CHAPTER VI.

THE FAR EAST.

I. JAPAN.

The opening of the year 1914 was attended by many disasters. In Hokkaido and the North-East Provinces of Hondo owing to the failure of the rice crop of 1913, famine existed on a scale which was reported by missionary associations to demand all the assistance that could possibly be given. The Government made appropriations amounting to 830,000_l._ towards the relief of the sufferers, who were unofficially stated to number some 9,000,000 persons, and while its attention was being given in this quarter of the Empire, a calamity of a most alarming nature occurred in the south-east.

On 9 and 10 January an eruption of the volcano of Sakurashima, an island in Kagoshima Bay in Kiushiu, took place. The island was soon aflame, nearly half the houses were burnt and the inhabitants fled as best they could to Kagoshima. Streams of lava and dense bodies of ashes poured into the sea and over the island. The Japanese Government was prompt in rendering assistance. Two squadrons were at once despatched to the spot and measures were organised for the relief of the sufferers. The number of deaths which took place was not so great as might have been expected, but the devastation caused was such that over 10,000 persons were forced to emigrate. Apart from the assistance given by the Government a relief fund of over 50,000_l._ was raised by Japanese. Further disturbances were feared but nothing on a large scale took place, though the field of disturbance extended to Akita in Hondo.

Following on these great natural and physical disasters there occurred on April 9 the death of the Empress Dowager, a calamity felt to be as much of a national nature as the others. Preparations for the forthcoming Coronation were at once cancelled and the country joined in genuine mourning for the lady who had held so high a place in their affections and who had as Empress exhibited sympathy with the nation in all its joys and troubles. The unfailing dignity and tact shown by the Empress in the novel circumstances arising out of the introduction of a Western atmosphere into her Court had won her also an admiration abroad intensified by her grace and sympathy.

While suffering under these misfortunes, the nation was at the same time burdened with a scandal arising out of a contract for the battleship _Kongo_. Proofs of bribes given by the firm of Siemens & Schuckert were produced in the course of a long trial which included the representatives of that firm as well as other foreigners and Japanese of high standing in naval departments. Indignation meetings were held in Tokyo and a vote of no confidence in the Government which was moved in the House was lost only by 205 to 163 votes. As a result of the vote, the mob outside tried to break down the gates of the Houses of Parliament, and order was restored only by a display of military force.

The trial of the persons accused extended over two months. Admirals Fujii and Matsuo were severally sentenced to four and a half and two years' imprisonment, the managing and three other directors of the Mitsui Bussan Kaisha received sentences varying from two years to three months' imprisonment, Reuter's Agent, Pooley, was sentenced to three years, Siemens' manager, Herrmann, and other Japanese and foreigners to minor terms. How bitterly the scandal was felt was shown not only by the popular outcry, but also by the attempted suicide of Vice-Admiral Yamamouchi and the surrender by the Mitsui Bussan Kaisha of 75,000_l._ received illegally as commission on the _Kongo_ and the devotion of that sum to charitable works.

The Government had been seriously affected by the disclosures attending the discovery of this scandal in the early part of the year, and the Budget introduced in January failed in consequence to receive necessary support. Under the Budget Revenue and Expenditure, ordinary and extraordinary, balanced at yen 641,000,000, and a naval programme entailing an expenditure of 16,000,000_l._, spread over seven years, was provided. Of the revenue yen 75,000,000 was furnished from a surplus in 1912-13, and economies effected by administrative reform in 1913-14. A reduction in taxation to the extent of yen 10,200,000 was also granted. But the Budget met with no favour in either House. In the Lower House an amendment was passed involving a reduction of yen 18,000,000, and in the House of Peers the Naval Vote was further reduced by yen 40,000,000. This action was followed by a joint Conference of ten members of each House, in which the Peers' reduction was rejected by one vote. Parliament was prorogued three days later (March 23) and the Ministry resigned.

