HC Deb 04 March 1864 vol 173 cc1463-75
COLONEL SYKES

said, he rose to call the attention of the House to the following Resolution, passed unanimously at a meeting of the Consuls representing European nations at Shanghai, on the 16th day of December, 1863, at the British Consulate, moved by Mr. Markham, the British Acting Consul, and seconded by Mr. Keswick, Danish Consul— That this meeting, as representing the whole foreign community, views with unqualified disapprobation the late proceedings of the Footai at Soochow as an act of extreme treachery, abhorrent to human nature, calculated to withdraw from the Imperial cause the sympathies of Western Nations, and the aid of the gallant officers who have hitherto assisted them; and to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether, with this renewed instance of perfidy in Imperial officials, it is intended by Her Majesty's Government to pass unnoticed further violations of the instructions of the Foreign Office to British authorities in China, to be strictly neutral in the civil war which has so long raged in China. In November last he received from Soochow a statement to the effect, that a force consisting of 200 men of the 67th regiment, 100 men of the Royal Artillery, and 100 men of the 22nd Native Infantry had left, under the command of Captain Murray, R.A., for Tait-sang; that 200 Beloochees, under the command of Captain Hogg, had also been thrown into Quinsan, that those cities were considerably beyond the thirty mile radius round Shanghai; that the garrisoning of these two cities by the British would enable Major Gordon to advance with almost his entire force from Quinsan to Soochow, and would secure his retreat in the unexpected event of a reverse; and that it was believed that, as the capture of Soochow was considered essential to the tranquillity of Shanghai, Sir Frederick Bruce looked favourably on the conjoint action of native and foreign troops if such should be found necessary. From Hong- kong by the same mail he received a communication to the same effect—namely, that British troops had been sent by the General commanding the forces in China —Major General Brown—to places beyond the thirty miles radius, in order to enable Major Gordon to advance upon Soochow. Now, the House had been informed more than once by the noble Lord the Prime Minister, the hon. Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and the noble Lord the Secretary of the Admiralty, that the Government had issued instructions to the effect that strict neutrality would be maintained in China beyond the thirty-mile limit from the treaty ports, which it was thought advisable to maintain in order to secure those ports from the effects of the contest between the rebels and the Tartar Government. Moreover, the Members bad seen in the China blue-books, the despatches from Earl Russell to Mr. Bruce to the same effect. The moment he received that communication from China, knowing the orders which had been issued from the Foreign Office, and recollecting the statements which had been made on the part of the Government, he addressed a letter to Earl Russell, stating the facts he had mentioned, and intimating at the same time that he should consider it his duty to bring the violation of the orders of the Foreign Office by Major General Brown to the notice of the House of Commons. On the next day—the 23rd of November— Earl Russell acknowledged the receipt of his letter, and his object on the present occasion was to redeem the pledge he had given to the noble Lord. The first remark he had to make was, that the meeting of the representatives of European nations at Shanghai was caused by a horrid butchery, which, accompanied by perfidy, had been perpetrated at Soochow by the Imperialist authorities on the 5th December last. Probably the hon. Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, who had always been the champion of the Tartar Government, would tell the House that the occurrences at Soochow had been greatly exaggerated in the accounts which had come over, and the hon. Gentleman would probably quote Major Gordon. But he would tell his hon. Friend that Major Gordon did not witness the butchery. Indeed, he had not an opportunity of witnessing it, for he was next to a prisoner when it took place and he had no means of preventing it, having sent his troops back from Soochow to his head-quarters. Great events some- times spring from trivial causes, and so it had been on that occasion in China. Had not Major General Brown violated his orders by garrisoning two cities far beyond the thirty-mile radius—one, in fact, being more than forty miles, and the other nearly one hundred miles from Shanghai—Major Gordon could not have withdrawn the whole of his troops from those places to enable him to undertake the siege of Soochow and give assistance to the Imperial General. Without the auxiliaries thus obtained the Tartar General could not have made that impression upon Soochow which led to the surrender of the town by treachery—an enterprize in which he was sorry to say Major Gordon himself took part. Prom a report of the meeting of the Consuls at Shanghai, he observed that Major General Brown was the chief denouncer of the butchery at Soochow, although, in fact, his own violation of instructions had led to it. At that meeting the Resolution included in his (Colonel Sykes's) notice was carried unanimously. The proceedings of the Consuls he found reported in the North China Herald, a paper which