Important Work by Little Ships and Junior Officers: A Tactful Patrol: Commdr, Kenworthy on the Outcome of Wanhsien Affair: Naval Duties At the present moment, when, following the naval incident on the Yangtze, the little flotilla of British shallow-draft patrol boats, is very Prominent in the public eye, the following article by Lieut.-Commander the Hon. J. M. Kenworthy, M. MP, in the "Manchester Guardian," will be read with interest, Yor 40 yeara a ftila of British gunbects Sue petroled She rest "Fangtseckang, and another fla the West Rive, rong from Bone ong act Canton apd far ut geet een province of Kaangst SH" youre go British tends was" pre sediment St ieee woe vent basins, and almost the only foreign' flags seeA on these inland waters frere flown by Britah merchant Neves aod "British mone, From about 1906 onwards ie Jo: rae ea cesare beets ts och Fro this trade: but the Bettsh pont tion still remains commercially Soong and "onthe Yengtare' pecdtian the arent merchant an shipping house of Butterfield and Swire dominates the trade.
A Powerful Influence British' policy during all this Jong: period has beer to send gunboats us far up the navigable Ohinese rivers jas possible, They suppressed piracy, supported our Consuly in the Treaty ports, gave confidence to British merchants, and, on the whole, got jon well with the Chinese authorit-fes. They do not proceed up the Chinese rivers under the licence of any treaty, and we have stoutly maintained our privileges of maintaining these vessels of war. Most of them are of small size, from 150 to 180 tons burden, armed with two small six-pounder guns and a few Maxims, their upper works armoured against rifle fire only. Though they have represented force, these individually weak units, of slow speed and shallow draught, commanded by young officers, have done their work by a combination jof tact and the extraordinary tige in which*the British have been held in China, at any rate up to "el recent times.
During the Boxer rebellion at the beginning of this Jcentury the whole Yangtze Vally 324 of 150,000,000 inhabitants was comparatively quiet, and there were no outrages against foreigners of any nationality to speak of. This was almost entirely due to the influence the British naval officers on the rivers in their little ships.
To-day things are different. The industry of civil war in China 18 becoming even more important than agriculture. The river basins are full of armed men possessed of JartiMery, and with little respect for the British or anyone else. On the West River our force, consists of ive we draught lightly-armed gunboats, and they are probably well able to maintain both them selves and British prestige.
The British Force on 1 Yangtze On the Yangtze the position is different. Our force consists of six heavy gunboats—the Bee, Scarab, Gnat, Cockchafer, Cricket, and Mantis—of 650 tons burden, and armed with a couple of 6-in. guns. The Bee flies the flag of a rear-admiral (J. E. Cameron). This fact! alone shows that the situation has altered, as during my three years on the China station, during which I made one long trip up the Yanetze and several up the West River, the most exalted officer regularly stationed in the inland Mr. Waters. was a senior lieutenant. "Unnamed These four larger gunboats patrol part of the Yangtze below the famous Ichon Rapids, known to the Chinese as the "Tiger's Tooth." Above these rapids the river widens jand deepens again, and is regularly patrolled by four sniall gunboats J—the Woodcock, Woodlark, Widgeon, and Teal. These gunboats. must be of the smallest size and inow than at any during the past 30 years, and it is unsatisfied, fter-there is at present a serious Jdearth of fine stones. "The conse-Jquence is that diamonds are rising jin price," said: Mr. Gordon Nathan, jthe Hattongarden diamond dealer, "and fine stones are from 15 to-20 iper- cent, dearer than they were his -timé La: shallowest draught to negotiate the Yepids, and can only mount the ight-armament of two six-pounder guns.
The upper river patrol is under the command of a commander (Perryman) as senior naval offer. The gunboats can only negotiate the rapids by obtaining the assistance of great gangs of coolies hauling on their cables on the river bank, Once" above the rapids they find themselves in the wealthy and peaceful province of Szechuan, not far much troubled by military dictators and civil-wars. Trade has [been rapidly developing with thi province. but it has only been made possible in the first, place by these ttle gunboats. There are four sloops on the China station in addition, and the British loops have patrolled the rivers to a considerable extent, but they usually spend their time' showing the flag at. the Treaty ports on the coat. That the forees, at any rate in the Upper Yangtsze, are none too strong. is shown by the fact that we are Jo merchant ship as an auxiliary gunboat under Commander Daley, who was with me in the Britanni snd was well known throughout service as an able and discreet off-cer. His death in the recent fight {ing is a real loss to the Service, The First Serious Engagement The curious thing is that this is the first time the British naval forces have ever been heavily engag ged with regular armed troops in the Yangtze Volley. The great Yellow River, as the Chinese call it, is navigable by very large ships og far as Hankow, " Treaty port of great importance, In 1904 Admiral Bridgeman, "commande chief on the China station, proceeded }000 miles up the Yangtze to Hankow in my old ship the Glory, first-class battleship, flying: hig ting. It was the first time a vessel of such, ize had proceeded up the river, and some of the Chinese, thought the end of the world had come, In_ 1905 the then commande' in chief (Admiral Noel) took a squad-fron of four battleships and two first-cla armoured cruisers 300 miles up to Nanking. Nanking a very important city and the a cient capital of the Ming dynast Our original intention was to proceed with the whole squadron, with loops and destroyer in addition, to Hankow. But protests were lodged by the Japanese and certain Europ-jean Powers, including the Russians, and they supported the Chinese Government at Peking in requestinrt to go no farther. Admiral Noel cared nothing for diplomatic protests and would have proceeded on his way, but Downingstredt topped him.' The actual excuse used, to which we bowed, was that the wash of these heavy ships proceeding at high speed against the river current injured the river banks and flooded the fidds. Anyhow, we had shown what we could do, and it was not necessary to send another big. ship up the Yangtze for many years afterwards. A French cruiser tried to copy us, but stuck on a mud bank for over six weeks.
There are no battleships on the 1a station now, though we have five cruisers which could proceed jup the river if required, Just below Nanking the river narrows at jo. place called Chinkiang, and there a considerable fortress was erected at the beginning of this century under the supervision of German military engineers and armed with Krupp guns. These fortifications are now out of date, how-lever, and need not stop a determined commander. The Chinese authoritieg at various times ha ened to fire on our Chinkiang forts, and one famous occasion was when the commander cof the forts hoisted the Boxer flag Jand threatened to sink a little unar= moured sloop flying the white ensign.. But in spite of the backing of a considerable Chinese fleet she was allowed to go through without even 4 rifle being fired, AMSTERDAM, Oct. 29—The Dutch portion of the Belgian Stabilization [Loan has been largely dyer-suberibed, Reuter, out
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.