. The awakening of China . ustoms service instead ofleaving it under the Board of Foreign Affairs, abody already overburdened with responsibilities. Theygave a solemn promise that while Sir Robert Hartremained there should be no change in his status orpowers; and so the matter stands. The protestsaved the situation for the present. Explanationand promise were accepted; but the Government(or rather the two men who got themselves appointedto a fat office) remain under the reproach of discourtesyand ingratitude. The two men are Tieliang, a Manchu,and Tang Shao-yi, a Chinese. The latter, I am told
. The awakening of China . ustoms service instead ofleaving it under the Board of Foreign Affairs, abody already overburdened with responsibilities. Theygave a solemn promise that while Sir Robert Hartremained there should be no change in his status orpowers; and so the matter stands. The protestsaved the situation for the present. Explanationand promise were accepted; but the Government(or rather the two men who got themselves appointedto a fat office) remain under the reproach of discourtesyand ingratitude. The two men are Tieliang, a Manchu,and Tang Shao-yi, a Chinese. The latter, I am toldon good authority, is to have ;£3 0,000 per other will not have less. This enormous salaryis paid to secure honesty. In China every official has his salary paid in twoparts: one called the regular stipend, the other,a solatium to encourage honesty. The former iscounted by hundreds of taels; the latter, by thousands,especially where there is a temptation to a rottenness at the core is here betrayed!. ..>,i>.-io.««u-ic«j.*:i3£:: REFORM IN CHINA 209 A new development worthy of all praise is the open-ing, by imperial opnimand, of a school for the trainingof officials for the customs service. It is a measurewhich Sir Robert Hart with all his public spirit, neverventured to recommend, because it implies the speedyreplaceinent of the foreign staff by trained natives. Filling the sky with a glow of hope not unlike theapproach of sunshine after an arctic winter, the re-form in the field of education throws all others intothe shade. By all parties is recognised its beginning was feeble and unwelcome, implyingon the part of China nothing but a few drops of oilto relieve the friction at a few points of contact withthe outside world. The new treaties found China unprovided with inter-preters capable of translating documents in foreignlanguages. Foreign nations agreed to accompanytheir despatches with a Chinese version, until a com-petent
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