had always been an uncompromising advocate of the Tartar Government in most of its proceedings. Under date the 12th of December, 1863, it contained a memorandum communicated by Major Gordon himself, stating that, after the failure of the attack by night on the Low-mum stockade, the Tartar General Ching came to him and said that the rebel chief Lar and other chiefs had opened negotiations for the coming over of their troops. "I consented (says Major Gordon) to the defections with a good deal of pleasure, as I considered that if the rebels fought we should lose heavily." On the 1st December, after La-wang and other leaders had opened negotiations with the Footai for the coming over of the troops, the Tartar General brought to him (Major Gordon) the chiefs of the traitors, and said he thought the garrison were willing to give the city up to the Imperial Government on condition that their lives and property should be guaranteed. Major Gordon added that he conversed with La-wang, who seemed to have some doubts, from past experience of Tartar perfidy, and told him that it would be an exceedingly acceptable thing to bring together the conflicting parties in China; and, moreover, that the Imperialists were not the people they had been in former days, thus leading the unfortunate chief to believe that any arrangement made with the Footai would be carried out under the guarantee of Major Gordon himself. The Tartar General said it would be very acceptable if the place surrendered, for a great number of men would be lost in attacks on the gates, which were well fortified. But there was a difficulty with the Governor (Mo Wang) who was a man of high distinction and much respected by Major Gordon himself, and who resolved to defend the place. To secure his life, Major Gordon stipulated that he should be placed in his hands as a prisoner after Soochow surrendered. The strength of the position at the Low-mum gate was such, that great loss was anticipated in attacking it. The proposal to evacuate the city was therefore eagerly entertained by Major Gordon and the Imperialists. Major Gordon returned to his quarters before Soochow, when General Ching sent him over two Frenchmen who had just come into the lines from the city, and they said that at 2 p.m. on the 4th of December all the chiefs had been assembled in Mo-wang's palace, and after they had offered up prayers (to the Christian's God it should be remarked), they had sat down to dinner, and subsequently they adjourned to the great Court, where they put on their robes, crowns, &c.; that the Governor mounted his throne and began an address, in which he stated their difficulties. The other Wangs answered him. and the discussion, grew higher and higher, till Kung-wang drew a dagger and stabbed Mo-wang in the neck, and the other Wangs seized him and decapitated him, his head being afterwards sent to the Imperialist General Ching. On the night of the 4th, after the assassination of the Governor, Ching's men having taken possession of the gate, the rebels within the city shaved their heads. The House was aware that when the Tartars conquered China they required the population at large, who were their hair long, as was the practice with the Taepings, to shave their heads and wear the queue in token of their submission. Major Gordon went to the Footai, and represented to him the danger of keeping the disciplined Chinese in a state of inactivity, also requesting that, in recognition of their services, a gratuity of two months pay might be given to each inferior officer and man. The Footai refused, but after much wrangling Gordon induced the men to accept one month's pay as a present. This was given to them as the result of Gordon's negotiation in lieu of their alleged right to go in and plunder the city if it had been taken by assault. The troops were then ordered back to Quinsan. On the 5th, Ching announced that the Footai had -written to Pekin stating that he had extended mercy to the rebels. The morning after the troops left, Gordon started for the city, sending for his two steamers to meet him, as from information he obtained in Mo-wang's house, he expected to have recaptured the Firefly, which had been taken from the Imperialists by the Taepings. He saw the chief conspirator, Lar-wang, and the other chiefs riding in the city to the Deputy Viceroy's camp to make his submission, and he then endeavoured to while away the time till the steamers arrived. From, the top of one of the gates he noticed a large crowd near the Imperial General's stockade, where the Deputy Viceroy was staying, but thought the Imperialist soldiers were merely gratifying their curiosity by a glimpse of the rebel chiefs doing obeisance to the Footai. In a few minutes more a large body of men came up, and, passing the gate, rushed cheering into the city, firing their muskets in the air, and yelling. At that moment, the decapitation of the princes was taking place in the crowd before his eyes. In a short time the Imperialist General Ching came to him, and, after much equivocation on Ching's part, Gordon at length became uneasy about Lar-wang (the chief conspirator), and went to his palace. He arrived there after dark, and found it completely ransacked. He entered the house of the prince, who had been butchered, and remained all night, defending himself. His troops were gone, and he was helpless. He tried next day to make his way back to his garrison; he was intercepted and detained an hour as a prisoner; he was then