THE troubles that are arising in different parts of China are in many cases traced to the pressure that is brought to bear upon the people under the name of indemnity, ecclesiastical or foreign. If this process continues, the foreigner will become more and more odious to the Chinese, condition of things much desired by the official classes, The Chinese Government will have gained a great point in diplomacy if they can successfully scare the foreign Powers, for the sake of a good name, into the position of either lessening their claims for indemnification or of consenting to some method whereby the foreigners shall help to pay the foreign indemnity. So far as ecclesiastical indemnity is concerned, the province of Chihli is producing the worst results, For the most part the compensation is not for the destruction of foreign-built property but for the losses of native converts and their families. The whole province was seething with Boxer lawlessness, and it is just that the districts which indulged in murder, arson, plunder and incendiarism, should pay the bill, Our only query is whether the bill against the people is not being made too large, either through the demands of the Church or the convenience or grasping qualities of the officials. The " Universal Gazette" has been publishing the official list of the sums demanded in each district of the Chihli province for the Protestants or Roman Catho-lies. It would be well if the missions would examine this list as to its accuracy. Moreover, some months ago the Viceroy Li Hung-chang memorialised the Throne in behalf of Choufu, stating that the Church indemnity was some 2,000,000 taels, and asking that the Board of Revenue be ordered to advance the money, owing to the poverty and sufferings of the people, traced to the punitive expeditions of the Foreign Powers. The Throne authorised that the province be helped to the extent of 1,000,000 taels. At the same time the district Magistrates have been pressing the people to indemnity the native converts. There is no way to ascertain just how much the people have had to pay, but there is no doubt, if reports from the north have any meaning at all, that the local officials, the underlings, and commissions of local gentry, have not only tried to recoup the missions Lut to "feather their own nests."
The matter of foreign indemnity has much wider bearings. At first sight it would seem as if no difficulty would be found, as it was supposed that the Protocol, after months of negotiation, had determined not only the amount of the indemnity which the Powers thought China capable of paying, but the method and security 10 be adopted for complet payment. The Ministers in Peking have repeatedly announced that they were very busy on the question of indemnity, and had finally come to an agreement that an increase in the tariff administered by the so-called foreign Customs, together with the native Customsand the salt gabelle, would be amply sufficient for a well-arranged plan of annual payments. It was known that a certain increase in' taxation would probably be required to meet the expenditures of the national and provincial Governments. A Protocol thus carefully drawn up and sealed was deemed a wonderful achievement; the participants, foreign and Chinese, have all been congratulated, honoured or decorated.
It now comes to pass that not much after all has been achieved or determined. The much talked of "security" proves to be no securi! 'The Imperial Government has forthwith turned from' the "security" of the Protocol to a proportionate fine placed on each province and dubbed " foreign indemnity." The whole Empire is thereby systematically stirred to a reasonable hatred against the foreigner, without a word of protest from the Foreign Powers, while compassion is aroused fur the burdened Government and "poor China." It is really a pretty game the Chines diplomats are being allowed to play.
But there is still more to this game, which brands it as a crime. Chere is hardly a province where the money collected meets the quota of the annual instalment, and no more! At the rate the people are being taxed in some places the whole indemnity could be paid off in five years time. In the province of Chihli, where the capable Viceroy Yuan Shih-kai holds sway, it was first reported that the late Viceroy Li Hung-chang had already collected the amount due for two years ahead, and later it was stated that an increase in the land tax to the small amount of 18 cash per mow had been ordered by the new administration. Reports have since come that some of the Magistrates have been extorting money from the people to the amount of even several thousands of cash per mow, and all in the name of the foreign indemnity.
In the three provinces under Viceroy Liu K'unyi, where a house tax has been ordered, protests have already been made by different towns against the amount of the new tax, from the very simple reason that at the rate fixed the three provinces would be paying the whole indemnity. The people may be left to their own devices for making effective their protest, but considering how the foreigner's name is being cursed and slandered through the well-conceived scheme of the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.