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CHINA AND HER NEIGHBOURS
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CHINA AND HER NEIGHBOURS
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CHINA AND HEB
NEIGHBOURS
France in Indo-China, Russia and China,
India and Thibet.
R. 8. GUNDRY
* That which hath been ie that which shaU be ; and that which hath been done is that
which shall be done: and there is no new thinir under the san. Is there a
thinff whereof men ssy. See, this is new ? it hath been already, in iho ages
which were before us."— Kcclbs. i. 9, 10.
WITH MAPS
London: CHAPMAN and HALL, Ltd.
1893 ^
\^AXX rights reserved']
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-i'/r^r-
*••**:
_ r • • • «
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BfHtcaUtt
TO
SIR THOMAS F, WADE, G.C.M.G., K.C.B.,
LATB HSB MAJIBTT'S MINI8TBB AT PIKING.
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INTEODUCTION.
The following essays, which have appeared from
time to time in the periodical press, are repub-
lished, with such emendations and additions as the
development of events seemed to require, in the
belief that the retrospect they afford may not be
without value at the present crisis in the Far East.
Owing to the time and form of original publication,
the chapters may, at first sight, appear somewhat
disjointed, — each having been designed to describe a
separate episode. But the very fragmentary cha-
racter of the narrative serves to throw up into
stronger relief the continuity of purpose in the
various adventures of the Great Powers whose deal-
ings with China and her Tributaries are set forth.
It is, indeed, only by bearing in mind this fixed and
persistent policy on the part of Russia and France,
that the separate episodes of that policy can be
properly valued and fitted into their appropriate
places in the general scheme.
The series of papers, for example, on French
operations in Indo-China, written to elucidate the
several events as they took place, will, it is believed,
be found to famish a fairly complete narrative of
the whole course of that remarkable enterprise,
a
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X INTRODUCTION.
which can hardly fail to interest the political moralist
at the moment when it has culminated in the most
cynical aggression of modem times. The dual motive
of hostility to England and the glorification of France,
which has animated French policy in Asia, has
undergone no variation whatever since France had
a policy in Asia at all. Monarchies, Republics, and
Empires succeed each other, but the spirit remains
the same through aU these superficial changes. It
is candidly avowed, and there need be no delicacy
in putting the truth in plain language.
The attempt to gain a footing in Indo-China
daring the reign of Louis XVI. was avowedly
dictated by the hostility to England which is con-
spicuous in the tone of French journalism at the
present day. The facilities which such a position
would give for harassing English commerce were
frankly put forward, by Mgr. Pigneau de Behaine,
as reasons for giving King Gya-long the help which
was to be paid for by the cession of Tourane ; and
the remarkable treaty in which the bargain was
recorded exacts privileges that were expressly de-
signed to make Annam an arsenal, dockyard, and
recruiting groimd for France in Eastern Asia.
And so in the case of Siam. Louis the Fourteenth's
remarkable attempt to establish French " influence "
in Siam was dictated by jealousy of England
and Holland, as much as by a desire to promote
French commerce. The two Protestant Powers
were believed to derive much of the wealth which
enabled them to make head against him, in Europe,
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INTRODUCTION, xi
from the trade they carried on with Asia; and
the French Government of the day rejoiced at the
prospect of dealing a blow at that prosperity by
installing French garrisons, and setting up a hostile
regime, at Mergui and Bangkok. The impression
that the tale of Siamese embassies to Louis XIV.
arose out of a masquerading attempt, by Madame de
Maintenon, to amuse a blase and senile king, is hardly
yet fairly dispelled. But the first Siamese embassy
reached France in 1685, when Louis was at the
height of his power and in the prime of life. His
garrisons had been turned out of Siam, and the
whole project had collapsed, more than twenty years
before his death. The detailed account of those
embassies and of their political motives which will
be found in the following pages may show that the
annexations and protective duties of the present day
are the modem development of the policy which
inspired Colbert and Louis XIV.
A curious feature which may strike us, in connec-
tion with each of these attempts, is the share taken
by the Church in prompting the political adventure.
It is Mgr. Pallu, Bishop of Heliopolis, who inspires
the beginnings of French intercourse with Siam, and
it is a Jesuit Missionary named Tachard who helps
to inflate the conception of military ascendency. It
is Mgr. Pigneau de Behaine, Bishop of Adran, who
conceives and organizes the whole scheme of French
intervention in Annam, and who thus literally and
practically laid the foundation of the Indo-Chinese
Empire which his countrjrmen are trying to build up,
a 2
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xii INTROD UCTION'.
at the present day. It is the Abb6 Hue who sug-
gests to Napoleon III. that the opportunity is a
good one for re-asserting French influence at Saigon ;
and there are mysterious rumours of a (half-caste)
Cambodian Christian visiting M. de Montigny, at
Singapore, just as he was about starting on a tour
of diplomatic visits to the Courts of Eastern Asia,
in 1856, to suggest that a French protectorate would
be welcomed by [? a section of] the Khmers.