Great difficulty was experienced in forming a new Cabinet. Prince Tokugawa, the head of the old Shogunate, was the first to be asked, but he declined the task. Viscount Kiyoura then attempted to form a Ministry, but failed. Finally Count Okuma, in spite of his age, seventy-six, accepted office and appointed a Ministry in which Baron Kato was Minister of Foreign Affairs, while Admiral Yashiro and General Oka took over the Admiralty and War Offices.

In June the Naval Budget passed the House of Peers with an additional appropriation of 600,000_l._ passed by the Lower House to cover ten years' expenditure on ships under construction.

Thus, to Germany's misfortune, all the difficulties and disasters of the year had been mastered and overcome in Japan when Germany declared war upon Great Britain, and when applied to by her ally for assistance in protecting her trade in the East, Japan loyally responded to the request. But the existence of Germany's naval base at Kiao-chou in Shantung made protection impossible until this base was abandoned. Accordingly on August 17 an ultimatum was issued by Japan to Germany, demanding the withdrawal of her fleet from the Far East and the surrender of Kiao-chou, and an answer was requested before noon on August 23. The ultimatum was based on the importance of the preservation of peace--the reason assigned by Russia, France and Germany for requiring Japan to retrocede Liao-tung, after that Province had been ceded to her under the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. Germany's pride permitted of no answer to this ultimatum, and the Kaiser telegraphed to Kiao-chou: "It would shame me more to surrender Kiao-chou to the Japanese than Berlin to the Russians."

On August 23 war was declared against Germany by the Emperor of Japan, and his Minister left Berlin. The war was popular in Japan as a war of revenge for the part played by Germany in 1895, and the arrest of Japanese in Germany and the insults offered to the Ambassador when leaving Berlin intensified the feeling. The blockade of Kiao-chou was announced on August 23 and in a special session of the Diet, opened on September 5, a war appropriation of yen 53,000,000 was unanimously voted.

An Austrian cruiser, the _Kaiserin Elisabeth_, chanced to be in Kiao-chou at the beginning of August and the Austrian Ambassador at Tokyo had proposed that she should be disarmed and interned at Shanghai, but on Japan's taking action against Germany he left Tokyo and the vessel was left to her fate.

The time which had been allowed to lapse before the declaration of war had given time for the German garrison in Peking and German reservists in China to come to Kiao-chou to strengthen the garrison there. Enormous sums of money had been spent on the defences, and the capture of the place was generally recognised as a difficult feat. The landing of the Japanese at Laoshan Bay was effected on September 2, but the British contingent, under General Barnardiston, did not land until September 23-24, and arrived at the front as the Japanese were finishing their first engagement on September 28. General Kamio, the Japanese Commander-in-Chief, began the bombardment of the fortress on October 31, after the exodus of non-combatants had been permitted. The bombardment lasted a week, during which several forts were silenced and captured, and on November 7 as the Japanese were preparing to rush the fortress, the white flag was run up. In the early stages of the siege there had been considerable waste of heavy ammunition by the besieged, but the early surrender of the place was a surprise to the besiegers. The force under General Kamio numbered 22,980 officers and men with 142 guns, while the British contingent consisted of 910 officers and men of the 2nd South Wales Borderers and 450 of the 36th Sikhs. The German force was estimated at 5,000 men, and over 4,000 were made prisoners. The escape of the German cruisers early in August had deprived the harbour of some of the defences which had been expected, but extensive mine-fields had been sown which interfered with the activity of the attacking fleets. The German vessels which remained in harbour, as well as the Austrian cruiser, had all been sunk before the surrender of the fortress.

The news of this success excited great enthusiasm in Japan and General Barnardiston, who visited Tokyo shortly afterwards, received high honours from the Emperor and city. Much consideration was shown towards the prisoners from Kiao-chou and much liberty was granted them in their movements.

The satisfaction of the country in the feat performed by her army did not, however, prevent severe criticism of the new Budget in the Diet which was opened on December 7. Under the Budget provision was made for an expenditure of yen 556,000,000, and a decrease in revenue of yen 81,000,000 was forecast. No special provision was made for war expenditure, as it was intended to meet this from accumulated surplus of previous years under authority which would be asked for when required. A specially obnoxious clause provided for the increase of the Army by two divisions, a project which had already occasioned the fall of several Ministries, and which now in a division on December 24 in Budget Committee led to the defeat of the Government by 213 votes to 148. The Diet was dissolved the next day.

