THE BRITISH SPHERE OF INFLUENCE

The British sphere of influence or interest, as it has been indifferently described by our Ministers in Parliament, is defined in the despatch of Sir Claude Macdonald to the Tsung-li-Yamen of the 19th February of this year (1898), as "the Yang-tse region" and the "provinces adjoining the Yang-tse." A more exact definition, and one that we have attempted to embody in the map attached to this work, is the "Yang-tse Basin": the boundaries of this region are naturally and indisputably defined by the crests of the water partings that surround the catchment area; or, in plain English, the area of our so-called sphere comprises the valley of the Yang-tse and the valleys of its tributaries. It is to China what the valley of the Mississippi is to North America, Shanghai's situation at the mouth of the Yang-tse being analogous to that of New Orleans on the Mississippi; and what the valley of the Amazon is to the South American continent, the total area of which is a little greater than that of the Chinese Empire. In each case it is the heart of a continent as represented by the valley of its greatest river. In the case of China, this heart comprises an area of 600,000 square miles, inhabited by about 180,000,000 of the most industrious and peaceable people on the world's surface. It opens out a magnificent prospect for British enterprise, while leaving vast regions in the wide Chinese Empire open to other Powers, should the unfortunate alternative of partition of spheres take the place of equal opportunities for all everywhere, in which case we must accept the Yang-tse basin as a pis-aller and lose no more time in securing the region allotted as our sphere by effective occupation.

英國的勢力範圍或利益區域，根據我們在議會中的部長所描述，可以交替稱為「長江地區」和「長江毗鄰省份」，具體由1898年2月19日克勞德·麥克唐納爵士（Sir Claude Macdonald）致總理衙門的照會中定義。更為準確的定義是「長江流域」，即本書附圖中體現的範圍。此地區的邊界由環繞集水區的分水嶺自然確定。簡單來說，我們所稱的勢力範圍包括長江及其支流的流域。此地對於中國而言，正如密西西比河之於北美、亞馬遜河之於南美。長江流域是中國的心臟地區，面積約60萬平方英里，居住著1.8億勤勞且和平的民眾。這為英國企業提供了極佳的前景，即便面臨勢力範圍分割的情況，我們必須確保有效佔領已劃定的長江流域。

xxii The British Sphere of Influence

The watershed or catchment area of the Yang-tse basin comprises, outside the Tibetan plateau, the six large provinces of Szechuan, Hupeh, Hunan, Kiangsi, Nganhui and Kiangsu, part of Chekiang, the greater part of Honan, besides the northern drainage area of the provinces of Yunnan and Kweichow ; a large order certainly, but in no way incommensurate with our present share m the foreign trade of the Empire. Of this trade British imports and exports amount to fully two-thirds of the whole, while the area in question barely covers two-fifths of China proper, entirely excluding the vast and potentially rich regions of Manchuria, Mongolia, Turkestan and Tibet, all which are still in name subject to the " Son of Heaven." This region, forming the British sphere, extends roughly between the twenty-eighth and thirty-second parallels of north latitude, and between the ninety-eighth and one hundred and eighteenth meridians of east longitude. South of this wide sphere we find the five rich provinces of Fuhkien, Kwangtung, Kwangsi, Kweichow and Yunnan ; the last three generally acknowledged as the French sphere, together with the former Chinese dependencies of Annam and Tongking, now definitely annexed to France. Coterminous with our sphere on the north, the boundary line being the crests of the mountain ranges that divide the two basins, lies the great valley-plain (Tiefebene) of the Yellow River, the ancient home of the Chinese race and southern boundary of China until about the beginning of the Christian era.

長江流域的集水區，除西藏高原外，涵蓋了四川、湖北、湖南、江西、安徽和江蘇六大省份，部分浙江和大部分河南，還包括雲南和貴州的北部排水區。這是龐大的地區，但與英國目前在中國對外貿易中所占的份額相稱。英國的進出口總額大約占整體的三分之二，而這片區域僅覆蓋中國本部的五分之二，完全排除滿洲、蒙古、土耳其斯坦和西藏等地，這些地區仍名義上歸屬於「天子」。這片英國的勢力範圍大致位於北緯28度至32度，東經98度至118度之間。

在此英國勢力範圍的南面，有富裕的福建、廣東、廣西、貴州和雲南五省，其中後三者通常被認為是法國的勢力範圍，包括原本是中國附屬國的安南和東京，現已被法國正式併吞。與英國勢力範圍毗鄰的北部，界線是將兩個流域分隔開的山脈頂端，那裡是黃河的廣大平原（Tiefebene），這裡曾是中國族群的古老家園，並且在公元初期成為中國的南部邊界。

This Yellow River basin comprises the provinces of Kansu, Shensi, Shansi, Shantung, and the Metropolitan province of Chihli — all provinces with a rich soil and prosperous population, said to be immeasurably rich in minerals. Their climate is temperate, and hence wheat and millet take the place of the rice-fields, the sugar,

The British Sphere of Injltience xxiii

opium, and cotton of the South, The cHmate of North China is generally considered one of the finest in the world, and hence, if a partition is to be made, I would gladly take it in exchange for the somewhat more productive but undoubtedly malarious valley of the Yang-tse. To the north . of these, again, we have the vast territories of Manchuria and Mongolia — both regions originally pastoral, now invaded by the agricultural settlements of immigrants* from China proper. Manchuria is rich in gold, and has a hardy population of some twenty millions ; this province, the cradle of the reigning dynasty, has now been overrun by Russia, and the latest telegrams announce the forcible seizure of Newchwang, its one Treaty Port, by the Russians.