allowed to go away, and from that moment he saw nothing of what took place in Soochow. The House ought to know what did take place. He had in his hand the account, dated 12th December, of a European eye-witness of the Governor's assassination at Soochow. This person's narrative stated, that after the rebel Commander-in-chief, Chung-wang, left Soochow, the Europeans all lived together in the Mo-wang's palace, and were well treated; that on the 4th of December the Mo-wang had invited several of the other wangs to a large dinner, after which it was understood they were to discuss what was to be done; that the Mo-wang had no idea of the treachery which was in store; that he was standing up saying something loud when all at once a man belonging to the Lar-wang party went behind him, and with a long knife which he had concealed up to that time stabbed the Mo-wang in the body; that the chiefs immediately jumped towards the body and cut the head off. He had also a statement from one of Major Gordon's own officers, dated the 14th December. The writer said, that having been at Soochow on the day that "the Viceroy, the type of all that is detestable and infernal, glutted his vengeance on the unfortunate inhabitants, men and women, who had surrendered on terms that should have been held sacred," he felt it his duty to write his regrets at the treachery which had taken place, "dishonouring as it was to the cause for which so many brave and honourable men"—generally Englishmen mixed with other foreigners —"had shed their blood." The writer suggested, as Major Gordon's defence, that the withdrawal of the troops from Soochow totally disabled Major Gordon from preventing what had occurred, and which (as he could show the House) continued to occur for twenty successive days; but the writer forgot that the assassination of Mo-wang, the murder of the confiding wangs, and the commencement of the pillage took place before Major Gordon withdrew his disciplined force, and he therefore rendered himself powerless. The North China Herald, speaking of the horrors of Soochow, said— During the campaign of the last two years against the rebels of this province the Imperialists have availed themselves of every opportunity of gratifying their taste for indiscriminate slaughter which was ever found among uncivilized nations. That remark came from the organ and agent of Her Majesty's diplomatists in China, and hitherto the friend of the Imperialists. The account then went on to detail the facts as they had occurred. It added— We believe, however, that the recent events in Soochow have cast an indelible stain on the Chinese as a nation, and this was the more to be regretted because, up to the time of their occurrence, an English officer was in command. Finally, it was stated that guns and ammunition had been freely supplied to the Imperialists by the English and French authorities. In a word, everything that could be done by one nation for another was done by the English and French for the Chinese. The British Government at home, notwithstanding its professed neutrality, had not been less ready than its agents abroad, as the House had learnt the other day that three vessels out of English dockyards had been sold at a loss to the Chinese Government. What! After the declarations of neutrality and in spite of the instructions from the Foreign Office? Yet our aid ended in "indiscriminate slaughter." Nor was the account thus given exaggerated. Another eye-witness in an account of a visit to Major Gordon's camp, stated that it pained him to see the artillery, which the British had lent, were in position before the walls of Soochow. He then confirmed in detail the accounts of the treachery and butchery. The writer visited the Mo-wang's palace. On the stone steps of the reception hall lay the body of the truly brave and noble-minded Mo-wang; his head was outside the city in the hands of Ching. On raising the cloak that covered this body a stab was seen in the stomach and nine in the back. The writer added that the fate in store for the other wangs, one could not but think was a just retribution for so cowardly an assassination of one who had gained the respect and admiration even of his enemies. The same officer described how Ching's brave celestials ran to do their cowardly work of slaughtering unarmed men. Those who came down the street to leave the city were stopped by the guards and looted. If resistance was offered there was work for the knife and sword. May the Footai have a miserable end for being the author of that cowardly act! Several fires were then raging. That was on the 5th of December. He (Colonel Sykes) had the account of another visitor to Soochow on the 26th of December, twenty-one days later— We mounted the great tower, one of the finest in China, and we saw in many places the flames and smoke ascending from numerous burning houses. So that, in fact, the burnings had gone on from the 5th to the 26th, while Major Gordon's force was lying inactive at Quinsan, within twenty miles. Soochow was another Venice, many streets having a canal, affording defensible positions. The walls extended twenty miles in circumference. Another account, dated Shanghai, January 2, is in fact a diary running over some weeks. The author says— The country is generally untenanted, but the crop3 raised by the Taepings were in a flourishing condition, and, of course, very acceptable to the Imperialists. The author had an interview with the Secretary of the Footai, in the