Gloomy as had been the scenes which ushered in 1914, the year closed with a record of achievements of which the nation might well be proud. Her enemy Germany had been driven from the fortified position which she had prepared in Shantung, the German railroad from Kiao-chou to the provincial capital was in Japanese hands, and obligations towards her ally, Great Britain, had been nobly fulfilled. Not only had British trade in the China Seas received such protection as to enable it, after a short interval, to be carried on without fear of molestation, but in the Pacific work had been done which greatly strengthened Great Britain. The Marshall Islands and some others in German possession had been seized and handed over to the Australian Commonwealth; and the strength of the Japanese fleet had assisted towards the safe convoy of Australian troops and probably also towards the rounding up of the German squadron off the Falkland Islands and its destruction there.

Those countries which had long harboured suspicion of Japan's action had to acknowledge the disinterestedness of her conduct. Her retention of Kiao-chou was the only point on which attacks were still made, ignoring the fact that Japan's offer in August to surrender the port to China after the war was conditional on Germany's acceptance of the Japanese ultimatum.

II. CHINA.

In October, 1913, Yuan Shih-kai had been elected President of the Republic by the National Assembly. In November of the same year both Houses decided to suspend their meetings, as a quorum could not be obtained, owing to the action of the Government which had declared void the seats held by the Kuo-min-tang party, in consequence of their continuous opposition to all Government measures. The action of the President in dissolving Parliament (Jan. 11) created no new situation, but somewhat strengthened his position. At the same time it was felt that some kind of a quasi-representative body was needed, not only to temper criticism of the Republic as such, but also to furnish the President with information. In November a Central Administrative Council had been called into existence by Yuan Shih-kai, and though its birth had been greeted with contempt owing to its lack of legislative powers, this or other similar bodies under different names with slightly altered functions usurped the place of a representative Council, not without advantage to the country, throughout the course of 1914.

Yuan Shih-kai, after cancelling the draft Constitution drawn up by the Committee appointed by the National Assembly, commissioned in January a new body of sixty members to draft a fresh Constitution. This appeared in March. Under it, the future National Assembly was to consist of one Chamber, styled Li Fa Yuan; the Cabinet was to be abolished and a Secretary of State, on the model of the United States of America, was to take the place of the Premier, under the President as the supreme head of the State. Cabinet Ministers were to be converted into Heads of Departments and an Advisory Board was to be established. Some of these recommendations were at once acted upon, and in May an Advisory Council of seventy members, including the Vice-President, was appointed. But it was not until December that the scheme for the formation of the Li Fa Yuan, now spoken of as the Legislative Council, was finally adopted. Under it the Council consists of 275 members, of whom those representing the Provinces and Peking will be elected by Electoral Colleges, elected by qualified electors, but the remainder will be elected by the Central Electoral College direct. The session of the Assembly will extend from September 1 to December 31, unless the President sees fit to order an extension of two months, and members will hold their seats for four years.

The President, when promulgating the law for the constitution of the Assembly, acknowledged that it would not be strictly representative nor possessed of full powers, but he considered that the condition of China was not such as yet to warrant the grant of such representation or powers.

An act of the President's which excited more attention abroad was his announcement that the worship of Heaven and the honours paid to Confucius would be continued as of old time, and that he himself would represent the nation in the worship of Heaven and wear the robes of ceremony in use by the Dukes of Chou. Some of the foreign missionary bodies seemed to regard this as a cruel answer to the prayers which they had offered at Yuan Shih-kai's instance for the welfare of China.