黃河流域包括甘肅、陝西、山西、山東及直隸省（北京的都城省），這些省份的土壤肥沃，居民生活富足，據說礦產資源非常豐富。當地氣候溫和，因此小麥和粟米取代了南方的稻田、甘蔗、鴉片和棉花的種植。華北的氣候通常被認為是世界上最好的之一，如果進行領土劃分，我樂意用這些地區交換產量更高但氣候不佳的長江流域。更北方是滿洲和蒙古，這些原來的牧區現在已被來自中國內地的農業移民所侵占。滿洲擁有豐富的金礦，並且有約兩千萬勤勞的居民；這個省是當今清朝的發源地，但現在已被俄國佔領，最新的電報還報導俄國強行占據了滿洲唯一的通商口岸牛莊。

In an article in the last September number of the Contemporary Review, I calculated the present inter-port trade on the Yang-tse River at £30,000,000, and added my opinion that, given a stable and progressive Government, affording encouragement to capitalists, with security for their investments—resulting in improved means of communication and a corresponding development of its natural resources—the Yang-tse valley will increase its trade by leaps and bounds, and the £30,000,000 of today will be £300,000,000 tomorrow. I added the grounds upon which I based my expectation of this rapid increase, and wound up by asking, "What is our Government going to do in regard to our so-called sphere?"

在《當代評論》（Contemporary Review）去年九月期刊的一篇文章中，我估計長江上的當前港口間貿易額達到三千萬英鎊，並表明我的觀點：如果有一個穩定且進步的政府，能夠為資本家提供激勵，並保障其投資的安全，從而改善交通手段並促進自然資源的開發，那麼長江流域的貿易將迅速增長，今天的三千萬英鎊很快會變成三億英鎊。我還詳細說明了支持這一快速增長預期的理由，並詢問：「我們的政府將如何應對這個所謂的勢力範圍？」

To this question it appears to me that capitalists in this country, and British merchants in China, have a right to demand a definite answer. We were told that the " open door" policy would be upheld even at the cost of war. These were brave words, as spoken by Sir Michael Hicks-Beach in his celebrated Bristol speech, and met a hearty response from Britons on the spot. They have unfortunately not been upheld : if they had been there would

xxiv The British Sphere of Influence

have been no war. As things now are, Russia has cancelled a British lien on the railway connecting the Treaty Port of Newchwang with the existing Tientsin line ; Germany has warned us off Shantung ; France puts a transit duty of t€n per cent, on British goods from Hong Kong for the 200 miles distance by the Red River of Tongking to Laokai, on the Yunnan border ; at the same time she has compelled the wretched Chinese Government to admit goods over her border for two-thirds of the five per cent, duty collected by the Maritime Customs at the other Chinese ports. This is one instance of many how the object of France and Russia is to steal a revenue from our trade with China rather than the promotion of trade itself. Our ports and the Chinese Treaty Ports are free to all. Our rivals will not grant this reciprocity. Hence, if our Government does not wake up and take hold of the subject seriously, and make the occupation of our sphere effective while there is yet time to do so, we shall learn some fine morning that our rivals have arranged Chinese affairs to suit their own interests exclusively. Then with preferential transit and other tariffs directed against us, we shall have handed over the solid work of three generations of Britons in China to our unscrupulous rivals ; or else at last the British people will be aroused, and the Government, nolens vokns, driven to fight for our tradal existence in the Far East ; and this is the course to which we seem helplessly drifting. Two years ago by a firm stand we might have prevented the partition of the venerable Empire whose weakness we have done so much to expose. It is a sad alternative, but to-day there is no other left us but to take our share in the partition now going on, and this no more in our own interest than in that of the people of China.

Oriental Club, London, October, 1898.

針對這個問題，我認為國內的資本家以及在中國的英國商人（British merchants）有權要求一個明確的答覆。我們曾被告知，即使付出戰爭的代價，英國政府也會維持「開放門戶」（open door）政策。這是邁克爾·希克斯-比奇爵士（Sir Michael Hicks-Beach）在著名的布里斯托爾演講（Bristol speech）中所說的勇敢言詞，也得到了當地英國人的熱烈回應。然而，這些承諾並未兌現。如果兌現了，就不會有戰爭。如今，俄國取消了英國對新莊（Newchwang）與天津（Tientsin）鐵路的擁有權，德國驅逐我們在山東（Shantung）的勢力，法國對從香港（Hong Kong）到越南的紅河（Red River）商品徵收百分之十的過境稅，而中國政府被迫承認這一安排。這些例子表明，法國和俄國並非真正推動貿易發展，而是試圖從我們的貿易中竊取利益。如果我們的政府不採取行動，來確保我們在中國的勢力範圍，可能會發現其他國家已經完全主宰中國事務，並利用對我們不利的關稅政策搶奪我們的貿易利益。

我們已經在中國經營了三代人的努力成果，不能讓我們的競爭對手輕易奪走這一切。否則，我們將被迫與他們進行貿易戰，這是我們似乎無法避免的趨勢。如果兩年前我們堅定立場，或許可以阻止中國的分裂。然而，今天唯一剩下的選擇就是在正在進行的分割中分一杯羹，而這不僅是為了我們的利益，也是為了中國人民的利益。

倫敦東方俱樂部（Oriental Club, London），1898年10月