palace of Chung-wang, the Taeping general. He found the house had not only been looted, but the valuable furniture it contained had been literally smashed to atoms by the Imperialist soldiery. He expressed his indignation at the treachery that had been perpetrated, upon which the Secretary replied he knew that the conduct of the Footai would be approved of at Pekin. And so it has turned out, for the Footai has had conferred upon him the yellow jacket, which raises him above all other mandarins, and gives him great distinction and authority. On the walls of Mo-wang's palace the author found a series of pictures representing the sad journey of Jesus from the house of Pilate to the place of his crucifixion, known in Catholic countries as the "Eight Stations;" as well as other evidences of Christian associations, and some English books. On the 20th of December he went to the Padi-cho gate, where he saw the pieces of heavy artillery just outside, which must have been lent by Major General Brown in violation of his instructions from home. We looked," he said, "with regret upon those splendid 'peacemakers,' that they should have been loaned to the butcher of Soochow, being the property of the British Government. The author describes also the execution ground of the Taeping chiefs, and their followers— The ground was soaked with human blood, and the creek forming the drain of the ground was still, after twenty days of slaughter, reddish with blood, as the officers of Dr. Macartney's force can testify. The author adds— Our Chinese informant told us that 30,000' rebels had been led to these shambles. He had now given the House in detail an account of the treachery and butchery practised by the Tartar authorities at Soochow, which had excited the indignation of all the representatives of foreign nations at Shanghai. He had also shown how those horrors had occurred, consequent upon the violation of his instructions by General Brown, who, by garrisoning Taitsan and Quinsan, had enabled Major Gordon to attack Soochow, without whose aid the Footai would not have had an opportunity of perpetrating his butchery. The House might, perhaps, think that these horrors were not premeditated, but resulted from the force of circumstances; but he assured the House that it was not so, but that such proceedings had ever characterized the Tartar rule in China. The Jesuit Martini, who was in China at the time of the Tartar conquest in 1645, stated, that after the first capture of Canton 100,000 persons were put to death, and it is stated that the Viceroy Yeh, who had been our prisoner in Calcutta and died there, while ruler at Canton had beheaded more than 60,000 people. When we more recently took possession of Canton we found in the execution ground a cross, to which criminals were fastened, and then hacked into pieces. That cross was of course removed under British rule, and while we remained in possession of the city, executions were conducted in a less horrible manner. When, however, we ceased to exercise control in Canton the cross was restored, and all the former atrocities were renewed. The House had no doubt a painful recollection of the treachery which led to the murder of Brabazon and Bowlby, and the tortures to which their companions were subjected on their way to Pekin. Neither would they forget the seven Taeping prisoners who were fastened to stakes, and who had arrows with little flags attached to them stuck in their bodies, and who were left exposed all day to the sun, and in the evening hacked to pieces within a short distance of the British camp at Wy-con-sin; the details of which are given in the North China Herald, dated 13th June, 1863, and which caused the indignant inquiries of the Bishop of Victoria. A gentleman of credit, recently arrived from Amoy at Shanghai, published the case of an old man and his wife who were accused of robbing a man to whom they had given a lodging. In spite of their denials they were condemned and executed, the old man being nailed hands and feet to a cross and left to die, the narrator adding that he saw the poor creature alive on the fourth day. The woman was put to death under circumstances too horrible to be detailed. The editor of the Friend of China described his visit to a prison in Shanghai, in January last, where he found in the yard the body of a man fastened to a stake, where he had been left in torturing agony. Al these examples proved that the treachery at Soochow was not an accidental occurrence, but in keeping with the ordinary habits of the Tartar Government; and yet that was the Government which this coun- try had been supporting with her blood and treasure, and on behalf of which we had imperilled our national honour. What must be the effect of such proceedings upon our unfortunate countrymen who were serving such a Government? In he five regiments under Major Gordon there were perhaps 180 Europeans. The effect of constantly witnessing such horrors committed by the Government they were serving must necessarily be to brutalize their minds and to destroy all humane and Christian feeling among them. In conclusion, he would ask the noble Lord at the head of the Government, whether, with this renewed instance of perfidy and cruelty in Imperial Tartar officials, it was intended by Her Majesty's Government to pass unnoticed further violations of the instructions of the Foreign Office to British authorities in China to be strictly neutral in the Civil War, which had so long raged in China?

