East of Suez: Ceylon, India, China and JapanPenfield, Frederic Courtland
History
East of Suez: Ceylon, India, China and Japan
Penfield, Frederic Courtland
East Asia -- Description and travel; India -- Description and travel
This amounted in substance to saying farewell on China's part to a slice
of domain in all more than twice the size of the state of Rhode Island.
The "sphere of influence," so-called, measures 2,750 square miles.
Germany was given as well the equivalent of sovereignty over the harbor
of Kiau-chau, no end of mining and railway rights, and other privileges.
The lease dates from March 6th, 1898. England was to give Wei-haiwei
back to China should Russia retire or be driven from Port Arthur, but
has not done so. In all probability Germany, as well as Great Britain,
is located on the Yellow Sea under a tenure that will be found to be
permanent.
Kiau-chau harbor is one of the most spacious and best protected on the
coast of China. The small native town of Tsing-tau, admirably situated
on the harbor, was adopted by Germany as the seat of government, and all
the appurtenances of a military and naval station have there been
erected. A look of permanency characterizes every structure. The house
of the naval governor is even pretentious. The capital is laid out with
generous regard to broad streets, designated on name-plates as
"strasses." A bank and hotels await the coming of business. The harbor
has been dredged, and two miles of the best wharves in Asia constructed
of masonry. Warehouses, barracks, hospitals, administrative buildings
and coal sheds are there, all in German style, and intended to last
hundreds of years.
Tsing-tau as a seat of deputed government may not have found its way
into school-books--but the inquisitive traveler in Northeast China
readily learns of its existence. Perhaps it is meant to be complimentary
to China to retain the name Tsing-tau--but that is all about the place
that is Chinese, save the coolies executing the white man's behest.
There are 3,000 Europeans, almost exclusively Germans, in William II's
capital on Kiau-chau Bay. Soldiers and officials predominate, of course,
but merchant and industrial experts are in the pioneer band in
conspicuous number.
And what of the "hinterland," compassed by the 45-mile semicircle,
dotted with thirty odd native towns, the whole having a population of
1,200,000? This patch of China is surely in process of being awakened:
there are numerous schools wherein European missionaries are teaching
the German language, and enterprise greets the eye everywhere.
Locomotives "Made in Germany" screech warnings to Chinese yokels to
clear the way for trains heavy with merchandise of German origin--and
this is but an incident in the great scheme of Germanizing the Chinese
Empire. Incidentally, it is provided by the agreement between the Pekin
and Berlin governments that a native land-owner in the leased section
can sell only to the German authorities. This ruling conveys a meaning
perfectly clear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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