IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
THE PRESENT SITUATION IN CHINA 269
1900, and they may succeed one day in diverting the overwrought feelings of the wretched people against the foreigner, as the cause of all their woes.
To make matters worse, some ill - advised
foreigners go home and give a roseate and absolutely false impression of an imaginary wonderful
improvement in China under the beneficent rule of a republic, and even, which seems incredible to any foreigner who has any extensive experience of the interior of China, advocate the abolition of
extra-territoriality. As far as I know, these men are all foreigners who have spent their lives in
security in China in the midst of foreign com-
munities such as Peking, Tientsin and the coast, and who have no first-hand experience of the
interior. One can only regret that these advocates
of putting the foreigner under the jurisdiction of so-called Chinese justice cannot be forced to live
for six months in some remote village or city in
the interior, far away even from the restraining influence of a consulate, and made liable to be
publicly and ignominiously dragged to a yamen,
forced to kneel on chains to extort a confession, liable to the ignominious and cruel punishment of
the bamboo, or, even putting aside the risk of
torture which still goes on in some places, liable to die from cold in the winter in the wretched dens
which do duty as prison quarters . . . only last winter I heard of such a case. Such a degradation of the foreigner would mean his loss of prestige, and, when this comes to pass, the interior of China will only become attractive to those wearied of the vanities of this life and aspirants for the martyr's
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