20th Aprit. Tue Blue Book just published in London containing further correspondence regarding the Anti-Foreign Riots of last year, is an interesting study to anyone who thinks that foreigners out here are too hard on the Chinese government, and that the Tsungli Yamen has throughout honestly done its best to satisfy the demands of the foreign Ministers. he Blue Book gives a really typical representation of Chinese diplomatic methods, of which the key-note is evasion. The best Chinese diplomat is the man who can best head off his adversary by making plausible promises never intoned to be carried out, by confusing main questions by the introduction of side issues, by taking credit for energy that has never been exhibited, and by throwing the blame for delay—which is not, however, admitted—on some inaccessible third party. The Tsungli Yaméen almost succeeded in wearing out even Sir John Walsham, who long since fixed on patience as the quality most valuable in dealing with Chinese; and Sir John, in forwarding the reply to a joint note complaining of the inadequacy of the measures adopted by the government to suppress the riots, is constrained to say "here is something almost bordering on flippancy in the tone of the Chinese communication, and the Yamen Ministers appear to think that the serious and formal expostulations of foreign Representatives can be best met by a lecture on the impropriety of our using the form of joint notes, while they take the credit of having spontaneously and of their own initiative done whatever has been done, whereas the exact reverse is the case. Nothing has been done by the Tsungli Yamen except under the strongest pressure, and coven then it has been done unwillingly and ungraciously." (The italics are ours, We confess to feeling a certain sympathy with the Yamen in its disgust. at joint notes. Of late years, since the evaporation of the ce-operative policy that was once in favour, it has found that it could play the Foreign Ministers off against each other, by buying over one with an order for guns, another with a contract for bridges, a third with an indent for dredgers; and it must have lad the effect of the bursting of a Yellow River embankment at its doors to receive a note almost stringent enough to be called an wltimatum (a word which has become thoroughly naturalised' in the tongue of Confu-Gius), most harmoniously signed by the representatives of Belgium, the French Republic, the German Empire, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Spain, Russia, abd the United States. The Yamen Ministers must have thought the waters were rising very high when they were told that these representatives would "hold the chinese government responsible for all injuries and losses which foreigners or native Christians may have already suffered or may suffer through outrages committed by Chinese when they were told that they could not be induced "to do more than issue to provincial and local officers absolutely inadequate instructions, and then to flatter themselves that they have thus amply fulfilled their obligations or when they read "With regard to the singular statement contained in the Yamén's note that joint notes' are not recognised by the international law of Europe, the undersigned will content themselves by simply stating that joint notes' are invariably used in cases where a certain number of governments' or their representatives are pursuing jointly, as in the present instance, the same policy, and where the ordinary and usual forms of individual or identic notes are not deemed suitable on account of the gravity of the situation. lhe end in view, namely, the security of life and property treaty, being precisely similar for all for foreigners residing in China under governments. having relations with China, the undersigned beg leave to signify to the "Yamen that they have no intention of adopting any other form of communication until they shall have obtained such formal guarantees as will enable them to consider their nationals residing in China as being completely secure against further attacks and out rages both now and hereafter."
Tf Sir John Walshata had only maintained this firmness of tone when pressing the numerous British claims that have been sent up to him and pigeonholed, he would not be now leaving China with "none so poor to do him reverence."
Admiral Richards' contributions to the Blue Books are: something in the style of his letters recutly published in Hongkong, and he seems to wish' to make the Admiralty at home thitik that wissionaries—who, he says, "are the loudest in their clamour for gunboats, as their contribution to the Shanghai press sufficiently demonstrates "—cry for this help from places where they have established themselves in- the interior without any reference to Minister or Consuls. He says that missionaries "should be made to understand that they establish themselves in these places at their own risks, and that her Majesty's ships cannot be detained from their proper duties to remain at non-treaty ports for their protection." He ought to have mentioned by name the non-treaty ports at which her Majesty's ships were detained by missionaries, It appears, however, that Admiral Richards authorised the commanders under him to land men
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.