The Transaction Was Not Well
Managed From The Very Commencement.
Mr. Lay wrote in August, 1862, to say
that he had chosen as the national ensign of the Chinese
Navy "a green
flag, bearing a yellow diagonal cross," and he wrote again to request that
an official notification should appear in the "Gazette." Had his request
been complied with, there would have been very strong reason for assuming
that the English government was prepared to support and facilitate every
scheme for forcing the Chinese to accept and submit to the exact method of
progress approved of and desired by the European servants of their
government, without their taking any part in the transaction save to
ratify terms that might be harsh and exorbitant. Fortunately, the
instinctive caution of our Foreign Office was not laid aside on this
occasion. Mr. Lay was informed that no notice could appear in the "London
Gazette" except after the approval of the Pekin authorities had been
expressed; and Prince Kung wrote, on October 22, to say that the Chinese
ensign would be of "yellow ground, and on it will be designed a dragon
with his head toward the upper part of the flag." Mr. Lay preceded the
vessels - seven gunboats and one store-ship - and arrived at Pekin in May,
1863.
Prince Kung had been most anxious for the speedy arrival of the flotilla;
and the doubtful fortune of the campaign in Kiangsu, where the gunboats
would have been invaluable, rendered him extremely desirous that they
should commence active operations immediately on arrival. But he found, in
the first place, that Mr. Lay was not prepared to accept the appointment
of a Chinese official as joint-commander, and in the second place, that he
would not receive orders from any of the provincial authorities. Such a
decision was manifestly attended with the greatest inconvenience to China;
for only the provincial authorities knew what the interests of the State
demanded, and where the fleet might co-operate with advantage in the
attacks on the Taepings. Unless Captain Osborn were to act on the orders
of Tsen Kwofan, and particularly of Li Hung Chang, it was difficult to see
of what possible use he or his flotilla could be to China. The founders of
the new Chinese navy claimed practically all the privileges of an ally,
and declined the duties devolving on them as directing a department of the
Chinese administration. Of course, it was more convenient and more
dignified for the foreign officers to draw their instructions and their
salaries direct from the fountain-head; but if the flotilla was not to be
of any practical use to China it might just as well never have been
created. The fleet arrived in safety, but remained inactive. The whole
summer and autumn of 1863, with its critical state of affairs round
Soochow, passed away without anything being done to show what a powerful
auxiliary Mr. Lay's ships might be. The ultimate success of those
operations without the smallest co-operation on the part of Captain Osborn
or his flotilla virtually sealed its fate.
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