Katalog
Catalogue

eBooks

Verlage
Publishers

Startseite :: Home
Kontakt :: Contact
Über uns :: About us
Datenschutz :: Privacy Policy
Impressum :: Imprint
Kundeninformation

British Military Intelligence on China and the Boxer Rising, c. 1880–1930

Hrsg. v. A.J. Farrington

Online

Verlag :: Publisher

Brill Academic Publishers

Preis :: Price

Preise auf Anfrage / Prices on request

Siehe auch:
British Colonial Policy and Intelligence Files on Asia and the Middle East, c. 1880–c. 1950

Das Angebot richtet sich nicht an Verbraucher i. S. d. § 13 BGB und Letztverbraucher i. S. d. PAngV.

ISBN/ISSN

2950-502X

Bestellnummer bei digento :: digento order number

10883307

Verlagsinformation :: Publisher's information

British India’s – and by extension the India Office in London’s – interest in and expertise on its great neighbour China was not merely the result of the process of British territorial expansion in South Asia which eventually produced a common border extending from Sinkiang to Yunnan. It had its precursor in the commercial activities of the English East India Company (EIC).

The prize of trade to China was only achieved slowly. Beginning with a trading post on Ming-supporting Taiwan in 1672, the EIC was able to make its peace with the new Q’ing rulers after the island was conquered, and in the 1680s and 1690s was permitted to make regular voyages to Amoy, Chusan and Canton.

In the early 1700s the Q’ing limited the European trading companies to Canton, where an elaborate system of control and supervision through officially-appointed "Hong" merchants was established. The EIC, blessed with a freer commercial structure than its rivals, plus existing contacts into the Chinese merchant community, emerged as the main European player in trade to China. The eighteenth century saw the rise of tea as the new "wonder commodity" which financed the EIC’s rise to pan-Asian dominance. The early nineteenth century saw the vicious illegal traffic in opium, largely originating in British India, which brought so much misery to China.

Expeditions against China

The EIC ceased to be a trading organisation in 1834 and was replaced by dozens of separate British companies. But the Hong trading system still applied at Canton, a clear recipe for trouble. The First China War (Opium War) of 1840–42 was fought because of Chinese action against the British opium network at Canton, but its underlying purpose was to force China to abandon the "Canton system" and open up to foreign trade. British India provided the manpower for the war, drawn from the EIC’s Bengal and Madras Armies and its Bombay Marine. Hong Kong was ceded to the British Crown and five ports were declared open – Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghai.

The Second China War of 1857–60, in which the British were allied with the French, was similarly powered from British India. The British brought to North China forty-one warships, 143 transports and 10,500 troops. The allies entered Peking, the Summer Palace was destroyed as a "reprisal" for breaking a flag of truce, and the Q’ing emperor was forced to a treaty settlement which had the effect of opening the whole of China to Western interests.

The present collection covers the period up to and beyond the third British military expedition against China in 1900, when British India again played the leading role. It is largely a reflection of the strategic planning process within British India (and to a lesser extent in London) for future operations.

Military intelligence

A small intelligence branch was formed within the Quarter Master General’s Department at Army Headquarters, India, in 1878. Post-1860 diplomatic representation in China meant that the branch could attach small numbers of officers to the British Embassy in Peking as language students – two were selected annually to undertake a two year course of study and residence in China, followed by a fierce oral and written examination. Its components included:

• "The examiner reads English sentences aloud and the candidate gives them orally in Chinese.
• Passages from the Chinese press are read aloud by a Chinese and the candidate gives them orally in English.
• Conversation on military and general subjects with a Chinese.
• English sentences on military subjects are laid before the candidate, who translates them into Chinese, writing them down in the Chinese character. Dictionary not allowed. Written translation of official documents and passages from Chinese military textbooks, without the aid of a dictionary."
  
  

Successful students went on to form a cadre of language ability and local knowledge back at Army Headquarters or at various postings in China – for instance, British consulates in the western provinces bordering Tibet and Burma were staffed from British India.

The wide-ranging reforms of the Army in India Committee of 1912–13 established an Intelligence Section (M.O.3) within the Military Operations Directorate of the General Staff. China was covered by one of four sub-sections and was manned by two staff officers with shared clerical support.

Great historical value

The Quarter Master General’s Branch and the General Staff, India, were responsible for a stream of gazetteers, route books, military reports and similar compilations. Their purpose, of course, was not to facilitate academic research but to provide essential information for any future military operations against China. But based as they are on first-hand experience, they now have great historical value as a source for conditions in late Q’ing China.

All the works were classified Secret, Confidential or For Official Use Only, and were subject to strict rules of custody. It was also ordered that when a new edition of a particular work appeared all previous editions had to be destroyed. As a result these works survive in very few locations. The collection in the India Office Records at the British Library is unique in its breadth and accessibility.

Provenance and historical background

The various secret and confidential works are located in two internal "reference libraries" which accumulated within the Military Department (L/MIL/17) and the Political & Secret Department (L/P&S/20) at the India Office in London. Items were received upon publication and were kept/disposed of according to the custody rules laid down by the originator.

Papers relating to the 1900 Expedition were received from India by the Military Department registry and were given reference numbers within its annual file sequences. They were eventually brought together as a series of files designated Military Collection 402, from which a selection of intelligence-slanted material has now been made.

All the India Office departments were subsumed within the Commonwealth Relations Office (subsequently the Foreign & Commonwealth Office) after Independence in 1947. In 1982 the Foreign & Commonwealth Office transferred the administration of the India Office Library & Records to the British Library, where it now forms one part of the Library’s Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections (specifically, the former Oriental & India Office Collections (OIOC)).