VISCOUNT PALMERSTON

Sir, upon the general question I cannot entirely concur with my hon. and gallant Friend, because my opinion is that it is for our interest that the rebellion should cease, and that the authority of the Imperial Government should be maintained and re-established in China. It cannot be for the advantage of those who trade with China that the country should be in a state of civil war. If there were any possibility that the rebels would succeed in overthrowing the Imperial authority and in establishing some other Government in lieu thereof, then there might be a choice between the two Governments; and persons, according to the views they took, might think it desirable or not that the present dynasty should be maintained, or the rebel authority established in its place. But there is no chance of that. The rebellion has not within itself any elements either of organization or of success, and therefore I think it is very important for the commercial interests of this country as connected with China, that order and peace should be re-established there, that commerce may revive, and be carried on without impediment. It was with that object that permission was given to Captain Osborn and Mr. Lay to organize a naval force for the purpose of co-operating with the Imperial troops. With that view an Order in Council was passed permitting British subjects generally to enter into the service of the Emperor of China. Unfortunately, neither of those arrangements has answered its purpose. The expedition under Captain Osborn is returning to this country; that gallant officer, having had a difference with the Imperial Government, has felt it to be his duty to retire from the service of that Government. One Order in Council was passed to authorize that expedition; the other Order in Council, authorizing generally British subjects to enter the service of the Chinese Government, has been taken advantage of only by Major Gordon and one or two other persons. The expedition under Captain Osborn having entirely failed, that Order in Council has been revoked, and as the conduct of the Chinese officials has been so disgraceful, as stated by my hon. and gallant Friend, the other Order in Council has also been revoked, leaving it, of course, to the discretion of the Crown, according to its standing prerogative, to grant, if it should think fit, permission to individuals to enter into the service of the Emperor of China, upon application duly made in each case by the individual. Nothing can be more abhorrent to our feelings or deserving of condemnation than the conduct of the Footai at Soochow. I am afraid we must admit that all nations have their faults, and there are two faults which must be matter of reproach to the Chinese—one is cruelty, and the other is perfidy. They certainly have shown, on this occasion, most lamentable instances of both. We do not know exactly what was done in consequence of that barbarous act of treachery. Major Gordon, according to our accounts, was only waiting to know what course the Imperial Government would take He had made a representation to Sir Frederick Bruce, who, no doubt, would truly represent to Prince Kung the abominable conduct of the Footai. The result of his representation is still unknown, but we hope for the honour of humanity that adequate punishment will be inflicted upon the Footai for his barbarity upon that occasion—an act which we are entitled to resent, because Major Gordon was made the unwilling instrument to lure these people into the power of the Footai, and was of course, so far, an instrument in their barbarous execution. Not only shall we endeavour to prevent any further acts of the sort, but we shall make strong representations with regard to that particular act of treachery. At the same time, I can only repeat that Her Majesty's Government deeply lament and indignantly condemn the conduct of the Footai, but that we do not know as yet what the Chinese Government have done. There are some papers relating to the subject which will be ready in the course of a few days, and it is far better, as the Government are in possession of information, that that information should be laid before the House.

MR. WHITE

said, that the announcement just made with regard to the Orders in Council was very satisfactory as far as it went. He presumed that if permission were given in future to British subjects to enter the Chinese service, it would be only for the purpose of training Chinamen to a knowledge of military tactics, and not of taking personally any part in the war. The policy of Her Majesty's Government in reference to the civil war had excited the astonishment of those who were acquainted with the Chinese, and these persons declared that the Government had not adopted in China the principle of non-intervention which they took so much credit for upholding on this side of the Cape. Whatever the acts of the rebels had been, it was evident that the Imperialists were not one whit superior to them in their conduct of the war. The late transactions showed what disgrace and dishonour might be brought on the British name by the unfortunate permissions granted by Her Majesty's Government. He thought that Government would do well to follow out the principle of non-intervention in those matters. He did not gather from the noble Lord's observations whether the Government meant to adhere to that principle, or whether the troops at Shanghai were to be sent beyond the thirty-mile radius. But he was satisfied that if it had not been for the inopportune course of action taken by the Government, that portion of the Chinese empire to which we had access would now be in a state of flourishing prosperity. The Taeping rebellion was successful until it came into contact with British power. The wish of the rebel leaders was to be on friendly terms with us, and not to injure British interests. When they sent to tell us that they meant on a certain day to take Shanghai, asking the British authorities there to adopt the necessary measures for the safety of Europeans, no fighting would have taken place but for our troops, for the Imperialists would have withdrawn, and the British forces would have protected the British settlement. The rebels, however, were driven back by our troops; yet, to show their friendly feeling towards us, no violence was offered to the many English merchants who were at that time within the rebel lines, carrying on their trade and having large sums of money in their possession; and although the rebels had been repulsed from before Shanghai by our shot and shell, not one of these merchants was harmed, and not one penny of their property was touched. He thought it evident that the policy of Her Majesty's Government in China had hitherto been strikingly detrimental to British interests; and his belief was, that but for our injudicious interference, that part of the country to which our trade was chiefly confined, instead of being in a state of anarchy, would be by this time prosperous and peaceful.

MR. KINNAIRD

said, he could not agree in opinion with the hon. Member as to the policy to be adopted by Her Majesty's Government. The policy which was sanctioned by the Government was one for the protection of the ports, and in carrying that out they took the best means to secure British interests. He regretted the terms in which reference had been made to Captain Dew. In his opinion the service had not a braver or more able officer.