In January the town of Liu-an Chou in An Hui was sacked by a body of brigands, who attacked the French missionary station, murdering Père Rich and making prisoners of two other priests whom they afterwards released. The success which attended this exploit encouraged further attempts, and the line which separates successful brigandage from rebellion in China soon became difficult to distinguish. Their leader Pai Lang Chai, known in Europe as White Wolf, took his followers next to Lao-ho-kou, an important mart in Hupeh, pillaged the place--again a missionary was murdered, M. Froyland, a Norwegian--and struck north into Shensi, gathering many adherents and looting Ching-tzu-kuan on the way. In Shensi he was joined by some leaders of the late revolution. He then plundered Lung-chü-chai, in the south-east of the Province, and soon afterwards fought an engagement with troops at Shang-chou where he set the city on fire. Panic followed, and he arrived soon after within a few miles of Si-an Fu, the capital. Some towns in the north of Honan were the next to receive his attention, but a concentration of troops from the north-west of Szechuen forced him to retire into Kan-su. The seventh Army Division under General Lu Chien-chang was then ordered to proceed against him, and he suffered some defeats at the hands of Mohammedan troops which drove him back into Shensi with a small number of followers, and in September the rebellion was finally crushed. The success which attended his arms is said to have attracted much support from revolutionary _emigrés_ in Japan, and among them of Sun Yat-sen, who saw in this movement an opportunity of weakening, if not of overthrowing, the President.

But Yuan Shih-kai showed himself able to weather this storm as well as the financial difficulties which arose out of the war in Europe and the consequent attack on Kiao-chou. Following the example of Europe and Japan, China declared a moratorium, and as foreign loans then under contemplation became impossible made arrangements for domestic loans of 2,000,000_l._ at 6 per cent. The issue of the loan was attended by very fair success, and, after a short interval of panic, trade resumed its normal course, except that exports were greatly interfered with by the adverse rate of exchange, a circumstance which seriously affected the payments by Government of interest on existing foreign loans.

The conduct of the campaign by Japan against Kiao-chou occasioned strong protests by Germany against the landing of troops in Shantung outside the Kiao-chou zone, and also against the seizure of the German railroad in the Province. The protests were met by declarations that China was acting on the same lines as in the Russo-Japanese War, and that she was powerless to prevent Japan's action. It was also pointed out that Germany had in a measure created the situation through her unauthorised fortification of the port.

An interpellation by the State Council on the subject of Japan's violation of neutrality and the countenance which had been given to this by Great Britain was answered by a statement that protests had been made to the two Powers concerned.

The financial position of the country continues to remain a problem which taxes the brains of those who desire to ascertain on what resources China can rely for further development. An able report by the Maritime Customs on the foreign trade of 1913 places its total at 146,000,000_l._, and admits that not only is there a heavy trade balance against China, but that an annual deficit of 21,000,000_l._ is totally unaccounted for, even after taking into consideration remittances of 7,000,000_l._ from Chinese abroad. An adverse balance has been a constant feature of her foreign trade for years past, but does not seem to affect China's power of purchase to the extent that would seem natural. In the national revenue and expenditure an adverse balance also appears; in 1913-14 this amounted to $84,940,000; but the State continues to run its system of government, even when, as in 1914, loans which were under contemplation with foreign countries were abruptly cancelled owing to the European war. In some respects 1914, in spite of a falling off in Maritime Customs of 1,400,000_l._, showed an improvement, for remittances from the Provinces to Peking set in pretty steadily, and the Salt Tax, as newly organised by Sir R. Dane, gave a return which exceeded all estimates made in 1913 and surpassed the Customs Revenue. Another satisfactory feature was the success which attended the internal loan of 2,000,000_l._ at 6 per cent. The exact amount of the loan which was taken up is unknown, but the fact remains that the country showed sufficient confidence in the stability of the Government to allow this measure to meet the needs of the hour. Railway receipts also were good, and the obligations of the Government abroad have been met.

But revolutionaries have not ceased to do their best to weaken the Government, and after "White Wolf's" death plots were discovered in the Yangtse Valley, at Peking and at Canton, which had as their object the death of the President and his Ministers, and the subversion of the Government. The restoration of the Manchu dynasty was aimed at by one of these movements.