that the war has even been in progress has probably not yet penetrated to the confines of the empire, so poor are the means of communication and so indifferent are the people of one region to the things that are happening to those of another province. An experienced traveler in China relates that he penetrated from Shanghai southwestward through China towards India immediately after the destruction of the summer palace of the emperor by French and English troops, and the investiture of Peking thirty-five years ago. The expedition was considered dangerous, as the antagonism of the whole country, smarting under humiliation and defeat was to be feared. On arriving at Ichang, eleven hundred miles from the coast, the war news had just come to the knowledge of the government officials; three hundred miles farther west there was absolute ignorance that any war had occurred. At the city of Pingshan, two thousand miles west of the coast, the party heard of a Mohammedan insurrection of some years’ standing, ranging in the province of Yun-nan, but the bare fact of such an important disturbance had not yet reached the coast. Certain it is however, that if China does assimilate the lesson that she has had a chance to learn, a new power will exist in the east that will need to be watched by western nations.

As to Corea it is difficult again to prophesy. Should Japan take stringent pains to provide for civilizing that hermit kingdom, it is possible that the work may be done, but so difficult are the political conditions in that peninsula, and so unsympathetic are the Corean rulers and chief men with all western ideas of progress, that the task will be a bitter one. If Japan maintains the independence of Corea in its purity, that must mean that she will keep her own hands out of Corean affairs. This is scarcely to be expected, for the energetic empire has imposed upon herself the task of reforming Corea, and it is sure that she will make strenuous efforts to do it.

As one result of the war between China and Japan must be to increase the points of contact between the eastern and western worlds, the fortune of parties and the evolution of domestic politics in those countries must, in future, command to a greater degree than in the past, the attention of American and European observers. Political evolution has been rapid in Japan. Changes which in Anglo-Saxon countries have been the slow product of centuries, are, in this portion of what has been called “the unchanging east,” crowded into little more than a single generation. What may be done in Corea and China cannot be told. But the fairest prophecy would be that the horrors of war will be utilized, by the influence of time and a better understanding, to improve and modernize the Orient.

THE END.

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Transcriber’s Note

Pages 127 and 128 do not exist, but the text flows from page 126 to 129.

The image on page 70 is marked as page 71 in the index.

The image of page 112 is marked as page 111 in the index.

The image on page 186 is marked as 187 in the index.

The image appearing between pp. 170 and 171, captioned “Female Types and
Costumes”, does not appear in the index of illustrations. An entry
has been added, delimited in square brackets, as “facing p. 170”.

A sentence describing the activities of the Red Cross on p. 595 seems to be missing a verb. The word ‘was’ at 595.17 seems most likely to be intended.

It was judged that the word ‘contrabrand’, which appears twice on p. 465, is an error. The proper form appears once (p. 666). The two erroneous instances were corrected.

Other errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original.

7.15 with European Civ[il]ization Added.

10.2 Chine[r/s]e Barber, Replaced.

25.9 to ann[i]hilate Japan’s influence in Corea Inserted.

44.30 bronchial and p[lu/ul]monary complaints Transposed.

48.38 established a dynasty, short[-]lived indeed Inserted.

62.19 Dante, Petrarch and Boccac[c]io. Inserted.

66.31 with his new auxil[l]iaries Removed.

66.34 the tro[u/o]ps of the rebel leader Replaced.

71.6 England[']s First Embassy to China Inserted.

107.1 proper ice for p[er/re]servation Transposed.

105.7 roughly paralle[d/l] with its fellow Replaced.

146.21 by [sutting] their hair in fringe across _Sic_: putting?
their foreheads cutting?

171.5 steer straight by the[m/ir] co[m]pass Repaced. Inserted.

173.11 i[m/n]flammatory diseases are almost unknown Replaced.
in China

181.8 written in the colloqu[i]al style Inserted.

194.25 whereby his peac[e]ably disposed subjects Inserted.

217.4 the terror of the Chinese and Corean Inserted.
co[a]sts

228.32 before which they once [prayed Comma misplaced.
consume,/prayed, consume] them

232.5 It was the syno[myn/nym] of sorcery Transposed.

233.3 the “corrupt sect” suppos[o/e]d to be Replaced.
eradicated

233.29 their fathers of the seventeenth century.[”] Added.

251.14 made it the cap[ti/it]al of the empire Transposed.

296.1 bits of wood under the t[h/o]e and heel Replaced.

305.7 always bright with ve[n/r]dure and flowers Replaced.

333.14 The Confucian ethics were dil[l]igently Removed.
studied

343.3 the little peninsula been devast[at]ed by Inserted.
mighty invasion

343.21 [In ]1707 the Jesuits in Peking Added.

344.25 by their attemp[t]s to escape Inserted.

349.2 F[i]fteen years later Inserted.

350.10 These records of persever[e/a]nce Replaced.

372.1 GEOGRAPHY, GOVERNMENT, CLIMATE AND Inserted.
PRO[D]UCTS OF COREA.

372.22 or to Great Brit[ia/ai]n Transposed.

401.34 Mourning is of many degre[s/e]s and lengths Replaced.

414.2 the Chinese have not the sligh[t]est idea Inserted.

414.28 has frequently been a potent i[u/n]fluence Inverted.

424.37 Min Yon[k/g] Ik, who after fleeing to the Replaced.
mountains,

451.1 the Japanese expressive of contemp[t] Restored.

458.3 The sq[u]adron at this time, however, was in Inserted.
the north

462.24 before he could reach T[ei/ie]n-tsin Transposed.

465.13 contrab[r]and Removed.

465.17 contrab[r]and Removed.

465.22 that drew upo[m/n] them a severe rebuke Replaced.

492.38 it was evident that she was sinking[.] Added.

493.8 no mean achiev[e]ment Inserted.

501.7 seventeen and one-half knots; [T/t]he Replaced.
Takachiho and the Naniwa

503.19 the prestige of a grea[l/t] moral and Replaced.
material victory

536.22 no ca[lva/val]ry or artillery accompanying Transposed.
them

552.30 The efficien[c]y of a force Inserted.

571.36 and[ and] he chasing them back into their Removed.
own ports

554.2 a[m/n]d they stood shoulder to shoulder Replaced.

578.13 three st[r]ong columns of Chinese Inserted.

595.17 The last activity of the Red Cross society Missing?
prior to the war in 1891, [was ]when

598.20 now a w[ie/ei]rd, characteristic Japanese Transposed.
march

604.31 while vastly important as a stra[get/teg]ic Transposed.
point

614.2 terrorized the people of Ma[u/n]chooria Transposed.

614.22 through the Laio[./-]Tung promontory Replaced.

617.3 to the north of Talien-wan Bay[,] Added.

620.33 and four hundred ca[lva/val]ry cavalry Transposed.

621.10 Jap[a]nese troops turned southward Inserted.

622.35 towards severe [punishment the] military and _Sic._ of? for?
naval officers

625.28 Mor[e]over, he too believed Inserted.

626.1 to hold the regency under pretex[t] Added.

636.19 his squadron was seen in its old posit[i]on Inserted.

648.36 Th[e/s] coast defenses Replaced.

651.6 to the group of small islands know[s/n] as Replaced.
the Pescadores

666.15 On the opening of the negot[i]ations Inserted.

668.8 he endeavored to st[u/ea]dy his right arm Replaced.

670.3 a two per cent ad v[o/a]lorem duty Replaced.

671.15 fr[i]endship should be restored Inserted.