This traditional motive should be borne in mind
when surprise is expressed at the apparent divergence
between the attitude of the Republican Government
towards the Church at home and abroad. Propa-
gandismwas connoted with commerce in the projects of
Richelieu and Colbert. The Empire was carrying out
this policy in striving to exalt the position of France
as protector of oriental missions ; and the Republic
upheld the tradition to the extent, it was understood,
of threatening to denounce the Concordat, when it was
proposed, some years ago, to break up the system by
inducing European governments to undertake, each,
the protection of its own missionary subjects. Ger-
many and Italy had acquiesced, and the Vatican had
even agreed to appoint a Legate to watch over the
interests of the Church, at Peking, when Franco
temporarily upset the scheme by the energy of its
opposition.
In the first six chapters of the present volume,
an attempt has been made to depict the successive
stages in the construction of the French colonial
edifice. There is no pretence of describing, in detail.
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INTRODUCTION. xiii
the military operations. Saigon, Cambodia, Tong-
king, Annam, Siam— each annexation is dealt with, in
turn, chiefly as a political episode ; and the fact that
mention is made, frequently years beforehand, of
the next contemplated aggression, may serve to ex-
pose the hoUowness of the wrongs which were
put forward, as excuses for military action, when
the convenient moment arrived. The Intrans'igeanty
indeed, avowed the other day, with perfect frankness :
" We are going to Siam under pretext of avenging
an insult to our flag, but really with the idea of
making a new conquest." And the admission ade-
quately describes the value of French protestations.
The paper on " France and Saigon " was written
for the North'Ghina Herald after a visit to the Colony,
in 1873, when the idea of gaining a foothold in
Tongking was beginning to take shape and the
Saigon Independant was already advocating a pro-
tectorate over the remainder of Annam. De Lagr^e's
discovery of the Song-Koi had fired the Colonial
imagination; Dupuis was engaged in testing its
practicability as a channel of commercial intercourse
with Yunnan; and de Cam^ was urging, in the
Revue des Deux MondeSj that coercion must be
employed if the King persisted in obstructing French
designs: England was trying to attract the trade
to Burmah ; and " it is not,'* he exclaims, '^ at the
moment when, by a stroke of good luck, it depends
on ourselves to forestall her, that it behoves us
to halt before the susceptibilities of a despot who
cannot conceive liberty of commerce without
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xiv INTRODUCTION.
occupation of territory, and who repulses our
merchants as if they were the forerunners of our
soldiers ! When one decides on a war of conquest,
it would appear that one accepts beforehand the
consequence of success, and the opening of Tongking
is a necessary sequel of our establishment in the six
provinces of Lower Cochin-China." A protectorate,
in short, — or at least complete freedom of trade in
the ports of Tongking, guaranteed by the installation
of a French Resident at the Annamese capital, — was
the only means of securing thfe desired end and of
escaping a deadlock " ou nous acculeraient una
timidity sans excuse aussi bien que des scrupules par
trop naifs." One scarcely knows whether most to
admire the unconscious tribute paid to Annamese
foresight, or the simulated indignation at suspicions
whose justice is practically admitted in the con-
cluding phrase. The sentence is, at any rate, worthy
of note because it strikes the keynote of French
policy in Indo-China. Subsequent proceedings have
been precisely characterized by the imscrupulous
aggression, disguised under a pretence of moral
indignation, which is here commended with such
sublime imconsciousness of the incongruity displayed.
The historical sketch which forms the basis
of the chapter on "Cambodia" was contributed to
the London and China Express, at the time M.
Thomson was stripping King Norodom of the last
shreds of political independence, and premonitory
mutterings of derivative claims were beginning
to disturb the Court of Bangkok. It had been all
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INTRODUCTION. xv
very well, ten yqars previously, for de Cam6 to ex-
patiate on the political skill and firmness which had
defeated Siam and obtained the surrender of Cam-
bodia to the exclusive protectorate of France ; but it
had been discovered, now, that Cambodia had once
been a much larger geographical expression. Gamier
had pointed out the necessity of hoisting the flag at
Stung-treng and Khong, and had recorded M. de
Lagree's opinion that the province of Tonly Repu
ought to be reclaimed: the recognition of Siamese
rights over Battambong and Angkor had become a
source of acute regret ; and Dr. Neis was beginning
to discover that there were tribes, even so far north
as the frontier of Tongking, who were held in
bondage by Siam.
