Identifier: russianroadtochi00bateuoft (find matches)
Title: The Russian road to China
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Bates, Lindon Wallace, 1883-1915
Subjects: Trans-Siberian railroad Siberia (Russia) -- Description and travel China -- Description and travel
Publisher: Boston Houghton Mifflin company
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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oprovinces took part while the viceroys of the restlooked idly on. That Shan-tung mans war wasthe general attitude; Li Hung Changs boatsbeaten. When it was over, merely Formosa, thelittle-valued island of tame barbarians, had beenlost. The traditional policy of playing off the jealouspowers one against the other had apparently suc-ceeded ; it had cleared the Japanese from Corea andPort Arthur. China as a nation was hardly touched,and multitudes of people never knew there had beena war. The seizures of 1897-1899, coming close uponeach other, exasperated, but taught no lesson. Themass of Chinese, and even those in high officialcircles, believed that a little effort would drive theforeign devils into the sea. The march of the Alliesto Peking stunned them. It was their first facing ofthe fact. The Russo-Japanese War, and the partition of theprovince that had cradled their Emperors dynasty,dissipated their fools paradise. It was seen then,clearly, by all, that Chinas only hope of maintain-
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o ao CHINA 375 ing her integrity lay in her defensive power. Withthe object, not of securing the blessings of civiliza-tion (which the overwhelming majority of China-men desire no more than we do the Holy Inquisi-tion), but of beating away the spoilsmen, the Pekingrulers turned at length to the survey of their actualmilitary condition. As this concerns intimately theChinese internal situation, a summary of it may bepertinent. The Hwai-lien regulars, to the number of twenty-five thousand, are well-drilled, and well-armed withChinese-made Mausers. They are stationed in thenorthern provinces, including the Taku and Peh-tang forts, the Tien-tsin station, and the neighbor-hood of Peking. These make up the only nationalforce of modern troops at the disposal of the ChineseGovernment, but the private armies of various vice-roys bring up the total somewhat as follows: Thecamps of foreign-drilled troops, formerly Yuan ShiKais, probably the best in China, number roundlytwenty thousand. From the

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