COUNT VON BOLOW ON CHINA.
THE German Emperor has evidently obtained in Count von Billow the Chancellor he desired. Adroit, obedient, and, we fear we must add, a little unscrupulous, with a full command of words, and perfect control of his temper, with a thorough knowledge of his countrymen's foibles, and a humour which keeps the Deputies in kindly mood, the Count is a perfect interpreter between his im- pulsive master and the German Parliament. Has the Em- peror spent seven millions on an expedition to China, and so broken through the Constitution ?—well, the Chancellor admits the fact, declares that the orders were given against his own advice, and professes entire readiness to turn his Bill for the expenditure into a Bill of Indemnity. There are ringing cheers, the honour of the Reichstag is saved, the Constitutionalists are pacified, a majority is secured, the Count himself is accepted as a good Constitu- tionalist, and the Emperor will send another expedition whenever and wherever it seems good to him. He is not in the least fettered by being pardoned ; rather he is better assured than ever that in acting at once without consulting the representatives of the people he is only anticipating their most earnest wishes. Then the Emperor is a little ashamed of his speech at Wilhelms- haven ordering that quarter should be refused to China- men, Germany being flooded with letters from her own soldiers describing the consequent massacres. The War Minister, General von Gossler, defends them because they are retribution for the atrocities committed by the Huns in Germany only fourteen hundred and fifty years ago ; but Count von Billow is wiser than the General, and suavely explains that a speech by the Emperor is not an official act, and that his master made this one while he believed in the barbarous massacre of all the European Legations. It was natural, therefore, that his Majesty should threaten a severe retribution. The excuse is con- sidered in Germany excellent, though its consequences to Chinamen have been so terrible, and though a speech by a Commander-in-Chief to soldiers about their conduct as soldiers is usually considered an official act. The Chancellor himself, again, though be probably smiled at the awkward attempt of the Minister of War to repeat the Emperor's allusion to Huns, is himself quite capable of relating history—shall we say in a somewhat haphazard way ? He wanted to repudiate the charge that the seizure of Kiao-chow had put the match to the China magazine, and asked fairly enough why that seizure was more provoking, sanctioned as it was by a treaty, than Russian, or French, or British acquisi- tions. That was reasonable rhetoric ; but Germans like to ascribe, not only the bluebottle flies,' but the earthquakes, to the British, and the Chancellor therefore declared that the Chinese had been forced to cede not only Hong-kong, which he acknowledged was only a barren rock, to the British, but also Burmah. He is a man of unusual cultivation, even among Germans, and must have known perfectly well that Burmah was no more Chinese than Bengal ; that the effort of China to conquer it in 1765 was defeated with awful slaughter ; that Alompra, the Sovereign who founded the dynasty which we subverted, was as independent as William II.; and that neither Lord Dalhousie nor Lord Dufferin ever thought of China as having even remote suzerain rights in the delta of the Irrawaddy. The remark was con- venient, however, because though Hong-kong and Wei- hai-Wei are not bigger than Kiao-chow, Burmah is, and accordingly it was made. And lastly, there is a sort of suspicion among quiet Germans, especially in the non- industrial provinces, that the Emperor's expedition is a little Quixotic, and that he wishes to pose as a Barbarossa, or redresser of the world's wrongs, a suspicion which we entirely believe to be unjust. Therefore Count von Billow strongly affirms that the Hohenzollerns are notBonapartes, that the Emperor has no intention of righting the wrongs of other peoples, or of making of his Empire a lightning- conductor for the rest of the world. He is moved only by his perception of German interests, and to them only in the moat direct sense is he devoted. And so opposition melts away into a, rebuke from Dr. Lieber, the leader of the Centre, and a diatribe from Herr Bebel, the leader of the Socialists, the leader of the Liberals, Herr Richter, having been smashed en passant by proof that he once as editor wrote something which does not agree' with his present attitude as Deputy ; and the Emperor, as we predicted, will easily get his vote.
Count von Billow is obviously, from his master's point of view, the right man in the right place ; but we do not quite perceive in his speech the reassuring quality read into it by some of our contemporaries. He repeats, in- deed, the statement that unless forced, Germany will not consent to any plan of partition, but says nothing as to the contingencies which would leave her no alternative. He claims for Germany right of trading with the whole of China, especially the Yangtse Valley, and is highly con- tent with the Anglo-German agreement because in his judgment it secures to Germany new rights which he does not define. He is supposed to favour Free-trade with China for all the world, but as we read his speech, he is rather seeking for Germany the treatment known in diplomacy as that of the "most favoured nation." He gives no pledge that the Emperor will restrain the violence of the German soldiery, which, be it remem- bered, he excuses without denying, and which was energetically condemned both by the Centre and the Socialists. Above all, he gives no light on the dark sub- ject which interests every British and German taxpayer, —namely, the means by which it is proposed to arrive at peace. He reads aloud with approval the proposals already settled by the diplomatists in Pekin as bases f6r negotiation, but has as little idea as Lord Salisbury or M. Delcass6 how the Empress-Regent is to . be persuaded to accept them. This silence is the more remarkable because the Concert,which,it is assumed, will be the instru- ment of Europe' is dropping to pieces under our eyes. America may be considered to have retired, Mr. McKinley suspecting Germany of territorial longings"; Russia declares that the terms suggested are impos- sible, and even absurd ; and France feels no real interest in the matter, except so far as Russia is contented or the reverse. M. Delcasse, in fact, apologises to the Chambers for spending more money. The Powers left are Germany and Great Britain, and what they intend to do no one, Count von Billow included, even pretends to know. It is believed in America that the terms are intended to prevent submission on the part of the Court, and that the Powers have devised a plan for marching On Sian ; but though this niay have 'been attentively con- sidered by the different Governments, there is no evidence that such a plan has been definitively adopted. It would be extremely disliked by Russia, and although Russia could be conciliated by negotiation and con- cessions as to Manchuria, all arrangements must be perforce suspended until there is again a respon- sible ruler in St. Petersburg. We have no means of penetrating the secret counsels of Berlin, where the Emperor revolves very large plans, but we should say, judging from the debate in the Reichstag, from Count von Waldersee's abstinence from action, and from the necessity of awaiting a vote in our own Parliament, that Germany and' England had resolved to mark time by making what must be a final appeal to the Empress. Regent. If she refuses the punishment of the guilty, or dare not concede it, and no force can be discovered in China competent to remove her, the Chinese question will enter on a new phase, the character of which, we suspect, Count von Billow no more perceives than do the remainder of mankind. There is always one end to dis- cussions on China. We must wait. That is always easy to us ; but as waiting involves spending, it may not prove quite so easy to the remaining Powers.
Previous page