The essay on " France and Tongking " appeared in
the Contemporary Review, at the moment when
French intervention was taking the form of con-
quest; and that on "France and Annam" in the
Westminster, twelve months later, when the action
of the French Government had brought China into
the field.
" China and Her Tributaries " was written about
the same time, for the National Review, for the
purpose of explaming the nature of China's relations
with her neighbours and the continuity of the feudal
tie which France was pretending to ridicule in the
case of Annam ; while " France and Siam " was
published two months ago, in the same Review, at
the moment when definite expression was being
given to the ulterior aspirations that had been fore-
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xvi INTRODUCTION.
shadowed, from time to time, in previous essays. A
second chapter has been added, to trace the develop-
ment of the enterprise, and to explain more precisely
the English and Chinese interests which seem likely
to mar the perfection of the original design. It will
be seen that Siam has repudiated vassalage or any
kind of tributary relationship to her more powerful
neighbour. She cannot, therefore, appeal now, as of
right, for the help which China might, or might not,
be willing to afford. But the Imperial Cabinet
seems disposed to avow a natural anxiety in claims
that involve the extension of the French frontier
along the southern border of Yunnan. It may
not feel much more concerned than England about
what happens on the Southern Meikong; but it
would hardly be surprising if it shared the distaste
of England to annexations of territory that touch
China as nearly on the South as they touch British
Burmah on the East. French newspapers exhaust
themselves in ironical references to former English
annexations, by way of retort upon English criticisms
of French proceedings in Siam. The annexation of
Burmah, especially, is pointed to as a precedent which
completely cuts the ground from under our feet.
But the fact is overlooked that that annexation was
forced upon us by intrigues which were designed
to draw Mandalay under the influence of France, and
which were alleged to contemplate the annexation to
Tongking of the very region which England and
China have again stepped in to protect. It is over-
looked, also, that our dislike to French encroach-
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INTRODUCTION. xvii
ments is inspired quite as much by an instinct of
commercial self-defence as by any feeling of political
jealousy or antagonism. Where England goes, all
the world is free to follow: Bunnah is as much
open to French trade as to English — to Rouen and
Lille as to Manchester and Bradford — but where
France goes nothing English is admitted, if protec-
tive duties can keep it out.
Our interest in Indo-China might easily become
acute in presence of a Franco-Russian alliance ;
and the generally-admitted existence of at least a
tacit entente may lend interest to the group of essays
depicting the relations of China with her northern
neighbour. For England's interest in Russian
encroachments in the North is scarcely less, or less
vivid, than it is in French annexations in the South ;
and those encroachments are made, in every case, at
the cost of the great empire which stretches half
across Asia, from Corea to the Pamirs. The chapters
on "Kuldja" and "Russia and China," reprinted
respectively from the Times and the Fortnightly
Ileview — though dealing, in the main, with distinct
phases of intercourse — will serve to exhibit the
political relations between the two giant Powers.
The former was written at the moment when the
Kuldja difficulty had just been settled by the Treaty
of St. Petersburg, in 1881 ; and the latter while
attention was being directed, last year, to Russian
proceedings in the Pamirs.
Nor are our interests confined to the neighbourhood
of our Indian frontier. It is one of the penalties of
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xviu INTRODUCTION.
our commercial greatness that we are sensitive to
any increase in the maritime resources of a possibly
hostile Power. We are interested, therefore, in
Russian proceedings on the Amoor as well as on
the Helmund. Relegated, on the eastern coast of
Siberia, to ports which are more or less ice-bound
during a portion of the year, Russia would be
almost less than human, as well as less than aggres-
sive, if she did not look wistfully across the fron-
tier of Primorsk to the open harbours of Corea.
The essays on " Corea " and " Port Hamilton," which
are reproduced from the We^tmin^ier BevieWj will
explain the steps by which the Hermit Kingdom
was drawn within the vortex of modem intercourse,
and by which its integrity has been safeguarded.
The former was written soon after Chinese per-
suasion and the force of events had induced the
little kingdom to open its doors; and the latter
shortly after our withdrawal from the group of
islands which had been occupied by the British fleet
during the disaccord that arose, in 1886, out of
Russia's attitude towards Afghanistan, and had
nearly burst into flame at Pendjeh. Neither China
nor Corea appears to believe too implicitly in the
value of the guarantees; but the jealousy with
which Russian encroachment would be viewed by
others than China, and by others even than Great
Britain, may help to render efficacious paper en-
gagements that might prove less reliable with less
substantial backing.
