OR CHINA UNDER THE ALLIES BY CAPTAIN GORDON CASSERLY INDIAN ARMY WITH 15 ILLUSTRATIONS AND A PLAN LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 1903 All rights reserved TO THE OFFICERS OF THE AMERICAN AND BRITISH NAVAL AND MILITARY FORCES IN CHINA...

WRITTEN many thousand miles from the ever‐troubled land of China, with no opportunity for reference, this book doubtless contains many errors, for which the reader’s indulgence is asked. The criticisms of the various armies are not the result of my own unaided impressions, but a résumé of the opinions of the many officers of the different contingents with whom I conversed on the subject. My thanks are due to Sir Richard Harrison, k.c.b. , Inspector‐General of Fortifications, who served with the

OUR transport steamed over a glassy sea along the bold and rugged coast of Shan‐tung in Northern China. Ahead of us, a confused jumble of hills dark against the setting sun, lay Wei‐hai‐wei. 1 A German steamer homeward bound from Chifu dipped her flag to the blue ensign with crossed swords flying at our peak. Close inshore an occasional junk, with weird outlines and quaint sail, lay becalmed. On our deck, lying in easy‐chairs, were a dozen officers of various branches of the Service, all bound f

THE foreign settlement of Tientsin and the Chinese city are entirely separate, and lie some distance apart. The former, resembling more a European town than an alien lodgment in the heart of the Celestial Empire, boasts wide roads and well‐kept streets, large offices and lofty warehouses, good public buildings and comfortable villas, a racecourse and a polo‐ground. It is divided into the Concessions of the various nationalities, of which the English, in size and mercantile importance, is easily

TO a soldier no city in the world could prove as interesting as Tientsin from the unequalled opportunity it presented of contrasting the men and methods of the Allied Armies. And the officers of the Anglo‐Indian forces saw with pride that they had but little to learn from their Continental brothers‐in‐arms. In organisation, training, and equipment our Indian Army was unsurpassed. Clad in the triple‐proof armour of self‐satisfaction, the soldiers of Europe have rested content in the methods of 18

TIENTSIN is but a stepping‐stone to Pekin—one a mere modern growth, important only in view of the European commercial interests that have made it what it is; the other a fabled city weird, mysterious. The slowly‐beating heart of the vast feeble Colossus, that may be pierced and yet no agony, thrills through the distant members. Pekin, the object of the veneration of every Chinaman the world over. Pekin, which enshrines the most sacred temples of the land, within whose famous walls lies the marve

WHEN the treachery of the Empress‐Dowager and the mad fanaticism of the Chinese ringed in the Legations with a circle of fire and steel, all the world trembled at the danger of the besieged Europeans. When Pekin fell and relief came, the heroism of the garrison was lauded through every nation. But few heard of a still more gallant and desperate defence which took place at the same time and in the same city—when a few priests and a handful of marines in the Peitan, the Roman Catholic cathedral of

EIGHT or ten miles from Pekin lies the loveliest spot in all North China, the Summer Palace, the property of the Empress‐Dowager. When burning heat and scorching winds render life in the capital unbearable, when dust‐storms sweep through the unpaved streets and a pitiless sun blazes on the crowded city, the virtual ruler of China betakes her to her summer residence among the hills, and there weaves the web of plots that convulse the world. When the feeble monarch of that vast Empire ventured to

THE railways throughout North China and Manchuria were originally constructed chiefly by British capital; and England had consequently priority of claim upon them. The line from Pekin runs first to the sea at Tong‐ku, at the mouth of the Peiho River, thence branching off northward along the coast to Newchwang, the treaty port of Manchuria. Its continuation passes southward from Newchwang to Port Arthur. At the beginning of the campaign in North China it was seized by the Russians and held by the

GEOGRAPHICALLY, of course, Hong Kong is very far from North China. But it was the base of our expeditionary force in the recent campaign. From it went the first troops that helped to save Tientsin; and one brigade of Indian regiments was diverted from General Gaselee’s command to strengthen its garrison. For in the event of disturbances in Canton, or a successful rebellion in the southern provinces, it would have been in great danger. As our base for all future operations in the Far East, it is

The island of Hong Kong was ceded to England in 1841. Later on a strip of the adjacent mainland, from two to three miles deep, running back to a line of steep hills from 1,300 to 2,000 feet high, was added. Then for many years the colony rested content under the frowning shadow of these dangerous neighbours; until it dawned at last upon our statesmen that the Power who possessed this range of hills had Hong Kong at its mercy. For heavy guns planted on their summits could lay the city of Victoria

A SHALLOW, muddy river running between steep banks. On the grassy slopes of a conical hill the white tents of a camp. Before the quarter‐guard stands a Bombay Infantry sentry in khaki uniform and pugri, the butt of his Lee‐Metford rifle resting on the ground, his eyes turned across the river to where the paddy‐fields of Southern China stretch away to a blue range of distant hills. Figures in khaki or white undress move about the encampment or gather round the mud cooking‐places, where their frug

FORTY miles from Hong Kong, hidden away among the countless islands that fringe the entrance to the estuary of the Chukiang or Pearl River, lies the Portuguese settlement of Macao. Once flourishing and prosperous, the centre of European trade with Southern China, it is now decaying and almost unknown—killed by the competition of its young and successful rival. Long before Elizabeth ascended the throne of England the venturesome Portuguese sailors and merchants had reached the Far East. There the

CANTON is, to foreigners, probably the best‐known and most frequently visited city of China. Its proximity to, and ready accessibility from Hong Kong, whence it is easily reached by a line of large river steamers, renders it a favourite place with travellers to the East to spend a portion of the time the mailboats usually stop in the English harbour. A small colony of Europeans, consuls and merchants of several nationalities, reside in its foreign settlement. Its considerable trade and its occup

LOOKING upon the map of China to‐day, England might well say with Clive, “I stand amazed at my own moderation.” If thirty years ago she had seized upon the whole of that vast empire, no other Power in the world would have dared to say her nay. She was undisputed mistress of the Eastern seas. Russia had not then reached the shores of the Pacific and her hands were busily employed in the centre of Asia. Germany had only just become a nation, and had not yet dreamt of contending with England for th