In sum, therefore, we find a remarkable similarity
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INTRODUCTION. xix
between the political conditions in Asia and Europe.
India and China, which ask nothing but to be let
alone, are confronted by Russia and France, much as
Germany and Austria are confronted in Europe ; and
their common interests must tend to ally them in an
attitude of mutual defence which would probably
command, in an emergency, the sympathy of Japan.
For it is evident that, by exercising alternative or
simultaneous pressure in the North-west and South-
east, the two great Western Powers might create a
degree of military tension and political unrest as ex-
hausting as, and even more intolerable than, that
existing in Europe. Even neutral Belgium has an
Eastern representative in Korea ; and the position of
England, in Europe, finds a not inapt parallel in the
considerable power of Japan.
The three concluding chapters deal with a topic
of less Imperial consequence, but of not less interest,
perhaps, to the general reader.
Russian movements in northern Thibet have had,
so far, a purely exploratory character ; though the
facility with which Cossack detachments find their
way along the trail of the traveller, and pave the way
for emissaries of a less visionary class, may lead us
to watch with interest any region towards which
Russian attention appears to be directed. Thibet is
shielded, at present, in a great degree, by Chinese
Turkestan. But frontiers, in these remote regions,
are less clearly defined than would appear from
school maps ; and there are unsettled districts along
the boundary between Kashgaria and Kashmir
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XX INTRODUCTION,
which account for much Chinese, and some Indian,
anxiety about Russian movements across the Pamirs.
Our own present interest, however, is confined to
re-opening commercial intercourse across the Hima-
layas. The attempt made by Warren Hastings, in
1774, which was defeated, then, by Chinese antago-
nism, has been taken up again during this genera-
tion, and seems in a fair way of being carried, now,
with Chinese goodwill, to a successful issue.
The project inspired the provisions for roads and
transit dues which found place in Sir Ashley Eden's
treaty with Sikhim, in 1861 : it was given diplo-
matic expression, seventeen years ago, in the Anglo-
Chinese Convention of Chefoo, and was taken up with
more directness a decade later — though with results
that promised ill, at first, for the attainment of the
object in view. A mission to Lhassa, which had been
organized in India with the consent of China, was
abandoned in consequence of the hostile attitude
of the Lamas ; and the latter, encouraged by this
negative success, pushed their antagonism to the
point of occupying territory which had long been
considered, at Calcutta, as within the British-Indian
sphere. They were, of course, driven out ; but it
has taken several years to re-knit the broken diplo-
matic threads. Negotiations do not often progress
rapidly where China is alone concerned ; they were
still less likely to do so where Calcutta and Lhassa
were involved.
The settlement of the matter seems to have been
eventually left to those two capitals ; and an agree-
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INTRODUCTION. xxi
ment was shortly reached in which the project of
commercial intercourse was accepted, and the
suzerainty of India over Cis-nivean Sikhim formally
recognized. A Convention, signed by the Chinese
Amban and Lord Lansdowne, at Calcutta, in
March, 1890, was promptly ratified at London and
Peking, and has been followed by commercial
negotiations, at Darjeeling, which are believed to
be at length approaching a termination. The papers
in which the position was reviewed, at intervals,
in the National and Westminster Beviews, may be
useful as collating the several episodes in the story,
and conveying some information regarding a little
known region of Central Asia.
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CONTENTS.
VAOB
Introduction . . ix
FEANCE IN INDO-CHINA.
CHAPTER I.
Fbancb and Saioon 1
CHAPTER II.
Frakob and Cambodia 17
CHAPTER IIL
Francb and Tongkinq 35
CHAPTER IV.
Francs and Annam 72
CHAPTER V.
China AND Her Tributaries 117
CHAPTER VI.
France and Siam 148
CHAPTER VII.
England, China and Siam 177
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xxiv CONTENTS.
RUSSIA AND CHINA.
CHAPTEE VIII.
FA 01
KULDJA 203
CHAPTER IX.
CORBA 217
CHAPTER X.
Port Hamilton 268
CHAPTER XI.
Russia and China 295
INDIA AND THIBET.
CHAPTER XII.
Projects of Coumeroial Interooubsb .... 323
CHAPTER XHL
The Position in 1888 353
CHAPTER XIV.
SiKHIM 374
CHAPTER XV.
Progress of Negotiations 405
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FEANCE IN INDO-CHTNA^
CHAPTER L
FRANCE AND SAIGON.
During the reign of Louis XVI. an Annamese
Prince appeared at the French Court, under the
guidance of Mgr. Pigneau de Behaine, Bishop of
Adran, to ask assistance against rebels who had
deposed and driven his father to flight. The oppor-
tunity was tempting. The titular king could be in